Lupine Dreams

Author's note:You definitely will need to have read the previous chapters first, FYI. Enjoy (:

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Chapter 22

10:38amhey

10:40amHey (:

10:46amthats backwards

11:02amNah, that's my thing, that's how I make them. Then you know it's really from me and not an imposter (;

11:05amhmmthats not how you smile anyway

11:08amHaha how do I smile?

11:22am:7sortakinda

11:31am7:

11:33amsee now you're frowning

11:33amNah. Don't think I could if I tried today :P

11:51amI'm the coolest teacher in school today, btw

11:57amhmm wonder why that could be

12:09pmkinda weird last night tbhwithout Da Vinci I mean

12:22pmYeah he actually told me the same thing this morning. He kinda got used to you being there I think

12:25pmyeah same

12:31pmare teachers allowed to text in school? don't you have teaching to do?

12:47pmNah, we have an understanding. I assign reading, then they pull out their Chromebooks and just look at porn. Class teaches itself

12:52pmno wonder they think you're so cool

1:01pmYou chilling at home today?

1:07pmwatching a shitty scifi movieit came from vortex 9*vordoxfucking autocorrect

1:09pmAre you serious??

1:09pmalmost always

1:10pmDude no way!

1:10pmdude yes way

1:10pmDude I love shitty scifi!

1:10pmdude me too

1:11pmwhats your go to

1:14pmProbably Winter on Zavallian Shores. Just love the dialogue in that so much haha

1:16pmthat's acceptablein the tongue of old mother Pluto I bless you, traveler from the great beyondVENETRAAAAAAASSSSSSS*plonk*

1:19pmBahahahaha omg, I like to believe the actor wasn't actually supposed to hit him but they just rolled with it

1:20pmlol

1:22pmI haven't seen Vordox though

1:23pmI've seen it a bunch but gram doesn't have wifi so I can only watch what I've got with me

1:32pmYou're not back at your apartment? I thought you said yesterday Kendra was bringing you home?

2:02pmumm good timing actually. no I'm at gram's. she wants you to come over for dinner sundayI know its way fast but I think she wants to make sure you're not a cult leader or somethingyou can feel free to say no2:03pmreallysorry for making it awkward

2:03pmSure, I'm game

2:03pmshes just being weird but I had to ask you just so I can tell her I didohok

2:03pmBut...who's Gram? I've heard you mention the name but that's it

2:04pmoh sorry. shes sorta like my grandma I guess. she took care of me as a kid

2:04pmWell then yeah, of course :7

2:04pmokcoolI know its a little much sorryI had to tell her where I was stayingand that was a whole thingand she just wasn't gonna let it go

2:04pmI already said yes haha

5:11pmWhat're you up to tonight?

5:37pmnothinghanging with gram

5:38pmyou?

5:40pmGrading papers. Always grading papers

5:42pmjust give em all A's. you'll be even cooler

5:45pmNah, my boss caught on to that when their essays started to be about all the explicit sex scenes in Shakespeare plays

5:46pmlol

6:37pmwatching queen on the verge of the universe

6:41pmOh man I love that one

6:41pmlol I bet you do

6:42pmBahahaha what's that supposed to mean :P

6:42pmhey I'm not judging. just because theres no air doesn't mean there shouldn't be nudists

6:42pmThat's always been my philosophy

6:42pmlol

6:43pmWhat part are you on?

6:44pmthey just beat the gas cloud at space chess

6:45pmHahaha that's so great. No one even questions how he's moving the pieces!

