Page 38 of Fear
Then he saw Roger’s name on the screen, and the unease in his chest broke apart into something light. “Hey, Rog.” He unlocked the door with his other hand and waved Tobias in with another gesture that hopefully communicated he’d be back in a minute. Tobias actually beamed at him, his arms full of books, before turning into the apartment. Jake shut and locked the door before heading back down the stairs to amble along the sidewalk.
“Hey, kid. Any word on the paperwork?”
For a moment, Jake was lost. How did Roger know about the library form? And why didn’t he also know it had already gone super smooth? “Paperwork?”
Roger’s voice turned incredulous. “Yeah, the ASC paperwork. The thing you’ve been waiting on for months and pining over like a Victorian lady?”
“Oh!” Jake stopped walking as the realization hit him. It had been, what, a little over a week since he’d picked Tobias up? It had felt like years but also like no time at all. “Yeah, I got him!”
“You what?”
Jake winced, pulling the phone away from his ear. “Yeah, I picked him up on the sixteenth.” He didn’t think he’d ever forget the date. Even though his cousin Leah Dixon had sounded grim on the phone, he’d done several fist bumps as she told him, You may retrieve your monster from FREACS on July 16th. Remember your ID and make sure you read the intake paperwork we’ve sent to your address on file.
“You—” Jake had never heard Roger speechless before. “You troll-headed moron, you didn’t think to pick up the phone and let me know?”
Jake just managed to keep from laughing. “Sorry, Rog, it moved kinda fast.”
Another moment of silence made Jake glad he was several hundred miles away from New Mexico and not in head-slapping range. “Well? What’s he like?”
Jake rolled his eyes. “Tobias is great. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. I told you that.”
“And I told you, even if he’s fully human, that place would fuck anyone’s head up,” Roger snapped.
“Dude, I know!” Scowling, Jake glanced around to check for privacy. “Look, he’s shaky. This is all really new to him, so we’re just taking baby steps. Even the grocery store was pretty intense.”
“You brought him to—” Jake heard Roger take a deep breath. “Jake. You ain’t dumb, no matter how much you like to act like it. I know you believe in the kid, but tell me you’re using that head of yours.”
Jake scowled. “Of course I am.”
“Yeah? Nothing’s happened yet that made you think you’re maybe out of your depth?”
Jake winced again. Roger could read him too well even long-distance. “We got it handled, okay? I told you, baby steps.”
A pause on the other end of the line. “All the same, I’d feel better if—why don’t you take a few days to come by and see me? Both of you, I mean. Alejandra’s been talking about swinging by. You know she’d like to finally meet him.”
Jake felt another surge of unease he didn’t want to examine. Roger’s place had always been the closest thing he had to home, but he wasn’t sure Tobias would feel the same. Plus, as much as he owed Alejandra Rodriguez for helping to vouch for Jake’s character to the ASC so he could get Tobias out, Jake didn’t know her nearly well enough yet to pull Tobias in for a meet-and-greet.
“What, already? We’re still getting our feet under us in Boulder. Give us some time before we take on the open road.”
“Jake. Don’t make me come to you.”
“Hey, no!” A bolt of alarm went through Jake at the idea of Roger descending upon them here in Colorado. Nothing good happened when Roger had to stir outside his self-marked territory around the little town of Truth or Consequences. “All right, we’ll come see you. Just give us a little more time. I swear we’ve got it under control. Look, I’ve gotta go back now and just—keep him company. He’s fine, really. He just does better when I’m around. You don’t gotta worry, he’s too scared to talk to anyone.”
“Jake—”
“I’ll call you later.” Jake stabbed the off button and braced himself for the phone to start yowling again, but Roger didn’t immediately call back.
Dropping the phone into his pocket, Jake turned back to the apartment. He and Tobias had just had an awesome day. The library was a definite winner, and they could build on that. Roger worried too much.
BACK AT THE LIBRARY, Jake had filled out a card for himself and browsed the movie section while Tobias pored over the books, and he finally picked out a couple of things he felt reasonably confident would not shatter Tobias.
He ordered pizza delivery from a local pie shop, and it turned out to be a hell of a lot better than the frozen ones he’d gotten at the grocery store. Tobias even reached for his own slices (okay, maybe only after Jake took one of his own) and didn’t even try to hide his smile.
After dinner, Jake pushed in the VHS tape of a nature documentary, and they settled down in comfy clothes onto the couch.
The documentary was ass-boring, which was exactly what Jake had hoped for. He didn’t have a thing to complain about, because Tobias was currently slouched against his chest, so relaxed he had dozed off. As hesitant as Tobias was to initiate contact, if Jake stretched his arm across the back of the sofa, Tobias would immediately sit right beside him. Once there, he practically melted into Jake’s arms.
Nature documentaries really were underrated, Jake thought. Hell, he should’ve had a pile of them ready to go from the very first night. Before Tobias’s eyes had fallen shut, he’d clearly been enraptured, and in a good way. This one was about a couple of birds going after each other, and the biggest action scenes were just a couple of brown birds swooping and diving. Nothing noisier than the soothing murmur of the narrator’s voice offering them bird fact after bird fact.
