Chapter 5

As expected, I was able to enjoy my Pizza without any interference. At least until my phone rang, because my grandmother was calling me. I answered the call without taking my eyes from the monitors, or taking all of my attention from the report I was writing.

“Hi Granny!” I greeted her with my best impression of a happy person.

“Hello, my darling. Happy Birthday!” she chirped in an especially cheerful voice.

“Thank you, Granny! So, how are you? Haven’t heard from you in a while. You gonna be back for Thanksgiving?”

“Of course, we will. This time we’re thinking of staying all the way ‘till Christmas. You won’t be bothered by sharing a bathroom with me again, right?” she asked mirthfully, with a lightly expectant undertone.

“Don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.” I proclaimed with confidence, knowing I’d be long gone by Thanksgiving.

“Oh? No regrets after running into me half naked?”

“You didn’t seem as traumatized as Ava was when it happened to her. I think you could manage if that happened again. Of course, if you get nightmares from seeing me in the buff, I’ll at least consider buying myself some pajama bottoms!” I smirked. Was I flirting with my Grandma? I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t have had that conversation while concentrating on something else.

“So, pumpkin, did you get something nice for your birthday?” she asked, probably checking whether the family remembered.

“I have. A nice new monitor for my PC.” I answered, not mentioning that I had purchased it myself. A nice but sadly expensive ultrawide monitor without curvature. The curved ones are awesome for gaming, but morph any straight horizontal lines, so creating layouts and designs was near impossible on them for me. Even without the curve, the damn thing had cost me $600.

“That sounds nice. But somehow that also sounds like something work related again. Did you at least get a nice cake?” she asked, almost dropping the pretense of not just checking on our relationship progress.

“I got a tasty treat, yes.” It wasn’t even a real lie. The pizza and the muffin were tasty, I just didn’t tell her that I had ordered them. And the muffin was also cute, really. They even stuck a little candle in it.

“That is nice, pumpkin. Well, I guess we’ll see each other next week then. Enjoy the weekend, and don’t work so much! Bye!”

No sense in complaining to her and causing problems for me. If she had any actual interest in fixing this family, she wouldn’t have waited almost an entire year before checking on our progress. I was dead set on packing my shit and leaving this house the following day. Telling Grandma the truth at that moment would only have caused her to call her children. And then they would have been in the way, trying to argue with me while I tried to pack my car. I also had work to finish that was more important than whining about my birthday.

When, by Ten PM, there was still nobody home, I started packing. I won’t lie, it felt weird. I had been looking forward to leaving for months, but always expected to live there with Tess one day. Now I had doubts. Not about moving out, or living alone, but rather about the family not throwing a fit and ruining this for me just for shits and giggles. I just kept telling myself, if they couldn’t even be bothered to remember my birthdays, they won’t miss me either. Realizing my entire life fit into two moving boxes and a sports bag weirded me out more, though. Apart from my computer and laptop, I only had clothes and a few toiletries to pack.

The next morning, I carried my computer, gaming chair, and the two moving boxes with my clothes to my Jeep and made the drive to my new home. When I parked, I saw Paul walking out of the building.

“Good morning!” he greeted me with a big grin.

“Morning. What’s up? This almost looks like you waited for me.”

“I did.” His grin widened. “Just wanted to be there when the realization hit. Let me help you carry your stuff in.”

I didn’t really know what he meant, but accepted his offer. After we had placed my meager possessions in the living room, he looked at me expectantly.

“What?” I asked, a little weirded out by his expression.

“Still not getting it? Try unpacking your clothes.”

I opened the box, took a few shirts out, and froze as the realization hit me.

“And THERE it is.” He shouted out. “Finally realized you’re an idiot.”

I had a bed and a desk, but that was it. There was nothing to put the clothes away in this apartment.

“Just to be sure. Did you plan to eat nothing but takeout? ‘Cause I don’t see any kitchenware either. Or tableware, for that matter. How about toilet paper? Don’t tell me you’re only gonna greet people with your right hand from now on.” He asked, laughing hard by the end.

“Well ... maybe I was a little too enthusiastic to get here...”

“Yeah, I was the same when I left for college. Dried myself off after showers with a dirty shirt, ‘cause I didn’t think about towels. You still got some savings left?” he asked, and I nodded. “Alright. Come on. There’s an Ikea not too far from here. For Christ’s sake, you didn’t even bring a blanket or a pillow.”

Paul and I drove in separate cars, so he could put stuff in his pick up truck. He pointed out quite a few things I hadn’t thought about, so I was loudly groaning when I had roughly eight-hundred dollars worth of the most mundane everyday items on my list that had always just ... been available.

