Right Timing

Chapter 7

“I’ll be right back” I said as I left my room to go get chips and a few sodas.

I walked downstairs and looked out the window and at the clock on the microwave. “I guess he’ll be getting home late then.” I thought. It was already 10:04pm and my dad still was not home. My sister texted me that she was staying at her friend Sara’s house tonight so I guess Billie and I have the place to ourselves for another few hours. “I doubt my dad will even come home” I rolled my eyes at the thought. I grabbed the drinks and snacks and ran my way back upstairs.

“Here” I said as I threw a coke can in Billies direction.

He caught it and I closed my door, locking it behind me incase my dad got home so he wouldn’t bother us. The lock made a click sound and turned around to billie who was looking at me with wide eyes.

“Why’d you lock it?” He asked in a confused tone.

“I don't want my dad to bother us when he gets here. Sometimes he comes home a little crazy if he works late.” I shrugged and plopped down on the floor next to Billie.

“What do you want to watch?” I flipped through different movie options in my dvd holder.

“That looks pretty cool” Billie chose one of my moms old Hallmark movies that she loved.

“A classic Hallmark movie” I slid it out of the clear holder it was in and put the disc in the DVD player and hit play.

We had to watch what seemed like 15 trailers of other movies that had been out for a while before the movie actually started. We couldn’t skip through because I had lost my dvd player remote a long time ago. We quietly watched the movie and snacked on some chips and finished our sodas. Once the credits rolled I looked over and Billie was fast asleep on my shoulder. I giggled which woke him up a little and he looked around in a daze.

“What happened, is the movie over?” He looked at the black tv screen. “What time is it?”

I looked at my alarm clock. “Its 11:50pm” I read out.

BIllie nodded and took out his phone and immediately turned it off.

“Can I um, stay here tonight?” He sounded upset.

“Uh yeah Billie sure, are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine, I guess I just expected my mom to have texted me to see where I was or if I was coming home”. He messed with the bottom of his pants leg and looked at me.

“Hey it’s okay, we can go to sleep and I’ll walk with you home in the morning. You seem really tired, I know I am.” I stood up and helped him up behind me.

“I don’t have any clothes to wear to bed?” Billie tilted his head at me.

“Well what do you usually wear? I’ll see what I have” .

“Well I usually just wear my boxers..” He trailed off.

“Okay, then wear that? I can lend you a large T if you want.” I said looking through a T for me to wear to bed.

“Well what are you wearing?”

“I’m just gonna wear my boxers and a band T shirt.” I looked over at him. “I mean unless you’d feel uncomfortable with me not wearing actual pants that is.”

“No its fine, can I borrow a shirt?” he asked and I threw him a Clash shirt as I replaced my white shirt with my Ramones shirt.

I waited until Billie was done changing to unlock and open my door. “I’m going to go see if my dad is home and grab us some water bottles.”

I tiptoed down the stairs and was startled to see my dad standing in the kitchen with his back to me. I was about to turn around and run back upstairs to Billie when he turned around a saw me.

“Frank?! What are you doing down here? Shouldn’t you be in bed?? You have school tomorrow!”  he sort of raised his voice at me.

I shook and attempted to answer him. “I um, don’t have school, tomorrow is Saturday..” I said in a low tone.

“Don’t you talk back to me young man!” his voice was a little louder this time.

I trembled and I could feel my heart racing. “I just came downstairs to get some water” I looked down at me feet.

“Well come on then, come get some water” he crossed his arms.

I shifted forwards and walked to the fridge. I pulled out two water bottles. I could feel his eyes burning into my back, watching my every move. I closed the fridge and walked towards the stairs without looking at him.

“Two water bottles, eh?” He walked forward a few steps and stopped again.

“Uh yeah my f-friend Billie is staying over tonight.” I slowly turned and looked back at him.

“Huh is that the kid that’s in your band?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, he plays lead guitar.” as we talked I remembered why I never talked to him as much anymore and why I should never come out of my room if he got home late.

“You know he’s a fag right? A no good kid who has no business hanging around my son.”

“He’s actually really cool, dad. He’s my best friend.” I teared up a little.

“Whatever. Just don’t become like him.” My dad rolled his eyes. “You’re already no good, always getting in trouble and breaking stuff.”

I stood still, trying hard not to cry. My dad took another step forward and I took a step back. He put his hand in the air and waved me off.

“Go on get out of my sight.” he went back to his original place in the kitchen, with his back to me.

I ran up the stairs to my room, wiping my tears away as I made sure to skip a stair each time. When I made it to my room I closed my door and quickly locked it.

“Hey what took so-” he made eye contact with me and walked up to me, taking the bottles out of my hands. “What happened?!”

“It was nothing, just my dad. Can we go to bed now please?” I walked past him and moved the blankets so I could get in bed. I laid down on the left side of my bed and made sure to leave room on the right side for Billie. Billie sat on the bed and put the bottles on the nightstand. I could feel him looking at me for a few seconds before turning the lamp off and getting under the covers.

“Hey, you know you can talk to me about anything.” He whispered in my ear.

A tear rolled down my face and I felt an arm reach around and rest on my side and warmth all over the back of me.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He whispered once again and I drifted off to sleep.