Seven had been jumping up and down and bouncing around excitedly for several minutes, all the while helping Travis unpack boxes. Travis had set up the CD player and had ‘Poison the Well’ blasting from the speakers. After two hours, they had gotten the living room and dining rooms finished and were working on the kitchen.
"Your mom left you to do this all by yourself?" Seven asked exasperatedly while still moving to the song "Pieces of You in Me". Travis just shrugged, "I never said I had the greatest mom in the world. Actually, I have a really shitty mom."
Seven nodded, "I think everybody's families are a little screwed up. Some are just more so than others. I'm not that happy with mine at the moment."
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it, Sev? I mean, we're friends, right? You know I'm more than willing to listen."
Smiling, Seven replied, "We're best friends, Travis. It's just... complicated."
With a nod, Travis went back to un-wrapping the newspaper-covered plates and putting them in the cabinets.
"Do you have running water and everything?" asked Seven, walking over to the sink and turning it on.
"I guess so," mumbled Travis, a little bit distracted.
Seven pulled out the hose and shot Travis with a spray of water. Travis let out an angry squawk and proceeded to chase Seven around the box-filled house. This eventually led to Travis giving up and returning to the kitchen. Seven then repeated the action with the hose so Travis tackled him and playfully punched him several times. The rest of the afternoon was filled with pointless, stupid, boyish things.
Dinner time quickly rolled around after hours of horseplay and getting little unpacking done. Seven turned to Travis and grinned.
“Wanna come to dinner at mine tonight?” he asked cheerfully. Travis thought about it for a second.
“That sounds good. Can your mom cook?”
Seven nodded, “Yeah, she’s really good. She actually wanted to go to culinary school before she met my dad and decided she just wanted to have kids and be a stay at home mom. Now she works at a day-care center because she needs to work so we can pay for Karen, Evan, and Chad’s schooling. I get left home alone a lot.”
Travis nodded, “Yeah, me too. But that’s mainly because my mom doesn’t like being around me.”
Frowning, Seven asked, “Why not?”
Travis just shrugged and muttered, “I’d rather not talk about it.”
Seven sighed and continued with the unpacking process, the last few touches to go in the family room.
“Ready to go?” asked Seven, getting very bored with all of this unpacking very quickly.
Travis put several empty boxes inside a larger empty box before turning to Seven, “Yeah, let’s go.”
The started walked over to Seven’s house before Seven jumped on Travis’ back, who then proceeded to carry Seven home. They were laughing and collapsed to the floor as soon as Travis got the front door open.
“Mom, Travis is eating dinner with us!” Seven shouted from his place on the floor while not moving so that Travis could get up.
“Get off me, you oaf!” Travis yelled, laughing as he did.
“Oaf?” Seven laughed, “You’re almost 7 feet tall and you’re calling me an oaf? I’m so cute and tiny!”
“And so modest,” laughed Travis, pushing Seven off of him and standing up.
“Looks like you boys have been having fun,” Sandy laughed, glad to see Seven smile. That was something that was very rare.
“Not really,” Seven said as he stood up, “We’ve mostly just been unpacking and stuff. Now we are hungry. Feeeeed uuuuuus!”
Sandy laughed more before going to the kitchen. Karen had set the table and Sandy had made a tuna fish casserole for dinner. She set around small bowls of salad while Karen got everyone drinks.
“Travis, what would you like to drink?” asked Karen.
“Just water please,” Travis replied. This entire thing was very foreign to him. He usually didn’t even see his mom, let alone eat dinner with her so suddenly eating a real meal with a real family was very awkward for him.
“Do you still eat poultry and seafood?” Seven asked. They had both quit eating red meat at the same time. Ironically, Karen had joined them when she found out. It was much healthier, or so Karen thought because she had lost ten pounds in the months after.
“Where are the guys?” Seven asked, noticing his father and the twins weren’t there.
Sandy rolled her eyes, “They’re at the sporting goods store looking at fishing and camping gear and other ‘manly’ things, but knowing your dad, he’ll come home with at least one thing from every other department. They should be home soon.”
Seven tried not to feel sad. His dad and the twins did this every so often, went to the sporting goods store and went on a shopping spree. It was like a boy’s-day-out kind of thing, except Seven had never been invited along because they automatically assume he wouldn’t be interested. It was just easier to pretend that it didn’t hurt and use it as a tool to blame of him gayness on his father. And that was another thing he had to worry about. He knew there was going to be a big ‘talk’ tonight and he was definitely not looking forward to it.
“So they all play sports together?” Travis asked quietly as Seven lead him to the living room so they could talk till dinner was ready.
“Yeah, all sports, too.” Seven felt uncomfortable talking about this. “They probably went to get supplies for our trip, though. Remember, I told you about that? We take a big camping trip up north every year. Get a spot by this lake and go fishing and swimming and stuff. We have a bon-fire each night and set off fireworks. It’s pretty cool.”
Travis nodded, “Yeah, I remember something about that. Me and my mom never go on trips or anything like that. Well, she does and leaves me at home. It sucks.”
“You get a vacation from your mom, right?” Seven asked, trying to make light of the situation.
Travis rolled his eyes, “It’s not like she’s ever there in the first place.”
“WE’RE HOME!” Seven’s dad yelled and the three of them came in carrying huge bags. They walked into the living room and dumped it on the floor.
“We got an awesome new tent,” Chad said enthusiastically, “It’s got separate rooms and stuff. It’ll be great.”
“And we got something for you,” said Evan. He tossed a warm brown baseball mitt at Seven who caught it and tried to look grateful, “Yay, something to cover my face with when you hurl stuff at me. Thanks, Evan.”
Evan rolled his eyes, “We always go to Dad’s father/son baseball game without you and we decided you’re going this year.” Chad was sorting out all of the different things they bought and nodded in agreement.
“You guys go without me because the first two times I went, I was sent to the hospital with serious head injuries… both times!” Seven protested, but he knew what this was about. They were trying to get him to be more ‘manly’ and maybe change him into what they want him to be.
Travis shoved Seven softly, “Dude, just be glad they want you around, ok?” He said this quietly so the others wouldn’t hear.
Seven nodded, knowing that Travis didn’t have a dad and possibly would have loved an opportunity like this.
“Yeah, I guess that would be ok. Maybe I’ve gotten better. But I’m wearing a helmet the whole time!”
Paul, Chad and Evan were surprised by this. They had expected a lot more protesting than that. Seven never did anything they asked him to. Chad was the only one that had noticed Travis muttering something in Seven’s ear.
“Mom, is dinner ready yet?” Evan asked impatiently.
“The rolls are in the oven and the peas are in the microwave, but I guess we can start. Everyone in the kitchen, let’s eat!”