“Don’t forget the living room.” Paul reminded me.

“I spend most of my time either in bed or in front of the computer. I don’t need a living room right now.”

“Yes, you do. When the others come over for the housewarming party.”

I blinked at him for a moment. “And when exactly is that going to happen?”

“We decided on Seven PM, which means that we have enough time to assemble everything ... If they deliver in time. I don’t think we’ll get a corner sofa and two armchairs on my truck with everything else.”

I grumbled but was secretly happy. I had never been to a party, much less hosted one because nobody would show up anyway, so this was already turning out to be the first day of my better life! Paul had a blast teasing me about my earlier grumbling, when he saw me pick out a bunch of cups with a huge grin on my face.

“I gotta say, man ... you have a weird taste.” Paul commented with a light scowl back in the apartment. “Everything you picked is either white, black, or gray. I didn’t even know Ikea sells dark gray toilet paper that isn’t recycled!?”

“Not gonna lie, I like it. Reflects how bland I am. But it also has the added benefit that I don’t have to spend extra time looking for stuff that fits together and into the apartment.”

“Your walls are entirely white, dude. Anything fits in here.” he laughed.

We spent two hours assembling and arranging everything and preparing the bathroom, before the delivery truck with the sofa and armchairs arrived. After another hour of figuring out how to get the sitting arrangements through the door, I could finally start unpacking while Paul excused himself to make arrangements for the party. I quickly went shopping for snacks and had barely enough time to take a shower before Paul came back with a beer crate. I ordered a bunch of pizzas and the evening started.

They coordinated themselves well. Eight people from work showed up, including Bill and his wife, and all of them presented me with the exact same potted plant as a housewarming gift. At least I now had something to put on the window stills. Until they died, that is.

Bill’s wife had a different idea, though, as she gifted me a stack of framed pictures showing me and Tess at work, in the company gym, and at the after-work get-togethers. I had no idea how she got a hold of them all, nor did I ever notice just how obvious Tess and I had behaved in front of all these people. I thanked her with a hug before fleeing into the second bathroom to hide for a few minutes. I only had a few selfies we took together to remember her, and since I had taken those with my flip phone camera, this meant a lot to me.

I had a great time, and actually managed to not miss Tess for a few hours! The guys told stories about their first time living alone, assured me how none of them found themselves in half furnished rooms like I did, and told me how this would be the best time of my life. Apparently, living alone would be a big plus when getting to know women, which I doubted though.

As expected, it took the family six days to realize I was gone. At least I think that was when they really realized it, because it was Thursday during lunch break at school when Ava came storming to my table. She was followed by Joan and Mia, whom I hadn’t seen since Ava’s seventeenth birthday.

“Tiny! What the fuck is going on!? Mom just called, screaming at me to check if you’re in school! Why aren’t you answering your phone?” she asked, more annoyed than anything.

“My phone is on silent when I’m in school. Just tell her I’m here and then fuck off again.” I said dismissively.

“Why would she ask me that in the first place? What did you do?” Her two friends seemed quite amused about the spectacle.

“Really? You don’t know?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I did.” Her tone told me in no uncertain terms that I was to finally use my brain.

“Wow. What a loving family I have. Took them six days to notice that their youngest child moved out.” I said, looking her dead in the eyes.

While her friends’ eyes widened at this scoop about their friend’s private life, Ava herself was stunned for a moment, trying to understand what I just told her.

“Wh ... What!? You can’t move out! You’re only sixteen!”

“No, I’m not.” She just stared at me like I had a stroke or something, so I sighed and explained it to her. “Not that any of you noticed, since you were busy with Golden Boy’s return from college that day, but I’m seventeen, Princess, so I CAN move out.”

I was intrigued to see her shoulders slump and her eyebrows knit. Her entire facial expression looked like she was just about to say “Oh crap!”. This was highly unexpected. But I continued.

“So, do me a favor. Call your parents, and tell them I moved out a fucking week ago. If none of you assholes even noticed it until now, they shouldn’t act like they care about it. I wonder what set them off, though. Was it your mother who noticed first because my chores weren’t done? Or was it your father who wanted to complain that I hadn’t paid my rent this month?” Her two friends regarded Ava with doubting looks after hearing that.

“Why do you keep saying ‘your parents’ and ‘your mother’? Aren’t you siblings?” Joan asked.

“Tell me, Joan. Imagine Jenny didn’t come home from school today. No note, no call, she just ... vanished without a trace. How long do you think it would take you and your parents to notice? Would it be less than the week it took Ava to notice that her little brother was gone, or longer?”

