Past & Present

Past: A Scare

Thirteen year old Cyrus was standing on the back of a moving truck with his arms above his head, simply taking in the breeze as fourteen year old T.J. was sitting down, watching his friend. A moment later, Cyrus turned around and saw T.J. looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Come on, dumb-ass, come here."

T.J. simply smiles and stands up next to Cyrus.

"Make room for me." He says as he spreads his arms out.

"You're gonna fall." Cyrus says as he gives a small push to the side.

"Stupid, you almost make me fall." T.J. said as he pushed Cyrus.

"You almost fell down, like this." Cyrus said as he playfully slapped T.J. across the face.

"You're pushing me!" T.J. laughed as he playfully slapped Cyrus across the face too.

"Remember last night?"

"What about it?"

"You hit me like this." Cyrus said as he playfully slapped T.J. across the face once more, laughing his head off when T.J. tried to swat him.

"You stupid- Fuck!" He exclaimed as a branch hit him, causing Cyrus to laugh some more.

This went on for the next few minutes until they arrived at the gates of Cyrus's home.

"Come on, T.J." Cyrus said as he hopped off the truck. He went to the little dog that was lying in the sun. "Hi, buddy!"

The dog started barking and licking Cyrus.

"And this little one? Is it new?" T.J. asked.

"Yes. We got it two days before Christmas." Cyrus told him as he was petting his dog. "It's a pain-in-the-ass-dog. His name is Slifer."

"Looks like a breed dog." T.J. stated as he started to pet the dog.

"It's a true mutt." Cyrus said. "But I love my little Cheagle."

T.J. smiled at the interaction between the dog and his best friend.

"Guys, can you give me a hand with the boxes?" Todd says.

"We'll be back, Slifer." Cyrus told the dog. "We love you."

"We sure do." T.J. says, teasing Cyrus a bit.

"Shut your dumb-ass up."

Both boys leave the dog and go to the truck.

"Here." Todd said as he handed a box to T.J. "Be careful, Teej, it's heavy."

"Got it, Todd." As he and Cyrus both carried a box towards the house.

〰 ♂ 〰

"Look at these." T.J. said as he threw the contents of his bag on the ground while Cyrus was drawing.

Cyrus stopped drawing and moved to where T.J. was at. They started to browse through the movies that T.J. had brought over.

"This one's passable."

"This one sucks for sure." T.J. said as he put Tyler Perry's Temptation on the ground.

"This one's my favorite." Cyrus said as he referred to How to Train Your Dragon.

"You have to see this one." T.J. said with total glee as he held up a scary movie.