Tobias: Book One of the Cantrell Brothers Series

Chapter Fifty

“Wake up, you two!” Tobias's mother shouted into his bedroom.

He heard more than saw as she rummaged through the room until the blinds were opened, letting all of the late morning sunlight in. Groaning, both he and Tawson put pillows over their faces and rolled over simultaneously, an act they had done together whenever he had snuck into Tawson's room. Their heads clunked together roughly, drawing laughter from both of them.

“Mornin', Bug." He brushed the sleep from Tawson's tired eyes.

“Are you up?” his mom chimed in once more, hands on her hips.

“Yes,” he replied, exasperated beyond belief. “It's freakin' eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. Nobody gets up at this hour!”

“Young man, I talked with Father Mant last week, and he told me you haven't gone to church since last year.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he mumbled, shoving his head under the blankets once more.

They had been bothering him about this whole church thing on and off for the past two weeks they had been staying here. Sure, he believed in God and all, but that didn't mean he had to go to church all the time. He was a busy man.

Yeah, right. His subconscious scowled. If they weren't here right now, you'd just be laying in bed all day, crying about Jane until you run out of tears.

“Toby?” his oldest brother whispered, smiling goofily under the covers. “You awake? Ma says we gotta go to church.”

And just like that, he was putty in his brother's pale hands. For the past two weeks, they had done literally everything under the sun together. From going to the Special Olympics club at the Community Center to just watching some more Disney movies together and reading books to each other, Tobias had loved every second of it.

“Alright,” he finally said, rolling out of bed with exaggerated tiredness, “but you need to eat your breakfast first. Then we'll go to the Community Center. Maybe Alexis will even be there.”

Just as expected, Tawson's ears turned a bright red as the older man blushed furiously from the teasing. They had met Alexis, a younger autistic woman, last week and had played almost three hours of basketball, darts, and puzzles with her. She was sweet, and Tobias knew immediately that Tawson had developed a crush.

“So, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Cheerios,” Tawson grumbled, following him into the kitchen where Tobias prepared them their twin bowls of multi-grain Cheerios with skim milk.

His father came in a few moments later, adjusting his gray, pin-striped tie with his large hands. In a very fatherly move, he ruffled Tobias's hair, most likely remembering how much he had hated it as a child. Shrugging the move off, he made sure that Tawson finished up all of the cereal before depositing the bowls in the sink where his mother was steadily working.

“Put that nice tie on of yours. The gray one that I saw in your drawers, dear.”

Tobias stopped cold, his feet stuck to the wooden floorboards. He only owned one, gray tie – the tie Jane had helped him pick out right before their double date with Karen and Alex. It was the very same double date that had landed both their asses in jail. Cracking his knuckles roughly, he focused on the less than gentle pops and got himself moving once again.

It was times like that – memories and remembrances of special moments – that almost brought him to his knees, never failing to suffocate and choke him.

Once in his room, he searched through the drawers until he found that tie. Its cool fabric tickled the pads of his fingertips as he stroked the fine material gently. He could still remember the way she had laughed when she had made him try on outfit after outfit.