Time to Make a Difference

Chapter 16: Desperately in Need of Coffee: Tam's POV

"I had other things going on, Funkyhair, ok?" Tam said, into his phone.

"Ok, fine. I'm not blaming you, it's just... frustrating. I gotta go," Funkyhair responded and then hung up.

Tam resisted the urge to throw his phone across his room. Why did Funkyhair have to be so infuriating? It's not like Tam could remember every single piece of information he and his gang needed. He had a life of his own with his own problems and apparently Funkyhair didn't care in the least.

"Tam? It's time for dinner," came Linh's voice from outside his door.

Tam's anger softened at hearing his sister's voice. "Be there in a second."

He took a deep breath and exhaled. He then proceeded to open his door and walk to the dining room. The smell of freshly cooked food made him walk just a tad bit faster.

Once in the dining room Tam sat down next to Linh on the wooden chairs. In the middle of the table a big bowl of fried rice was on top of the red table cloth. His mother, Mai, set the plates and forks on the table and then sat down in front of Linh.

Mai passed the bowl of fried rice to Quan, Tam's father, and while he served himself she asked, "How was school today?"

Tam shrugged whereas Linh went into full detail about how she got to draw whatever she wished in her art class today.

"When I'm done I'll show it to you. By the way, how's your painting going, Mother?"

"Oh, I'm almost done. I just feel as if something is missing...Hmm, not quite sure," Mai responded while Tam dropped a humongous pile of rice on his plate and handed the bowl to Linh.

Quan chuckled, "Someone's hungry."

Tam smiled slightly, "Yeah..." And then it was washed away as he realized something. "Hey, where's Uncle Qiang?"

Quan sighed, "Your Uncle was called to work overtime at the police station. You know they respect him and value what he has to say on the cases."

Tam stared at his food, "When will he be back?"

Quan shook his head, "Son, I don't know. He'll stay as long as they need him."

For the rest of dinner they ate in silence. After Tam had cleaned up his dishes he rushed to his room and flopped on the bed. Feeling too tired to do anything, he put on some earbuds and blasted on My Chemical Romance.

Tam stared at the ceiling wondering how his life managed to get this messed up. He was giving police intel to a bunch of teenagers that somehow decided to stop criminals as a hobby. At least he had his reasons for doing it. Unlike Funkyhair who just did it for fun. At least that's what he said, but chances were that he was most likely lying. Tam was aware that Funkyhair had some major family issues, so maybe that had something to do with it. Maybe.

Soon his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

Tam was rudely awakened by his phone buzzing, being unnecessarily loud. Which was odd because he never set an alarm to wake up. He'd already broken five alarm clocks in the past (what could he say that beeping noise was extremely obnoxious).

Tam picked up his phone and saw about fifty notifications from Funkyhair. What the heck? Someday he was seriously gonna end up strangeling that boy.