begonia9508: Lol, yeah, but we’re pretty sure she’ll eventually get used to it.
We’ll see how fast these two move things along.
Earth2Mama: Wow, well, hopefully Sam won’t go homicidal on us, lol. We’ll be keeping a close eye on her.
One just never knows what’ll provide good blackmail material later one…
Natalie36: Yeah, too bad Sam doesn’t think it’s that funny!
mary mary: At least Sam and the others are on the right track.
killjoy: It would be embarrassing, lol. We’ll see how Sam handles that as things continue to move forward between Alex and Isabel.
No, not never again.
Just, not for a few parts… and well, his birthday is coming up. Who knows, maybe he’ll get lucky again.Alien_Friend: Sam could do a lot worse. Unfortunately, that’s not the angle she’s looking at it from right now.
Alex and Isabel are great together.
Oh, and he’s gonna find out eventually. We’ll see how he deals with it then.
sarammlover: They are kinda cute, huh?
Part 51
Michael was reading through a file, verifying information and making notes when someone knocked on his open door. He glanced up, eyebrows lifting in interest when he saw Andy standing in the doorway. “What’s up, bud?”
Andy shrugged one shoulder. “How come you’re workin’?”
“Just finishin’ up a few things so I don’t have to take any work home with me when I leave,” he answered.
“You take work home?” the teenager asked as he picked at the metal plate in the doorframe.
“Sometimes. You wanna come in and sit down?”
“Nah, I’m fine.” Andy motioned to the fast food sack sitting on one end of the desk. “You didn’t eat lunch?”
“Just haven’t had time to get around to it yet.” Michael watched the way the boy was fidgeting and he wondered what he wanted to talk about. School had been let out after only half a day and most of the kids had hurried to escape the confines of the building, ready to begin their weekend. “I’ve been meanin’ to talk to you,” he said after a few minutes of silence.
“Am I in trouble for somethin’?”
“Have you done somethin’?” Michael countered.
Andy just shrugged and stared at the floor. “So, what’d ya wanna talk to me about?”
“Your counseling sessions.”
The teenager’s head shot up at that. “You said I was doin’ better and I didn’t have to come in twice a week anymore,” he said in a rush.
Michael shook his head. “Actually, we’re gonna suspend your sessions for a while to see how you do with that.”
“What, like, I don’t have to come talk to you anymore?” he asked carefully.
“No, not unless you’ve got somethin’ on your mind.”
“Okay, well… can I talk to you like a counselor before you release me or whatever?”
“Sure. You wanna come in an’ have a seat?”
Andy hesitated for a second before he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He sat down in his usual chair and his right leg started bouncing nervously right away and his thumb tapped against the arm of the chair. “You ever done somethin’ really stupid with your friends and they all got caught and got in trouble but you didn’t and so you felt really bad about it?”
Michael nodded. “Yeah, I think most of us have probably been in that situation at one time or another.” He closed the folder he had been working on, stacked his notebook on top of it and set them aside. He stretched his right arm across the desk to grab his lunch and leaned back in his chair as he opened it up. “You’re feelin’ pretty guilty about it, huh?” he asked as he pulled a couple of tacos out. He held one up, offering it to the boy and he bit back a smile when the kid accepted it and tore the wrapper open like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“Yeah, they all got grounded,” he mumbled around a mouthful of food. “Sam got grounded for two weeks and her dad made her go on his date with him last night…” He glanced at Michael when the man choked on the bite he had just swallowed.
Michael grabbed his cup and took a drink of long-cold coffee and then cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he rasped. “Go on.” Oh, he couldn’t wait to talk to Isabel and get the scoop on that date!
“Well, Nick an’ Justin, they’re grounded for… well, who knows? Aunt Liz was seriously ticked off and she even said no football. She went and talked to the coach this mornin’ before school. Nick said they’ll go to the games but they won’t be playin’; they’re gonna be benched until she cools off.” He rolled his eyes. “That could be a while,” he confided.
“And what would your mom have done if she knew what you did?”
Andy slouched down in his chair and picked at the lettuce sticking up out of the taco shell as he shrugged his shoulders. “She’d be worried and disappointed and mad ‘cause it was stupid and I could’ve gotten hurt.”
“And how is it she doesn’t know?”
