Chapter Twenty-Five - Friends

I let out a long exasperated sigh as I caught sight of myself in the bathroom mirror. I rubbed my face with my hands, before finally reaching down and stripping the soiled boxer briefs off my bum. In the corner of the washroom behind the door laid Laurie’s own pee stained pajamas. I shoved the pair of boxer briefs I had been so happy to put on yesterday into my friend’s trash can, feeling like I was throwing away my own maturity. Then I plopped down on the toilet to do my business.

I sat there for a good while, thinking about everything that had happened. Why was Zach cleaning up after Laurie anyway? Even stranger, why was he cleaning up after me? Was their Mom still not home? The questions left a weird sensation in my tummy, like I was breaking a rule or something. I hadn’t even seen an adult since the evening before when we went around door to door selling apples. The whole thing didn’t feel right. I knew my mom wouldn’t approve. Perhaps I should have gone home last night after all? At least that way I wouldn’t have woken up in a puddle of cold pee. Or, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have.

I finally finished peeing, feeling a lot more relaxed already. I wished I could stop worrying just as easily. Dad had always said I was a ‘worry wort’ - just like Mum. I was probably just being silly. Maybe Zach’s mom and dad were just asleep still? It still felt really early in the morning.

I hopped off the toilet, letting the shower run for a moment before I stepped under the stream. It was just the right temperature, and I was happy to have the hot steamy water wash away the gross mess from earlier. I kinda understood why it had made Laurie feel so much better - it was as if all the yucky feelings went down the drain too. I picked up Laurie’s bottle of shampoo, smiling to myself as I saw the brand. Of course he had some little kids’ ‘No More Tears’ product. I had been using whatever my Dad happened to buy for a few years and the smell brought back a lot of distant fuzzy memories of playing in a bubble bath. When was the last time I’d done that? When I was five? Four? I decided that maybe tonight I would take one - just for the fun of it.

Feeling a lot better and more awake, I shut off the shower - letting the soapy water swirl down towards the drain. Reaching out for a towel on the rack, I quickly realized I had snagged a second hooded towel. For a moment I was confused, seeing that it was just like Laurie’s squirrel towel except that this one was made of brown terry cloth and had a face on the hood more like an otter. For a second I thought Laurie and Zach had arranged for a towel just for me - since Rascal was the otter in Friends of the Forest. After I thought about it for a second though, I realized It probably made more sense that this towel was simply Zach’s old one. Rascal used to be his beaver name too after all.

I slipped on the hooded towel and headed back to Laurie and Zach’s room, opening the door with a creak. Laurie was sitting on his freshly made bed, running his hand playfully over the crisp clean sheets. They were green and orange, and had pictures of fluffy cute woodland creatures all over them. Still with nothing but his orange squirrel towel wrapped around him, he already seemed preoccupied with some kind of imaginary game - making high pitched squeaking squirrel noises with his mouth as he scurried his fingers along the sheets, his golden curls still dripping little droplets of water.

Hearing me enter, he looked up and gave a little giggle. “Hi Rascal.” He said with a smile on his face as he jumped up off the bed. “Let’s play tag!”

Before I could get a word out, he ran over to me and tapped my shoulder - running to the center of the room, clearly expecting me to chase him.

“Laurie.” I said seriously, trying to get his attention. Now that it was just us, I wanted to get to the bottom of this myself. There was no way I’d wet myself. Zach had probably just been trying to protect Laurie’s feelings.

“I’m not Laurie!” He exclaimed, a little defensively. “It’s Tic Tac!”

“Right… Tic Tac…” I stammered. I grumbled in frustration. That type of correction usually only came from Alex - and even she had been keeping it contained mostly to Beaver meetings as of late.

“Let’s play!” He demanded as I advanced steadily on his position, preparing himself to bolt away at a moment's notice. The boy hadn’t even taken a moment to put on a pair of underpants, only wearing the towel for modesty.

I refused to be distracted. “Laur- I mean Tic Tac.” I began, scurrying quickly forward to cut off his exit, cornering him at the edge of Zach’s bed. “About the accident… Do you have them a lot?” An unhappy scowl flashed on his face for a moment. Perhaps I’d been too direct?

“I wanna play!” He cried, bouncing up onto Zach’s bed and bouncing along the mattress to evade me. Realizing I wouldn't get anywhere unless I joined in, I finally let up and started to chase him around the room in earnest. I had almost caught up - reaching for the hem of his towel - when Laurie quickly hopped from one bed to the other, leaping lithely off of the bouncy mattresses just like a real squirrel scampering through the trees.

Doubt was still lingering on my mind as we played however. The dalmatian costume really had been soaked through, and so had my underpants. I started to wonder if Laurie really was the one who had made the mess that morning and was trying to distract himself, or if he was trying to make me feel better instead. “You had an accident at camp, remember?” I told him abruptly.

Laurie stopped mid chase - turning around and giving me a funny look. He hopped from foot to foot for a moment, getting a little nervous, but ultimately decided to simply throw a stuffed bear at my face. “Can’t catch me!” He squealed and continued to run around the room giggling, not answering my question.

I decided to drop it and committed to chasing after him wholeheartedly. What was I trying to prove anyway? It had to have been Laurie, right?

