Gods and Monsters

Ch. 20 Life's not fair

"It's not fair I have to watch the kids everyday!" Elias yelled. "All my friends get to hang out and do things on the weekend and I'm stuck here cooking chicken nuggets and watching stupid cartoons!"

Sage stared at the younger teen with wide eyes, not really knowing what to say. They'd just gotten home after having to go to the Baxter's to get Elias and bring him home. Elias hadn't said anything on the way here. He was grumpy but followed along. His usual put together clothes were rumpled and his tucked shirt was replaced with one two sizes too big.

"It's not fair!" He repeated.

"Well if life was fair Elias, I wouldn't ask you to stay home to watch our younger siblings, and I wouldn't have to work everyday to make sure you all had food to eat or a home to come back to when you want to pull shit like this. Maybe I'd get to be a teenager too!" Sage cried.

It was now Elias who stared with wide eyes.

Sage ran upstairs and shut himself in their bedroom, wiping at the tears that wouldn't stop falling. Too much was going on and he didn't know what to do. He shouldn't have said that to Elias. He'd made sure to never complain about what he had to do but he was tired. And his older brother was some kind of fucking cat eating monster.

Curling up on his bed, he pulled the covers over his head and tried to forget everything.

He hated crying in front of anyone and he was embarrassed that he had. Sage tried so hard to be strong for his younger siblings but he wasn't. He was always scared. He was always worrying. Everything he did was for them but it was never enough. He wasn't enough.

The phone started ringing downstairs and Sage pressed his face into his pillow. It was probably David wondering where he was. He forgot to call in and he was already two hours late. He should probably still go in.

With the way he kept missing work, he wouldn't have enough for rent at the end of the month. Or he won't have a job at all and then they'd really be screwed.

Forcing himself out of his bed he changed the red work-shirt for a plain black one. Sage didn't have the luxury of moping in bed and crying about everything that was wrong in the world. He had four kids to take care of.

The bedroom door cracked opened while he was putting on his converse after just having kicked them off. Aurora peeked in before opening the door fully. "Someone wants to talk to you." She bounced to Sage and gave him the phone.

As he expected, it was David who wanted to know where he was. Sage told him he was on his way before hanging up. Aurora followed him downstairs. The others sat on the couch watching tv and eating from a bag of chips.

"I have to go to work." He murmured, too embarrassed to meet Elias' eyes. Sage made sure to lock the door behind him and wondered if he should of at least warned Elias not to let Maverick in if he returned. He just hoped he wouldn't and continued down the street.

The sun was starting to set earlier and the air was chillier. He'd have to pull out the kids warmer clothes soon and see what still fits. The twins will probably need new jackets and jeans because they keep getting taller. Marlo was still little but chunkier, he could probably have the twins old jackets.

Trying not to think about everything that needed to be done, Sage started counting his steps.

David greeted him happily when he arrived, probably just ready for the day to end to take Sage into the back.

Work was easy. Sage had been working since he was thirteen. He didn't care what he was doing, as long as he was making money. If that meant shivering in front of the cooler while he stocked sodas, so be it.

While he was cleaning up the bathrooms at the end of the night, he caught sight of himself in the mirror and frowned. He hadn't slept at all this weekend and you could tell from the dark, purplish half circles under his red eyes that somehow looked even bigger than what they normally did. Sage sprayed the mirror with windex, not wanting to see anymore.

Dropping the cleaning supplies in the bucket after finishing, Sage left the bathroom and took it to the back where David was already waiting for him.

"I was thinking," David started, catching Sage's arm and pulling him flush against him. Sage stared at the pictures the man had on the wall behind his desk. "Maybe we could try something new."

"Our agreement was blow jobs." Sage reminded him, forcing himself from pulling away as the older man licked his neck.

"Yes but you've been slacking a lot lately and I'm sure you would like a raise." David nipped at his neck making him flinch and drop the bucket.

"You're not fucking me."

"Of course, not tonight." David chuckled, unbuttoning Sage's jeans before lowering them slowly. "You have to be prepared for that."

Sage let the man press him down so he was bent over his desk, his jeans were trapped around his ankles and made it so David could only spread his legs but so far.

A picture of a happy family was right in front of him and he shut his eyes tightly, almost scared of the smiling faces.

He was in that back room longer than he'd ever been before and still at the end, he was on his knees.

The walk home seemed unnecessarily long and his backside ached from the unwanted attention. At least it distracted him from the dark and his brain felt clogged. Like it was stuffed with cotton balls.

He'd always known it was only a matter of time before David wanted to take thing further. It's just the way the world works, everyone always wants more. At least the older man was taking his time with it and hadn't decided to just get it over with in one night.

Sage just wanted to go to sleep. He wanted to sleep a whole eight hours uninterrupted. That wasn't going to happen though. The most he'd get is about four hours but that was better than none at all.
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