smiling critters

chapter 5 - disobedience

Neil put the groceries away and sighed. He still wanted to lay down. Him seeing Kai was the only highlight of that day; but other than that, today was only negatives. At least tomorrow, he'd get to see the others. He just had to clean his room after he ate dinner. Easy. he got some time to himself before dinner was done, so he decided to check his homework before laying in bed while he listened to music through his headphones. He finally got the whole body rest he wanted before he heard someone coming towards his room, causing him to quickly sit up and go to sit at his desk to pretend he was doing homework.

"Neil, get your ass downstairs. Dinner's ready," his brother demanded. Neil muttered a quick 'ok' before following him downstairs. He ate and quickly went back upstairs to go to sleep for the night. Over the next few weeks, everything proceeded as usual; wind storms, family stuff, etcetera etcetera. But one day, everything changed. Neil was just super tired that day, to the point he couldn't leave bed. He knew he had to and he fought against the weight of his body gluing him to the mattress, but in the end, he lost and just gave up, despite knowing the consequences. Not even the adrenaline of one of his siblings could get him to sit up at least.

"Neil, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Get your ass out of bed!" they shouted as they lifted him up and dropped him on the floor. He yelped in pain and groaned as he slowly sat up.

"that is fucking it, you've done this way too many goddamn times, I'm telling Godfrey and getting you out of the house!" his sibling shouted.

"no, no. I'll stay awake, I promise! just please don't tell Godfrey!" Neil pleaded as he sat himself up.

"Fine, but I'm giving you extra chores."
Neil nodded frantically as he pulled himself up off the floor.

"Good, get to it," the sibling glared at him as he stormed out of his room. Neil quickly got to work on his chores and managed to finish them before he had to do homework, but once he sat down to start doing it, he found himself resting his head on his desk and falling asleep.

"Neil, wake up. time to leave," he heard Godfrey's gentle but condescending voice as something shook him awake. He slowly put his head up.

"Godfrey, what's going on, what do you mean?" Neil asked, still a little loopy.

"we're going out, come on," Godfrey told him. He helped Neil stand up and get some stuff packed, still not telling him where they were going before driving somewhere, telling Neil he'd be right back, and driving off. Neil sat on a nearby bench and waited. and waited. and waited. and waited. He checked his phone, it was 9:48. It was only then that Neil realized Godfrey probably wasn't coming back. Neil fell out of line too many times, and now he was paying the price. he was in disbelief and felt nothing but shame for his actions. he should've gone to bed earlier, or at least stayed awake just long enough to reach his 9 pm bedtime. he curled up in a ball and tried his best to fight back tears. he sat there for what felt like hours until he felt a paw on his shoulder.

"Hey, Nini! Need some company? you look lonely," Hollie smiled warmly. Neil wanted to break down and tell her what happened, but that'd just weigh her down, she didn't need that, so he hugged her instead.

"woah, ok. a little touchy for you, did something happen?"

"no, it's just that we don't get to hug that often," Neil semi-lied.

"oh, well my aunt and I were just on a walk, wanna join?"

"no, I don't wanna intrude on your time together," Neil shook his head. Hollie furrowed her brow before nodding.

"ok, but I'm dragging you along next time, you need to get more exercise."
With that, she walked away and Neil was left alone with his thoughts once again. He put on his headphones. After a bit of sitting and doing nothing, he decided to go to sleep. Over the next two months, Neil did his best to make things work but was finding it difficult with the storms, but he was extremely lucky that his friends always had sleepovers during the storms, so at least he had a place to sleep for the night and, depending on the house he was at, food the next morning. Because of being out of a place to stay, his eating habits were super inconsistent, and the only one who seemed to notice was Penny, causing her to try and offer him food, but he'd always declined, spare the times she made an entire lunch for him in her culinary class.

828 words

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