Camping Blues

This chapter has been prompted by I'm thinking and their prompt was When Jason and Robbie are ten, their Dad still wants to make an effort with them, so the three go camping. But will everything go to plan?

"I hate camping," a petulant, ten year old, pint sized Robbie Roscoe said as he followed his equally small twin to the camping site, their father a few feet ahead of them, and just out of earshot to hear his son's complaints, though Jason had heard every single one of Robbie's comments since they had left the car, camping gear in hand, just five minutes ago, and he was already sick of it.

"This is it!" Vinny cried when he had reached their site, not put off by his two son's less than eager reactions. "Come on boys, put a smile on! This weekend is going to be just like old times." Both Jason and Robbie made a conscious effort to plaster twin grins on their faces, though they didn't believe that it was particularly convincing.

They knew their dad was trying hard to be with them, and after six weeks of nothing bar the occasional phone call, a whole weekend spent with him should be the best thing ever.

It wasn't Vinny's fault they hadn't seen him for a while, after he and Sandy had split up just four months ago - the reason why the twins hadn't been made privy too, though their three older brothers were all more than aware that it was because he had cheated on Sandy with a busty brunette from the local pub -, their father had spent his time immersed in his job, putting more and more hours into it than he had ever done before.

It meant he never had any free time to see his sons though, which was what made this weekend so important, because all three knew it would be the last time they'd see each other for possibly months. Vinny had been offered a promotion, the pay was simply too good to reject and the young father of two had been dreaming of it for years now, meaning there was no way he could say no.

It seemed like complete perfection, like Vinny's life was finally going the way it should be, but every positive was tinged with a negative and this time was no different, because the job meant Vinny had to move a long way from his crummy little London flat, in fact it had him moving all the way to Glasgow.

He would never get to see his kids with regularity again and that broke his heart, but he had to do what was right for him, and that was taking the promotion, he knew Jason and Robbie would understand.

Hell they had seemed to when he had told them over the phone last week, and they were ten now, more than old enough to understand the finer intricacy's of the working world.

"Let's get this tent up shall we boys?" Vinny asked shortly, his enthusiasm flowing over. The twins moved to help their dad, though neither as eager as he was to get the job done.

They had never been camping before, bar the time they'd had a sleepover at the bottom of the garden with a few mates from school, but neither lad had really thought they were missing out on much. And as the family of three struggled with the tent, dropping the poles and losing pegs left, right and centre, Jason and Robbie's suspicions were only confirmed.

This weekend was going to be more torturous than fun. It took half an hour and a lot of swearing, but finally the tent was up, though as it swayed dangerously in the light breeze and was taller on one side than the other, the sight was not as majestic as Vinny had hoped. But he couldn't let that get him down, no he wouldn't, this could be the last time his boys saw him in weeks, and Vinny wasn't going to let them leave with the memory that their own dad couldn't even do a camping trip well.

And really, putting the tent up wasn't the only part of the experience, there was plenty of time left to wow his boys.

"How about we get that fire started hey lads? Then we can get dinner on the go."

"At three in the afternoon?" Robbie drawled, looking completely unimpressed with the suggestion, though coming to the conclusion that Vinny hadn't planned this weekend as extensively as he had originally suggested.

"Or we could go exploring? A place like this, there must be a ton of things we could do."

"Sausages sounds good," Jason said hurriedly, taking one look at the dark, expansive net of trees that were bordering the edge of the campsite, not really wanting to go 'explore' them, who knows what could be out there, ready to snatch him up without any warning?

Vinny sighed as he realised that his sons were maybe a little less eager to go camping than he had originally believed, though he wasn't going to let that put him off, so letting out a deep sigh he got to his knees and began wrestling with the mini camping stove. It had looked easy enough to work when he had first bought it a week ago, but the instructions were misleading, and by the time he had flicked it on the sun was starting to set, and dinnertime was actually upon them.

"Dinners ready boys," he said delightedly, serving up the meagre portions of sausages and baked beans, the sight truly unappetising for the two young lads, especially when they had spent the better part of the afternoon exploring whilst Vinny struggled with the cooker, though it wasn't any worse than any of Sandy's cooking.