6:45pmlol right

6:49pmI love this when they're like "What is a human?" Then immediately are like oh yeah no problem, come back in like 20 minutes, we'll have that cure ready

6:50pmlol yeahthe 60s must've been a wild fucking time

6:52pmEh, it was ok

6:52pmshut up you're not that old

6:59pmI'm pretty sure that's the same guy from that one about the praying mantises who are galactic communists? You ever seen that? Shit I can't remember his name though. Or the movie...He's been in tons of these I feel like though

7:00pm...ok you might actually be that old

7:00pmBahahaha

7:24pmthis is my favorite parthands down

7:25pmMine too

7:25pmthe way she just like, rips off their obviously cardboard wings and uses them to fucking fly into spacelike its the most reasonable thing to docracks me the fuck up every timeI think its the look on her face that gets me7:26pmwhatever they were smoking then, I wish I could still get that shit now

7:54pmyou still watching

8:02pmYeah sorry, I'm still grading too

8:21pmClearly they blew their entire budget on this fight sequence :P

8:22pmlol rightdef didn't spend it on stunt men

8:23pmHaha yeah I'm pretty sure that guy definitely broke his arm for real there

8:23pmgotta sacrifice for your art

8:39pmwe should watch vortex 9 sometime, I bet you'd like it*vordox goddammit

8:50pmI bet I would :7

12:42amyou asleep

12:55amNo. You?

12:56amyeah

12:56amWow. Maybe leave the dad jokes to the old guy :P

12:56amyou're not oldor you'd be asleep

12:57amHaha got me there I guess

12:57amjust wanted to let Da Vinci know I was thinking about him

12:58amFunny you should say that, he was just telling me he was having trouble getting to sleep without you here

12:58amyeah same

1:00amI don't really wanna go back to my apartment

1:00amWhen do you go?

1:00ammonday

1:01amDo you have to?

1:01amI mean no but yeahcan't stay here forever

1:03amWhy don't you wanna go back?

1:04amI dunno

1:06ammaybe if I'm there it'll be like it was beforeI know it doesn't work like thatbut it sorta does

1:07amI get that

1:07amdo you

1:08amYeah. There are some places I just can't go

1:10amlike wherenevermindyou don't have to tell me

1:13amGiles Pier. Mal proposed to me there

1:13amshe proposed to you?

1:13amYeah haha. Got down on one knee and everything

1:14amthats cuteI mean I get it tho

1:14amAlso the Applebee's on 17th

1:14amsorry its probably not cutewait she proposed twice?

1:15amHaha no I just can't go there either! But that's just because I'm banned

1:15amwhat for

1:16amKept taking too many napkins. They get real touchy about that kinda thing

1:16amoh thats why I thought you looked familiar. musta seen your pic there

1:16amHahaha yeah I'm kinda notorious, what can I say

1:16amI knew you were a bad boy deep down

1:17amThey call me the Napkin Bandit

1:17amhmmthats really dumb

1:17amYeah you know how it is. The press comes up with these things, I can't even get it trademarked

1:17amlol

1:38amdoes mal call you andrew?

1:40amYeahJust you and my mom call me Henry. I wasn't exaggerating

1:43amYou have to work Monday too?

1:44amyeah

1:44amMaybe we can watch Vordox afterward at your apartment?

1:47ammaybe

1:49amyeahthat sounds good

1:50am:7

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Chapter 23

Seated at her dinner table, now mostly empty of the remains of dinner, Henry exchanged an amused look with Brooke when she reached over him to grab his empty plate and bring it back to the kitchen.

Callie had been chattering animatedly now for a solid five minutes straight, at least. Her two younger brothers had left the table long before that, off to play Fortnite or Roblox or whatever it was they did on a Saturday night.

It wasn't that Henry wasn't interested in what his niece was saying -- he was. She was kind of a geek. Callie's mom's idea of a fun day was a hike up a mountain trail and pitching a tent at the top, and her dad's was a day of adult league basketball at the rec center followed by a night of watching football. So when Henry was around, she finally had somebody she could talk to about a Bradbury book she'd read or whether Deckard was a replicant.

That wasn't what she was talking about now, though. Or at least he didn't think so. She was a nerd, yes, but she was also 16. So the topic tonight seemed like it was a smattering of top teenage torments: teachers, frenemies, how unfair her mom was being by not letting her drive the SUV -- high drama. That really wasn't what was making his attention wander, either, though.

His eyes flicked down to the phone in his lap for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last minute.

He knew he was acting like a teenager himself, one who just found out his crush had a thing for him, too. And he knew it wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- last. The beginning of a relationship was always exciting.

