It's In Our Blood

Chapter 8

"Ughhhh...Why did you guys have to leave me like that?"

It was the next morning, and the stunt Tyrone had pulled last night had thankfully resulted in nothing more than about an hour of getting chewed out. His parents deciding that they honestly preferred to sleep rather than stand around in their pajamas in the hallway that late in the night.

So technically, he had gotten away with it.

But he still wasn't over the fact that both his cousin AND his brother had left him to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. THEN, he was forced to deal with...Junior. ...Even just thinking about him made him cringe.

"Hey, like I already said like a million times already...We're really sorry about last night, okay? We just thought you'd give up and come back, so we were waiting for you for a good half an hour or so."

Mari explained while stirring her cereal, her mouth making a small "ooh" as she watched the colors melt off and swirl around in the milk.

"Aaaand I wasn't really kidding about the mosquito thing."

"Do they say anything?" Rodrick, who had been completely silent the entire time, finally spoke up.

Mari glanced down at her arms and legs.

"Nah...Nothing that I can see."

Noticing Tyrone slump down onto the kitchen table, she smiled weakly and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, summer's just started! You'll find your...Gnome or...Goblin or whatever it is you're looking for eventually, right? It's not like anything can really hide from us in this tiny little town" she laughed at the last part.

"That's what they want you to think!" Dipper, who appeared pretty much out of nowhere, exclaimed.

"Mason we already discussed this!" Pacifica called from the other room.

His grin quickly melted into a frown. "Don't call me that! -and Tyrone we are not done with last night's conversation"

"I know," Tyrone mumbled. He was wishing that his dad had forgotten about it. Or...Maybe he did and his mom reminded him.

The second option was more likely.

"Uhhh...Good morning Uncle Dipping sauce!" Mari greeted in an attempt to try and break through the awkwardness of the whole situation.

Dipper raised an eyebrow.

"I don't like the sound of that either, but I guess it'll do."

"Mom came up with that one," Mari told him with a grin.

"Of course she did..."

Tyrone breathed a heavy sigh. "Look, I get that what I did was wrong. ....and stuff. So...I'll be in my room, okay?" He honestly didn't feel like sticking around, and the lack of sleep was really starting to take a toll on him.

So, without a further word, he slipped out of his seat and quickly scrambled up the stairs and back into his room.

He heard Mari say something along the lines of: "You should go talk to him" As he closed the door behind him.

And sure enough about five minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Tyrone had to drag himself to the door to open it.

"Hey, dad..."

Dipper breathed a heavy sigh.

"Hey...so...can I talk to you?"

"I don't really have much of a choice, right?"

"Technically, yeah. Come on. It's nothing that heavy." Dipper led him by the arm, and the two sat on Tyrone's bed in awkward silence for what seemed like hours.

"....I get why you snuck out with the others last night" Dipper finally spoke up.

Tyrone decided to play it safe, and just nodded and waited for him to continue.

"And to be honest, it's kind of my fault. If I hadn't made my summers sound so exciting, you wouldn't have gone out there."

Tyrone frowned.

"So...you're telling me that everything you've been telling me wasn't true?"

Well, that would explain why he didn't run into anything...

Dipper's eyes widened.

"No! Of course not! ....I'm saying that...I've never told you everything. I just thought...You know. Sparing the details would somehow keep you safe."

Tyrone had the feeling he knew where this was going.

"But I just went ahead and waltzed into a creepy forest at night anyway."

"Exactly."

He sighed again.

"Dad I-"

"That's why I'm giving you this." Dipper interrupted.

Tyrone stared at the aged, yellow and kind of dirty sheets of paper.

"Uhhh..."

His father smiled.

"I'm sure what you'll find on there'll keep you wrapped up for a while. Just- promise me. No more of the "sneaking out and going into the forest at night" stuff, okay?"

Tyrone flipped through a few pages. "This should be interesting..." he mumbled. "Okay. I promise. But..."

"But?" Dipper asked.

"Are you sure I'm not grounded?"

"let's discuss that if you decide to sneak out at night again, yeah?" Dipper replied with a wink, before getting up to leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You didn't tell him anything, did you? You know what happened last time you-"

"Pacifica. Calm down. And no, I didn't. I just handed him a copy of the Nathaniel Northwest Conspiracy."

Pacifica cringed. "Of all the things you could've handed him..."

"Hey, it was the safest thing I've got. Besides...It was pretty funny."

She rolled her eyes.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

Dipper smiled sheepishly.

"It's better than the last time, right?"

"Tell me about it. Don't get me started on what I had to go through to pay off that bail."

"Hey, it wasn't entirely my fault." He replied defensively.

"Yeah. Cause 'research'. I already know how your mind works, genius."