"Authorities have no lead to the sudden disappearance of three elderly men, who suddenly vanished around the Meredith Wilson Foot Bridge-"
"Stock market down-"
"Ooooooo, who lives in a pineapple-"
I laid on my unmade bed in black lounge pants and dark gray t-shirt, idly watching the news or whatever I could find between commercials. Above me, I could hear Bobby's heavy feet pacing back and forth across the hardwood floors. My gut was still fuming over our dispute from earlier, his words echoed in my head, my sweaty clothes laid in one corner, an empty box of snacks laid around the trash bin.
How could he put all the blame on me? As if it's my fault he forgot about me, as if it's my fault the phone died, my fault I couldn't get a hold of him, my fault he's being a jack-ass. And I'm suppose to be living with this guy? For how long? The rest of my life? Maybe I should've just -
The thoughts in my head fell silent when I heard Bobby's footsteps walking down another path closer to the stairs. Please don't come down stairs. Please don't come down stairs. Please don't come down stairs.
Creak.
Damn it.
He had stopped pacing and was coming to me. Great, here we go again. I began to wonder what I could've done this time to piss him off. He stopped at the entry way and leaned against the door, a cellphone in his meaty hand, his blue eyes were more kind than before. I wanted to say something, but my tongue turned into lead and my throat dried up.
"Hey." He said in an awkward tone.
I kept quiet, pretending to be absorbed by some random cartoon, praying to God that Bobby would just leave me alone. He sighed and shook his head.
"Turn that damn thing off. We gotta talk." I looked over at him, still waiting for him to leave. When he just stood there, still as a statue, I turned the tv off, sat up and crossed my legs. "Look, we're starting off on the wrong foot here." He entered my room, gestured for me to scoot over and sat next to me on the bed. I kept silent, my chest tightened, my teeth grinding, wanting more than anything for him to get out of my room. "We're both gonna be livin' under the same roof for God knows how long, not that I'm in any rush, but we better be on the best terms instead of shoutin' at each other every damn day. So, what d'ya say, after this phone call, we head upstairs, make some coffee, and set some ground rules. Think ya can manage that?"
Can I manage that? Prick. But, of course, I have no choice. Between the two of us, he's the adult and I'm the kid, he knows things that I don't, he's much larger than I am. I may have a mind like a child, but I know who makes the rules and who follows them.
"Yeah, I can."
Some apology.
"Good. Here." He handed the phone out to me. "It's Dean."
At the sound of his name, my heart skipped a beat, I yanked the phone away from Bobby and put it up to my ear.
"Dean?"
"Hey, you ok?" It was great hearing his voice again. All the anger, depression, negativity just melted away. Bobby and this tight room faded into nothing and it was just the phone, Dean's voice and me.
"Has anyone talked to you? Anybody you don't know?"
The guy at the store that was gonna kill me? He just now realized this?! "Yeah."
"A short man in some kind of black suit with an accent?"
YES
SAY YES.
SAY IT.
"No." Wimp.
"What about people you don't know. Did anyone talk to you today about weird things?"
Weird things? "I was at school today, I talked to a lot of people I don't know and about a ton of weird things." I had to paused and think of a quick example. I remember Hannah allowed me to skim through her biology book, and I just randomly landed on the part of the human tissue. "Something about human tissue in biology."
"Ok, bad question." He paused, then let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, um, anyone stared at you today? Made you feel uncomfortable? Threats? Offered to give you a ride home?"
The jocks. Tell him, damn you!
"Well... a couple of guys... kept staring at me this morning." The words felt like rocks in my mouth, falling out word by word, my heart racing with relief.
"What did they look like? Did you get their names?" He asked, quickly.
"Yeah, uh...Travis Rox, I think. I don't know what grade he's in, but I can ask Reno."
"Reno?" He pronounced Reno's name slowly and sourly. "The hell kinda a name is that?"
"I don't know. But, he's a...friend." Is Reno a friend? Were any of the kids I met today my friends?
"Oh, you've made a friend?" Dean said it like he was actually surprised.
"Yeah, we have fourth period class together." I blinked, surprised that I remembered that little factoid.
"Huh, that's cool." He said, unenthusiastic. "So this Travis kid freaked you out? How? What did he do?"
"Well, he just stared at me before school started." I explained, trying to remember what all else Travis did. "Then, again before school got out. He's kind of a dick, outside of that, I didn't see anything stand offish."
"But all in all, you're safe, right? You and Bobby?"
"As safe as I can be."
"Good."
"He seems to be ok, but I'm not sure." Dean flipped the phone close and threw the phone onto the bed.
"What did he said about school? He has a friend?" Sam asked, looking at his computer screen, reading up about Mason City High School, searching for any paranormal events.
"Yeah. Some kid named Reno." Dean answered, turning on the tv to an 80's horror movie. "He didn't go into very much detail about anything else, though."
"Are you sure he even went?" Sam asked, looking away from the computer screen. "I remember my first day of high school."
Dean scoffed. "Which one?" Sam glared at him. Dean sighed. "Sam, I sat in the car and watched him go into the building." Dean shrugged, reaching over to the mini-fridge and grabbing two beer's. "After that, I have no idea. And I couldn't stick around, we had to leave."
"He knows cutting class isn't a good right?" Sam asked, resting his elbows on the table top.
"Pretty sure."
"And he's getting along with Bobby?"
Dean popped the cap off his beer bottle and tossed the second one to Sam. "Bobby said they had a bit of a disagreement earlier, but it's settled."
"Disagreement?"
"He forgot to pick up Cas at school today, so he walked home." Dean explained, taking a hearty drink. "It was an honest mistake, Bobby said it won't happen again."
"Bobby forgetting? That's odd."
"Ah, give the guy a break. He's trying to start new with all his old things, kinda overwhelming thing ya know."
"Still, doesn't seem like him."
"So, where are we with this Vamp?"