Chapter 7

Sean goes through a little more trouble at home.

 

        The rest of the school day went by a little slowly for Sean. He lost interest in everything the teachers were talking about and wasn't paying attention for the most part. Instead his mind was on something—or rather someone—else. Alex had been the first person in a long while to ever talk to him without saying something mean. Maybe there was someone that wouldn't hate him after all? The more the question floated around in the dark-haired boy's head, the more he began to doubt it. It would only be a matter of time until Alex treated him like everyone else did.

        It was the end of school now and Sean was sitting in a seat near the back of the bus. There were quite a few sixth graders that rode the bus and their high-pitched voices annoyed Sean a little. To solve this problem, he figured he would sit further back so that he wouldn't be able to hear them so easily.

        This time he also had his CD player. It helped him tune out the world for a while and music did help calm him whenever he was angry or upset about something. Unfortunately he couldn't afford the more up-to-date music devices, but a CD player did the trick.

        As Sean sat there and listened to his music, he stared out the window and watched the trees as they passed by. His mind slowly went back to Alex again. A new question arose now. Maybe he could try to be Alex's friend? As soon as the question surfaced though, Sean quickly pushed it away. Something like that would never happen. Like he told himself earlier, Alex would end up hating him like the rest of them.

        Although, a small bit of hope did linger. Maybe it could happen? After thinking about it a little more, the thought of having a friend did sound nice. It had been something Sean wanted, but was never able to get. Many people usually found some kind of reason to hate him and there was also the fact that Sean was too shy of a person to try to make a friend.

        Sean was soon interrupted from these thoughts. A boy sitting in the seat next to his snatched his CD player from his hands, which caused the headphones to become disconnected from it. The dark-haired boy took the headphones off his ears and let them hang around his neck as he stared at the boy.

        “What are you listening to?” the boy asked with a hint of mischief in his voice.

        “Give it back!” Sean said as he tried to grab his CD player back from the boy.

        The boy moved the CD player away and out of Sean's grasp as he opened up the CD player to see what CD was inside. He looked at the CD for a second before looking at Sean.

        “What kind of crap is this?” said the boy.

        “Come on, give it back,” Sean pleaded as he held his hand out for his CD player.

        “Forget it!”

        The boy threw it out of the window. Sean couldn't do anything but watch as the music device smacked into the trunk of a tree. The boy laughed as he stared at Sean, who sighed before looking out the window in his seat.

        When the bus finally stopped at their house, Sean and Jim got off. They walked through the small yard and into the house. Both their father and mother were home this time, but not greetings were made. Sean went straight to his messy bedroom to put his backpack away for the weekend.

        Sean was still a little upset about his CD player being thrown out the window. It was the only way he could listen to music and his favorite CD was in it too. However, Sean had a solution to this problem. The CD player was probably broken after being chucked into a tree like that, but he could just buy another CD player and get the CD again. He had more than enough money to afford both of them. Not only that, but he could maybe buy a few more CDs too. There were a few other ones that he wanted to buy.

        Figuring he would do that, Sean walked over to his closet. Getting on his toes, he reached up towards the shelf at the top and got down a shoe box. He walked over to the bed and set the box down before opening it up. After digging through the various things that was inside, he came to his wallet. Sean opened it up to find that it was completely empty. An exasperated sigh escaped the boy's parted lips as he threw the wallet onto the bed. He walked out of his bedroom and into the living room where his dad and mom were watching television.

        “Who stole my money?” Sean asked with a small hint of anger in his voice.

        “We needed it to pay for the bills,” answered his dad as he just continued to watch television.

        “But that was my money,” said Sean.

        “You can always earn more.”

        “But it was my money.”

        “And we needed it to pay for the bills,” his dad said angrily. “What? Do you not give a damn about what happens to this family? Oh, wait, of course not. Instead you only care about your own damn needs and wants. Forget it. Next time we need to pay for the bills I'll just let us get kicked out of the goddamn house.”

        Sean didn't say anything else. Instead he let out a sigh and just headed back into his room. After closing the door, he walked over to his bed and knocked the shoe box off, which spilled some of its contents onto the floor. He laid down on the bed with his gaze fixed on the blank ceiling above him.

        Money had always been a bit of an issue for his family, and Sean understood that. He just hated it when they always stole his hard-earned cash from him. Half the time it was for their own selfish needs rather than for the bills or food. Another sigh escaped Sean's mouth. He figured that he would just have to find a better spot to hide his money.

        It wasn't long until Sean's father came bursting into the room. His face was red from anger as he stared at the black-haired boy, who slowly sat up as he looked back at him with a slightly confused look on his face.

        “Where is it?” his father yelled as he walked over to the bed.

        “Where is what?” asked Sean.

        “You know damn well what I'm talking about!” Sean's dad yelled as he started to look around the room now. “Where the hell did you put the money? Didn't I tell you that we need it for the bills?”

        “I don't have it.”

        His dad went over to Sean's dresser and started to throw clothes out of the drawers in search of the money that wasn't even there.

        “I said I don't have it!” Sean said.

        After throwing a few more pairs of socks out of the drawers, Sean's father pushed the dresser over and let it crash to the floor.

        “Just show me where the damn money is!” he shouted as he moved to the closet now.

        “I don't have the money!”

        His dad started throwing things out of the closet and into the middle of the room, still trying to find the money.

        “Stop doing that!” Sean said as he walked over.

        Sean's dad turned around to look at him.

        “Show me where the goddamn money is!” he yelled loudly.

        “I don't have it,” Sean said as calmly as he could.

        His father raised his hand as if he was going to hit Sean, who cringed at the sight of it. His eyes closed as he shielded his face with his hands, waiting for the strike. It didn't come though. Sean's father sighed angrily before heading towards the door.

        “Forget it,” he said. “You obviously don't give a damn about this family. If we get kicked out on the streets it's your damn fault.”

        He stopped in the doorway and looked at the mess he created before looking at Sean.

        “And clean this mess up,” he said.

        Sean watched as his father finally left before letting out a heavy sigh. He looked down at the clothes and other things that littered the floor for a moment before walking over to the dresser. He tried to lift it up, but the dresser proved to be a bit too heavy for him and he just gave up. Not in the mood to clean up after his dad, Sean walked over to his bed and sat down.

        A couple seconds later he spotted Jim standing there just outside of the doorway with several dollar bills in his hand. His fingers flipped through the dollars as if he was counting them before shoving the money into the pocket of his jeans. He looked at Sean and smirked before walking away.

        Sean didn't bother trying to tell his dad that it was Jim who stole the money. The chances of him believing him were pretty slim because he always liked Jim better than him. Not only that, but it would only give him trouble with Jim later on, which is something Sean didn't want.

        The boy's eyes wandered around the room a little as he sat there. They soon rested upon a pocketknife that laid on the nightstand beside his bed. He got it when he took an interest in whittling. That was a while back ago though and Sean hasn't done it since.

        Thoughts started to cloud Sean's mind as he sat there and stared at the pocketknife. A hand lifted from the surface of the bed as if it was going to go towards the pocketknife. It fell back down a couple seconds afterwards as Sean let out another sigh. He cleared his mind of the ideas that swam around in it before laying down on his bed. Sean just hoped that his entire weekend wasn't going to be this bad.

Reviews

[Amund Schofield]

Oh so you do show Sean's thoughts about Alex...

[Amy]

Poor Sean, I feel so bad for him....Jim is a jerk!
Good chapter though!