“Me an’ Nick didn’t get caught… Justin an’ Sam, well… they got caught and the guy that caught ‘em made ‘em call their parents.” He rolled his eyes and snagged another taco when Michael pushed it across the desk. “Of course their parents knew as soon as they got that call that Nick had been there too, so they grounded him along with Justin.”
“Ah, I see. You feel guilty ‘cause they’re all covering up your involvement.”
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don’t wanna get in trouble or anything and believe me, if Mom knew I’d be grounded for the rest of my life. Believe me, Mom doesn’t play around with stuff like that.”
“So it wouldn’t bother you if you’d done this and none of you had been caught?”
Andy shrugged as he bit into the taco. “No, not really,” he answered honestly. “I just feel bad ‘cause they’re all in trouble. I mean, I don’t want Mom to know or anything ‘cause that’d just mean more problems.”
“How so?” Michael pulled a couple bottles of cold water from the small refrigerator and handed one to Andy. “Beyond you getting in trouble, I mean.”
“Oh, well… Sam’s dad already thinks I’m just a troublemaker an’ if he found out I was there he’d never let her see me. Right now we’re only supposed to see each other if there’s an adult around so if he found out… huh-uh, no way. He’d totally think it was my fault and I’d never even heard of train hopping until yesterday.”
“Train…” Michael frowned. “That’s what you were doin’?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So? Do you have any idea how easily you could’ve gotten hurt, Andy? Do you even have a clue how many people lose body parts or their lives doin’ that every year?” Okay, even he had no idea what the number was, but that wasn’t the point. “Can you imagine what it’d do to your mom if somethin’ happened to you?”
Andy slouched down even further when Michael raised his voice just enough to drive his point home. “Nothin’ happened, ya know.”
“No, and you were damn lucky it didn’t. You deserve to be grounded for that little stunt. Promise me you’re not gonna do that again.” He shook his head at the boy. “And don’t make a promise you can’t keep. You make a promise you’re givin’ your word and a man should always be as good as his word.”
“I won’t do it again,” he promised. “I don’t know what all the excitement was about anyway – “
“Don’t promise because it wasn’t all that exciting, Andy. Make the promise because train hopping is a stupid and dangerous thing to do. We all do crazy things when we’re teenagers and yeah, some of it’s stupid and dangerous… most of the time we live to tell the tale with nothin’ more than a scar that makes us remember it every now and then. It may not be fair, but you’ve got a responsibility that not all teenagers have.”
“My mom, right?”
“Right. Whenever you start to do somethin’ that could potentially be dangerous you’re gonna have to ask yourself if it’s worth causin’ her pain if somethin’ goes wrong. It’s one thing if it’s somethin’ out of your control, but when you make the decision and you get hurt you’re gonna carry the weight of her pain around with you, bud, and it’s not worth it.”
Andy ran his thumbnail over the ridges in the cap on his water bottle as he thought about that for a few minutes. “I won’t do it again,” he repeated after a while.
Michael nodded. “Alright then.” He finished his taco and wiped his hands as he leaned back. “What else you got on your mind?”
“I really don’t have to have anymore counseling sessions?”
“No, as long as your progress doesn’t start sliding you’ll be finished with counseling. Principal Russell may request a follow-up evaluation after a month or so just to make sure you’re doin’ okay and that would likely be with a different counselor, but as long as she feels you’re doin’ fine without counseling you’re free of me, kid.”
Andy was quiet as he stared at his hands. “But I can still help you with the basketball team?”
“Yeah.”
“So, when I walk outta here you won’t be my counselor anymore.”
“No,” he answered, shaking his head.
“What if I wanted to talk to you about somethin’? Ya know, kinda like when we talk here?”
“Any time you wanna talk to me I’m here for you, Andy. No matter what.”
The boy nodded. “Wanna come over and help us move in?”
Michael paused. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Excuse me?”
“Well, Mom said she’d be over at the new house getting organized.” He made a face. “That means the movers will be there and she’ll be orderin’ ‘em around. I know Uncle Kyle and Aunt Tess are s’posed to be there, but you could come over and help too.”
He glanced at his watch. “Well, I could probably give y’all a hand for a little while.”
“Oh,” Andy said, sounding disappointed. “So, you’ve got plans tonight?”
