Opposites Attract

Theres No Place Like Home

Alan’s elbow was digging into her stomach, Scott’s legs were draped over her’s and poor John was squashed under all of them because she had chosen his lap to perch on before the others had decided they wanted in on movie time. She just hoped he could breathe under there, he hadn’t moved in a while. This amount of long limbed people on one small couch was not an easy jenga puzzle to pull off but they had managed it and were finally settled in a reasonably comfortable position, about twenty minutes into the movie when in perfect synchronization, all three of the boys phones chimed.

Scott stretched towards the coffee table, but couldn’t reach his, grunting in effort,before collapsing back in defeat. Alan tried too, his fingers grasping at air, but his arms were even shorter. John raised an arm feebly but was so stuck he could barely move. It was down to her, she was their last chance.

“Hey, Scotty long legs, move will you,” Selene smacked lightly at his knee, then tried shoving at him when he refused to move. “Dude!”

“I’m comfy,” he leant back further, crossing his arms behind his head. “If it was an actual emergency from the island they would call on our comms, so whatever that is can wait.”

She made another half hearted attempt to reach John’s phone, lifting her leg to try to nudge it with her foot but gave it up as too much effort, settling back, getting comfortable again. The movie was actually a good one and deserved to have them paying attention. For once they had all been in agreement as to what they wanted to watch and were soon so engrossed that the dinging phones had been forgotten about.

It wasn’t until the movie was over and they were extracting themselves from the tangle of limbs - John needing some help because his legs had gone to sleep - that Alan remembered the notifications and checked his phone.

“Guys, it’s from Dad.”

“What?” Scott stopped in his tracks on his way to the kitchen. “All of them?”

John checked and nodded. “Looks like it.”

“What does it say?”

“Not much, just that he wants us to come home tomorrow so we can talk,” John shrugged.

Scott dumped the empty popcorn bowl in the dishwasher and retrieved his phone, needing to see the words for himself.

“What do you think? Alan asked, unconsciously edging closer to Selene, who wrapped her arm around his shoulders, pulling him into her side for a hug. “What do we do?”

“There’s no apology there,” Scott frowned. “Honestly, what are the chances that he’s had a change of heart on his own?”

“It has only been four days,” John agreed slowly. “That's not a lot of time. What do you want to do about it?”

“We aren’t a dictatorship,” Scott sighed. “It’s not about me making the decision for us all, that’s what Dad was doing and we all know how that worked out for us. What do you think?”

John paused for a moment, thinking. Selene felt Alan’s shoulders tense under her arm and gave him a comforting squeeze.

“Obviously we need to find out why he wants to see us and what he has to say,” John mused.

“Obviously,” Scott agreed, perching on the arm of the couch, “but do we really want to go back the second he summons us just to have our opinions and needs be ignored again?”