Beneath the Surface

Jax

I stand on my front porch with Dillon waiting for the bus to pull up. It should be here any minute. I can’t believe I’m about to babysit for someone. I wouldn’t be doing it for anyone else, but Lexie actually needs help so I’ll do it. It’s bullshit though. If she wasn’t out with Carson his tires wouldn’t have been slashed by some psycho.

The bus pulls up in front of Lexie’s, and the boys bound down the steps and are running around the yard when I call out to them. They both stop and glare at me. I guess they’ve noticed the cold shoulder I’ve been giving their mom. This should be fun.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Your mom got held up somewhere with Carson and asked me to keep y’all at my house until she got home.”

They look at each other and smile before running across their yard and up my porch steps. They run right past us and into my house. I shrug at Dillon and follow them into the house. That went easier than expected.

“Mom usually gives us a snack when we get home from school. Do you have anything we can eat?” I set about finding them something to eat while they sit at the table whispering to each other with their foreheads pressed together. Dillon sits next to them, “I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet, my name’s Dillon.” They shake his hand and tell him their names. Jason seems more upbeat than usual. I slide peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a soda in front of each of them and sit down at the table.

“So what have y’all been up to?”

Justin glares at me again. Maybe I should have stayed quiet, “You would know if you weren’t being mean to mom again.”

“I’m not being mean to your mom again. I haven’t seen her, and the first time I’ve talked to her since last week was today. She asked me to do her a favor and get y’all off the bus and I did.”

“You haven’t been coming around and you look mean every time you see her. We saw you!” Jason is glaring at me too now. All the sudden Justin’s face changes. “Did y’all hear that?” I look at Dillon and he shakes his head, I shake mine too, “I didn’t hear anything Justin.”

Jason looks scared now, “I heard it too. It sounded like it came from downstairs, do you have a basement?” I nod my head. “The bad man’s in the basement!” Jason screams.

“No one is in my basement boys. That door right there,” I point behind them, “is the only way to get in or out of the basement.”

“I heard something in the basement. Yall are cops, go look, you’ll see. He’s down there!”

Dillon shrugs at me and stands up so I stand with him and sigh. I didn’t hear anything. I think the twins are paranoid, but that’s understandable. “Fine, we’ll check it y’all stay right here.” Me and Dillon open the basement door and he descends the stairs first. We get to the bottom of the stairs and look around. “I don’t see anything boys!” The basement door closes and me and Dillon look at each other before running back up the stairs. The door won’t open.

“I think we just got played by nine year olds.” Dillon chuckles. You have got to be shittin me!

“Dillon do you have your cell phone in your pocket? I left mine on the kitchen counter.” He nods and pulls it out.

“It’s dead.”

Fuck me! I bang on the door, “Okay boys you made your point! Let us out.” They say nothing and I sigh. This is why I don’t like being around kids! Those little shits have locked me inside my own damn basement. “This is some bullshit!”

Dillon chuckles again like he’s perfectly fine being locked down here. “How long did Lexie say she would be?”

“An hour at least it’s been about forty minutes since she said that so maybe she’ll be here soon.” We sit down on the top step with our backs against the door.

“She is going to come inside right? The boys aren’t just going to run to meet her and leave us here are they? Won’t she want to talk to you and see how they were? Isn’t that what most moms do?”

I groan out loud. “Actually the way I’ve ignored her except to glare at her all week she might not come inside.” I sigh and try to get comfortable on the step. We might be here a while.