A/N: Franklin's still in the picture. Swearing, Adult language, Adult themes.
"Sign here Sir, you're free to go"
The words he'd been longing to hear since he was sentenced. His Dad and Mom couldn't meet him. She was at work. He felt like a spy, with sunglasses and a baseball cap on in the pouring rain. He caught the bus, reading a newspaper that was on the bus seat in-front. Nothing about him. For once they'd kept their word. They didn't want him to look suspicious, so his clothes would be delivered early in the morning in the next few days.
His mom would have a lot of washing to do. Kev sure as hell wasn't gonna do it himself. He'd already planned how he was gonna handle his mom and dad, he'd looked up dealing with grief on the internet and was ready to fake the five stages of grief: Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance, but never guilt. Guilt was for the weak. He stayed watching TV while drinking a lot of milk, he'd missed the good stuff in prison, but he was going to drink it in-front of his parents for more...controlling reasons.
Reason Number one. Milk and cookies were a typically "childish" snack. The quicker Kev regressed into childhood the less likely his parents would nail his ass to the mast. Reason Number two: The Digestive System. An excessive amount of milk would cause Kev nausea, stomach cramps, headaches, diarrhea and irritableness. He'd be in obvious pain, giving him the excuse to act like a jerk.
Kev got a shower, keeping his mind blank as he squeezed soap suds over his dick. He wouldn't jerk off until his mom got back...when she was alseep this time, of course. His hair was starting to grow back, but it was a bummer trying to wash it. Running his hands over the scratches, the wounds, the pencil marks. It made him realise that he wasn't the local cutie with the jet black actor's curtain's of hair anymore. He'd get that back, by eating properly, getting exercise and sunlight, look on the net for tips on rapid hair growth. He needed to look normal, his looks had always been the bait in the trap.
He went into his room. His Mom and Dad, had kept it looking good. Frozen in time. Untouched. He wasn't impressed, just content for now. His bare feet left wet footprints on the floor. He took his towel off and put on a fresh pair of briefs, he juggled his junk around to make himself comfortable. He walked the mirror, looking down at his chest. A little thinner than the last time he was here. He turned his wrists around. Should he cut for the sake of it? A twisted plan to get Sympathy from Dad? There was still time, no-one had come in yet.
Kev carried on looking at his stomach, fiddling with the hair tickling his belly button. No wiry six pack to speak of...yet. He'd put weight on eventually. Catch a girls eye, bring her back here for shame and pain and Kev gain, but this skinny vein dominant look was the right look for now. It would help him in preparation for the role he was about to play. He took out a grey polo-neck and quarter-length black trousers with white socks. He left the quarter-length black trousers on the bed. He put on the polo-neck, ignoring the new sensation of woolly fabric clinging to his skin.
Kev stared at his thin thighs in mirror and wondered if girls would get turned on if he gave them tips to be as thin as he was. Before Kev could think of sliding his hands over female ass in his head, he heard the door open. He crept to the landing, bare-foot. Pissed off because the carpet hairs were now fastened to his clean showered feet. His heart-rate stayed calm as the door opened the daylight shining onto the carpet, making it look luminous.
It was good old Dad. Time Kev changed for a bitter prison escapee to Abandoned puppy.
"Dad!" Kev yelled running half naked towards his father. "Kev?" Franklin Katchadourian said mouthing his shock but held his arms wide open. His hug swallowed Kev whole. He buried his head in his father's broad chest. He felt a sloppy kiss on his shaven forehead and shuddered before he was able to spill out a river of crocodile tears. "Don't cry Kevvy, don't cry, you're safe now" Franklin said. "You're home" Kev nodded. Franklin kicked the door shut with this foot. They stood there, Franklin believing that Kev was clinging on to him for strength and comfort.
Kev waited for his dad to let him go. When he did Kev tugged onto his dad's shirt. "How have you been? How's mom?" Kev asked, knowing he himself didn't give a shit. "We're gonna be better now son" Franklin replied. "I wish, the prison had told us...I would have bought your favourite food" Franklin said looking at his watch. "We'll go to the store now...come on" Franklin said. Kev nodded rushing upstairs to put the black trousers on. He got his raincoat and cap. He checked himself out in the mirror. He looked Okay, average like an other guy. He was Franklin's son to a T, dressed like this.
Kev could feel his chest burning as he entered the supermarket behind his Dad. His first steps into the real world, post-prison. He wanted his first outing to be more adventurous than looking at crisps and talking about party food. Kev picked comfort food, Macaroni Cheese, Chocolate Cake, Shortbread Biscuits, eggs to make his Dad's huge omelettes pizza's a melon, just to seem a little healthy. Kev offered to pay, he had no money but he was just testing his Dad. "Kev don't be silly" Franklin said, getting out his credit card. "Thanks" Kev said staring at all the food, deciding to eat the melon first and leave the rest of it in the fridge unwrapped. It would really piss his mom off.
