Let me heal your heart with blue

Chapter 7

"Listen to me, dad, you are awake, you are not sleeping." Julian said seriously, though he was keeping his laughter inside.

"What if I say I don't believe you, kid?" Cameron crossed his arms. At that point, Julian sounded more like an adult, to be honest.

"Ouchie," he hissed when Joseph pinched him in the arm, "Okay okay, I believe you! Just don't do that again."

"So, what are we gonna do with this guy?" Erica pointed at him.

"I don't know, we've either got to save the world today, or he'll sleep on the couch." Rosa answered.

"Ju-ju-jules is-is-is sleeping o-o-on the co-cou-couch." Jessica pointed out.

"Oh right," the youngest sister nodded.

"I know what you're thinking, no, we can't leave him outside." Joseph shook his head.

"Awh, how many strangers are you going to let inside our house anyway?" Erica asked.

"First of all, Jessie let Julian in, second of all, this guy's not a stranger to me." Joseph closed his eyes and rubbed his nose bridge with his fingers to make his brain finally do the braining.

"We-we-we-well he-he is to us," Jessica said.

Joseph sighed. This was way too much, once again. I think I wrote that sentence or a variety of it about a thousand times already and will write it a thousand more.

"However, I think we should talk about something serious... outside." Cameron leant on the arm of the couch.

"Sure we do, but leave it for later." Joseph shushed him.

"What's more important than this, now?" he whined.

"The question on where you're going to sleep." the other smirked.

"And where my dad going to sleep?" Julian placed his hands on his hips and asked.

"On the floor, in a sleeping bag, on the living room floor." Joseph mimicked Julian by placing his hands on his hips too.

"Meh, couldn't you find an even worse solution?" Cameron exclaimed and crossed his arms.

"Where do you want to sleep then? In my bed?" Joseph threw his arms into the air.

"Noooo, of course not, why would I ever get in bed with a guy?" he blurted out sarcastically and gave Joseph a funny wink.

"That's why you're sleeping on the floor."the other one grinned.

"I can feel these two know each other like their own shoes." Rosa whispered to Erica.

"I heard everything!" he laughed.

Joseph went into his room after some time. And then he remembered. Sarah didn't call him yet. While the others were doing whatever they were doing in other rooms, he was locked up in here, behind closed curtains, thinking.

What could they possibly do to save his dearest friends? What could they possibly do to save themselves? He didn't want to lose his kids to the system. He didn't want his clever Rosa to do paperwork. He didn't want his extremely talented Erica to end up typing senseless stuff on the computer. He didn't want Jessica to sit there and suffer and quietly spit slurs at her coworkers. He didn't want to lose his job in the nasty jazz bar.

He didn't want Julian to lose his father, he didn't want to lose Julian's father in the first place. Not again, not now.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." Joseph could only repeat while running his hands through his hair as a relief of stress.