“What’s up bro, you got kicked out your house or something?” he asked while still smiling from his previous stunt.
`”Something like that, my mom is on my case,” I replied while looking away.
“Good thing you just said something about your mom, I just remembered I have to help my mom move some things around at her house today,” he said while looking bummed recalling it.
“Is it alright if chill at your place until I patch things up at home?” I asked with a concerned look on my face.
Noticing I was feeling pretty bad, he shouted, “My place is your place, you already know that! But anyway, I got to get ready to roll if I still want free time to myself today.”
I smiled and gave him a nod before turning to look at the TV. Realizing I was sitting on my phone, I lifted up and grabbed it. Immediately after I had the shock of my life. I had a staggering thirty missed calls and forty text messages. My stomach began to turn instantly as I knew I was in for a battle. I unlocked my phone and breathed a sigh of relief. It seems I had a bot calling and texting me the whole time. All the texts were an identical message about me winning a prize, and all the missed calls were from untraceable numbers. I scrolled to see if my dad or mom had a message mixed in there but they didn’t. I thought that was odd because if she had told him, I am sure he would have been trying to contact me right away.
The entire day went by without any contact at all. I sat on the couch only getting up to use the bathroom and to grab a bite to eat. I was still running through scenarios in my head. Some of them as extreme as the police looking for me, others with me and my dad fighting. After nightfall began to fall, Kevin came strolling in looking exhausted. He nodded to me as he dragged himself to his room with his coat and everything still on. Minutes later I could hear him snoring. I soon followed as I had nothing to keep me awake and I was just stressing myself out.
The next morning played out similarly to the last. Kevin would get up and shower, grab something to eat while chatting with me for a bit, and then leave. Meanwhile, I was not getting any response from back home. This was actually more nerve wracking than talking about it with them, because at least I would understand where everything was headed. The silent treatment allowed me to torture my own self to death before they even had a chance to. As much as I was worried about them, I wasn’t going to be the first one to say anything as I was scared to death of doing so. On the third day, which was a Tuesday, I got a phone call from my dad.
Steeling myself, I answered. “Hello?”
“Hey son, why have you been sleeping out for almost 3 days?” he said.
I was scanning his voice for any hint of anger and it seemed pretty normal so I replied, ” Oh, no reason, just chilling.”
“Come home today, I need you to help me out.” he said as calmly as ever.
This shocked me, as it implied he really didn’t know why I would be on the run. Still feeling sketchy about the situation I asked more questions to get to the bottom of what he really wanted.