“That kinda depends on you.”
“Me? Why?”
“I’ve got tickets for the college game in Albuquerque tonight at 7pm. I’ve already talked to your mom and she said if you wanted to go to the game and hang out with me it’d be okay.”
Andy smiled slowly. He had been planning to watch the game with Grandpa since Sam and the twins were all grounded and he couldn’t go out. “Really?”
“Yeah, just a couple guys hangin’ out, takin’ in a game.”
“This isn’t some kinda secret shrink thing is it?” Andy asked suspiciously.
“Uh, ‘secret shrink thing’?” Michael echoed.
“Like you’re really still my counselor and just sayin’ you’re not so I’ll like, relax or drop my guard and talk to you.”
“You watch too much TV,” he said with a smile. “No, that’s not what this is. Yeah, if there’s anything I can do to help you I’d still like to do that, but this isn’t a way to get you to talk to me. If you wanna talk about somethin’, cool. We’ll talk about it. You’ve still got a few issues that need to be resolved and from time to time when we’re hangin’ out I might bring somethin’ up to see if you wanna talk about it and if not, tell me to back off, and I’ll drop it.”
Andy regarded him thoughtfully for several minutes. “Really… well, that’s cool. So, what time do we need to leave for the game tonight?”
“About 4:30pm. That gives us time to get there, load up on munchies, and find out seats before tipoff at 7pm.”
“Awesome. Can you leave now or do you got more work to do?”
Michael shrugged and started packing his things up. “Looks like I’ll have homework this weekend after all, huh?”
Andy laughed and shrugged. “I got homework too. Gotta stop by my locker an’ get my backpack.”
“Bet mine waits until Sunday. What about yours?”
The boy nodded and grinned. “At least!”
“You want a ride over to your place?” Michael asked as he reached for his laptop.
“Yeah. It’s a little bit further from school than Grandma an’ Grandpa’s house and we don’t wanna waste any time today.”
“Alright. You know where the faculty parking lot is?”
“Back behind the school, right?”
“Yeah, meet me there and we’ll head over to your place.”
“Cool, see ya in five,” Andy called as he pulled the door open and hurried out of the office.
Michael smiled to himself. Things were going well and he’d even gotten an unexpected invitation to help move. He was still grinning when he slapped the light switch on the wall and locked up on his way out.
*****
Maria placed the heavy box in the soon to be living room and brushed her sweaty hair back out of her face. It was shortly after 3 pm and she had been at the new house all day. The company that had brought their stuff from Florida had arrived early in the morning and now the whole place was filled with stuff, no matter which room you looked in. There were tons of boxes, pieces of furniture and cartons wherever you looked.
“Didn’t I tell you to wait with the heavy stuff until I get here?” Kyle demanded, shaking his head when he saw his sister attempting to move one of the heavy moving cartons.
Maria snorted. “Yeah, and when did you say you’d be here?” She glanced at her watch meaningfully.
“Yeah well...”
“We got distracted,” Tess said as she walked into the room and gave the other woman a quick hug.
“Distracted...” Maria said, amused.
“With important stuff,” Kyle insisted.
“Yeah, I bet.”
“Very important stuff.” Kyle just shrugged and shot a glance at Tess before focusing on the boxes surrounding them. “So… I’m guessin’ you’re tryin’ to make sense of this mess since the movers couldn’t have possibly left it like this. Where ya want us to start?”
Maria sighed. “I think all those boxes from here,” she pointed on her left, “belong to Andy, so maybe you can start with getting them upstairs. There’s a large hallway where you can put them since his room needs to be painted first.”
“Where’s that little knucklehead anyway?” he asked as he shook his head at the sheer number of boxes that belonged to his nephew. Considering how many boxes he was going to have to haul upstairs the kid should be there to help out.
Tess came in from one of the other rooms she had been investigating. “Yeah,” Tess said, “I thought the kids only had half a day of school today?”
“So, what’s he doin’ tonight? I stopped by to see my brother at lunchtime and he told me the twins had been grounded and so had that girl they hang around with… Sam, right? Apparently they all got into trouble yesterday.”
“Really?” Maria frowned. “What’d they do? Michael wanted to ask him to go to a basketball game tonight out of town and I told him it would be okay if Andy wants to go.”