"We don't have to talk about the past" His Dad said when they got back. Kev was fiddling with pieces of melon squeezing the juice out with his tongue. "Dad, I'm just...I'm just glad to be home" Franklin patted his back and that was the scene his mom Eva Katchadourian came home to when she dragged home bags of shopping without taking the bus. "Mom!" Kev said getting up and hugging her with a violent force that knocked the wind out of her sails. "The prison Superviors didn't ring...did they?" Eva asked wide eyed.
"Honey...we'll tell you about it later" Franklin said with an upbeat sigh. He walked up to his family to give them a group hug, but before he could Kev dropped his arms to look his arch nemsis in the eyes. "Mom...sit down, tell me everything...how are you?" Kev asked picking up her shopping, but his Dad took her bags from him. "Sweetheart...relax" Franklin said. Kev smiled inside as Eva's awkward smile crept across her face. She moved with jagged steps to the sofa, her high heels too tight and uncomfortable for her tired weary feet.
Eva slid her shoes off as they sat next to each other on the sofa mother and child, Kev enjoying watching his mother's torment. "Are you OK?" She asked. "Really?" "I'm always OK mom" Kev said. "Have you missed me?" He asked waiting for the pause but his mom didn't miss a beat. "Kevin me and your father both missed you...we need you...did you have to ask that?" "Everything going OK?" Franklin asked poking his head around the door. "Sure Dad...great" Kev said. Franklin nodded disappearing back into the kitchen.
"I'm just glad we're all back together again, you know, the three of us" Kev said neglecting to mention his kid sister that his parent's ached for every second of every day. He wiped the melon juice on his trousers [another habit that his mother hated, but he made sure she saw] and went upstairs to his little sister's room. He smiled at the memories. The time she sat on his back and rode him like a horse, the times she made him cookies and stuffed whole ones into his mouth. Little sister Celia. The rain on Kev's parade, now all Kev could see was the dryness of his decided drought and the sun shining through the windows.
"Kev...do you want to come out?" His mother asked. She shouldn't have been creeping up on him, Kev had to face it. Prison had dimmed his senses a little. Made him trapped in his plans, his own fight for survival, but that would soon be fixed. "Sorry mom...I just feel so bad" Kev said crumbling on his little sister's floor. "We're here to support you...all the way" His mom said stepping in her daughter's room for the first time in a long while. Eva knelt on the floor and patted her son's back like her husband did and Kev shook his head.
"Mom VS Dad's hugs: Mom...Epic fail" Kev said. Eva got up in silence and they walked out of Celia's room in seperate directions. Franklin came upstairs offered him more to eat and left a plate of food on his son's drawers. Franklin walked back downstairs to see his wife washing up. He wrapped his thick arms around her frail waist. "You will try this time...won't you?" He asked, kissing his wife on the forehead, like he did to his son hours before. "I've always tried" Eva said with a gentle tone hiding the anger beneath, it wasn't the time or the place to lose her mind.
As the afternoon faded away and evening settled itself in, Kev watched TV eating his Dad's food gift and snuggled into bed. His Dad came and knocked on the door, stroked his head and kissed him goodnight. He could feel his mother before he saw her. He allowed her to kiss him on the cheek. He hugged her again enjoying her shivers of nervousness. By the time she was back downstairs with his Dad, Kev had brought his laptop to his bed. He still had his internet connection and logged on. Kev always deleted his browsing history so his webpages were clean.
He went into a chatroom under a anonymous cloak of invisibility. He talked to some girls, and one guy. The guy said that he was a professional fighter. Guys talked shit on the internet all the time, but he posted of picture of a kick wound on his leg and it got Kev interested. Kev talked to him for a while before asking him for his email address. The guy gave it to him so they could talk privately.
"Are you really into Mixed Martial Arts?" Kev typed.
"Yeah...it's my job" The guy said posting a picture up of himself after a win. Kev found out that this guy was only eighteen, practically a kid. He could be moulded, he could be...trained.
"What's your name?" Kev asked.
"Nate...gotta go big brother's calling" Nate said logging himself off. That was a pity. Nate had an idol, a role model already. That could change, Kev just had to bait Nate in, make him trust him. Typed words in a chatroom could be a powerful thing. If Nate really was a fighter he'd have great cardio and strength, something, that Kev lost in prsion. Kev went to another chatroom talking to girls this time, but looking for the sympathy vote. He needed the practise for his parents tomorrow. Kev was ready to act out the apparent "first stage of" grief: Denial and Isolation.
Kevin looked at the screen and grinned. Declaring emotional indigence was going to be fun.