Sunny's Angel - 4. Chapter 4: What is that damn boy doing?

The house was burning brightly in the dark of night. Neighbors were standing around on the sidewalks as the wail of sirens in the distance came closer, fireworks from the property bursting high into the night air, fighting the glare of the fire for attention. He just stared at the burning house as the sweet smell of burning wood and sulfur mingled together, giving him a dizzying rush. He smirked at his handiwork, despite the tears of emotional pain running down his cheeks.

Still smiling, he turned towards the dark woods behind him and stooped down to pick up the large gym bag filled with photos and videotapes. Settling it onto his shoulder, he began walking into the oncoming darkness, taking a couple swigs out of the bottle of Jack Daniels that was in his hand, setting out for home so he could finish the few tasks he had left to take care of before everything came to an end.

Laughing quietly to himself, he allowed a wide feral grin to stretch across his face, the words in his grief stricken mind being spoken aloud, “I’m gonna win… I’m gonna win,” he whispered tauntingly to the night, daring whatever god might exist to disagree with him, feeling that no matter what, he’d still win the argument.

 ****************************

Devin blinked tiredly, listening to the rap lyrics blaring through the miniscule speakers of his alarm clock. He slammed his hand down on the off button to late, the crap already giving him an instant headache. Adjusting the package that was tenting out his Pokémon boxers, he got up and moved across his room, getting dressed quickly. He stuffed his keys, wallet and cell phone into his pockets as he went upstairs, hearing voices that shouldn’t have been there at this time of the morning.

“Dad, I woke up late, I’m sorry,” Devin heard Dallas saying, coming from the kitchen.

Moving in that direction Devin got there within a few seconds, finding his parents and Dallas there, all of them looking a little ill-sorted. “I’ll take him,” Devin said in his usual quiet manner, watching with amusement as they all turned in his direction, not having realized that he was standing there.

Dallas blinked at him, his mouth hanging open before he quickly nodded in Devin’s direction. Picking up his backpack he moved out of Devin’s way as Devin reached into the refrigerator to grab a can of Dr. Pepper.

“Oh honey, are you sure?” Suzie asked in a worried tone.

Devin rolled his eyes, deciding that this worrisome nature his parents were displaying was definitely getting old. He’d never had to deal with so much of it before.

“Yes mom it’s not a problem,” Devin replied, shutting the refrigerator door and turning to smile at her slightly.

“C’mon Dally, let’s go,” Devin mumbled while moving towards the front door, his brother following behind him.

“Devin, what’re you going to be doing today?” Paul asked before his son could get too far.

Letting out a quiet sigh Devin turned around, “I’ll be making movin’ arrangements and driving out to see Aunt Karen, make sure everything is in order,” Devin replied, trying to ignore the hurt look that crossed his parents’ faces.

“But you don’t have to go back to school for another week,” Dallas half whined, half mumbled.

Devin turned his head and gave his brother an amused smile, allowing his features to resume their normal blank façade before turning back to face his parents.

“Devin…..” his father started.

“Dad, it always helps to make sure things are in order, correct?” Devin asked, taking on a no-nonsense tone.

Paul sighed, and reached an arm out to comfort Suzie, who was staring down at the high heels that matched her red business suit nicely, still trying to hide the look on her face.

“Gotta go,” Devin mumbled under his breath, before turning back around and heading towards the door at his normal steady pace, Dallas behind him.

 *****************************

Devin stood inside the bank with Dr. Ledzin, watching as the man transferred over $75,000 into his account; a self-satisfied smirk on Devin’s face. Nodding as the man finished his transaction with the bank teller; Devin turned and stalked outside to wait patiently as the man shuffled after him. Devin smirked as the door closed in the man’s face.

Scowling, Dr. Ledzin opened the door and shuffled over to where Devin was standing next to his car. “What now?” The doctor asked, sulking like a child who’d had his piggy bank taken away.

Devin raised his eyebrow at the fat man who looked ridiculous in his suit, the plain brown tie he was wearing barely reaching to the top of his belly.

“Now we go to the appointments I made for us earlier this morning,” Devin replied with a snort of derision. “I do hope you did everything you were told to do?” Devin asked.

