Family Isn't Just Blood

(Bat Boys in Quarantine) Part 4 - Jet-lag and Phone Calls

                 A therapist once told me that there are three main ways people react when something goes wrong in their lives.

Slipping into depression.

Self-blaming.

Reacting in anger.

Of course, I thought that was complete bullshit so I quit twenty minutes into the first session. What I'm seeing in front of me tells me that that therapist might not have been entirely filled with shit.

"Wow I guess my dyslexia is acting up. I could've sworn that email said we had nine days to move out of our apartment. Hah." Roy laughed, I don't even think he registered what he was saying. His eyes moved from Kori to me and back again.

"You don't have dyslexia, Roy." I muttered, re-reading the email on Roy's phone. The thing about Roy is that he's a funny guy, but he has a strong tendency to make bad jokes when he doesn't know how else to deal with things. He would represent the 'slipping into depression' part of my old therapists warning signs.

"How can I fix this Jason?" Kori asks, a sense of urgency in her voice.

"Fix this? Kori I don't think any of us can fix this."

"What if one of the other residents made a complaint? Maybe we were too loud, or we went out too much at night, or they saw me flying or.." I glance at the driver to see if he took any interest at Kori's mention of her flying. He just rubbed his nose on a kleenex and kept on driving.

"If I'd been more careful this wouldn't be happening." If I were my old therapist I would probably peg Kori as the 'self blaming' type. I told her this wasn't her fault, hell I don't think any of us are responsible. The person responsible is our fucking landlord.

"I'm going to talk some sense into that scumbag of a landlord. They can't just evict us for no reason."

"Jason no, you can't. If you threaten them they might give us our place back but they'll make us pay more for it. Or they still wont let us stay and they'll tell other lords of the land that we're trouble and we will never find another place to stay." Kori warns. Even if she never met my therapiss-ed (hah) she's probably figured out I have a bit of an anger problem.

"I was going to do a lot worse than just threatening them." I catch a glimpse of her expression and quickly add onto my statement. "You're right, you're right. I wont do anything to them. Still, what are we supposed to do now? Were getting fucking evicted."

"You're about to get evicted from this car. We've been stopped for five minutes." The driver says to me. That's the Gothamite way of saying, 'This is your stop'. I hand him the cash and get out of the car to grab out bags from the trunk. Roy and Kori follow behind me.

We drop our bags at the door, not bothering to unpack. Roy strips his shirt off and tosses it on the floor, diving into the couch.

"Dude, you've been wearing those clothes for two weeks. Take a fucking shower." He mumbled a response into the couch cushions but I don't bother trying to get him up. Kori pats his hair and heads to the shower instead. I kick off my boots at the door and stumble to the kitchen. The past few weeks, and hours, are starting to catch up with me. I grab my non burner phone from the countertop where I left it before we left. Wow I'm way too trusting of our security system. Roy must've signed into his account once we got over the border and into the Uber, that's probably how he saw the email from the landlord. I had thought it would be a good idea to leave our personal phones back here and take burner phones instead in case something happened to us and someone got a hold of our phones. Good idea in theory, not so hot in practice. Sure enough I had the same email on my phone from our landlord. Fuck, we have until tomorrow at midnight to find somewhere to stay. This is all too much. I grab a few protein bars from the kitchen, since all our other crap is now mouldy, and dial a number into my phone.

I put my phone on speaker and toss it onto my bed.

"Jason?" A voice from the other end says.

"Hey there kid. Whats poppin'?"

"Did you seriously just say- nevermind, where are you? Are you home? Do you need us to pick you up? Did something happen?"

"If something bad happened do you seriously think I'd start my sentence with 'whats poppin'?" I chuckle, pulling off my socks and grabbing my sweatpants and a hoodie from my closet.

"So you're home?"

"Jeez kid, yes I'm back at my apartment. Everythings fine, quit being so paranoid."

"Okay good. I'm glad you're back. Do you wanna know the statistics of-"

"No, please Tim, no statistics, no numbers, no more bad news. Just tell me what you've been doing for the past few weeks." I stripped off my clothes and threw them to the corner of the room, pulling on my clean sweatpants but opting out of the hoodie. I'm too covered in stress sweat to need a hoodie right now.

"Well, I re-downloaded Minecraft out of desperation. Alfred told me I had to take a break from working cases or he was going to take away my laptop. I also remembered how terrible I am at survival mode. I've died twenty thousand times since I started playing it, I fucking suck. I tried playing it with Damian, that was no use. He set my fucking wood house on fire while I was in it!" I snorted a laugh into my pillow.

"You know what Bruce asked me a few weeks ago?"

"Mmh, what?" I mumble.

"He asked me if I could help him run a YouTube channel. A YouTube channel Jason. Can you imagine!? 'Hi guys welcome back to my channel where today I will be discussing why I am not Batman'." I fucking lose it at his Bruce impression. Tim knows how to get me laughing even on my worst days.

We talk for another half hour or so. I forget about my problems, and I think he forgets about his. We don't talk vigilante business, we don't talk pandemic, we don't even talk about anything important. We just talk about how Bruce is cheap as shit and won't even spend money on a good quality toaster, how Damian managed to get mistaken for a gargoyle, twice, and how Dick has terrible taste in music, and clothes. By the time I look out the window I realize the sun has set long ago and judging by the stars, and my alarm clock, it's almost two in the morning.

"Hey Timbers I should probably let you go before I pass out and start snoring into your ear."

"Hah yeah, man you can't even make it until two. Up your game Jason, I can stay awake until five without even yawning."

"Yeah well you're a freak of nature kid. G' night Timbers."

"Night Jason." I let the phone fall from my hand as soon as I hear him hang up. I slip into the darkness, too tired to even worry about my problems. 

(A/N: I try to post a new part every 7 days!)