Hideaway

     "Are you sure? Like 100% certain?" I cross my arms making my best serious face. Damon's dad called him and said something about probably not getting home until Monday morning so now Damon wants us to stay an extra night.
     "I'm sure Nik, it's just another night. You get up early enough to leave before my dad gets here." His puppy dog eyes are tempting but I'm not even sure what time his dad'll get here. Just early Monday morning, which could honestly be a wide range of times.

     "It just feels risky. I'll think about it, don't say anything to Toby." If Toby had the option we'd stay forever. Right now he's having a third bowl of cereal in the kitchen while we talk upstairs. Damon just nods.
    "Is your sister gonna be staying here? I noticed there's no other bedroom but you and your dads." We talked about his sister coming back a little bit last night. She just told him she'll get here Monday night and that she wants to talk to them or something. We mostly just talked about him and her and growing up with older sisters. It was kinda nice to talk about mine but at the same time it's hard.

     "Oh, we used to share a room but after she left it was finally just mine. She didn't say where she was gonna stay. She was being a little weird so whatever she has to tell us is either amazing or terrible." He smiles. I can tell he's excited to see her. He hasn't seen her in person in two years. "I don't think you should say anything about me and Toby." I say it quietly but he hears me. She wants to be a lawyer and her dads a cop. It just probably wouldn't go down well. Plus the more people that know the more at risk we are of being caught.
   "She wouldn't say anything. Not if I asked her not to. It'd be nice for somebody to know other than me. In case you leave, I won't think I made you up." He says it jokingly but I don't like the thought of leaving and Damon forgetting we were even real.
"I trust you. Mostly. But you said you haven't seen her in a long time. You don't know what she'd do if she found out. If you do say anything leave out the whole running away and living in the woods thing." I give a weak smile. I feel bad asking him to lie but I have to. He nods and then a loud clanging sound comes from downstairs, we both dart down to see what it was.

     "I'm sorry! I gonna rinse it but I couldn't reach the sink so I climbed up but I fell and now it's broken." Toby says quickly as tears start to fall from his eyes. I  quickly walk over and pick him up away from the broken glass, setting him on the table to look him over and make sure he's okay. "It's alright little man, no big deal." Damon runs a hand through the boys hair and starts cleaning the glass. "You're okay hun, how about we don't climb on counters anymore though." I kiss his forehead and wipe the tears from under his eyes. I check him over to make sure there's no glass on him.
    "You're not mad at me are you?" He looks past me to Damon. "Of course not! I've broken so many of these stupid bowls I've lost count. Don't worry about it kid." He smiles at him. I doubt he's actually broke a bunch of bowls but Toby seems to feel better. I help Damon finish cleaning the mess, making sure Toby stays put.

      "C'mon Toby at least we aren't leaving tonight." I sigh at the crying boy. I decided we could stay one more night and just leave super early but as soon as I  said the word leave Toby started getting upset.
"It's alright little man. Not like I'm never gonna see you again." Damon lifts him onto his lap.
"But I don't wanna go, why can't we just stay here with you forever!" Toby huffs But Damon just chuckles quietly. "I think I have something that might make you feel a little better." Damon stands, still holding Toby, and starts walking out of the living room. I follow him up the stairs and into his room where he sets Toby down beside me. He digs through his closet for a moment before pulling out a black shirt with some sort of spray painted symbol or logo on it.

     "When I was 13 I decided I was gonna have my own band. I designed a logo for it and painted it on this shirt, when I realized nobody wanted to be in a band with me I was sad so I tossed the shirt in my closet and never looked at it again." He says the story as if he's reading it from a children's book, it worked because Toby seems very interested. Despite probably not knowing what a band is.
"It would make me really happy if you'd be in my band and take this shirt." Damon says very sincerely with a big smile on his face. Toby jumps up and down
  "I'll do it! I wanna be in the band!" His cute little grin is back and Damon hands him the shirt. "Thanks Tobe." He stands from his leaning position. Toby pulls off his current Spider-Man shirt and quickly gets into the band shirt. It goes down to his knees but he doesn't seem to care.

     "You look super cool Toby." I say high fiving him. "Now, when you leave, you can take that with you and it'll be like I'm there too." Toby runs up and hugs Damon. Moments like this make it hard to regret pulling Damon into my life. Honesty I don't, but I feel like I should.
     "Im gonna put my shirt away." Toby hugs me quick before dashing down out of the room. I don't think I've ever gone from crying to running around all giddy so quickly in my life. Maybe when I was 4 too.

    "Thanks Damon." I really appreciate how good he is with Toby. It honestly means the world to me. "Would you like a t-shirt too? I know you're gonna miss me." He smiles and throws an arm out, gesturing to his closet. "You wish. I'm totally fine leaving." I roll my eyes. He walks up to me, standing inches away. "You sure you're not gonna miss me? Even a little bit?" He pokes put his bottom lip and slides a hand around my waist. I poke his arm "I'm sure." He starts to lean closer when Toby comes running back in. "Mama! Mama come look!" Damon throws his head back with a sigh, then we both follow Toby down the stairs and into the living room. 
    Toby hops onto the couch and points out the large window behind it. "Isn't that you ma?" There's a paper nailed to a tree. It's got an old picture of me and above it says 'SEEN HER?' below there's a number and under that it says 'police won't help me but you can'

     "Not anymore." I sigh. I don't know how to feel about this. It feels like some sort of practical joke. My mom has told me multiple times in the past to just leave. That she wished I would just get out of her face, leave her alone. When I finally do she wants to act like the poor sad mother with the lost kid.  All she's doing is making it harder for me to live my life, I'm gonna have to tear these stupid posters down.
     "Are you famous or something?" Toby hops off the couch into my arms. "Nope. Go play with the legos Tobe." I set him down and luckily he runs off without protest to grab the LEGO box.

    "Are you ever gonna talk to her, tell her you're okay?" Damon asks it as if I should. I plop onto the couch, he sits next to me.
"I don't think you get it Damon. I'm almost 18. If she decided to call the cops on me or something I'm probably going to jail for kidnapping. Even if she really does want me, she doesn't want Toby. He needs me... I need him." I don't know what to do. I hope she just gives up.
   "She's your mom Nik, she feels the same way about you that you feel about Toby." He says it kindly but the words make me angry.
    "I'd never treat Toby the way she treated me. She only loved me out of obligation. You don't know her Damon. She's not a nice woman."

    "What was she like before your sister?" he asks it cautiously, afraid to bring up Rena. I don't mind I guess. "She wasn't as horrible to me but she still wasn't...I don't know. She wasn't like everyone else's mom. She was just kind of there. Sometimes her and Rena had moments but she never had any with me." I never did understand why she was so cold to me.
  "I know you don't wanna hear this but maybe you should talk to her. Just call if you don't wanna see her in person." The way he talks makes me feel like he's right. I'll think about it but I'm not going back there. Ever.
    "Maybe. Let's just drop it for now." I slump as far into the couch as I can. The thought of hearing her voice again after so long feels....strange.
"Look ma!" Toby shouts holding up what looks vaguely like a person made of legos. "It's you! I'm gonna make Damon next." I give him a thumbs up and he starts in making the next one.

     "He really captured your eyes." Damon says as seriously as he can and we both just start laughing.
It wasn't even all that funny.