A Home For Timmy (boyxboy)

Chapter 8 : Part One: Tears and Revelations

Chapter 8   Part One

I took a step back and his eyes followed the movement.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” I apologized softly, and for a moment he only watched me with an expression which gave a face to his confusion, before he pushed up into a sitting position.

“What are you doing?”

I didn’t miss the suspicion in his voice nor the narrowing of his eyes as he questioned me and for a split second he glanced at Timmy, before his gaze settled once again on me.

I imagined that this was how the many criminals I’d apprehended felt just before I slapped on the handcuffs—trapped.

“Timmy…I found him in the hallway.” I explained. “I think he was having trouble sleeping so I stayed up with him until he did and brought him back here.”

He glanced once more at his son, this time with a small frown. “I locked the door...I never thought he woulda went and opened it.”

I shrugged. “He’s learning I guess.”

Gone was the suspicion and I found that the expressiveness of his face intrigued me. Reading him was the easiest thing to do and only went to further showcase his innocence.

“Sorry. I keep telling him he’s gotta stay here at night-time. He never used to go anywhere back when he were at home.”

Home… I didn’t know how he could call the piece of barely-standing shack his home, but I smiled to reassure him. “He’s in a new environment. Maybe when he gets used to it, he’ll stay put.”

When he nodded, eyes still planted on my face while offering not a word, I took that as my cue to get out of there and so I bid him goodnight.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” He called out when I reached the door, and with a nod I left.

Lusting after some kid I’d found in the streets. I shook my head. Never in all my life would I have imagined myself in such a position. I was responsible. I was the one who never had any trouble doing the right thing, yet here I was, practically taking advantage of a kid while he slept.

The only problem was; he wasn’t a kid. Lying in the bed across the hall was a man, who, for whatever reason, had my blood boiling and my heart thudding with just a simple look, and despite the very short time that I’d known him, I felt it harder and harder to keep my hand off him.

I wondered if this was how the junkies felt every time they robbed a man just so they could buy their next handful of weed. Or how the gamblers felt just before they bet the last dollar they had in hopes they could win big.

Temptation…addiction. Is that what he was to me now?   

I rubbed a hand over my face and paused at the very top of the staircase. I’d never felt so…invested, in a single person before. Why did it have to be Jason? Why did it have to be someone I had promised to protect? Someone who’d experienced more than his fair share of a shitty life and was looking to me to make it right?

I glanced up when the door to his room creaked open and I was surprised when it was him who came padding out rather than little Timmy. I straightened up immediately and watched him cross the hall warily.

I assumed he would go to the kitchen, maybe for a glass of water...a late night snack even, but he stopped by the railing a few feet away and I watched in confusion as he stood there, his expression pinched with determination and his posture limp with uncertainty.