Hearing that, Joan looked at Ava with shock and disbelief. Ava was visibly uncomfortable with the way this conversation went, and tried to change the topic away from their misgivings.

“But ... where did you move to? Did you move in with Tess?”

Now, she was no longer just uncomfortable. She downright paled when she noticed the look I gave her as soon as I heard Tess’ name, and took a step back when I stood up.

“No, I’m renting my own apartment. Now, if you’re quite done with this public shitshow...?” I said, and moved past her out of the cafeteria.

I checked my phone and realized I had received a barrage of texts and calls from Claire, Aaron, Grandma and Grandpa. The texts were all the same, just asking where I was, pleading to call them. So, I decided to call Grandpa back, who was at the top of the list of missed calls.

“Tim!?” I heard his concerned voice.

“Yeah, I just saw all your missed calls. What’s up?” I said, playing dumb to see if they would tell me anything other than Ava had.

“Where are you, kiddo?”

“Having my lunch break in the school’s cafeteria. Where else would I be?”

“Well... ” My relaxed tone seemed to irritate him. “Susy and I just arrived here this morning, but when we wanted to put your birthday present in your room, it was basically abandoned.”

“Of course it was, I moved out last Saturday. Now, listen, my lunch break is over and I gotta get to my next class, so if there’s nothing else...”

“You ... Wait! CLAIRE!” I heard him scream, sounding quite angry. “What do you mean ‘moved out’!? Where did you move to? And a damn week ago!?”

What followed were the muffled and barely audible sounds of an argument, though I wasn’t really interested in what was happening in that house, so I interrupted them.

“Listen, I really need to get to class now. I’ll come around the house on Saturday. Bye.”

I hung up before either of them could say anything more. After classes were over and I was on my way to work, I saw they had called me three more times. I didn’t care anymore. If they had just forgotten about the date, I could overlook it. What actually made the difference was finding the leftovers in the trash can on my birthday. And the grandparents were no better in my book. They had told Claire to fix this crap, just to immediately vanish again for a year. As far as I was concerned, they were in absolutely no position to lecture anyone about familial bonds and obligations.

The following day, I managed to avoid Ava at school and the family’s calls, until I came back from work and found Granny and Grandpa standing in front of the apartment complex. They were talking to Paul, who gave me a desperate look as soon as he noticed me.

“Dude! Finally!” he called out in relief, like I was somehow supposed to know they would be waiting for me.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking between their faces.

“We want to talk to you. So we asked your employer, who told us you’re living with this young man now. Though, he’s refusing to invite us in.” Granny explained, like this was supposed to make any sense to me.

“Ma’am, I already told you, we don’t live together. We live in the same building, not the same apartment! I can’t just let people I don’t know into his home!” Paul explained in a mix of patience and desperation.

“Sorry, Paul! Grandpa ... didn’t I tell you I’d swing by the house tomorrow?”

“Now listen here, Kiddo! We came here...” he started annoyed, but I was in no mood for his tone. I was finally free, and I was NOT going to take that baggage with me into my new life.

“Alright, stop right there! Let me make this perfectly clear from the start, Grandpa. I didn’t move out on a whim! It cost me a fucking fortune to set this place up, after I spent months finding it. I moved out because I’m done taking their shit!” I paused to make sure he got what I had said, without wanting to reveal too much in front of Paul. “Now, this is my home. Either you respect it or you can fuck off right now.”

Grandpa was taken aback for a moment, surprised about my demand and tone. It seemed like he wasn’t too happy with me speaking to him like that, when Grandma stopped him by speaking up.

“You’re right, Tim. We’re sorry.” she said, throwing her husband a side glance. “Please ... can we go inside and talk?”

I looked at her for a moment, trying to gauge her sincerity. Then I led them into the building with a nod, and offered them a seat on my sofa while I went into the kitchen for something to drink. When I came back into the living room, however, Grandma was gone. I found her in my bedroom, sitting on my bed with a thoughtful expression on her face, as she took in the dull and empty surroundings. I watched her for a minute, until she finally noticed me standing in the doorway.

“Oh! I’m sorry, pumpkin!” she said with a sad smile. “How are you feeling?” she asked, in a concerned tone.

“I’m fine.” I answered, not sure whether she was apologizing on her daughter’s behalf, for enabling her, or for sneaking around my apartment. Then I moved towards my desk. “How was the drive?”

“Fine, fine. Tim ... where is all your stuff?” she asked, causing me to look at her in confusion while consciously keeping my smile up.

“What do you mean?” I noticed Grandpa standing in the doorway as I asked her that.

“I mean, why is it so empty here? Your room in the house only had three pieces of furniture left, so we thought you just took it all with you, but what little you have here looks and smells brand new. And where are all your personal things?” she clarified impatiently.

