Hiding in Closets and Lofts - 3. Chapter 3

Two weeks later, and Dillon was still committed to football practice. All of his sunburn had turned to a tan, and his mother hated him for it. When she burned, she didn’t tan.

Dillon was almost as tanned as Mark. Not that he noticed.

Summer just suited Mark. He obviously liked the outdoor sports—the outdoors. And when he ran, or when Dillon was actually able to watch, Mark was amazing. His strong legs and wide stride down the field, the bunch of the muscles in his back as his arms pumped at his sides.

Those moments were when Dillon was told to get his head back in the game.

Half the team hated Mark for making them look bad, but that was only during practices. During the actual game season, they couldn’t be happier.

After practice, most of the team sat in the shade changing out of cleats and into regular shoes. Dillon nursed his water bottle with one hand, while undoing the laces of his cleats with the other. Mark sat down next to him and began to take off his shoes as well.

“Runza’s?” Mark asked.

Going to Runza’s after practice had become somewhat of a routine, with usually a small group of guys going. Mark and Dillon were the only ones there daily.

“I can’t.” Dillon sighed, setting his water bottle aside. “My mom insists that I go look at a house in town with her and Grandma, even though I have no say.”

“Wow, unhappy much?” Mark teased.

“She says she wants my opinion but it’s not like it’s going to change anything,” Dillon hissed.

“Well there’s still two more weeks until school,” Mark pointed out. “So there’s plenty of other times to go out to lunch.”

“I guess,” Dillon grumbled sourly, and with his cleats off, shoved his feet into his shoes.

“Anyways, later,” Mark said and walked off towards his car.

Dillon stared for a moment before screwing the cap back on his water and heading out towards his jeep. They had gotten him a ’97 Jeep Wrangler the week before—black, and a hard top. Dillon had taken the top off for the summer, though he hated it on dirt roads.

He drove in town to a gas station to meet his mother and Grandma. What he really wanted to do was go home and shower. He was sweaty and hot, and… they were late. Dillon washed his face with water from his water bottle outside his jeep and waited.

Ten minutes later Joann finally showed up with Grandma. Dillon followed them to where the house was. It was in an older, quiet neighborhood. Trees lined most of the sidewalks, tall and old and creating good shade for the summer.

The real estate agent met them at the house, letting them inside. Dillon lingered around outside, admiring the front yard. It was lush and green, with at least two trees thick with leaves and shading the front of the house. The house was two stories and a white, almost grey, under the shade.

The inside seemed wide and spacious from lack of furniture, but Dillon knew it was smaller than their last house. His Grandma was out towards the backyard, thinking she was talking to Joann. “You could put some tomato plants over in that corner… and you need a bird feeder. John and I will get you one, don’t worry.”

Joann headed upstairs and motioned for Dillon to follow. “Your room is going to be second on the left,” she explained on their way up. “It over looks the backyard, so that should be nice.”

Again, Dillon noted it was smaller than he was used to. A large window covered most of one of the walls, covered mostly by tree foliage.

“A little small, but it’ll fit your bed. If you have your dresser it’ll be a tight fit, but I figure we can put that in storage and get you some closet shelves,” Joann said and headed for the closet. It was a decent sized walk in closet.

“Sure,” Dillon agreed, thinking differently.

He could so build a fort in there.

They explored the rest of the house for a few minutes— it was smaller, but nicer. More yard space and more trees, which Dillon decided he liked.

After saying good-bye to the real estate agent, Dillon followed his mother’s car to lunch. He was glad it wasn’t Runza’s. If anyone from the team was still lingering there, he didn’t want to be seen with his mother and Grandma.

They went home afterwards, and the first thing Dillon did was take a shower. He was glad to feel human after that, and went downstairs to the kitchen for a snack. His mother and Grandpa were having another invalid conversation.

“I can help you move!” Grandpa protested.

“I’m not saying you can’t,” Joann soothed. “I’m not saying you can’t. You can help with boxes, just not heavy lifting.” She stopped when she noticed Dillon. “Oh, besides, Dillon has football friends to help.”

“Mom!” Dillon complained. “Don’t just volunteer my friends like that!”

“Free food,” Joann promised. “We only need about two or three of them, okay? We’re moving all the big stuff on Saturday, when the company delivers the rest of our furniture.”

Dillon groaned and grabbed a box of cereal before going back upstairs.

He saved asking his friends until the end of the week. Friday after practice he finally brought it up. “Hey Aaron, Mark, what are you doing this weekend?”

“Nothing… shit, I still need to do my summer reading assignment. But I still have a week so I’m open. Why?” Aaron answered.

“Same, thank you for reminding me about the reading Aaron—but I work Sunday,” Mark replied.

“We’re moving into town,” Dillon sighed. “My mom kind of volunteered any football friends I have.”

“Moving,” Aaron groaned. “I hate moving.”

“I’ll help,” Mark said, reaching over to slap Aaron.

“Fine, I’ll help too,” Aaron grumbled.

Dillon told them where the house was, and that they were starting in the morning. “If you come over around nine or ten, that should be fine.”

Mark frowned in thought. “In that neighborhood over by the pizza place?”

“Yeah, lots of trees,” Dillon said and fanned out his fingers as if to help make a visual image.

“What street again?” Mark asked.

“Uh, Kennedy,” Dillon repeated. “Why?”

“That’s my neighborhood,” Mark concluded, grinning widely. “I’m three blocks away! I could probably walk to your house faster than I could drive, with all those stupid stop signs.”

