Ostinato

Chapter 8

"Fine," Theo huffed, sliding out of his seat under the table before crawling out.

"Good luck," Ewan said, giving Theo a thumbs up - which gave the boy a jolt of determination to go through with it, feeling for the moment that Ewan, his big cousin, was actually counting on him for something.

Theo made his way over to the table where Jessica was. He could see her phone sitting on the table right in the open. He thought for a moment on Ewan's suggestion of just taking the phone, but for some reason it caused Theo to only think of the trouble he would be in if he were caught. He didn't know why, but for some reason the idea of getting in trouble was playing on his mind - giving way to a certain level of fear at the prospect. Stupid as he knew it was, the thought of his Mom or any of the other adults chastising him only made Theo more uneasy.

He had never been one to back down from a fight with his Mom, and at times had welcomed the opportunity - if only to make her feel just a bit of the anger he held for her. So why now did that seem like such a harrowing idea to him? Theo pushed the thoughts aside, deciding it was best to avoid such things for the moment. Besides, he didn't need to put himself in such a situation. He was six years old now, so all he had to do was turn on some of that little kid charm he now possessed and Jessica probably wouldn't be able to say no to any request from him – it surely worked for Luke most of the time.

Theo sidled up to the table where Jessica was seated. None of the adults seemed to notice he was there. Mom and Jessica were leaned in close together as they both peered at Mom's phone looking at photos from the graduation, deciding which one's were worthy of being printed out to be kept as adorable reminders of the day's events. Uncle Rob was also concentrating on his phone, tapping away furiously, no doubt answering a deluge of work emails that had piled up in his inbox. Theo took a moment to steel himself for what he was about to do, before reaching out a little hand to tug on Jessica's shirt sleeve.

"Oh Teddy, do you need something?" Jessica asked, turning around to see her adorable little cousin vying for her attention.

"Can I borrow your phone for a bit?" Theo asked, making his little voice as syrupy sweet as he could.

"What would you need that for?" Jessica asked, a smirk appearing on her lips, amused by the request of the little boy in front of her.

"I umm... I'm really bored and wanted to play a game and well uhh Ewan told me you had really cool ones," Theo said, trying to come up with something convincing enough to tell her that made his request seem realistic.

"Oh he did, did he?" Jessica said, shooting a glance towards her brother.

"I'll be really careful with it, I promise," Theo said, morphing his face up into the most hopeful sort of pleading he could, even sticking his lower lip out a bit.

"I think Ewan was telling you a big fat story," Jessica said, not able to hold out a little laugh at seeing Theo's expression. "I don't actually have a single game on my phone. But if you're bored, I think there are plenty of games on the kids menu you can do. I bet Luke would be more than happy to play some tic-tac-toe with you ."

"That's a great suggestion," Mom said, jumping into the conversation. "Besides Teddy you know the rules about playing games on the phone. Thirty minutes a day after dinner - and that's only if you eat all your food."

Theo felt his shoulders slouch at the childish restriction on his screen time. He guessed he should have expected a rule like that after hearing what Charlie had said earlier, but in the moment it felt completely controlling - in a way that made Theo's eighteen year old self bristle.

"Although I suppose it is a special day," Mom said, seeing Theodore's dejected look. "If you go back to the table and behave like a good boy, afterwards when we get back to the house I'll let you play that cute little train game you seem to like so much on my phone for a whole hour." Mom said before she and Jessica went back to looking over photos, clearly thinking that Theo would be placated enough by the offer to send him scuttling back to his table immediately.