“Somethin’ so stupid,” Tess snorted and shook her head. “They jumped on a movin’ train and rode it out to Elida where they jumped off of it and then they somehow missed it comin’ back. They got caught by one of the rail workers and he made them call their parents. From what Max was tellin’ me Liz had a major fit over it and she even told the boys they weren’t playin’ football until… well, there was no time frame on it,” she laughed.
“Well, no wonder he turned me down when I asked if he was goin’ out with us tonight,” Kyle mused as he pushed a couple of the boxes around, trying to see which ones were the heaviest. He glanced at Maria. “Still doesn’t excuse you from not goin’ out with us. It’ll be fun,” he promised.
Tess placed her hands on her hips as she turned around to glare at him. “Kyle, I was talkin’.”
He shrugged. “Was I stoppin’ you? Just figured I’d get my comment in before it was no longer relevant.”
Maria shook her head at the bantering between the couple. “I’m not goin’ out with you two lovebirds, thank you!”
“Oh, c’mon, Maria,” Tess said, forgetting about the conversation they had been in the middle of. “We’re goin’ out for Kyle’s birthday and it’s adults only... no kids. It’ll be fun,” she said, unconsciously repeating what he had just said.
“Who’s coming besides you two?”
“Who’s NOT comin’ would be a better question,” Kyle snorted. “It’s gonna be us, Jack an’ Shayna, Max an’ Liz, Isabel an’ her date...” he glanced at Tess. “Am I missin’ anyone?”
“Great, a bunch of couples,” Maria muttered before Tess could say anything.
“Oh, didn’t ya say a few of your college friends were gonna be in town?”
“There’re a couple guys who might stop by. They’re on their way to Phoenix for business so they said if they’ve got time they’re gonna detour an’ stop by.”
“Anyone who could be a potential date for Maria?” Tess teased, earning a warning glare from the woman in question.
“Well, now that you mention it,” Kyle said with a grin. “One of ‘em is single.”
“And is he good lookin’?” Tess asked further.
He shrugged. “The girls seem to think so.”
“Could you please stop that? I’m not dating anyone, okay?”
Tess just rolled her eyes. “So, there’s no one you might even be slightly interested in?”
“I’ve got other priorities right now,” she said, avoiding answering the question.
“Uh-huh,” Tess said, not completely convinced. “At some point you’re not gonna be able to hide behind that.” Her hands shot up to stop Maria from speaking. “And that’s all I’m gonna say. Now, give me somethin’ to do.”
“Well, how about you start cleaning the kitchen?”
“Cleaning the kitchen,” she muttered. “Well, I suppose that’s better than bein’ sent to clean the bathrooms.”
“Uh-huh, don’t make me.”
Tess snorted. “I’m gone.”
Kyle laughed under his breath and glanced at Maria as he sobered. “She’s right, ya know. The time’s gonna come when you’re gonna have to get back out there.” He reached out to nudge her chin up with his fingertips. “You deserve that kinda happiness, Sis.”
She avoided his gaze. “Talk to me again when you’ve got a teenager who’s lost a parent. It’s not that simple.”
“Not sayin’ it’s simple, just sayin’ that you can’t put your life on hold indefinitely because you’ve got Andy. I understand not jumpin’ into somethin’ blindly, but holdin’ back isn’t gonna be any better. No, he probably won’t like it, at least not at first, but he’ll eventually get past that when he sees that you're happy. I don’t think I need to be a parent to know that.”
“I just said that dating isn’t my fist priority right now, Kyle. Not that I want to live alone the rest of my life.”
“Got any prospects in mind?” He grinned and nodded as he turned to point at the boxes behind him that she had indicated earlier. “So, I’ll just start haulin’ these upstairs.”
“You best idea today.”
“No, it’s not!” Tess yelled from the kitchen.
His grin just got bigger and he didn’t bother trying to hide it. He picked up a couple of boxes and headed for the stairs.
Maria made a face. “Why don’t you both just shut up for now.” She looked towards the hall when the front door shut and a moment later she heard her son speaking.
“That just means Uncle Kyle’s aggravating her,” Andy said, sharing his wisdom with whoever he had brought home with him.
The warm, very masculine laugh that responded to her son’s comment sent shivers down her spine.