The doctor nodded his head toward the young man, still feeling a little angry that he was being blackmailed by a teenager. “I did. Talked to the real-estate agent earlier, she’s got people coming to look at the house later on. Movers will be there later on as well,” the man grumped, his nasally voice grating slightly on Devin’s ears.

“Good,” Devin said, “Tell the agent to set the initial offer for the house at a hundred grand; you’ll prolly have an offer before the week is out. Now let’s go, I got things to do later this afternoon.” With that said Devin got in his car, the man maneuvering his fat body into the passenger’s seat, shutting the door as Devin quickly started the car and deftly maneuvered into traffic, heading out of town.

 *****************************

Dallas smiled at Sunny, quickly moving to the two empty chairs that sat beside him in the English class, pleased to see he had at least one class with his new neighbor.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” Dallas asked, holding out his hand to bump fists, watching in amusement as Sunny raised his hand and made a loose fist, only to stare in confusion as they bumped together.

Dallas laughed softly, turning to the mouse-haired boy behind him that stood about five and half feet tall, with a gymnasts body, his brown eyes peering at them behind his bangs.

“Sammy, this is my new neighbor Sunny,” Dallas grinned, introducing his best friend to Sunny.

“How’s it going Sunshine?” Sammy asked while smiling at his own joke, revealing a set of perfect teeth as he greeted Sunny.

Sunny blinked for a moment at the nickname, hoping that it wouldn’t stick, but the look of merriment that crossed Dallas’s face let him know it would. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders, letting the nickname slide.

“It’s going alright, I guess. Better now that I know someone in at least one of my classes,” Sunny replied, glancing at Dallas’s smiling face as he did so.

“Saweet, now let me see your schedule,” Dallas replied, sitting down next to Sunny as Sam took the seat next to him. Sunny nodded his head, giving his schedule to Dallas.

“Cool deal man, we all got most of our classes together. This class is gonna suck. Mr. Lick-a-lot’s a major unknown to the students, he got hired over the summer apparently,” Dallas said, starting to get into his spiel about the teachers at the school.

“Mr. Lick-a-lot?” Sunny asked; curiosity plain in his voice.

“Yeah man, apparently he loves sugar. Constantly sucking a lollipop, from what the other kids’ have been sayin’ throughout the day,” Sammy answered.

Nodding his head in understanding, Sunny continued to listen as the other two boys talked about the rest of the teacher’s they had heard about or had, finally coming to the last class of the day.

“Man, Mr. Schneider is a major freaking cockroach. Dude’s been teaching here for only a couple years now, but the dude is a major jerk. Loves his stupid football players more than anything,” Sammy supplied, brushing his brown hair out of his eyes as he leaned towards Dallas, his own schedule in hand as he compared all three schedules. Dallas nodded in agreement.

“Looks like we all got quite a few classes together. This should be a fun year,” Dallas supplied, after they finished looking over all the schedules, before him and Sammy turned around and high fived each other just as the bell rang.

“I got B lunch, what lunch do you two have?” Sunny asked, pleased and reassured at the same time that he wouldn’t be spending his day alone.

“B lunch,” the two other boys supplied together.

“Uh-hum,” a light voice coughed at that point in time, drawing the three boys’ attention to the front of the room, “if you three social butterflies are done comparing how much time you’ll be spending the day with each other, do you think you could bring your eyes up here?” the skinny man asked, one hand on his hip as he pointed two fingers at his eyes and gestured towards the three boys’ faces, causing some giggles to erupt through-out the classroom.

Sunny groaned, trying to ignore the fact that the man was dressed in an outrageous pink pin-striped shirt with olive green pants and a crazy ass white belt and blue shoes, his thick sandy brown hair brushed straight down the sides of his face.

Turning his face towards Dallas, and just beyond him Sammy, all three boys looked back and forth between one another before bursting into giggles again.

“Everyone needing detention on the first day of school?” the slightly flamboyant man asked, causing half of the class to clap hands over their mouths. “I didn’t think so,” he continued, snapping his fingers in a sweeping gesture. Dallas laid his head on his arms as his shoulders begun to shake.

“Now, my name is Mr. Andrew Reis,” he said, causing Sunny to look up and stare as the man spelled his name across the blackboard.

“You may all call me Andy,” the teacher finished, pulling a sucker out of his pocket.

