Page 52 of Peach Tree Family

Chapter 13

Friday afternoon, back from work, Theo was making a list of projects for the weekend. Looking up from his list, he saw the mail truck driving away and heard as Ace started yelling.

"We have a package. A package!" Ace announced, running in then running back outside.

The box Theo was expecting was on the porch and Butter was out there checking it out.

"She's sniffing it a lot," Ace said crouching next to her.

"She's as curious about it as you are," Theo told him. He picked up the box and carried it into the house.

"Is it a present?" Ace asked as he and Butter followed.

"No, but there's some good stuff inside," Theo told him setting the box in the middle of the living room.

He let Ace open it but he wasn't sure if they had time to unpack it before going to get Seth from the café. Just as he was going to tell Ace they had to go, Seth texted to say that Hannah was giving him a ride.

Theo cursed at the phone screen silently then showed Ace what was in the box and tried not to think about what Seth and Hannah might be doing. Maybe Seth would make a move on her, though Hannah seemed more than capable of jumping him first.

Most of the stuff was out of the box, Butter was batting at the crumpled up newspapers that were used for the packing, and while helping clean up, Ace discovered the Sunday comics pages.

"I'm gonna read the comics to Butter," he said.

Theo wasn't doing much either. He was constantly looking out the window, wondering when Seth would be back and what he was up to with Hannah.

When he arrived and came in, Ace jumped up and started telling him all about the package.

"What's this now?" Seth asked since Ace was talking way too fast.

"It's just some of our stuff we left behind. We only brought what we could carry so a friend of mine was storing all this," Theo said pointing at the things he unpacked. "This is the main thing."

He went over to the table where their dad's old laptop was done booting up.

"Can we play the game?" Ace asked, coming over.

"The laptop belonged to our dad. There's a game on it that my dad was working on," Theo said. He started up the game but it would take a little while to load.

"You mean he made the game?" Seth asked.

"Just something he did in his spare time, like a hobby," Theo said.

"Wow, that's one cool hobby," Seth said, impressed.

"Dad was cool," Ace said to Seth then he leaned in to whisper. "But he was a nerd."

"He must have been one of those cool nerds," Seth said and Ace nodded and smiled.

Theo was eying the laptop screen waiting for the game to finish loading, and he felt Ace lean against him, watching for it too. It took a little while then they saw the welcome screen with the two crossed swords and the words Elemental Warriors.

While Ace played, Seth stayed and watched the game-play closely. Theo kept glancing at him, checking for any sign that he and Hannah made out on the ride over. There weren't any, but that didn't mean anything.

Theo knew he was too intent on knowing. He should have never gone to Seth's room that night. Instead of curing Seth of wanting to be with Hannah, all Theo did was make the whole thing harder on himself.

So what if Seth wasn't straight, but that didn't mean he wanted Theo more than some girl.

Ace was trying to play and explain the game to Seth at the same time, so Theo took over. "There are mages and warriors trying to get to the elemental treasures. You need to gain a minimum of twenty MPs and a team of at least three to move on from each quest."

"There are three of us," Ace said and looked over at Seth then back to the screen.

---