Caring for Carers - Minizerk

Chapter 5

When Saturday morning rolls around, Josh is nervously pacing in the hallway, Tobi and Simon both watching him, the former seated casually, legs slightly apart. Meanwhile, the latter leans against the doorframe to the kitchen, legs crossed at the ankles.

Just as Simon opens his mouth to speak, three sudden juddering knocks against the door, followed by the rattling of the door handle lead Josh to spring into action. He presses his pass lightly against the scanner and pulls the door open, to be confronted by a boy of medium-height and chubby cheeks that he really wants to squish, for whatever unknown reason. A few paces behind him stands another man, his hands lightly tucked into the pockets of his jeans, a smile quirking on one side of his face.

"Alright Cal?" Josh asks, acknowledging the dark haired man stood behind the child, who was currently clapping his hands together, making soft cooing noises to himself.

"Yeah, I'm good, man. Ethan's a pleasure to be around. Although, totally forgot to mention to you that to Ethan, I'm Callum. I'm his one-to-one in school Monday through Wednesday, and Airey's Thursday and Friday. Didn't want to confuse him too much. Sorry about that, mate."

Josh lets out a soft breath, indicative of his forgiveness of Cal's honest mistake. It's easily done, after all.

"Don't worry, mate, you're fine. You want to come in then?" He questions warmly, so as to attract Ethan's attention. He can't come off as too excitable immediately, or too standoffish, so he aims for a precarious balance, and appears to achieve it, as Ethan turns to look at him, making direct eye contact.

That's new. He wasn't expecting that for a number of months, and he feels his heart glow with pride a little bit as Ethan bounces jovially through the front door. He motions for Cal to follow on through, and closes the door leisurely behind him, moving towards the living room, where everyone seems to have progressed to, leaving Josh alone in the hallway temporarily.

"Callum? How long are you feeling before you leave? Just so Ethan's got a familiar face while he gets used to the surroundings, and so he knows not to associate you with here too much." Josh calls out, carefully placing himself at the opposite end of the sofa Ethan has flung himself onto, so as not to make the boy feel like he has to move.

"Shall we give it half an hour?"

"Sounds good to me."

So the five of them sit in the living room, Ethan taking in his surroundings and getting to know who the people were. He's met Simon before, when he came to watch him back at his old house, to make sure he was a suitable candidate for House 4, scratching away with his leaky pen sat in the corner, while Ethan tried to watch his old DVDs of Thomas the Tank Engine. That was annoying, but Ethan has an inkling (sorry for the pun lmao) the guy wasn't to blame there, just his shoddy pen.

Then, there's Tobi, the guy wearing the hat. He seems reserved, or at least just pretty quiet and relaxed. He's probably got great hair to touch, Ethan muses to himself. He'll have to try and steal his hat at some point, to see if his estimations are correct. Maybe he'll play up the affection with Tobi when they're all more comfortable.

Skipping over Callum, who he already knows from his brief time at the school, he comes to study a man who introduced himself earlier as Josh. His beard looks soft, or at least Ethan wants to know it's texture. He's got kind eyes, and a kind voice, but he's nervous, Ethan can tell. From their brief interactions thus far, Ethan knows the guy will treat him like an actual person, rather than a baby. The guy also isn't a pushover, like Simon probably will be, Ethan notices. He smiles to himself and giggles.

He can notice all of that about someone, but he can't speak properly, so people think he's a 'retard'. Ironic, really.

Ethan's pulled out of his world by Callum's floating voice telling him that he'll see him on Monday, and it dawns on the boy that he's bored. Seriously bored.