Threadaversary Contest Entry
I'd love some concrit on this if anyone has the time. :3 Looking at the other entries, I suppose it was a bit short...but I'm still very happy with it, even if I didn't win.
Tobias sat on his bed, nervously running his fingers over the receiver of his phone. He was trembling, or so he thought, glancing down at his hands for only the briefest of moments with his large, gray eyes. Yep, he was trembling all right; the receiver was shaking as it rested idly in his palm.
Placing the phone back into its cradle, Toby took in a slow breath and tried to focus on the situation. Out of habit he glanced up at the bulletin board Everest had once kept on the wall in the kitchen. Back then it had been covered with Tobias’s childhood accomplishments and doodles; now it was not much different save for the quality of those doodles had undergone a ten-fold improvement.
Of course, there were other additions to the corkboard as well; Tobias had become quite the shutterbug, and usually drew his friends into the camera’s flash. His focus now, however, was one picture in particular. The picture was only a month old, if that, and he remembered the day as being warm and sunny with hardly any heat or humidity or clouds. He had gone to the zoo with Zyanya, and the picture was snapped near the penguin exhibit. They were laughing about a joke too silly for Tobias to remember.
It had been their one-month anniversary and Tobias could not think of a time in his short life that he had been happier; aside from the day he received his dragon. They had spent the day out, and then come back to Tobias’s house to watch movies.
Closing his eyes, Tobias was not sure if the butterflies in his stomach were from the memories of that night, or the information he’d just received from Zyan on the phone.
Knock-knock went knuckles on the doorframe, and Everest glanced up as her young deer boy poked his antler-less head around the corner. While he looked so silly now that the prongs were gone, leaving identical gaping dark holes on either side of his head, Tobias always took it in stride. They would grow back in soon, more marvelous and stronger than ever.
“Hey there, Toby,” Everest called, setting down a pencil to try and get her eyes to re-focus properly. She had been working on some D-Corp paperwork, letting them know how Tobias was doing in all of his studies and physical improvements, and was glad to see him come to pay her a visit. Her smile was quick to change to worry though, as Toby stepped into the kitchen, his quiet nature even more solemn than usual. Those dark eyes were not looking at her; his almost comically large ears stuck down back against his head; and he was nervously wringing his hands together, rubbing his palms as if there were a stain or a spot that would not go away.
“What’s up, Tobias?” asked Everest, her voice more serious than the carefree nature it had expressed just before. The mule deer winced inwardly at hearing his full name, and then gave a heavy sigh as he pulled up a chair near to where Everest sat.
This is not going to be good, Tobias thought with sudden fear. He rubbed his hands together one last time, and then with an ease only training brought, began to sign to Everest.
“That was Zyanya on the phone. Mom, she’s pregnant.”“What?” his adopted mother nearly choked, her eyes wide while Tobias met her gaze dead on. “Toby…” her voice was almost scolding as she started, but then Everest stopped.
“Is she sure?”
Tobias nodded, feeling the lump forming in his throat. Good thing he couldn’t talk in the first place anyway. A nervous lump would have made this conversation very difficult.
“Jayoku took her to the doctor today. They just got home.”Tobias’s hands carefully, slowly formulated those words. He hadn’t expected Everest to be angry; their conversation about the birds and the bees when Tobias had first started dating reassured him if anything ever happened, she would be there for him. But Tobias was sure Everest hadn’t thought something would ever happen, especially not so soon. He knew he hadn’t, and the conversation he’d just finished with a sobbing Zyanya said she hadn’t expected it, either.
Lost in his head, it was the sigh from Everest that brought Tobias out of his thoughts. Forever silent, he waited for her to give him some sort of other reaction to the situation. He must have appeared more worried than he thought, because when Everest looked at him again she almost chuckled. Almost, but not quite.
“So what do you want to do?” Everest phrased her words simply, folding her hands together across her paperwork. The question and the action made Tobias stop, blinking his big dark eyes in bewilderment. That had not been the response he had thought he would get.
“Aren’t you going to scold me or something for this?” he carefully asked, his large ears slowly perking forward in timid interest, afraid to unintentionally open up a can of worms when he may have missed a lecture.
“Should I? I only lecture you when there’s a lesson to be learned, and it looks to me like you’ve already learned that lesson. Perhaps a little too well, heh,” Everest softly, sadly, laughed. “And if you haven’t learned, you will once the baby is born.” The smile was knowing…and perhaps a little cruel.
It was several months later, and the house sat quiet. Somewhere outside, a car was heard pulling up the driveway, stopping, and then turning off. Things were easy for a few moments longer, before one car door violently opened and was slammed shut.
Tobias came bursting into the house, feet stomping as the door banged around on its hinges, then crashed shut from the force with which Toby had thrown it open. Angry tears ran from the corners of his eyes, wetting the soft fur of his face in ugly streaks. Not sure what to do with himself, he paced back and forth in the hallway, in and out of the kitchen and the living room before he finally crashed onto the sofa, burying his face into his hands. He tried to choke out sobs, but nothing came from his gaping mouth…just air, soundless and empty.
Somewhere in the mess, he heard the door open and shut again, much more slowly this time, but didn’t bother to glance up as Everest appeared in the living room door. She was crying too, he knew it, with the same dirty tears that marked his face.
“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” she whispered out to him, and the sudden voice made his emotions spark again. He turned sharply to face her then, his hands moving sloppily in his anger. He knew by the pained look in his mother’s eyes she didn’t understand a syllable, but Tobias was too upset to care. Finally he threw his hands in the air out of frustration, covering his face and just crying.
Everest stood back, not wanting to move to upset her young son anymore than the news had already. After an eternity Tobias’s shoulders stopped heaving, though his whole body looked like it was about to collapse. He remained still, hands hiding his eyes, breathing heavily but steadily.
“I should have told you sooner,” Everest began, carefully walking to stand at Toby’s side. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, feeling his tensed muscles jump at the sudden contact. When he finally looked up at her, Everest had never seen a face so sad. His mouth was creased with a frown so deep, and his brows practically knitted themselves together out of worry. It was a horror to see such an innocent and caring face in such condition.
“He’s my son,” though his hands were shaking, Everest was glad Tobias had managed to control himself enough to talk.
“I know, Tobias, but D-Corp…” The mere mention of the company set Tobias into another fury. He jumped from his seat, his hands tying themselves into knots he was signing so quickly. Had he been able to scream, Everest had no doubt she would have been deaf by now. Good thing she knew sign language already.
“Tobias, you have to calm down!” Everest pleaded, reaching out and grabbing his hands mid-sign. At first he fought her, trying to rip away from her grasp, but the mother held fast until his anger subsided; though he glared at her with daggers, silently gasping from his opened mouth, but he was still at last.
“I can’t understand you when you’re so upset like this…if you want to talk, you
have to calm down and sign so I can read you.” She said it strongly, deliberately, and then eased her grip from the furred fingers of the teen. “And you will wipe that look off your face. I have no more control over what D-Corp does with your son than you do.” Slowly that realization dawned in his eyes and the glare eased off Toby’s face, replaced with something apologetic, his giant ears once again drooping around his head.
“I’m sorry.”“You can make it up to me later,” Everest responded with only half the laugh she usually would, and then settled onto the couch. “Now if you can control yourself, let’s talk about this.”
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