Page 9 of Brock’s Lost Lunchbox

I’d been thinking about him and the small things he did that made me feel special. How he called me buddy and ruffled my hair. The way he let me lead him around the room instead of taking control. He built block towers so I could knock them down and never looked frustrated. The patient way he held out his hand for me, not pushing the contact but being open to it.

I hadn’t wanted that night to end. But it had and, if these feelings and memories were all I had left to hold on to, I was grateful for them.

The water main situation was fixed by the next morning. Work resumed, which meant I went in on the weekend to catch up on what I didn’t get done while we were kicked out. It was easy to fall back into my routine, but I hated it. I’d been giving everything I had for so long and getting nowhere. Gone were the simpler days of working alongside Sammy, and to what end? To be exhausted, doing the job of multiple people, and getting stuck in that existence?

And that was why, when Sammy suggested Lake, Abbott, and I have a pizza and movie night, I made it a priority. And by priority, I meant that I went into work with the change in security guards, while the cleaning crews were still there. As much as I knew there needed to be a change, I wasn’t ready to fully make one yet.

Sammy offered to have us over to his place, but he was the only one of us with a daddy, and it didn’t feel right to displace him for our night of fun. My place was a clutter fest, but that also made it so people didn’t have to worry about making a mess, so I offered it up, as did Abbott with his house. In the end, we landed at Abbott’s house because he had a dog and it would mean he didn’t need to rush home.

Instead of ordering pizzas like we usually did, Lake suggested we make our own using English muffins. That turned into Abbott bringing dough his grandmother made for us to use. I loved pizza, but there was something a thousand times better about pizza you made yourself.

I used olives to make a happy face on mine. Sammy turned his into a garden using veggies his daddy insisted he bring. Abbott opted for more pepperoni than pizza, and Lake was a plain cheese kind of guy.

“Let’s get ready for our movie.” Sammy took over the semi-daddy role for the night. He put the pizzas in the oven and guided our activities. I appreciated it because despite having Little Night last week, I needed this time with friends and without having to make too many decisions.

“I brought jam-jams and clothes. What are we wearing?” Lake asked.

All three of them looked at me, probably because I never thought ahead enough to have multiple outfits like they tended to.

“I brought my spaceman jams.” Because they were on top. Not for any reason in particular.

“Then jam-jams it is.” Lake skipped into the bedroom where we were going to change, and we all followed him.

We were dressed, had the pillows and blankies all set up, and the movie picked by the time the pizza timer went off.

Abbott had a nice collection of themed plates, and we each picked out our favorite and filled it with our pizza and veggie sticks Sammy said his daddy told him to share with us. I suspected they were all for him and he didn’t want to eat them all, but what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t eat them all?

This was the first time all four of us had played together outside of Chained, and we had a blast. It was nice when you met people you clicked with like this.

The only downside of the evening was not caving to the big brown eyes of Abbott’s dog as she begged for our pizza. She was the official queen of begging. She didn’t get in your face or hit you with her paw, like some dogs did. She curled in a ball and set her eyes on the food, then you, then the food again. How I longed to give her everything I had, but Abbott was firm that she could only eat her special food.

“What’s got you so distracted?” Sammy placed his hand on my shoulder and asked a second time.

The first movie had just ended, and I hadn’t realized it until just then.

“Just spacing out,” I lied. I’d been lost in the world of knocking down towers with Daddy Zeph.

“Not thinking about that hot daddy from Chained?” Lake smirked.

“Maybe?”

“Did you get his number?” Leave it to Abbott to get straight to the nitty gritty.

“No.” It was my one regret for the night, despite the fact that it was better this way.

“But you wanted to.” Lake wasn’t asking.

“I never said that.”

“But you did mention this in passing about forty-two million times tonight.” Lake stuck out his tongue.

Had I? I thought I’d been so careful not to let them see how focused I was on him. The last thing I’d wanted was to have to explain these complicated feelings I had that could go absolutely nowhere right now.

“Exaggerate much?”

“Deflect much?” Lake stood up, sippy cup in hand. “I’m getting more juice. Anyone want any?”

And this effectively ended the conversation…for now. Someone else would bring it up again…that someone probably being me. But not tonight. I hadn’t collected my thoughts enough for that. Who knew. When I did, it might not be worth discussing at all.