 ***********************************

Andy sat at his desk after the bell rang, class dismissed for the day, staring after young Sunny Reis with a bare hint of expression on his face. Sighing to himself, the young teacher finally reached into his pocket and speed dialed one on his cell phone, glad that this next period would be free. As the phone rang, he wondered briefly how many complications this was going to cause.

“Hey babe,” a voice finally answered, a hint of laughter and love in it.

“Hey honey. Sunny’s in my class! When are you going to get here, Ian?” Andy asked softly, wishing his boyfriend would get there, wanting to move out of the damn hotel room he’d been staying at for the past few days.

 ************************************

Devin stood on the first step that led towards the slightly sagging front porch of his aunt’s place, hoping everything would go according to plan. He paused before he took another step, turning towards Dr. Ledzin, stopping the man in his tracks.

“Be careful, I don’t need your fat ass falling through the front porch. Remember what we talked about on the ride up here. Just do what I said and agree with everything I say, got that?” he whispered fiercely as the man’s face flushed red with either embarrassment or anger.

“I got it kid, anything to end this damn day with you, you….” The doctor began.

His words cut off as the front door begun to swing open, revealing a heavy set woman in her mid-40s with dark straight hair and equally grey eyes, her relation to Devin through his father’s side becoming obvious to the Doctor as he continued to stare.

“Aunt Karen!” Devin greeted warmly.

“Devin,” the woman replied with equal warmth.

Devin moved up the rest of the stairs, only to be wrapped in a hug as he got to her, returning her hug with a slight squeeze of his own.

“Such a surprise to see you, I wasn’t expecting you for a few more days yet, who’s this gentleman with you?” she asked, smiling warmly at the doctor.

“This is my shrink, Dr. Ledzin,” Devin replied, his light voice surprisingly pleasant to the ears, all signs of shyness wiped away. Devin introduced the two of them, Dr. Ledzin shuffling up the stairs to shake the woman’s hand as he began to sweat.

“Pleasure to meet you Dr,” she greeted, wiping her hands on her pants as they released their grasp on each other.

“Oh please, call me Jim,” the doctor replied, feeling some of his unease evaporate, as he wiped his sweaty palms on his dress pants, feeling himself pant slightly at the exercise he wasn’t used to.

“Would you like to come in Jim?” she asked, looking towards Devin with an eyebrow upraised questioningly. Devin nodded his head in agreement, following her into the house where they were comfortably seated in the living room, glasses of lemonade in front of them all.

“So what brings you two here today?” Karen asked curiously.

“I don’t think I’ll be coming back to live with you this year, Aunt Karen. The doc says it’s time for me to move back home to try being part of the rest of my family again. He’s been saying it for awhile now, something to do with it never doing any good to run away, or some such thing,” Devin answered, his voice full of emotion, ranging from sad to happy as he answered his aunt’s question.

“Oh,” Karen replied in surprise, glancing towards the doctor questioningly.

“Yes, Ma’am, I think it would be good for him to try to live with his family again,” the Doctor started.

“Duh,” she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for Devin to hear.

“They all need to come to terms with what happened a couple years ago, and get more involved with each other’s lives,” Doc continued.

“You think,” she continued softly.

“His going to school here and living with you during the school year, and only going to his parent’s house on the weekends and during the summer may have caused more problems than was necessary; but it is still not too late to fix that,” the doctor finished, not hearing her diatribes at something she could have told him.

The doctor preened; pleased that the rehearsed answer he and Devin had been practicing on the way to her house had come out so smoothly.

“I see,” she said once more, allowing herself to sigh as her shoulders sagged, pleased that Devin wouldn’t be hiding from his family anymore.

The doctor looked towards Devin, to see his gaze on him; his sparkling blue eyes letting him know he was doing a good job, so far. The doctor blinked in surprise as he continued to look into those blue eyes. To him, they’d always been a dark grey. His mind began to whirl with even more questions, before he turned his attention back towards Karen who was speaking again.

“So what about school then?” she asked

“Well, ma and pa appointed you my guardian at my request, so you can help me get my transcripts and withdraw from the private school here. Ma has meetings and pa has court this morning, so they couldn’t really come with. The doc thinks I only need to see someone a couple more times for a lil while, then it’ll be every couple of months for the occasional check up to see how things are going,” Devin said, smiling at her in reassurance before moving to sit next to her. Wrapping one of his arms around her, he glared once more at the doctor.

