to be alone with you

Fish found his old scrapbook that he made when he was just a boy. Most were cartoons he'd drawn. He'd cut out photos of his Mom and Dad making them all superheros.

He couldn't help but chuckle. Something else he should probably throw away. He tossed it in the trash.

"Hey, don't do that." Shan retrieved it.

Fish looked about his naked room. It had been home, all his life.

"I don't need it." He shrugged. His dad was mad. His mother too. They thought he'd lost it, this time. What was he thinking? What else would he let Shan talk him into? He guessed he would not let them know about their matching tattoos.

"Yes, you do." Shan put it in a box they were taking with them.

Fish only shrugged. His parents were really being silly. Why couldn't they trust him?

"They'll come around. They haven't always hated me." Shan reminded him.

"I know."

"We're going to be fine." Shan put his arm around Fish. He planted a kiss on Fish's cheek.

"You're rotten." Fish looked over at him.

"Why do always say that?" Shan was joking. Fish possibly wasn't.

"Because, its true." Fish couldn't help but smile. "You, always get what you want."

"Oh..stop saying that." Now Shan was serious. "You know I love you. You know, you're the best friend I've got..and I want to be with you. Is that too much?"

"It isn't too much to ask." Fish knew he wanted this too. And he wanted to move forward. Except, it felt a step back. He was only moving his stuff to Shan's room at Uncle Rowdy's house. "Its just..its just..I want to be alone with you."

Such a simple thing that felt like it might be a lifetime away.

don't get me wrong

"Is he still here?" Ming was frazzled. She honestly thought there were just too many people in this house. And she was tired. So tired.

She waited for the teapot to boil as she placed a tea bag and a ginger candy cube in her cup.

Rowdy was finishing up the dishes. She never had to clean the kitchen. Especially, after a 12 hours shift at the hospital.

"Rosco? Well, Connor showed up, too." Rowdy told her.

"Connor?" She winced. She wasn't sure if she liked him much better than Rosco.  She tried not to dwell on it.

It was true. Why couldn't Bree just do her homework and focus on her grades? But that sounded like her mother? Yes, she was definitely becoming her mother. Perhaps she was too old for this.

"It'll be all right. Bree will figure it out." Rowdy kneaded her shoulders ever so quaintly.

Ming nursed the corner of her lip, thinking he was being more generous than usual.  It wasn't like Rowdy was a bad person. He'd always been friendly, even the first time she met him. decades ago at the family ranch.

"I can't even figure it out." Ming was a little homesick. She guessed. Maybe she loved her old job, too much. She didn't like these people she had to get along with now. And then to have Shan in such a state lately. She guessed that was her fault. But he was too young to be married. "And where are the boys?"

"I think they're boxing up more of Fish's stuff." Rowdy shrugged with a yawn.

"You, better tell those two in the livingroom to go." Ming looked at Rowdy. No way was she letting him off the hook. If anybody was going to bed early tonight, it was her.

a smooth operator

Bree swelled up as soon as Connor sat next to her on the couch. The heat of his body alone, made her ever so mellow. But she would have none of it. She didn't want to look at him. If she did, she knew she's want to hug him. He was soft in all the right places, yet a solid rock.

Rosco was like a nail, you wouldn't want to be infected with. He was weird, and his hands were cold. Rough, in fact. And his breath smelled a little fishy.

And to think she'd spent a Saturday or two, roaming the theaters where her brother worked, watching this part and that part of a movie. She didn't even know the ending to INTO THE WOODS.

But he was diligent and maybe ..even good with his hands.

She winced hard, thinking of his touch. She gritted. What would Connor think?

"Well, I'd tell him everything..and more." Rosco had an answer for that. They'd been over this scenario a week or so ago when she threatened to leave him, under the bleachers on the cold football field... that it was over.

Oh, he was a blackmailer. Perhaps even cruel. Definitely, nasty.

He told her about watching his older brother hang himself in the back yard. He'd grinned ever so sly about it. So much so, that Bree wondered if Rosco had something to do with his brother's suicide.

His brother was only ten at the time. Rosco's parents were both unfeeling with big time jobs and yet they lived in a plain middle class neighborhood, as if they might be hiding from something, too.

It gave Bree a chill, thinking about it. Wondering how evil Rosco could be.

"Hey, what did you think?" Rosco cracked a smile as he looked over at her, after he'd finished a new level of the bloody video game.

"Oh, you're so great. Totally." She pressed a smile. She did her best to be genuine.

a harden heart

Uncle Rowy didn't leave Connor standing still in the livingroom. He invited him back to the kitchen for some stew.

He'd missed Connor. He truly wished Bree could get this Rosco out of her system. He knew, if he reacted to quickly, she was sure to sink in good with that awful kid.

Rowdy hadn't liked him from the get go. He knew he was the one tipping trash cans and being a real pest.

Then the Shan situation had gotten the best of Ming. Rowdy didn't see there was much they could do about it. Shan and Fish got married. He let Fish move in.

She was furious with him and gave him the cold shoulder. But he went on and made supper every night. He cleaned up after himself. He didn't ask her for a thing. No one asked him how he felt about anything.

But he'd cut down the Christmas tree and put it up. Now he'd undecorated it and put it to the street. It was a new year even if it was the same old thing.

"You're back." He slapped Connor on the shoulder. "Good to see you." He got out the cornbread from the oven. It was warm.

Connor took a bite into the yellow cake before he pushed it into the stew of carrots and green beans with chunks of beef. Connor smiled with satisfaction.

"How was your Christmas?" Rowdy wanted to know.

"OK, I guess." Connor sat at the kitchen table eating the stew.

Rowdy wasn't sure to sit or not. He reached in the fridge to pull out a rootbeer for the both of them.

"I dunno what she sees in him." Rowdy said as he popped the canned drink.

"Huh?" Connor looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

"You know.... Rosco." Rowdy gave an indifferent shrug.

Connor nodded and took another bite and ate a few more spoonfuls, as if he was thinking. Probably too hard, at the problem in the livingroom.

"Did you have a lot of girlfriends?" Connor wanted to know. "When..when you were young?"

Rowdy's eyes lit up, wondering what that had to do with anything. "A few." He finally admitted, but he'd never been married so maybe he wasn't all that great with relationships.

"How..how can I get her back?" His voice cracked.

"Why..you go right in there, sit your butt on the couch and say all the sweet things ..you been meaning to say." Rowdy pointed to the livingroom with a nod. For a fact, he knew once he'd been irresistible too. He wished he'd thought of it more of blessing now.

No telling where he might be if he'd paid attention. Or paid attention to a certain someone.