pPickles hadn't said a word since he sat down at the dinner table. There was meatloaf on his plate that he was half-heartedly taking bites of, but the broccoli was going all but ignored. His mother was trying to ask him questions about school, but he hadn't gone to any of his classes besides study hall today. Not like she needed to know that. Luckily, his father made some derogatory remarks about his slipping grades and how he was likely to not finish eleventh grade, which made it fucking easy to continue to evade his mother's questions./p
pPickles stabbed at his meatloaf and stuck a big chunk into his mouth./p
pThe phone started to ring while he was chewing. Pickles contemplated getting up to get it, but he had this big bite of meatloaf to chew and all, so fuck it. It didn't matter, because his mom hopped up from her seat right away, saying, "Ooh, I'll get it."/p
p"Who the hell is calling at dinner time? It better not be another one of those damned telemarketers," his dad said. Pickles said nothing./p
p"Hello? ...Oh, Seth, you're missing dinner again. ...You iwhat?/i" ...Seth!"/p
p"What the hell is going on?" Pickles' dad asked, but his mom was too distracted to answer.
"Well, where are you? ...I know, honey."
Pickles didn't care. Whatever Seth had done, he was probably going to get in trouble for it somehow. He knew he shouldn't have come home./p
p"It's okay, hon, it's okay. I'm going to call a lawyer right away, alright?"/p
p"A lawyer? What the hell, Molly?"/p
pPickles watched his mom writing some things down, and finish up the phone call. He even ate a bite of the broccoli. Hearing that Seth was in some kind of trouble was making dinner taste way better, actually./p
p"Seth's been arrested," his mother told them when she turned back to the dinner table./p
pIt took every ounce of restraint Pickles had to keep from laughing out loud./p