Chapter 55: Decisions, Decisions

The sunlight pierced gaps in the drapes adorning the windows in the game room where Tim Murphy had fallen asleep the night before. His eyes opened, and it took him a few seconds to remember he was not in his bedroom and still a few more before recalling where he was currently. Memories flashed of some of the hi-jinks from the night before, celebrating the win over Judson on the football field.

Tim felt drool from his chin and noticed the small puddle that accumulated on the ample futon padding he was laying atop on the floor. While wiping away the evidence from the futon cushion, Tim slowly noticed several other bodies strewn about the room in various uncomfortable poses.

“Listen, I vote to let Tim here have the futon to sleep on. He deserves at least that much for how he’s been playing since he made varsity!” He smiled, remembering several conversations between friends from the night before.

“Well, no, I didn’t hit on him as soon as I saw him. I’m not a slut like you! I at least waited until he finished his burger.” Tim giggled as an argument between two cute girls surfaced in his thoughts. They had introduced themselves to him sometime during the night, but neither one was worth remembering.

Tim eventually circled back to the sleeping arrangement debate among several people staying overnight. “So what! He’s a big, strong, tough guy! Let him sleep on the floor and give the padding to us girls,” a junior and member of the girl’s dance team, backed by a few of her teammates, stated her position in the debate.

“If you want it,” Tim announced with a mischievous smile. He then pulled the pad off the chair’s bamboo base and plopped down onto it, patting the unused portion of the futon pad and daring several of the girls. “Come and get it.” The laughs from the others in the room took all tenseness out of everyone’s words. The girl, turned deep red from embarrassment and simply giggled along with the other dance team members still there, and they found a few small pillows for their heads to share. There was no hanky-panky between the sexes in the game room where Tim savored a few hours of rest before the morning sun did its duty.

Tim wasn’t the only person to stir. “We’ve got breakfast in the kitchen for anyone who needs something to eat,” Troy Williams, the star quarterback and host for the evening, said from the doorway of the game room to the ‘rising dead,’ breaking Tim’s thoughts.

Tim stood up, stretched out a small knot in his neck from the lack of a head pillow for the night, and placed the cushion back onto the bamboo base. Tim then quietly and deftly maneuvered around the many still sleeping teens strewn about the room and joined Troy in the kitchen.

“My dad went into work this morning but stopped to get us some tacos. He said he hoped we wouldn’t eat our family out of all the food in the house,” Troy said as he fished out a couple of tacos from a bag for himself. “I’m pretty sure he was kidding.” Jeff Smith and his girlfriend, who disappeared soon after their arrival at the party, were now snatching breakfast tacos from the many bags on the kitchen counter.

Tim grabbed a bag from the counter and fished out two of the tacos. “Hey, Troy, do you need a hand with cleanup? I haven’t looked outside to see the condition of your backyard since last night,” Tim asked while simultaneously inhaling a taco.

Troy smiled while he finished off one of his tacos. “Sure, but, believe it or not, it ain’t that bad out there.”

Tim turned to look out of the glass doors from the kitchen to the backyard pool area and its outdoor kitchen. There was some trash on the ground, but it was from overflowing trash cans. Other than that slight spillage, the pool area and the pool itself was rather tidy.

“Ah, shit!” Troy dropped a half-eaten taco onto it’s aluminum foil wrapper and quickly made his way out the door to the pool. Tim was right behind him, thinking something could be wrong.

“Who the fuck opened the grotto?” Troy yelled as he jogged his way to the hidden portion of the resort-style pool.

The gate, which Tim remembered seeing closed and locked when he joined the overnight guests in the game room, was now wide open, and several pieces of clothing marked the entrance to the heated Jacuzzi. The large screen TVs were on, featuring several nude women servicing one well-hung stud, and playing at high volume. Tim grabbed the remote from an outstretched hand of someone passed out on the couch and switched the TVs off. Several bottles of liquor were emptied and strewn about the small kitchen area. Tim’s attention then shyly focused on the four nude girls still asleep from their action overnight.

Troy nervously looked back toward the house and pulled Tim into the hidden cave and closed the gate behind them to hide that someone had gained access to the restricted area. Troy was obviously working to conceal this from his parents.

