Wicked Distractions [Completed]

Chapter 8 - For Sam's Sake

Dean was confused. More than confused, but he didn't know a word that meant more than confused. He didn't understand what life was trying to do to him, but he knew he did not like it. He sighed and shoved a forkful of his apple pie into his mouth. He couldn't even enjoy his pie, that's how confused he was.

"Dean, your doing it again." Sam's voice filtered through his ears, breaking his weird thoughts.

"What?"

"Your eating like a baby. Loud and gross." Sam lowered his voice.

"Who cares? Not me." Dean shoveled another bite into his mouth and smacked his lips loudly.

Sam blushed bright red, obviously embarrassed. "I do. We're in public. There's people from our school here."

"You shouldn't care what people think, Sammy. They'd never understand us anyway." Dean turned his attention back to his pie, trying to actually enjoy it.

"Is this about Faith?" Sam asked quietly as he picked at his bowl of melting vanilla ice cream.

"Huh? Faith? Nope. Definitely not." Dean shook his head. "I expected that."

Sam dropped his spoon in his bowl. "How did you expect her to be our friend and then just pretend we don't exist? She came over every day for a week."

Dean looked across the diner booth at his little brother whose voice had turned sad. His heart broke for him. He deserved better than all of this. It was a broken record in his mind. He had to bring this up to dad again. Dad needed to find Sammy a more permanent living arrangement. He needed some kind of stability.

"She's a girl, Sammy. Their unpredictable and unreliable."

"Faith isnt like that. She's special, Dean." Sam replied and pushed his bowl away.

Something in the way Sam had said that made him think. She was special, but she didn't think so. That was part of the problem. Dean wouldn't admit it though. Especially to Sam.

"All girls are, get used to it."

It had been a few days since they had seen her or even heard from their dad and Dean knew it was getting to Sam.

"Come on, Sammy. Let's go back to our room and I'll find us a movie or something." Dean hoped he could cheer up his brother. If not, he'd be making that call to his dad.

He dropped some money down on the table. He realized his funds were getting pretty low so he'd have to call his dad.

Sam pulled himself up out of the booth. Dean followed him out the door and across the street. They were quiet the whole way. Traffic was light on this side of town so they didn't have to pay much attention.

His brother was right though. Faith was his problem. She was why he was so confused. She had shown up as promised and they had all gone to the arcade. Spent the whole day there and gotten pizza back at the boys room. Her mask had completely vanished and she had seemed happy. Every morning they would wake up to her waiting for them outside. She walked to school with them and even sat with Dean outside during lunch. He loved making her smile. It lit up her entire face and she became family again. They took Sammy all over town, wherever he wanted to go. The park, the children's museum, the zoo, it didn't matter where they went, Faith had people to sneak them in for free.

It had been the most fun Dean had seen Sam have in a long while. It even made Dean happy for once that he wasnt helping Dad.

When John had last called, he seemed surprised when Sam told him how much fun he had been having. Dean had explained about Faith and John was equally surprised she was still in Boston. He had mentioned he had wanted to see her when he came back around.

But, the most confusing part to Dean was the last day Faith had hung around, she had gotten them into Fenway Park to watch a baseball practice. While Sam was glued to the players, Faith had held Dean's hand and he had almost kissed her. He had been torn about doing it, so he had hesitated. And that night before she left to go to the group home, he had kissed her. She had kissed him back too. It had been just as awesome as he thought it would be, too. Much better than the other girls he had kissed. She had looked up at him with her huge, shiny eyes and kissed him again and again. She hadn't wanted to stop. Hell, Dean hadn't wanted to stop either. But, they had stopped and she went back to the group home and he hadn't seen her in days. Not even at school. She had disappeared.

It figured, Dean thought as he pushed open their door. Like he always said, life was shitty and people were even shittier.

The phone started ringing as he found a movie starting on the television. He waited for it to stop and it did. Then it rang again. It was dad's code that it was him. Dean picked it up on the second ring.

"Dad?"

"How are things, son?" John's deep voice came through the line sounding tinny.

"Fine, but I'm glad you called. I wanted to talk about Sammy."

"What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing, but he needs something better than this, Dad. He needs a home. Somewhere permanent." Dean tried to keep his voice low so Sam wouldn't hear him.

"Dean. We've talked about this." John's voice hardened.

"I know, but it's true. He needs it." Dean sat on the bed.

"We do what we have to do, son. I'm sorry, but this is the way it needs to be. You know everything that's out there. If you boys stayed in one place too long, it wouldn't be safe." John lectured him.

"I know. But, were older now. We can take care of ourselves. You taught us that. Just think about it."

John sighed. "Alright. I'll think about it. Look, I have to go, I should be back to check on you in a couple days. I'm almost done, here. Take care of your brother and I'll see you soon."

He hung up before Dean could even think about saying goodbye. He could tell he had pissed off his dad. But, he didn't care. Someone had to think about Sam's best interests and it always seemed to be him.

He walked over and fell backwards across the couch next to his brother, making Sam laugh. Just the sound warmed Dean just a little.