“And where is the furniture?” Grandpa added. “The second bedroom is completely unused, and the living room is only furnished with the bare minimum.”

“I only took my clothes and computer with me when I left. The furniture here looks new because it is. So, what you saw in my old room is basically how it looked before as well. My personal belongings are here.” I said and opened the middle drawer, pointing at its contents.

They came over, looked inside, and took a few of the pictures out. Those were the pictures showing me with my former friends. I wasn’t sure why I even took them with me instead of just dumping them before the move. I hadn’t so much as talked to any of these people in two years.

“Tim, that can’t be all. I remember Johnny’s room when he was your age. It was stuffed to the ceiling with all the tidbits he collected from all the things he was interested in over the years.” she explained, spreading her arms and gesturing to the walls. “Posters from his favorite sports teams, posters from his favorite bands ... where is all that?”

“And why are these pictures in your drawer instead of on your walls or desk?” Grandpa added.

“Well...” I thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase it best. “I kinda lost interest in most of that stuff, so I got rid of it. And the pictures ... These people barely even talk to me anymore, so maybe I’ll just throw them away too.”

“They don’t talk to you anymore?” Granny asked.

“How about you ask Ava about that. She has more insight into that than I do.” I waved her off, feeling my annoyance with these people grow as they displayed their cluelessness about my situation.

“Kiddo, I could believe you getting rid of the small stuff, like unfinished crafts projects. But where are all the books you used to read?” Grandpa noted. I had hoped they wouldn’t remember my fondness for fantasy novels.

“Oh. I gave those to someone else. She also enjoyed the genre and didn’t know most of mine yet. She ... took them with her when she moved.” I explained, trying to keep my voice firm and my emotions under control. I don’t think I fully succeeded, but they never commented on it if they noticed something.

I sat in my chair and started my PC, but they just stood there, giving me weirdly appraising looks when they didn’t exchange looks between themselves. Then Grandma sat back down on my bed and started talking again.

“Pumpkin ... I’m sorry about what happened at your home. Is there any chance...”

“There isn’t!” I shot her down.

“Come on, Pumpkin! It can’t be that bad!” she said with a doubtful tone. That did it. I lost it.

“HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW!?” I yelled as I jumped out of my chair and glared at her, causing both of them to jump as well. “I’m waiting! Fucking tell me how the FUCK you would know SHIT about how bad it was for me in that FUCKING house!”

“Tim! Y...” Grandpa tried.

“YOU SHUT UP!” I was in complete rage at that point. He took a step towards his wife. “How about this? You get the fuck back to your daughter’s house. You take a damn good look at every room in that house. And then you tell me why THEIR rooms look like she hired an interior designer, while MY room looks like it was furnished after a visit to the fucking salvation army! Ask your daughter when the last time was that I got to fucking EAT something she cooked! Ask her husband how much RENT his other two children had to pay over the last two years! Ask your son’s wife how my SCHOOL LIFE looked like, with Ava and Logan there! And THEN you come back here and try to tell me again how it WASN’T SO BAD!”

Seeing their shocked faces, I kind of deflated and collapsed back onto my chair.

“You fucking knew full well what was happening since last Thanksgiving! And what was your reaction to it? You FUCKED OFF for a whole damn year, never to be heard from! What the fuck did you expect to happen? Divine intervention!?”

They stared at me with rattled faces, while my own face was hidden behind cupped hands. After half a minute, Granny finally managed to collect herself, got off the bed, and tried to hug me.

“Don’t.” I sighed, and she instantly flinched back. “You knew! You knew and didn’t do shit about it for a year. Just yesterday, you learned that they didn’t even notice me being gone for a whole week, and only found out now because you started looking for me. You don’t get to throw that shit in my face about how it couldn’t ‘ve been so bad!”

There was silence for about a minute, before Granny spoke with a shaking voice.

“Pumpkin ... I’m so sorry! Yes, we knew your relationship with your father was in the dumpster because he couldn’t identify with you. And, yes, we knew you were fighting with your mother. But I swear to God almighty, we had no idea it was that bad! Please, you have to believe me! We talked to your mother on Thanksgiving about finding a way to fix all this. Had we realized how much you actually suffered, we would never have left! We thought this was all just a communication problem that happens naturally when kids reach a certain age.”

“Then let me ask you this instead: Why didn’t you know?” I challenged her. “I was serious about checking the rooms in the house, and the rent, and everything else. The signs were all there! All you had to do after that alleged discussion with them on Thanksgiving, was to take a damn look around. What could you have possibly been doing, that had you so distracted you forgot to check out their story?”