A Human Among Giants

Ch. 4

TIM (Pop) POV

After weeks of Asher being away at college, this was certainly the last vision I had of his first visit home. I'd been the one constantly preparing Ben for the possibility of not seeing Asher until Thanksgiving break, for he's such a great kid that he'll probably never have time to come home. "So many people will be fighting to be his friend," I'd said. Oyyy. There was certainly some fighting going on...

After Dr. Fogleman tended to Asher, Ben finally calmed down enough to eat. It's rare that Ben would ever pass up as much as a snack, let alone a dinner. However, neither one of us had ever really had to see our son hurt before today outside of cuts or scrapes, so it was certainly unpleasant.

"Asher buddy, Did the doctor help you feel any better?" Ben asked, being extra gentle around Asher. Ben was still shocked he'd 'scared' Asher earlier. Oyyy. Between Ben and Asher I sometimes felt like I had two kids. I mean, I do understand to an extent why Ben is so hung up about it... Back when we looked into adoption, our visits at the orphanages didn't exactly go well for Ben. Naturally most kids were terrified of him. We'd even tried going to giant-only facilities, and even then we'd had no luck. It wasn't until we visited a tiny all boys co-ed orphanage out in Durring Park, that we found our fearless little Asher. Asher didn't show one ounce of fear when meeting Ben and I. He wasn't hardly taller than my kneecaps, and yet he ran up to us, and we knew right then and there that he was coming home with us. As Asher grew up, he never feared Ben outside of a one time game of hide and seek gone too far. Oyyy... So I think to hear Ash say the one thing Ben feared him saying the most, really scared Ben, on top of seeing Ash hurt. Basically, it's Ash that truly scared Ben and not the other way around.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better. I'm just sad about my hand though. The doctor said I have to wait 6-8 weeks to even think about clarinet again. The season will be almost over by then," Asher replied.

"I'm sorry little buddy. I really wish I could fix your hand for you,"

"Yeah, me too. This is going to suck... Maybe I can just drop out of school,"

"OH THAT WOULD BE FUN! YOU COULD LIVE HERE AGAIN!" Ben boomed with excitement as I felt like the embodiment of a facepalm emoji.

"Nice one Ash. Absolutely not,"

"Pop, you dropped out of school though, didn't you? Wait, I'm pretty sure both of you are Titanus University drop-outs,"

"That's different. Things were different back then,"

Bzzz. Asher's phone buzzed. We were sitting at our kitchen table, As Ben finished his last cargo ship full of food. Asher and I had our own small table that sat on top of Ben's, and from where I sat next to Asher, I could see that he'd just ignored a call from a boy named Jeremy for the 3rd time tonight.

"Asher, who's Jeremy?" I asked, and immediately Asher's face turned red.

"No one. Hey, don't read my phone," Asher replied as he hid his phone away in his pocket.

"Well you won't talk to us about how you ended up like this, so the least you could do is tell us who this Jeremy who keeps calling you is. I mean, from the way you refuse to answer his calls, it may lead us to believe that Jeremy had something to do with how you ended up with a broken hand and a half purple face..."

"IS HE GIVING YOU A HARD TIME? YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SCARED OF ME ASHER... I'D JUST LIKE TO TALK TO HIM,"

"Oh my god, no! Jeremy has nothing to do with any of this... well I guess technically he does, but he didn't do anything to hurt me... at least not physically,"