The Blog

Abel 3: Dots

Abel sat in his room, accompanied by his rabbit, who was the only living thing in the house that wasn't scolding him. It had been a while since he had lashed out like he did earlier. On top of being suspended, he lost his Playstation and skateboarding privileges. To make matters worse, Sigurd called him. Abel knew there were only two reasons for that - either Mikkel was driving him crazy, or he was calling to poke fun at him.

"So, how does it feel to be part of the suspended club?" Sigurd asked.

"It sucks balls when you get yelled at loud enough for the neighbors to hear. I felt like a child," Abel replied.

"It should pass quickly when you have video game - oh, wait."

"Listen, you genderbent Wednesday Addams. You have two seconds to tell me why you're calling or I'll come over and beat you with a bible."

"How kinky. I suppose you saw the blog update. You're a smart guy, noticed anything off?"

"The audio could only be recorded if someone was there. That narrows down the suspect to someone in my class. It's either they know their identity and sent it to them or they're the one who's responsible."

"Exactly. Timo is close friends with a guy in the computer science club. I'll see if I can get him do us a favor."

"I swear, for a guy who could easily be mistaken for a mute, you have more connections than a drug dealer."

"And you'd know about that, wouldn't you?"

"And I don't recall you complaining last Friday night. That grin told me everything I needed to know."

"I'm going to miss what we have going on here. How long are you suspended for?"

"Ten days. When I come back, I'll have a week of detention where I'll have to help the janitor. Fuck my life."

"So, house arrest and community service? Not a bad deal."

Suddenly, Abel's father knocked on the door and poked his head in.

"Hey, Hot Topic. We'll continue this later."

"All right, Bunny Boy," Sigurd replied.

Abel's father's usual smile was not present, which meant that what he had to say was important. He brought a box of fruit pastries, which he always did when there was bad news to soften the blow. 

Abel sighed and asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is it?"

"Your mother came over today," his father said.

Abel froze and looked down at his feet. He knew what that meant.

"It's been ten years. I don't like this any more than you do, but she completed her prison sentence and her parenting classes."

"She would lock me out of the house when you went on your long-haul drives," Abel interrupted coldly. "She used to bathe me in hand sanitizer after playing outside, then she threw a glass figurine at me for crying too loudly."

"Abel-"

"She made me do homework outside in the burning heat if I got anything less than a B! Do you want me to keep going!?"

"Calm down. I told her that the choice is yours seeing that you'll be eighteen soon, but..." Ruben hesitated to finish what he had to say.

Abel had already figured it out. The visitation was just a detail to ease him into the real bad news.

"She wants custody for Laura and Luca, doesn't she?"

"At the end of the day, it's the judge who decides what happens next. No matter how much we're against this, the final decision is up to the courts."