It was hard saying goodbye to the kids down at the daycare, but TJ had to admit that his friends were right. Maybe one day he'll come back to Third Street, but right now, it was too painful to stay. After a few weeks and his nose was out of a brace, he thanked Spinelli for letting him stay, used Robert's card to buy a bus ticket, and headed out to stay with Gus for a while.
He was the closest, so he might as well be the first. It was nice seeing Gus's family, and him and Theresa made a great couple. The two of them had twin toddlers, a boy and a girl, and watching them while Gus and Theresa went to work was nice after leaving his job, and made him feel less like he was intruding on their lives.
TJ flew out to stay with Vince after that. He was still surprised he owned a restaurant instead of playing on some top tier sports team, but it fit. By the looks of things, the restaurant was very popular with it's delicious foods, though they really needed to find a better accountant or manager or something. With nothing better to do TJ sorted through the piles upon piles of paperwork in the back office and made some sense of the madness, even finding enough money in the books to renovate the kitchen like Vince offhandedly said he wanted to do.
After that, he flew up to New York to meet up with Mikey. The first night he arrived Mikey was able to get him into the audience of the latest play he was in. There was no way he would've been able to afford a ticket to one of those things on his salary. Mikey was still as kind as ever. Though his apartment was a bit small, Marble and Cinnabun made a friend with Mikey's own cat.
Gretchen's place had to be the best out of all of them. She had an observatory on her property, and it was nice looking through the telescope when the skies were clear enough. It brought back the interest he had in astronomy, something he had to put on the back burner years ago to take care of things. He might not work at NASA, but hearing the things Gretchen did at her job was the next best thing.
But after visiting his friends and catching up, that left him with the question of where he was going to go next. Going back to Third Street was an option, but laying in bed late at night, he couldn't convince himself to go back, not after getting away from the reminders of everything that happened back there.
With his injuries healed up, getting a job would be much easier. Probably at another daycare close by.
He turned over, trying to get some sleep in the middle of the night. He can start job hunting in the morning.
. . .
. . .
If he could actually fall asleep first. Goddamn insomnia. Maybe he should use Robert's card to go to the doctor. It's been a while since he's had so much as a check-up.
A notification from his phone was just one more thing that made it difficult to fall asleep.
Robert: you up?
TJ: yeah. Can't sleep. Wbu?
Robert: same. Insomnia?
TJ: insomnia. Sucks ass.
Robert: how have you been doing
TJ paused before answering. Of course Robert would ask. He was the one to help get him out of the situation with Lawson in the first place. He was a bit surprised the older male hadn't messaged him sooner.
TJ: fine. Visited all my friends. I need to get a job now and stop couch surfing
Robert: you could come stay with me. It's an option.
TJ: Robert.
TJ: you know my answer already
Robert: I'm just saying it's an option. I wouldn't mind the company.
Robert: you can even go to college here without worrying about money.
Robert: just think about it, okay?
TJ: fine.
TJ sat his phone down and tried falling asleep again.
ZZZ
Robert had to admit that despite hating getting up ass crack early in the morning, he was the most productive during those hours, focusing on his work to avoid being reminded of his very expensive, luxurious bed that was calling for him to get back in it.
He had bills to pay, and then he can go back to sleep. He owned the damn business, he can take a nap and come in late if he wanted to, dammit.
His need for control kept him from signing all his bills up for autopay. Besides, he liked keeping track of his money. So he went through all his bills, one by one, starting with the basic household bills, moving on to the insurances, and then his spending. Going through his credit cards, he remembered the one he gave to TJ. He pulled up the information for that card to check if he spent any money on it.
To his surprise, TJ had. Plane tickets by the looks of it, with the occasional stop at various pet stores and some clothing stores. Nothing extravagant. Robert knew from the moment he gave him the card that he was hesitant to use it.
He paid the card off in full.