Page 12 of Teddy Tea Time

The guilt rushes in at the last thought. Blood ties don’t make a connection more real. Jackson and Justice are one thousand percent my brothers, but Gerry holds a piece of me I never realized I needed.

“I haven’t seen the place yet, Dad, but Jace showed me pictures of my new room. It’s smaller than my room at our house, but that’s okay. I don’t need that much space anyways.”

I turn away from them to seek out a nurse before I lose the battle against my tears. At the nurse’s station, I sign all of the paperwork to cease all life support on David today. There’s no reason to come back again. I also sign off for organ donation because the man Gerry told me about would absolutely want to help other people live. If I’m wrong, let David haunt me so I can get to know the man myself.

“Do you want to wait with him until the end?”

The nurse behind the desk offers me some tissues, and I realize I lost my battle without noticing. My hand reaches over to grab a few to try and at least make it look like I’m not absolutely losing my shit over a man that didn’t even know I existed a month ago.

Do I want to wait?

I’ve watched death claim a person before. At one of the group homes I was sent to, I watched three older boys get into a fight. Two ganged up on the third and choked him out. The ambulance was called. He was in the hospital for months. He never woke up… Come to think of it, his name was also David.

“I wanna wait for Dad to go,” Gerry says decisively from the doorway of the room. “I was there when Mom left us, so I wanna make sure he knows it’s okay to go be with her.”

My head moves up and down in a jerky nodding motion, and I hurry to the elevators after telling the nurse I’ll be right back. I’m already fucking up and abandoning him less than two hours after taking custody, but I can’t… How can he be so casual about it all while I am losing my shit?

When the heat of a June morning sun hits me, I stagger over to the curb and sit heavily. People stare at the giant tattooed man bawling his eyes out in the parking lot, but no one bothers me.

Pulling out my phone, I just stare at it. Who do I even call? Jackson has already done enough for me. Eli would go into fix-it mode, but there is nothing here for him to fix.

I’m about to put the phone away when an alert for the Kink Manor Group chat pops up.

Sparkles the Unicorn pinned a message.

An involuntary smile forms as I ponder what fresh hell Eric has decided to throw at everyone. The last time he pinned a message, it was the video of Eli failing spectacularly to start the push mower after firing the landscaping company. So what if they raised their rate by twenty dollars a visit? They are a small business and shouldn’t have to eat the rising cost of gas, especially for a contract that covers over an acre of mowing.

When I open the chat, the tears start falling again. People have already started replying

Sparkles the Unicorn:

We are all going to be especially nice and give our teddy bear the love and support HE ASKS FOR.

Chef Pan Pup:

what happened with Jace? Do I need to bite someone? Owner just bought me one of those handheld blowtorches for my flambé practice.

Negro Gatito:

stand down Tobes. Donnie didn’t buy that for u to melt off faces

Chef Pan Pup:

I was gonna go for the pubic hair but faces work 2

I guess it’s safe to assume that it’s slow at the café since classes are on break. Normally, it would be the morning rush between classes for them. Shiloh responding would be normal as long as he wasn’t absorbed in his art, but Toby is almost always in the kitchen or bouncing around the café chatting when they’re busy.

Wannabe Sadist:

@sparkles_the_unicorn quit starting shit. I am going over to see what Jace needs when he gets back

Wannabe Sadist:

STOP CHANGING MY HANDLE

Sparkles the Unicorn:

*laughing crying emoji*