There'll Be Storms (Spanking Story)

Chapter 24

*Sorry I haven't written in a while but I've had a lot going on with the new semester starting! I'm going to continue from the previous chapter*

"Alright guys, shower or do whatever you need before lights out." Charlie said as he hung up his jacket near the back door.

Eryk looked at me and motioned his head down towards the stairs. He reached down and unfolded the flap above his pocket, revealing a new pack of cards. I smiled as he winked at me and folded the flap back down so Charlie wouldn't know that we were about to gamble...he really hates that. What's the big deal though? We literally only play with candy or coins, it's not like we're betting our lives.

We spent the next hour or so playing Texas hold 'em, I was winning a lot of candy off Eryk but he still had the bigger, king-sized snickers and I was determined to get it. I don't know whether I was really bad at poker or Eryk was really good, you could never tell what he was thinking or what he was going to lay down. We used to do this every Friday and Saturday night while Jeff was at the bar, we'd have a few shots and play with candy that we got cheap at the store down the block. Talking with Eryk, just me and him, really made me forget why I was having such a bad time anyway.

"Alright, birthday man, whatcha got?"

He raised his eyebrows as he smirked, "Four jacks."he laid them down smoothly, feeling satisfied that he just won two-thirds of my candy.

"Well that makes sense since you're suck an ass!" I threw my cards into the pile and watched him move all my Reese cups onto his side.

"Sorry buddy." He smiled and started to gather the cards for another round before Charlie comes up and tells us it's our bedtime.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, lay it on me." He started to deal out cards.

"Charlie's so strict and there's so many rules...how'd you transition so easily? You're almost never in trouble."

He smiled, probably thinking I'm so naive and that following the rules is simple or that he gets in trouble more often than I realize.

"How do you do it?" He peeked his head up and stared at me. "Seriously, how do you do it?"

"I keep myself busy. Honestly Cody, I do the things I need to do and then do extra to keep out of trouble."

"Sounds like a lot of work, don't you miss out on things?"

"Eh," he shrugged his shoulders and flipped another card over. "it's more like you're so busy that you don't have time to wonder how you're doing it all...you just do it, and then you start to notice the small positive things happening from your success."

"So as long as you keep doing things...it'll all work out?" I placed a bet and he matched it. Shit. I was bluffing.

He let out a large sigh, "You need to stop thinking everything is black and white Cody. It will help for the most part but there are some disadvantages and it will catch up to you eventually."

I was beyond confused by what he said, everything black and white. What does that even mean? Eryk told me he would be the one who Charlie would be harder on but man does it seem like he does everything right and Charlie praises him for it.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry...sometimes I forget how young you are because you've been the only one I've had for a long time. I mean you'll hit a wall eventually, and you will hit it hard....but at least then you'll know how much you can take and how you'll react to it will define how you'll handle situations from then on."