With that in mind, the pair managed to choke it down, though they couldn't help but wish for a bit more food, sure they felt a little bit better for dinner now, but the two brothers knew that within hours they'd probably be starving once again.

"Today hasn't been as good as I had hoped," Vinny admitted with a disheartened sigh. "I'm not made out for all this camping malarky, but I thought it would have been great way to spend time with you two before I had to leave."

"It's fine Dad," Jason said with a smile, stomping on Robbie's foot before his twin said something that would only hurt their dad. "It's been quite fun actually, me and Rob found this little cave thing, we'll have to show you it tomorrow!"

"That sounds good J," Vinny chuckled, reaching to grab his bag and rooting through it in silence for a few moments. "But I know what sounds even better. How about we roast some marshmallows over the fire?" At that, Vinny grabbed the huge bag of treats, laughing as Jason and Robbie's eyes widened at the number of marshmallows within. They'd be there all night!

Vinny gave the twins a small skewer each and opened the bag of marshmallows just as his phone began ringing. Grimacing as he recognised the number from work, Vinny passed the bag over to the pair and answered the call, walking a short distance to be out of hearing shot.

"How do we know when it's done?" Jason asked, not caring for his father's absence, choosing instead to focus completely on the marshmallow in front of him, it already browning nicely over the fire.

"When it's like this," Robbie crowed, hitting Jason on the side of his face with his own marshmallow, the sweet warm enough for half of it to split and stick to Jason's cheek. Said boy cried out loudly, launching for his twin with his own marshmallow, throwing more at him from the bag. In seconds, the sweets were spread out all around them, the thought of roasting and eating them long forgotten as the two brothers tried to triumph one another in their fight.

They could have easily kept going for hours, but as they saw their dad make his way to them, shoulders slumped and a mixed look of guilt and sadness on his face, the pair stopped fighting, knowing that whatever had just happened was serious.

"Who was that Dad?" Robbie asked, picking out a bit of melted marshmallow from his hair as he spoke.

"That was my work boys. There's been an incident at my new workplace, and well they need me to start working there earlier than was originally planned," Vinny said, unable to meet the twin's eyes as he spoke.

"Well that's good isn't it?" Jason asked, confused as to why his dad was so upset. He knew Vinny had been really excited about getting this job, it didn't make sense that he was upset about starting it now.

"It means I have to leave tonight if I want to get there on time," Vinny admitted after a second, wincing when he saw the two boys in front of him connect the dots. "It means-"

"It means that we have to go back home doesn't it?" Robbie asked, his tone unnaturally stony for a boy his age.

"I'm sorry boys," Vinny tried to start, though he was once more interrupted.

"It's fine, just forget it yeah. Not like you've been a top dad since you and mum split up anyway," Robbie snapped, turning away so Vinny wouldn't see just how upset this whole thing had made him. "Come Jase, lets go to the car, it's obvious he doesn't want us here anyway."

"Boys, wait!" Vinny cried after the two retreating figures, though neither listened him, too hurt by their dad's most recent failure to have the patience to talk to him.

Once more, he had let them down, and both Robbie and Jason had to wonder if their dad was ever going to step up for them in the future, though they couldn't help but think it was unlikely, after all, he hadn't exactly done a lot to ease their nerves.

But they'd cope without him. They had been for the past few weeks, they had Sandy, Joe, Freddie and Ziggy, hell even Joe's new girlfriend, Lindsey, seemed like a laugh. Yes they'd be fine, they didn't need Vinny Sanders messing things up for them even more than he had been in recent times.

At that moment, Jason and Robbie made a vow to themselves that they weren't going to let their dad get their hopes up and then make them come crashing down, and to this day, it's still a vow they stick to completely.

Bit negative at the end, but it was nice writing Vinny in a different light than I have been recently.

Next chapter - Roscoe's are never ones to step down from a dare, even if said dare is stupid and will get them into heaps of trouble. Or the one where Jason gets a tattoo and the whole family find out – prompted by anon