3 Years

54 - Uncomfortable

Suffocating. Smothering. Thick. Choking. Those words were what it felt like in the living room of the Salazar-Roberts family.

The kids didn't know what to say, and the adults were doing awkward small talk. Ricky knew it would end up like this. He was trying to think of some way to get the ball rolling.

"How's school going?" he decided to ask. It was the default question his grandparents would always ask him when the holidays would roll around.

"The usual," Lauren answered. "Mounds of homework even though it's only been a few weeks."

He chuckled. "I bet. We," he said, gesturing between him and Nini, "had a teacher who took homework way too seriously. He was always a grump."

Nini laughed a little with him. "You know, that teacher's still around."

Ricky raised an eyebrow. "Really? Mr. Mazzara still has a job."

"Yeah, I have him actually," Jayden chimed in.

"Is he still so... crabby?"

Nini did her hand in a so-so motion. "I guess. It's different from a teacher's standpoint."

"Yes," Lauren confirmed. "He gets on to everyone no matter what it is they're doing." She turns towards Jayden a little. "Laine said he loves to pull the whole 'the bell doesn't dismiss you; I do' routine."

"Yeah, but he stopped doing that after too many people ended up being late to class," her brother said.

Ricky glanced down at Noah to see if he wanted to add anything to the conversation. The boy's eyes followed each person that spoke, simply observing the interaction between his father and these strangers. He didn't want to speak nor felt the need to.

The conversation continued like this, the twins talking about school since they didn't really have anything else to say.

Both of them kept glancing at Noah, waiting for him to say something. Anything. They wanted to hear some stories come from him; sure, Ricky had told them everything, but they were interested to know what all Noah got to experience with him. They knew Ricky most likely wouldn't tell them that kind of stuff.

Nia awkwardly observed the conversation. She didn't want to chime in and intrude since the twins had finally appeared to be a little more relaxed, but she also felt that she stuck out like a sore thumb because she wasn't speaking.

Ricky was smiling a little as they spoke, amazed by their conversation skills. Lauren had a little sophistication in the way she talked; it wasn't like she was trying to impress anyone, but instead, that was just her natural way of speaking. Jayden was a little more on the playful and enthusiastic side, speaking with his hands. They both cracked a few jokes though; it kept the conversation light and flowy.

Nini was smiling a little through this; she was glad it was going well for the most part. Noah not speaking worried her though; she wondered what he would tell Ricky and Nia when this was over about his time here.

Ricky kept looking down at Noah, gesturing with his eyes that he was free to say anything if he wanted to. But the boy would just shrug a little and let everyone else do the talking; he would laugh at some jokes but not contribute to the conversation. The twins were beginning to think that he physically couldn't speak.

They had begun to get onto the topic of family. Nini had asked Nia about hers, and her answer was, "Well, for starters, I'm also a twin."

Ricky and Nini could tell the twins' interest had gone up. "Brother or sister?" Jayden asked.

"Brother. And younger."

"How much of an age gap?" Lauren asked. She loved pointing out to Jayden the fact that she was fourteen minutes older than him.

"Um." She puffed air out of her nose as she thought. "I don't quite remember. Maybe something like... two minutes and thirty-seven seconds," she said casually, looking at her nails.

Lauren caught on to what she was doing and said, "It's fun, isn't it?"

"Always. I have used the older card countless times. Our mom always loved to remind us how difficult the birth was. She would say something like, uh..." She cleared her throat, preparing to imitate her mother. "Like, 'I experienced what most women do at least a year apart in the span of two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, and the only benefit of it was that I can buy you two birthday presents at the same time.'"

Nini nodded along with her. "Hmm, I think I should've done that," she said, giving her children a pointed look.

"I'm just glad we can all agree that Jayden is the problem," Lauren concluded.

"Uh, no one said that," he tried to defend. They started getting into one of their twin arguments, which meant it would last about one a minute before fizzling out and being forgotten.

While they were doing that, Ricky bent down to Noah's ear and whispered, "How are you feeling so far?"

He shrugged. "Fine," he murmured.

"You sure?"

He had a little debate with himself before saying, "I need to use the bathroom."

Ricky looked over at Nini and asked, "Where's your bathroom?" His eyes then flicked over at Noah, and she knew what he meant.

"I can show you," Jayden volunteered, having settled the bickering with his sister; 'settled' as in they stopped, not that they agreed. Ricky looked at Noah, quietly asking him if he was ok with that. The boy nodded and followed Jayden up the stairs; he didn't think to take him to the one downstairs somehow.

On the way up there, Noah looked at all the walls. He noticed how many pictures were hung up; some were milestones, like birthdays while others appeared to just be up there for the heck of it.

A certain room catches his eye: it was messy with clothes thrown at the end of the bed; the closet was wide open; and a desk had papers scattered everywhere. "Is this yours?"

Jayden turns around in shock. He speaks! "Uh, yeah." He joins Noah where he's standing in the doorway. "Do you want to go in?"

Noah nods, and Jayden gestures for him to enter. Both boys walk in, Noah slower than Jayden. There was a trunk peeking out from the corner of the open closet. "What's in there?"

Jayden followed his eyes. "Uh, I think they're just old toys. I haven't opened it in a while." The curly-haired boy bends down to the latches and undoes them; his assumption was right. His eyes bounced to the different objects; a lot of this stuff he hasn't seen in ages.

He began pulling stuff out; nerf guns, plastic swords, and other items that he hasn't touched in years. He even stumbled across an old Halloween costume. "Haven't seen this in centuries," he mumbles, setting the cowboy outfit on the ground. He remembers wanting it because of the comically large belt and buckle.

Jayden then remembers his reason for being up here in the first place. "Let's head to the-" He turned around, and Noah was gone. He stepped out into the hall, assuming Noah had gone to the bathroom, but the door was wide open with no one inside.

He didn't know where he could've gone, but then he heard commotion coming from downstairs. He raced down the steps, and everyone was in a frenzy.

"Can you get some water?" Ricky said frantically, bent in front of the boy; he and Nia were trying to calm him down. Nini quickly ran to the kitchen and filled a glass.

"What's going on?" Jayden asked, going up to Lauren.

"I don't know," she answered. "Noah came back downstairs and started breathing heavily. What did you do?!" she hissed, hitting his arm.

"First, ow! Second, I don't know!" he defended.

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And... we're back to the really crappy short chapters😅