Or at least, that was the common wisdom. Honestly, even though he was 36, he hadn't really had more than a few real relationships in his life. He'd met Mallory when he was 19, and they'd married at 24. So as much as he felt like he shouldn't react like this anymore, he knew it was actually a pretty new experience for him.

Cameron certainly hadn't seemed put off, though. They'd been texting a lot since she left his house to stay with Gram. And in shitty sci-fi movies, they'd finally found somewhere where they overlapped, too -- no matter how small a thing it was.

She seemed more talkative over text. Or maybe she was just more comfortable with him general, like she'd been the other night in bed. He'd never seen her so expressive, and it was like that carried over into her messages.

Except when his marriage came up, that is. Maybe she just didn't really know how to respond. He didn't have much experience dating as a 36-year-old, but as a 23-year-old, he definitely hadn't had any point of reference for what it was like to be married yet, much less divorced.

So once he'd told her that he was at his sister's house tonight to go over the settlement agreement, he didn't really expect to hear from her for a while. And he hadn't.

Maybe Callie should be giving me tips?

He smiled a little bit at the thought of asking his teenage niece for dating advice...then frowned when he realized Cameron was way closer to Callie's age than his. That got him to finally keep his eyes off his phone for an extended period. Just in time, apparently, too.

"--but Kelly was like 'no, you don't need a doctor for an abortion, I met this guy online who'll do it for free as long as you let him take some pictures of you first!'"

Henry snapped his attention back to his smirking niece, wondering what the hell he'd missed.

"Iknewyou weren't paying attention!" she said smugly, more pleased that she'd caught him rather than mad his mind had been wandering.

His niece's eyes and straight, long hair were the same matching brown he and his sisters all sported, and she had Brooke's same sharp features. From a distance, she would've looked just like his oldest sister when she was that age, if not for the glasses and baggy purple sweatshirt.

He gave her an embarrassed smile. "Guilty! You got me. But I think I got the gist. You're pregnant with Kelly's baby and your mom won't let you drive yourself to your teacher's house for an abortion."

She nodded, not missing a beat. "Okay, so youwerelistening."

Brooke came out of the kitchen again, eyeing the grinning pair suspiciously.

"I don't think I even wanna know what you two are up to," she said. Then she clapped Henry on the shoulder. "I gotta steal your partner in crime here for a bit, sorry," she told her daughter. "You can have him back after you finish your homework."

Callie gave her mom a 10-out-of-10 eyeroll. "Ididit already. And it's Saturday,God."

"You can just call me, 'Mom,'" Brooke said, a little bit of an edge to her voice that quickly dissipated. "But fine. You can have Uncle Andrew back when he finisheshishomework, then."

Henry waggled his eyebrows at Callie and stood up, following his sister to her study.

It was a cozy space, cabinets stacked with years of teetering piles of papers and files kept as neat as could be in a room that was bursting at the seams. A massive wooden desk took up the entirety of one of the walls, filled with spillover clutter in front of family photos lining the back of it.

Brooke closed the door behind her brother and gestured for him to take a seat on the old couch.

"I hope you're sticking around after this, by the way. Callie would probably never speak to me again if you left right after dinner," she said as she took a seat in the swivel chair in front of the desk, scooting closer to Henry. Then she paused for a second. "For a day at least. Of course, she's a teenager, so, 50/50 odds she'll just do that anyway."

"Callie?" he said, settling into the couch. "She doesn't seem like that."

Brooke gave her little brother a pitiable look meant to remind him he'd never had any kids.

"Someday, Andrew, you too shall have a teenage daughter. And then," her face shifted to relishing the future she was conjuring up in her mind, "ohhhhand then, my dear brother, you'll see. I will delight in coming over toyourhouse, watching movies with her, bringing her crap she doesn't need -- and then leaving so she can scream atyoufor ruining her life when you ask her if sheabsolutely needssuper expensive new headphones, because, what's wrong with her old ones? Can't she just wait for her birthday?"

Lupine Dreams Pt. 07 Ch. 22-24

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