“I’ll ask again,” Troy exclaimed much more vocal than before, into the nearby ear of the lone male in the room. “Who the fuck opened that door?”

The louder questioning finally worked, and a couple of the sleeping bodies began stirring. “I’ll ask one more time. Who the fuck opened that door?” Troy asked even more loudly than before while pointing to the now-closed gate.

Tim was awakened out of his voyeur’s stunned stasis when someone shook his shoulder. Tim turned and found Jeff pointing over his shoulders with a wagging thumb for Tim to follow the senior lineman back to the kitchen. “Let Troy deal with that. You ready to get outta here?”

Tim looked around the room and noted a couple of other guests had made their way to the tacos.

The confused look on his face told Jeff precisely what he was thinking. “My girl was the driver for a couple of other girls, and she went to take them home. We are going out later tonight for some quiet alone time together.” Tim nodded his understanding and raised his hands, palms up, telling Jeff to lead the way.

“We’re taking off, dude! See you at practice, Monday!” Jeff yelled toward the pool area, and Tim saw Troy’s hand wave goodbye while he continued chastising whoever got caught in the pool’s grotto.

“Don’t worry, dude. Someone always breaks in there. His parents close it off because they don’t want some crazy high school kids holding an orgy in their hot tub. Frankly, I wouldn’t either,” Jeff explained while sticking out his tongue and acting like he was going to vomit as he unlocked the car.

“Well, that was fun.”

“Yeah, these parties usually are. This one was kinda laid back, though. I figure not that many people showed up since they didn’t think we could win the game.” Jeff smiled while he turned up the radio for a particularly loud rock song. Tim smiled back and bobbed his head along with the beat, and nothing more was said the rest of the way home.

“I’m home!”

“All hail the conquering hero! Come on. I made some breakfast. You hungry?” Tim instantly recognized his father’s voice from the kitchen.

“Um, yeah. I can eat.”

Raymond pulled out another plate for his son and snuck a quick peek to see his son enter the kitchen and took a moment to bask in the glory of his superstar football hero. He filled a dish with bacon and eggs and covered the plate with several homemade tortillas.

“Where’s everybody?” Tim asked.

“Your mom’s in the shower, and your sister is getting ready to go to her friend’s house. She’ll spend the day and night over there for some girl’s birthday party. I already feel sorry for their parents.” Tim chuckled at his father’s joke and took the dish, the tortilla plate, and two empty plates to the dining room table. Raymond grabbed two glasses and the pitcher of orange juice for the two men of the Murphy home.

Tim grabbed a tortilla and spooned some of the bacon and eggs to form a soft taco. He bit into the manna from heaven and smiled, rejoicing in the taste. Raymond glanced around to see if anyone else entered either the dining room or the kitchen behind them. He put his hand on Tim’s shoulder and leaned in carefully. “I think you should tell your mother about how you changed. I hate withholding any information from her, anyways. She seriously worries during each game.” Tim nodded his understanding.

Carmen came bouncing into the dining room just after both Murphy men took a few more bites. “Hi, Tim! Did you have fun at your paaaarrrrty last night?” She sang, using a faux-surfer girl Southern California accent, as she made her way around the table to hug her brother. Tim was impressed with her nailing the accent pretty well.

“Yes, I did have fun. I hear you are going to a birthday party today, huh?”

“Yeah, Tiffany is having a party this afternoon, and then tonight she is having a sleepover with a few friends. I’m gonna see how late I can stay up with my friends!”

“Well, don’t go crazy, but have fun.” After she nodded her agreement, Tim asked, “When are you leaving?”

“Um, not till later this afternoon,” she replied as she turned her head to look at the clock reading ten minutes till eleven in the morning. “Oh, wow! It’s already almost eleven! I need to finish picking out what I’m going to wear!”

She unwound her hug on her big brother and skipped her way out of the dining room toward her room. While she laughed down the hall, the door to the bathroom opened, and his mother’s sandals slapped their familiar drumbeat as she walked down the hall.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll just clean up after you two brutes. Make a mess in the kitchen dirtying every pot and pan in the house just to make some bacon and eggs!” She was smiling as she said it, so the Murphy men knew they weren’t in any real trouble. “Hi, Tim. Did you have fun destroying the Williams’ house with your new friends last night?”

