Caring for Carers - Minizerk

Chapter 8

Josh wakes up at around 6:30, which is more than a decent night's sleep for him. He's actually feeling pretty refreshed, and walks through to the kitchen area, where he finds Tobi leaning against the counter, waiting for the kettle to boil. He's not entirely sure how that's comfortable, considering the edges of the drawer handles poke into his lower back, but Tobi looks content, so he's not one to judge.

"Morning, sleeping beauty. I would ask if you fancied tea or coffee, but seeing as you've never had either, I can't see you changing your mind today. How does a man doing three waking nights a week go without caffeine?"

"I don't. You know how much Dr Pepper I can consume."

Tobi exhales, a smile decorating his face, "yeah, I guess I forgot about that. Anyway, sleep okay?"

"Surprisingly, yes. I'm not actually feeling as bad about Ethan coming home today."

"Got anything planned?" Tobi asks, catching the kettle before it starts making its loud, obnoxious whistles that could wake Vik up, beginning to pour the steaming water into his mug.

"I was thinking of maybe taking Vik to the park this afternoon. Ethan won't want to go out after having spent the weekend with his mum, although maybe he'll have to run off some energy. I'll ask Simon what he thinks when me and Vik are on our way out. The plan was to sort of show them that although they live together, they can do things together and on their own. Maybe the alone thing can wait though, we do need to start giving Ethan more choices. When we get back, I'm thinking of doing the weekly meeting thing. I reckon Saturday nights would be good for that."

"Makes sense. You want me round for the meeting? Or am I good to just go home? Message me whichever, I'll try my best to make it."

"Thanks man, but we should be good. I'll let you know the details of what the boys have decided on doing this week though."

"Fine by me. I'll probably head off at around 10? That way, Vik's awake to see me leave, and Simon will have arrived too, so he'll see us crossover."

"Fair enough." Josh moves to sit down at the kitchen table, the chair scraping lightly against the polished wooden floor. "On Wednesday when we're all in this week, you want to bring Vik to do the shopping with me and Ethan? Simon's got a shit-tonne of phone calls to make about one of his clients, so he asked me to cover him that day."

"No I didn't."

Josh and Tobi's heads turn towards the kitchen door, where their eyes find Simon, a smirk on his face and an eyebrow raised in Josh's direction.

"Okay, fine. I volunteered to."

"There we go. Hey Tobi. How was Vik yesterday?"

"Hey, man. Yeah, he was good. We watched CBeebies most of the day to be honest. Just wanted him to get a feel for the house, you know? I think Josh, you said you were gonna take him out today?" Josh nods, before Tobi turns his attention back to Simon. "Anyway, yeah, why're you here at this time? It's like 7, right?"

Simon looks over at the clock behind Tobi's head. "In my defence, it's quarter past."

"Like that's any better."

"Shut up, Josh. You're no better, Mr I-Show-Up-On-My-Day-Off. I'm just early."

"Hey, so was I. Just an entire day early."

"You're both idiots who need to get a life." Tobi rolls his eyes as he stands, scraping his chair lightly against the floor lightly. Their weird, unfunny yet somehow still flirty banter was pretty uncomfortable to witness, in his opinion. He makes a mental note to ask Sarah or Cal when he gets into school tomorrow, see if any of the school lot have noticed anything about Josh and Simon, so he can convince his brain it's not just him that's reading into it too much.