“Oh,” she said again, starting to sound like a broken record, obvious tones of disapproval laced through her voice at the revelation that Devin’s parents were too busy to come down here and give her this heart breaking news with him. Devin quickly gave her another hug as her emotions came through.

“Well, that’s not all ma’am,” the doctor started, shifting his heavy bulk in discomfort as her gaze came to rest on him once more, “I’m resigning from my practice, so Devin will be seeing another psychologist, to help him continue moving his life forward.”

“Oh, may I ask why you’re resigning and assigning him to a different shrink?” she asked, her voice most definitely unhappy with this even more revealing tidbit of information.

“We’ll ma’am, my wife left me a few months ago, was getting tired of me never being home. Took the children with her, and I miss them, so I’m selling my house and most of my belongings are going into storage. I’m going to go see if we can work things out and find the relationship that we once had, make things what they used to be once more, back when we first met each other thirty-three years ago,” the doctor supplied, grateful that the emotions he was feeling were genuine.

“Oh darling, I’m sooo sorry to hear about that,” Karen answered, reaching across the coffee table to pat the doctor’s heavy thigh in comfort. Devin smiled to himself, pleased to see that things were working out the way he wanted.

“So you’re selling your house?” Karen asked, her voice taking on a smooth even tone, trying to not sound too curious.

“Yes, ma’am, it has 6 bedrooms, a huge living and dining room. There’s an old building in the back that used to house old horse carriages. There’s a privacy fence surrounding the yard and that building, it also has a lovely living and dining room with a grand kitchen,” the doctor replied, answering most of her unspoken questions.

“Oh,” Karen said in disappointment, wincing as she asked her next question. “How much were you trying to sell it for? I’ve got some money saved up from my late husband’s death. Perhaps I should move closer to my family, since all my children are in college and Devin is going to stay with his parents.”

“That’d be marvelous Aunt Karen,” Devin squealed excitedly in agreement, wincing inwardly at the sudden show of happiness that he was displaying in front of this man that he most desperately despised, leaning back and glaring at the man once more to hurry up and answer her unspoken question.

“I’m asking for 120,000 dollars, if you are interested” Dr. Ledzin said helpfully, trying to ignore the glare coming from Devin.

“I’ll give you a hundred grand, as is, no questions asked,” she answered sharply, her features suddenly becoming blank as she prepared herself to start bargaining, pretty sure that no matter what she would get the good deal.

Devin glared sharply at the doctor, practically daring him to challenge her. “Sold,” the doctor choked out, leaving Karen to blink in surprise.

“That’s wonderful aunty! Now you can start up that rehabilitation center in town that you have always dreamed of, and be closer to us while helping other folks out,” Devin said, beaming at her, inwardly wishing for a shot of anything that had alcohol in it.

“I’ll be right back, need to call my real-estate agent and let her know I’ve already sold the place, if you have a phone I can use?” the doctor asked.

“No need to go anywhere, doc, you can use my cell phone,” Devin supplied helpfully, grabbing the phone from his pocket and holding it out towards the man.

“Thank you Devin, it is much appreciated,” the doctor said a little bit tightly, as Karen reached out and pulled her nephew into a tight hug.

While the doctor dialed the number and spoke briefly into the phone, Karen and Devin caught up on the things they had been doing over the summer, as the morning sun began to move at its usual pace towards noon.

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Devin rolled into town, pleased that so far his day was going according to plan. His aunt was moving closer, the doctor was leaving town, and his old school hadn’t argued when they were informed that he was withdrawing to attend school closer to home, at his doctor’s recommendation.

Devin pulled into the bank parking lot, allowing the doctor to get out.

“Well doc, I’m guessing this is goodbye then,” Devin said

“Yes, I suppose it is. Just a couple questions for you, before I go in and sign the documents for your aunt to take ownership of my house?” The doctor asked.

Devin raised an eyebrow at the doctor, his face perfectly devoid of all emotion, waiting patiently while the doctor’s facial expressions shifted as he decided which questions were the more important.

“Your eyes change color, something to do with your moods I think. Grey being the most dominant, from what I have seen, and blue being the other, I suspect the other eye color is green. Why?” the doctor asked.