“Oh, yeah! The fire department said it was going to be an interesting investigation to try and figure out exactly what burned the house to the ground,” Tim said with a smile and shoved another half of a taco into his mouth. Raymond laughed and did the same.

“Did you at least help clean up?”

“There wasn’t a need. I guess they often have parties there, and the people who come always keep up the cleaning as they go. They did have a big-time pool, though.”

“Oh, yeah? What kinda pool,” Raymond asked, and he shoveled the final bite of his taco into his mouth.

“It was like a resort. It had this big, like, three-story mountain with a slide circling it from the top, and it had a hidden grotto hollowed out, with a Jacuzzi, a couple of TVs, and even a small kitchen. The pool itself surrounded the mountain with this like lazy river thing that goes around and through the mountain. They had asked that no one used the grotto and had locked the gate to get into it but, when we woke up this morning, there were a few people who had found their way in there. Troy found them in there and tore them all new behinds. Jeff dropped me off just a little while ago.”

Tim picked up his and his father’s dirty dishes and took them into the kitchen, placing them in the dishwasher. He put his glass in, also, after swiftly swigging the final gulps of his juice.

Tim’s mother playfully slapped her son’s shoulder as he closed the dishwasher. The dishwasher was not yet full, so the house rule was to wait before running it. “Don’t forget about the backyard. You promised to cut it this weekend.”

“No problem, Mom. I’ll take care of it,” Tim snapped over his shoulder as he skipped to his room, just like his little sister had done only a minute earlier.

Once in his bedroom, with the door closed, Tim blew a quick kiss to the Cindy Crawford poster and turned on his laptop computer. While it was powering up, he dressed in his usual at-home clothes and tossed his party clothes in the hamper.

Tim spent a few minutes checking emails and social media. He never really got into social media since, before this year, he didn’t have many friends, and purposefully checking a website that continually reminded you of everything your friends were doing was not something Tim craved. He always heard from his friends about his need to widen his social media presence, but he just laughed that off.

However, the number of emails pouring into the new, improved Tim’s official school email account was always overflowing as it was the only way others could contact him. He had saved the email from the district email administrators that he received more daily emails than the rest of the school combined. They respectfully requested he think about engaging in social media a little more so the email traffic could come back to normal.

After a few minutes of clearing email, Tim suddenly remembered his promise to cut the lawn. He took a quick peek out the window, seeing much higher grass than usual, with numerous giant dandelions springing up sporadically all over the back yard. There was no use wishing his mother would forget about his promise to do the lawn, so he changed into an older pair of shorts and a t-shirt. He tied his older tennis shoes on his feet and grabbed his older mp3 player. It was a gift from a cousin when he was younger, and he liked that he could put it in his pocket, and it would play consistently without messing up any songs. He knew his cell phone could play his music, but he preferred not to be disturbed when doing yard work. It was something his family knew and, when he went to the garage to get the lawnmower ready, he informed his parents, who were relaxing on the sofa and watching TV together.

Just over an hour later, Tim returned the lawnmower to the garage and found his father waiting just inside the house from the garage.

“Your sister left for her sleepover. I think it is a perfect time to tell your mother about your change.”

Seeing the seriousness on his father’s face, Tim nodded in agreement. “Let me get a quick shower, and I’ll talk to you guys here at the table.” To which Raymond nodded and made his way back to his recliner.

After a quick shower to wash the sweat and cut grass off his body, Tim saw his mom sitting at the table in the kitchen. “Hey there, Mom? Can I talk to you and Dad for a minute?”

Juanita looked up at her oldest child and immediately went into “Mom” mode. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Did you hurt someone last night at your party? Did you get into trouble at the party?” While barraging her oldest son with questions, the mother cat rushed to and was checking over her oldest child. She froze for a second as an idea came to her mind. “Did you get someone in trouble?”

Tim hoisted his hands up, palms out, for his now upset mother. “No, Mom. Nothing bad,” Tim said, stifling a laugh. “It’s just something I need to tell you, okay?”

