Then & Now - Chapter 7b
Feb. 2nd, 2011 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbottomsChapter 7b
Jack entered, moves to a sink, turned the water on and...
“Can I get a little help in here?” Jack heard a disembodied voice behind him. He turned and sees what appeared to be underwear stretched over the corner of a closed stall door.
Jack approached the door, swung it open... and there hung Stephen, sneakers dangling three feet off the ground, the back of his underwear wrenched up over the corner of the door.
“Stephen? What are you doing up there?”
“I wanted to see if I could get my nuts into my oesophagus. What do you think I’m doing!? Get me down!”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll get you down.” Jack pulled the underwear off the door. Stephen dropped, reached down his pants and adjusted his underwear.
“How do you know my name?”
“Um... I’m... James... Harper. Your Uncle Owen’s son. He told me to look out for you.”
“Uncle Owen has a son?”
“Believe me, it’s gonna be a surprise to him too. Did those guys do this to you?”
“Goons from the basketball team.”
“But why?”
“Because they can and so they do on a daily basis.”
Jack is shocked. “But you’re one of them.”
“No, I’m not. Nice robe, guy. Gotta go.”
Stephen walked out bowlegged. A devastated Jack watched him go. Why would Stephen’s team mates do this to him? It was really far too mean to be a joke. He didn’t understand.
Jack finally left the bathroom, glad the halls were clear. He made it to his car without incident and drives off out of the parking lot. However, on his way out, he spied his daughter up against a Mustang making out with some guy with bleached blonde hair.
Jack pounded on the horn, scaring them apart and drove off.
*~*
Owen sat at the kitchen island, a laptop in front of him, perusing www.spellscursesincantations.com. He looked around at the sound of the front door opening and closing and Jack walked into the kitchen.
“Did you find the janitor?”
“He doesn’t exist. Nothing makes sense.”
“Did he ask you for your soul?”
“No?”
“That’s a good sign. We can eliminate Satan.” Owen clicked on a link to a website. “I think what we’re dealing with here is a spell of enlightenment.” He peruses the page and commented, “Spell affect... casting procedure... yada, yada, yada. Basically it’s a learning spell. There’s something you need to figure out and until you do you’ll stay a kid. My guess is that janitor was probably a war...”
“...I’m going back to high school,” Jack blurted out.
“...lock. I’m sorry. Could you repeat that? Because I thought you just said you were...”
“Going back to high school.”
Jack grabbed a beer from the fridge and cracked it open. As Jack was about to take a sip, Owen swiped the beer from his hand and sculled it down.
“Are you out of your freaking mind!?”
“My son was hanging by his underwear from a bathroom stall door and my daughter was being mauled by a smarmy gorilla. They need me.”
“What about your job?”
“I got it covered. Apparently I have been invited to take some leave,” Jack informed his friend, the sarcasm not missed by Owen.
“Well, Ianto, then. What are you gonna tell him?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re just gonna disappear?”
“To be honest, I think he’d rather have it that way. What’s with the attitude?”
“Because I know you’re going to suck me into this and I’m not going back there, Jack. I did my time in purgatory. That school was the bane of my existence for longer than I care to remember. You may have been popular but being your friend didn’t stop my life from being hell. You’ll never get me to go back to that school. Never!”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2011-01-30 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-01-30 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-05-08 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-05-08 10:11 pm (UTC)