Devin snorted with amusement that the doctor’s first question was one that most people hadn’t yet seemed to notice. But then it wasn’t really their fault that no one really noticed, Devin decided, seeing how he didn’t really allow very many people to get close to him.

“Yes, they change with my moods, lighting and other such things. Grey is my usual dominant color. Won’t tell you what the other moods are,” Devin replied, deciding he didn’t really want to explain the medical reasons why eyes changed colors, and how sometimes they reflected a persons’ mood as well.

“What’s all that money for?”

“I don’t know yet Doc, but I’ll find a good use for it. Who knows, maybe I’ll even buy me a jeep or two, can’t keep driving my baby around,” Devin replied, patting his steering wheel lovingly.

The doctor looked at Devin for a moment, before nodding his head.

“You suggested to your aunt that she use the house for something, but I didn’t quite catch what it was,” Dr. Ledzin finally said, hoping that Devin would answer the unspoken question.

Devin blinked, cocking his head to the side.

“I told her she should start up the rehabilitation center in town that she’s been wanting for awhile now. To many people this day and age need help, and can’t afford the costs. She lost her second husband to alcohol and drugs, so I think she should follow her heart and help others. She has the certifications for it. I’m sure a few other people will come around and be more than happy to help her with it,” Devin finally replied.

“Anything else you want to know?” Devin finally asked. The doctor nodded his head.

“What do I do now?” Dr. Ledzin asked his last question.

Devin laughed quietly with amusement, surprised that an adult with a doctorate’s in psychology was asking him what he should be doing.

“Do like you said you were going to do man, go see your wife and work things out with her. What you did was seriously messed up, and your wife and kids shouldn’t suffer because of your stupidity. Lay off the alcohol. Be honest with your wife; let her know you love her, if you do. If you don’t, then perhaps you should divorce her, just don’t let your kids pay the price because of it,” Devin finished, driving away as Joe Ledzin stepped back in surprise.

**********************************

Paul groaned, wishing the phone calls would end as his secretary announced another phone call for him on line one. The last call had been from his sister Karen, announcing she was moving into town, asking if she could get them to help her move in a couple of weeks as the deal settled through. He’d been thrown for more of a loop when she’d congratulated him on Devin though, and he hadn’t really had time to ask her what the hell she was talking about as she had to leave at that point in time to go finish signing some papers.

“Paul Townsend, how may I help you?” He asked, speaking in the professional tone he’d developed what seemed like centuries ago.

“Hello Mr. Townsend, James P. Hawthorne, Dean of Prescott Private, how are you this day?” came the reply over the phone.

Paul blinked in surprise as he rarely ever got a phone call from his eldest son, Devin’s, illustrious headmaster. Paul wondered briefly to himself what Devin could possibly have done now, before he remembered that the school wasn’t starting up until next week due to some remodeling that had been done over the summer.

“I’m good, Mr. Hawthorne, how are you?” Paul asked with confusion.

“I’m good, sir. Just wanted to call and let you know we’ll all miss having Devin enrolled here, he’s fine a young man. Tad bit strange but that can only be expected with him being the way he is, and the tragedy a couple years ago. Let him know if he changes his mind about attending school here, we would be more than happy to have him back. Got to go good sir, you have a wonderful evening.”

Blinking in confusion, Paul hung up the phone just as his fax machine begun to print out papers behind him. With a sigh he turned around and waited until the machine stopped receiving, leaving him with a pile of documents that he started looking at.

Paul found himself reading through a contract for a car dealership. Frowning to himself he began to read through all the documents, until he came to the end page on one of them. Flipping to the other page he blinked in surprise. It wasn’t just one vehicle being sold, it was two of them. Turning back to the last page of the first contract, he read the name and signature before feeling the blood rush to his face. Turning to the last page on the second contract he blinked again. Feeling his face heat up, Paul dropped the piles of paper on the desk in front of him, reaching for the phone just as the fax machine started going off again.

Turning around he snatched at the first couple of sheets, read over them briefly before he finally felt the blood draining from his face. Picking the phone up from the cradle he hit speed dial two, snatching at pieces of paper and scanning over them briefly, waiting impatiently for his wife to pick up her cell phone.

“Hi honey, how are…” Suzie Townsends’ voice began as she answered her phone.

“What in the Sam hills is Devin doing!” Paul growled into the phone nervously, feeling the irrational urge to panic.