His mother took a moment to look at her son for the typical signs he was lying, but she didn’t see any.

“Oh, cut it out, Juana, he just needs to talk to you for a minute. It’s nothing bad. Come over here to the table and let him tell you,” Raymond announced, waving her into the dining room and then pulling out his and her seats at the table.

Tim made a beeline back to his room to retrieve the letters and the extra pill from their hiding spots under his bed. While returning to the dining room, he made a quick stop for a sharp knife from the kitchen.

Julianne Holmes was sitting at her dining room table, fancying another glass of wine while grading papers from her classes. “Well, I guess I’m getting better since I haven’t thought about him for a full ten minutes,” she joked to her empty apartment. The English teacher added up the mistakes on the current paper in front of her and wrote the grade on the top of the front page. She then filled in the grade on a spreadsheet on her computer.

Sipping another mouthful of wine, she reached for the next paper. “Ah shit,” she declared dejectedly. It was Tim’s.

With a deep breath and a determined attitude, she began reading her one-time lover’s paper. When finished, she was genuinely surprised at just how well Tim had done on the assignment. She smiled to herself, putting a deserved “A” on the cover sheet.

Julianne started grading the next paper but promptly realized her concentration was not on what she was reading. She remembered the way Tim picked her up like she was a rag doll and effortlessly moved her atop the bed as he wanted. Julianne was leaning back in her chair and reveling in the reminiscence of their past dalliance. She savored the way he brought her to the height of ecstasy so quickly. No! She stopped herself from continuing down that thought path, sat straight up in her chair, stood up, and finally shook out her arms and legs in an attempt to refocus her attention on the paper she was grading.

“I didn’t even talk to him this week but, then again, he didn’t make any effort to come and talk to me, either,” Julianne mumbled to herself. The English teacher sat back down, reached for the bottle of wine on the table, and emptied it into her glass. Julianne took big gulps from her wine glass, out of character for her, rose to take the empty bottle to the kitchen, and searched for another bottle – another out-of-character thing for her to do.

“I am just gonna nip this in the bud. It would be terrible for both of us if we got caught.” Deciding against uncorking another bottle, she grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and returned to her grading. “It was just a single time. Nothing can come out of this.” She exhaled slowly and continued with her grading. Eventually, her mind pressed on to continue to hash out her feelings, but she was finally able to fully concentrate on grading the rest of her papers. Once finished she decided her ending the relationship was the right thing to do. That battle with herself was finally over or at least a temporary cease-fire was called.

“Have you lost your ever-loving mind?” Juanita yelled at her oldest child. At the same time, she jumped up from her seat, grasping for her son’s hand with the now-bleeding self-inflicted knife wound. She also pulled a kitchen towel she had hanging from her shoulder.

“You tell this incredible tale about meeting your future self down at that damned creek!” She suddenly remembered something else and growled at her son. “I warned you against going into that damned creek! It’s nothing but sewage run-off!” While chastising her son, she was forcefully holding the towel against the hand Tim had just sliced, attempting to stop the flow of blood.

“Juanita, sit down. He’s fine. Watch and listen to him, or he’ll have to do it again.” Tim’s mother did not sit down but was still holding a towel against what she, for sure, knew was a cut so deep that they might have to worry about the future use of his fingers. She did stop chastising her son only because she desperately wanted but equally did not want to see the effects of her son’s dumbass stunt with a knife.

The entire time his mother tried to assist with his injury, Tim kept the knife in the wound to make sure she could see the full effects from the nanites. Raymond turned on the overhead light but quickly decided that was not enough, so he reached into a utility drawer and pulled out a flashlight. Following a quick on/off test on the way back to the dining room table, and he aimed the bright beam at the injured hand on the table. There was a decent amount of blood already collecting on the towel where the hand was resting.

Raymond nodded for his son to remove the knife. He then turned to his wife. “Now watch,” Raymond insisted.

Tim gently pulled the knife directly out, making sure not to saw any further into the flesh. The pain was real, but Tim was handling it. The first noticeable change was the blood flow stopping almost immediately. The cut was fairly deep, and Tim had second thoughts — maybe he did cut a little bit too deep.