Silas and Charlie

d a y - e l e v e n

THE :

BEGINNING OF

EMOTIONS

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"If I am Superman, then he is my Kryptonite." - Silas Blue 

Charlie stumbles through the kitchen doorway, and collapses in a seat, his elbows banging on the table. His Mother turns around from preparing dinner, with a raised brow, "really Charlie, we have to stop meeting like this." Pausing with one hand clenching a carrot, and the other a chef's knife, she mused over her previous statement, which had seemed a bit snap-ish, especially since she considered herself to be mostly mild mannered.

Although he hadn't done it in a about a week, her son's usual habit was to come in positively stomping, and then just, flop down, sprawling his arms all over the counter which, (most times) she had just finished washing. He doesn't bother to lift his head off of the polished surface as he murmurs the words, "sorry mum, baseball practice just wore me out today." The corner of her mouth curls into an amused half-smile, even though she knows he can't see her; and distractedly reaches behind her to set the knife down in order to brush back a clump of dirty blonde hair that had escaped the elastic of her ponytail.

"Alright then, what do you plan on doing for the rest of the evening?" She asked, glancing at her wristwatch that read 6:57 PM. Charlie thought about his options for a moment, which were not many, "probably nothing," he concluded, his voice almost comically muffled. His Mother pursed her lips quizzically because both of her usually busy children were planning on moping around the house for the remainder of the night. Something that was very odd for the both of them.

"Well," she started, "since you weren't going to do anything else tonight; why don't you and Theo take Amy to that movie she's been wanting to see for about a week now."

"Inside Out?"

"That's the one," she confirms before adding an incentive, "I'll give you the money for the movie plus a little extra to go out to eat." He exhales loudly, knowing that Theo positively adored Amy because he had never had a sibling of his own, but at the same time he was worried about the state Theo would be in when he was around Charlie's little sister. Then, he had to consider that his Mother probably had ulterior motives as well, most likely along the lines of having to eat dinner alone with his Father, but, with her providing the cash he couldn't really put up much of an argument.

"Alright," Charlie reluctantly agrees, finally lifting his head up to get a good look at his grinning Mother. Sighing slightly he pushed himself out of his seat, not really appreciating the almost smug expression his Mum was so blatantly displaying as he walked out of the room - for goodness sake he could practically feel her eyes trailing him. Turning the corner he padded into the carpeted hallway, and upon reaching Amy's door, he stopped for a moment; remembering something. He pulled his phone out, and began to text Theo, since he was part of the movie-going trio.

Hey Theo, neither Amy nor I have anything to do tonight so Mum was wondering if you and I could take Amy to Inside Out. She says that she'll provide the money but the only big criteria I have for our trip is that you'll be around Amy, (who - may I remind you that even though she may not act like it all of the time, she is still only seven.) So, that means, that you absolutely have to be one hundred percent sober. Trust me, I'll check.

Theo's reply is almost instant, no prob!!!! Great I luv Amy!!!! B over in 5 min.

Charlie frowns, before shoving the device in his back pocket - slightly wary about Theo's enthusiastic response, it seemed like the old Theo, who used to literally put about twenty exclamation points behind each sentence, or, what constituted as a fragment of one, funny - until now he hadn't even noticed that the habit had vanished. Every since Charlie's confrontation yesterday, he was sure his best friend was keeping something from him, but Theo wouldn't tell him what. Not to mention the even more maddening fact that Theo seemed normal, except for his occasional overdoses of alcohol, or God forbid, drugs, that was the only time that you could really that Theo wasn't okay.