“Isn’t there a stop sign on like every fucking corner?” Aaron asked, groaning again. “Damn, that’s going to be a pain! Mark, Dillon, why do you guys have to live over there?”

As usual for after practice, a group of them headed to Runza’s. It was over lunch that Dillon recruited Tyler to help move, again with the promise of free food. What he was really looking forward to was Aaron showing up. He truly was over two-hundred pounds, and the amount he could eat… Dillon laughed to himself at the thought of his mother’s reaction.

She wanted football players? Well now she would be paying as much for pizza as she could have hired people for.

After lunch Dillon was the first to leave. He drove back to his grandparent’s house, showered, and then accompanied their U-Haul truck to the new house in town. Grandpa was allowed to help, as it was only boxes. John and Dillon carried in boxes as well, while Joann and Grandma read off labels for where things went.

They spent the rest of Friday unloading boxes, stacking them strategically around the house in wait of furniture. The first thing Dillon wanted to get done was his bed so that he didn’t have the forty-five minute commute to and from the farmhouse.

The new neighborhood was only five minutes from school, though that wasn’t including all the stop signs.

As it got dark they went back to the farmhouse for dinner and bed.

Dillon was exhausted, and glad that it was cool that night. He was out almost as soon as his face hit the pillow.

Joann was there at eight telling him to wake up and get ready to meet the movers at the house. Dillon groaned and got dressed before lazing out to his jeep.

His mother and father had already left in their own car, with Grandpa sulking around the house. “I’m not invalid,” he grumbled sourly.

Dillon caught up to his parents on the dirt road through the cornfields, the stalks just shorter than his jeep. His grandparents owned the land and crops, but hired people to come in and harvest mostly.

They got to the house just before nine, and Mark showed up not long after. He had indeed walked.

“Dillon, you owe me rides to school,” Mark demanded.

“Why?” Dillon frowned.

“Because you have a car and you now owe me. You live close enough. You owe me for football camp, too, by the way,” Mark pointed out, smiling.

Dillon rolled his eyes and waited for the trailer to be opened. Aaron showed up then, with Tyler in the passenger seat. Aaron lumbered out of the car, and Joann startled slightly. “He’s in high school?” She whispered harshly.

“He’s only a junior,” Dillon added smugly. Aaron would be eating at least one whole pizza by himself.

By what had been loaded in last, the bed frames were carried upstairs. John pretended to help by guiding things verbally through doors. Mark and Dillon worked in Dillon’s room putting together his bed. John supervised Tyler and Aaron putting the other bed together in the master bedroom.

Once the frames were assembled, box springs and mattresses were drug inside and up the stairs. Dillon’s bed was only a twin, and he put the bed parallel to his far left bedroom wall in hopes of having open space in the rest of his room. The walk in closet was at the foot of his bed, and the window on the other side of his room.

“Good shade,” Mark commented while shoving the mattress on top of the box spring.

“Yeah, there’s two or three trees in the backyard, not including the trees from our neighbors that hang over the fence,” Dillon explained. “Big yard too.”

Once the bedrooms were set up, the living room and dining room were next. The dining room seemed to take priority, getting the table and chairs set up for when lunch arrived.

It took all four boys to carry in the couch, and two of them for the armchair in the living room. Dillon had never been so glad to have a simple TV stand instead of a whole wall unit. From there it was the small things like TVs and lamps while they waited on food.

Aaron had talked Joann into getting extra pizzas and two liters of soda. “I can eat a whole one by myself,” he said. It didn’t take much convincing.

When food came, two pizzas were shared between Dillon, Mark, and Tyler. Aaron had his own pizza, and John and Joann shared one. Once Aaron finished his pizza he went on to help John and Joann finish theirs. Joann tried not to say anything, but looked about ready to bite his hand off.

“What’s the summer reading assignment?” Dillon thought to ask.

“Uh,” Tyler struggled to remember as well. “I want to say something by… Dorian Grey?”

“Dorian Grey is the name of the book, idiot,” Aaron spat playfully.

Tyler scowled and tossed an empty plastic soda cup at Aaron.

“Don’t start anything,” Joann piped up quickly, not wanting any sort of fighting in her house. Things would get broken… like the chairs.

Once the food was finished, mostly by Tyler and Aaron, the clean up started. The pizza boxes were thrown away, and with the furniture all in place, Aaron and Tyler left.

“In an hour, I bet they go out for ice cream,” Mark mumbled. “They better get me some.”

“And go through all the stop signs to get it to you?” Dillon laughed. “Yeah, right.”

Mark punched him in the arm, trying not to smile.

“So you live near by?” Joann asked, stepping in on Mark.

Dillon tried not to roll his eyes.

“Yeah, just about three blocks away. Two blocks back and one block over,” Mark explained, pointing into the back of the house. “With a big weeping willow in our front yard.”

Mark hung around for a few more minutes, before looking at the time. “I have to be at work at one,” he said. “I need to get home and change. I’ll see you Monday for practice.”

Dillon nodded, and showed Mark out. Mark hesitated at the door and checked to make sure the parents were out of hearing distance. “Next Saturday there’s an end of summer party,” he informed quickly. “A lot of the team is going. You should come.”

A party in Nebraska? Dillon wanted to laugh at the thought, but he smiled politely. “Sure. Fill me in later this week.”

Mark nodded and hurried out the door and down the walk.