smiling critters

chapter 37 - yarn

“you know, Neil. you should be getting de exercise he’s getting,” his dad turned to his son and pointed at the direction Dylan had ran.

“what do you mean? I get plenty of exercise,” Neil cocked his head to the side.

“how much exercise?”
Neil paused to think, how much exercise does he get everyday? he spends time at the beach, but then again, he just sat in the shade as everyone else ran around, only occasionally joining in on the action. He tended to roll around in the mud after storms with PJ and candy, but that wasn't very few and far between. there weren't really too many examples of him getting a lot of exercise.

“how about you try this?” his dad pulled a ball of yarn out of his duffle bag and under handed it a little ways down the field, and as if some primal instinct had activated in his brain, Neil went chasing after it. once he caught up to it, he started batting it around the grass and playing with it like a kitten would. It was kitten behavior, the kind of behavior Godfrey wouldn't like, but because of that, Neil sort had his childhood taken away from him, he was forced to grow up because of Godfrey's wacky ass cult and was just now starting to live a part of his life that he never got to live. it was oddly comforting, for whatever reason, but also it was still internalized that this behavior is bad and he wouldn't be granted salvation because of it, which is a mindset he was trying to unlearn. after a bit of playing with the yarn, Dylan came over and started tossing the yarn ball when it rolled away from the feline. Kai and neil's dad had seemed to go off and do their own things, possibly with Bobby and Camila, but this moment where it was just him and Dylan in the grass spending time with each other, it felt like heaven. suddenly the yarn ball rolled a little farther than either of them could reach from where they were, so Neil pounced after and managed to grab it before or got too too far.

“yes!” he smiled, flipping onto his back to see Dylan staring at him with a dopey grin and his head cupped in his palm pad as his tail aggressively wagged from side to side.

“What?” the American shorthair asked as he sat up.

“you're so pretty,” Dylan sighed dreamily, making Neil hide his stomach with his legs as he slowly scooted up to his boyfriend with the yarn ball in his paw before resting his head on Dylan's shoulder. Dylan responded by turning to him and wrapping his legs around him as much as he could and hugging him as he hugged back and started purring. they stayed like that until Kai swept everyone up in a game of tag until everyone had to go home.

~the next day~

today was neil's turn to check the mail, so he threw on his shoes and grabbed the key before waltzing outside and grabbing everything and going back inside. He started sifting through the papers and magazines until he saw a letter with his name on it in godfrey’s handwriting, it was written fairly recently considering the return address was north myrtle beach detention. He opened the envelope with his claw to read the note.

Neil

Go to the house. go into my room. Look for a box that says mail to dad with my necklace on top of it. Grab them, leave. Give it to dad. You are to not open that box. You are to not to look inside that box. I gave elliot’s ex-wife more boxes, the same rules follow. If i ever find out you opened those boxes, you will regret it. Do you understand me? The content of those boxes are for dad’s eyes only. Not yours.

Godfrey

Neil raised an eyebrow. He believed he saw the box godfrey was talking about before, so he knew where it was, but the house was condemned; left to rot. The rest of his siblings got everything they could and ran for the hills as soon as godfrey was jailed. Godfrey eventually lost the house gut due to its history, the landlord could never sell the house and had to abandon it, so now it just sat where it was, having seen all the abuse godfrey put through neil and their siblings had put them through and never having new people to see and nurture, its just there, wallowing in the traumas that’d gone on within its walls. Neil didn’t want to go back there, but what would godfrey do if he didn’t? He’d gotten up uncharacteristically early, 7:30 AM. he usually got up around 8 for school since it started at 9 and he got to spend some time with donna both at breakfast and in the car sine she typically drove him to school He got up and started the coffee maker for everyone and started making a small breakfast for himself and donna before going upstairs to get dressed. Once he came back down, donna was downstairs looking a little confused.

“Oh, good morning darling! Did you do all this?” she smiled, pointing at the food and coffee maker.

He nodded. “I made some for you, too.”

“Aw, thank you sweetie!” she smiled and hugged him before they went over to eat as they made small talk before getting their shoes on and heading out the door. After a boring first few periods, he finally got to go to lunch and spend time with his friends. he got to the library and sat beside dylan and started eating. Once he was done, he began cuddling with dylan and kneading his stomach as the cocker spaniel kept eating.

“Dude, you could power a fleet of army jets with how loud you’re purring,” kai commented before stuffing a forkful of rice into his mouth. Neil responded by separating from dylan and hiding his stomach with his legs and shrinking onto that ball.

“No no, you don’t have to stop. It's cute,” dylan smiled and pulled neil back into the position he was in before, prompting neil to hesitantly resume kneading dylan’s stomach.

“Y’know neil, i was always curious why you’re so cuddly. Just nature orrr?” camila asked.

“I guess it’s cause i never got that physical affection until i met dylan,” neil pondered.

“Great, just another reason to hate your brother,” hollie rolled her eyes as she nipped her sandwich.

“Look, i know godfrey’s had hissehh- moments… but he’s not all bad. Like, there was this one time when i was 11 i ran away and godfrey had found me and saved me from running into traffic. He gave me this mark,” he showed a claw grip mark on his left forearm.

“And quite the tongue lashing as he dragged me home. He got me inside and made me something to eat before sending me to bed, and say what you want about godfrey, but the man can cook. His food is heavenly,” neil’s mouth started watering as he thought of the food his brother made.

“Why did you run off?” camila asked again.

“Or run into traffic when you were old enough to know better?” bobby followed.

“Y’know… i don’t really remember,” neil thought as hard as he could about the memory, but the reason he ran off and the reason he ran into traffic was escaping him, the only thing he remembered was the food godfrey had made him. Lunch eventually ended and neil had dragged himself through the latter half of the day until he finally got to go home. He usually walked home to get some extra exercise, which turned out to be super convenient today because he could make a detour to godfrey’s house on his way home, which is exactly what he did. He still had his key, so he used that on the door, but had some trouble getting it open due to how long it’d been since it was used. Once he was inside he quickly made his way to godfrey’s room and started looking for the box. As he looked around, he took in all the nostalgic sights of the room, the ashtray full of cigarette butts on the desk and godfreys unkempt room and bed, which had a bunch of junk on it. He looked at one of the overhead shelves and saw the box he thought godfrey was talking about and grabbed his chair before pulling the box down as something slid off it. He quickly got the box safely on the floor and went back for whatever had fallen off the box. It was godfrey’s necklace, if you could even call it that, since it was a chain with a ring around it. He always wore it, even when he was sleeping, and if it were to dare and get misplaced, he tore the house apart trying to find it. Neil didn’t know why it meant so much to him, but he had to respect godfrey’s wishes and take it with him. He put it around his neck and took the box before leaving.

“hey angel face, You’re a little late, have any idea what’s in these boxes?” malachi asked, pointing at five other boxes on the couch.

“Oh, those are from godfrey, he wanted me to give them to our dad,’ neil explained as he piled the last box with all the others before taking off the necklace and putting it on top.

“Ok, but i have to look in these boxes before i can let you take them. I don’t exactly trust your brother a whole lot.”

“Don’t! Godfrey very explicitly told me not to look in the boxes, just to give them to our dad.”

“Alright, you’re lucky i trust you. Do you want him to come over right now?”

“Yes please.”
Malachi nodded and called neil’s dad as he got a small snack.

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