“Well, your uncle’s very good at aggravating people,” Michael said knowingly.
“Sounds like Andy brought a friend,” Kyle said as he heard them at the front door first and shot a knowing glance at Maria.
“Take those boxes upstairs,” she hissed.
“Hey, Mom?” Andy yelled and then grinned when he stepped into the room and saw Mom standing there. “Hey, Michael’s gonna help us, okay?”
“Hey,” Maria greeted them, trying to sound casual. “Oh, that’s really nice of him.”
Kyle glanced between them and called his nephew. He bit back a grin when he noticed the way his sister was trying to check her appearance without being obvious about it. She’d probably have a fit when she realized she had a big smudge of dirt or something on the left side of her face. “Why don’t you gimme a hand with all this crap that belongs to you?”
Andy nodded. “Okay. Mom’ll put you to work, Michael. Is that cool?” He made a face. “I mean, it’s not cool, but...”
Michael nodded and motioned for Andy to go on and help Kyle. “It’s cool, bud. She can have me for a couple of hours and then we've got a game to go to.”
Maria waited until Kyle and Andy where out of sight, before she glanced at Michael. “Did you talk to him?”
“Yeah, I just told him that his sessions had been temporarily suspended to see how he handles things on his own.” He shrugged and glanced around. “It wasn’t a complete lie, but...” he sighed. “It wasn’t the truth either.”
She nodded. “Just give it some time.”
“I’ve got time,” he said with a smile. He moved closer to her and slowly reached up to brush his thumb over her cheek. “Got a little bit of dirt or somethin’ there,” he said gruffly and let his hand unfold to gently cradle her face.
Tess bit her lip when she saw the tiny gesture of Michael through the slightly open kitchen door. “Oh, my God,” she breathed quietly to herself.
Michael held her gaze for several moments, seeing the emotions warring within her. He gave her a smile as he lowered his hand and took a step back to give her some space. “So, I’m yours for the next couple of hours.” For the rest of my life if you'll have me, he thought. “Put me to work, Maria.”
She took a shaky breath. “I’ve got a big walk-in closet in the master bedroom but I need a couple of shelves in there. Think you can build them up?”
“Sure, just show me where it’s at and I’ll have ‘em up in no time.”
“Follow me then,” she turned to walk in direction of her bedroom and a shiver ran down her spine as she felt his eyes on her backside.
Michael glanced into the rooms they passed, trying to distract himself from staring at her. “You picked out a nice place,” he said.
Maria chuckled. “Not that there are many empty houses in Roswell. We just had luck.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. When I first moved here I stayed with a friend for about a month before I found a nice place. Four weeks in hell, let me tell you.” He loved Isabel to death but she was not roommate material.
“I guess it’s not as bad as living with your parents,” she teased. Honestly, it had been good to be with her Mom and Jim for a while. She had needed the support, but it was time to move out again, before everyone got too used to their current situation.
He smiled faintly. “No, I guess not.”
Maria wondered about his anything but amused smile. “Here we are,” she said as they entered the master bedroom.
He shook off the thoughts of his parents that had accompanied her comment and he looked around at the bedroom. He glanced at the shelving stacked against one wall and then crossed the floor to the closet and looked inside.
“I want the big one at the other end,” she stood next to him and pointed on the wall they faced. “And the smaller ones here and here.”
“Okay,” he said as he shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the doorknob. “Do I need any tools to assemble the shelves?”
She shrugged. “I have no clue. You are the man, aren’t you?”
Michael grinned and nodded. “Alright, I’ll figure it out. Go on now, go do whatever you’ve gotta do cause if ya stand in here and watch me we’re not gonna get much done.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “Ya think?”
“Nope... I know. There’s a difference.”
“I’d better go,” she said. Before this conversation could get any more awkward.
He chuckled when she hurried out of the room and he walked over to the large boxes. He pulled his pocketknife out he knelt down to cut the straps binding the first box closed. Might as well knock out the biggest one first, he thought. He opened the box up and reached for the instructions, glancing over them for a couple of minutes before he tossed them aside. “Useless,” he muttered.
__________________________________________________________________
Our next profile for TIC TAC is out. It is ALEX this time. You can read about this character on our Author's page (link in the siggie).
Trailer for Alex = http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum
