Warbler Cries

Chapter 29 : Jeff's house

Chapter 29

The next day...     

Nick POV

Since Dalton wasn't going to be having classes for the next few days, they decided to do maintenance. And Jeff's dad decided to pick him up. And I went home with him.

Jeff was a ball of anxiety. He couldn't sit still on the ride to his house. Once we got to his house, his dad told us to go up to his room and stay there. So that's what we did.

"So is this normal for him to just tell you to come up here?" I asked, quietly.

"No. He usually makes me do chores. He's being really weird because you're here."

"I don't know if that's good or bad."

"Me either."

I sat down on Jeff's bed. He had a small room and a small house.

"So what do you do for fun here?" I asked.

"Fun? I don't have fun here."

"Really?"

"Really, Nick. I'm either doing chores, getting beat up by my dad, or trying to recover and heal. Actually, sometimes I get locked up somewhere too."

"So you never do anything fun?"

"No."

"What do you do in the summer when you're not in school?"

"Suffer."

"Jeff."

"I'm serious, Nick. This is my life. Scared to death that my dad is going to come through that door at any moment, drunk. And he'll beat me until I go unconscious."

"I didn't know it was this serious. I thought it only happened sometimes."

"My dad's an alcoholic. He gets drunk every night. And when he's drunk, that's when he likes to beat me. Right now he's sober, so I'm not surprised he hasn't done anything. But when he gets drunk tonight, I'm not sure he's going to care that you're here."

"Do you think he would hit me too?"

"I don't know, Nicky..."

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Because you're Nicky."

"I'm Nick."

"You're Nicky."

"Alright..."

Jeff sat down beside me on his bed.

"Do you think Blaine will be ok tonight? I won't be there to hold onto his arm," Jeff said.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Jeff. He seems to really like your idea of making marks with the pen."

"Ok..."

"Don't worry about Blaine. How's your anxiety?"

"Bad. Because I'm home. And if you get hurt here, I'm going to blame myself."

"Stop. I chose to come here with you. It's not your fault if I get hurt."

Jeff sighed.

"I know you're anxious. But just try to relax. I came home with you to try to help you and protect you. And that's exactly what I'm going to do until we're back at Dalton."

"Thanks."

All of a sudden, Jeff's door swung open and I saw Jeff's dad standing in the doorway with a beer and a piece of paper in his hand.

"Chores, Jeffrey," his dad said, holding the paper out to him.

Jeff slowly got up and took the paper from him. He left, shutting the door behind himself.

"He's already drinking. He'll be drunk in no time," Jeff said, sitting back down beside me.

"I didn't know your name was Jeffrey. I always thought it was just Jeff."

"I hate that name."

"Why?"

"Because that's what my dad calls me. That's why I go by Jeff."

"Well maybe since you've decided to call me Nicky, I should give you a nickname."

"What nickname?"

"You can be Jeffy."

"Fine by me. I've never had a nickname before."

"So do you have to do all those chores by tonight?"

"No. I just have to get them done by the time he brings us back to Dalton. Do you want to help me?"

"Yeah, of course I'll help you. What kind of stuff do we have to do?"

"Dishes, sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms, clean my room, take out the garbage..."

"Your room already looks pretty clean."

"Yeah, I just need to make sure I make my bed in the morning and don't leave laundry on the floor and stuff. But otherwise my room is pretty much fine."

"Ok, so what would you like me to do to help you? We could split up the chores half and half or I could just help you with everything. I wouldn't want to do something wrong and get you in trouble for it."

"Yeah, just help me with everything. We can start with the dishes. I can wash them and tell you where they go."

"Ok, sounds good. Does your dad make dinner?"

"No. He usually orders takeout. If he orders pizza, we can steal some from him."

"Will we get in trouble?"

"No, we're allowed to. He doesn't want to get in trouble for not feeding me."

"Yet he beats you and isn't scared of getting in trouble for that?"

"Yeah, I guess... I don't know. This is how I grew up, ok? This is normal for me."

"Well it's not normal for everyone else. I want to keep you out of this house as much as possible. Next time he wants to take you home, tell him you have a project or you need to study for a test or something."

"I can try..."

"Ok. Let's go do the dishes."