Zach’s voice shouting up from downstairs interrupted our playtime. “Breakfast you two!” He hollered, immediately stopping Laurie in his tracks.

“Okay!” He chimed back and raced towards his dresser, pulling out the first outfit he could find without any care as to if it matched at all.

“Tic Tac… Would you be able to get my backpack?” I asked him. “It has my clothes and toothbrush in it.”

“Okay.” He said as quickly as he pulled the undies and shorts up his legs, before discarding his hooded towel and pulling his shirt on. He stomped down the stairs and then immediately back up again, not even leaving me enough time to sit down before he returned holding the bag with two hands. “Fifth graders sure have a lot of homework.” He observed and swung the bag down heavily on the ground. “I’m going for breakfast!” he announced, then ran out of the room - letting me be alone once more in his room.

I unzipped the bag and started rifling through it, pulling out my toothbrush, fresh socks and another pair of underwear. Unfortunately, I hadn’t packed another pair of boxer briefs, but the clean lime green briefs felt miles more mature compared to what I had woken up in. I slipped them on and collected my discarded outfit from yesterday from its place in a heap at the foot of Laurie’s bed. Then I brushed my teeth and went to greet the boys in the kitchen.

Laurie was sitting happily at the breakfast bar with a heaping pile of chocolatey cereal in front of him. I smiled at him and he smiled back. Zach was in the kitchen filling a bowl of cereal for himself - a much more modest bowl of Cheerios. “What kind of cereal do you want, Cooper?” Zach demanded of me.

I frowned thoughtfully. Mom didn’t let me eat sugary cereal for breakfast, and from looking at Laurie I could understand why. No wonder the boy always seemed to have so much boundless energy! He was scarfing down enough calories to feed a whole platoon of soldiers! Zach’s Cheerios were closer to what I would usually have, except that Mom always bought some super healthy brand that tasted like I was eating part of a tree. “Whatever Laurie’s eating I guess.” I told him. I wanted to try it out for myself - see what I was missing out on.

Zach nodded and opened a cupboard with about a dozen boxes of cereal, taking out a brown and orange box. I climbed up beside Laurie, cringing a little at the offputting loud munching noise he was making eating his own bowl. Zach came back swiftly with a small Paw Patrol bowl filled with chocolatey pebbles and milk.

Taking a small break from his cereal, Laurie pointed instructively to his own bowl - which had a Cars theme. “When you're done, make sure to drink the chocolate milk.” He told me with a grin, picking it up to take a sip.

I nodded and took a spoonful. The confection was a lot sweeter than I expected, and my eyes went a little wide. “Whoa.” I said. “Is this healthy?”

Zach just shrugged as he leaned on the counter in front of us. “Laurie likes it.” He said as if that somehow answered my question. I shrugged back and took a few more indulgent bites. I’d had a rough night. I deserved a treat.

“So are your parents sleeping or something?” I asked, my curiosity finally getting the better of me. I thought back to the idea I’d had about talking to them, or even revealing my real age. The notion seemed a lot more daunting now, after everything that had happened.

Zach scowled for a moment then relaxed. “They won’t be home until tonight… Hopefully…” He told me, putting on a low confidential tone as if it were some big secret. My stomach felt funny again. I wasn’t sure if it was worry, or the sugary cereal.

“Are they still at work?” I asked him, prying a little. “What do they do?”

Zach just scoffed and filled his mouth with his breakfast, ignoring me. I looked at Laurie instead, who was practically glowing with pride. “Mommy and Daddy are Doctors!” He chimed. “They save people!”

“Oh.” I said neutrally, a little underwhelmed with the answer to the question that had been bugging me all morning. I guess it made sense. It certainly explained why they worked so late, but it still felt weird that Zach was left in charge of Laurie. I had heard that doctors made a lot of money. Couldn’t they get a proper babysitter? Kianna was nice - and responsible too - but she was still only a couple of years older. Plus, from the way things had sounded, she hadn’t looked after them in years. “Where are they?” I continued to wheedle.

“At work Cooper! Where else would they be!” Zach said loudly, getting frustrated. I flinched. He took a deep breath. “Sorry.” He apologized immediately. “They work late all the time. It’s fine.”

There was an awkward silence between the three of us for a moment, but Laurie quickly broke it. “I wanna be a Doctor and save people when I grow up!” He told me.

“Why would you want that?” Zach asked him bewildered.

“Because Mommy and Daddy are the only Doctors in Welton!” Laurie chimed. “If I was a doctor too, then there would be one more - and they wouldn’t have to work all the time!” Laurie smiled a broad innocent smile, and Zach couldn’t help but smile back.

“Weren’t you two going to play nerf guns or something?” He asked abruptly, changing the subject. I could see his cheeks had flushed hot red from his brother’s comment. I felt like I was missing part of this story. They weren’t telling me something or other. I supposed I couldn’t be mad at them for having their own secrets.

“Yeah!” Laurie squealed and hopped off the stool, running to his bedroom to get the guns.

I took this opportunity to look askance at Zach, who seemed to already be doing the same to me. “Don’t tell your parents.” He told me in a whisper, immediately picking up on my unease. “Just say they were sleeping.”

Zach’s comment shocked me. Why was he covering for his parents? “I don’t know.” I told him unsure of what I was going to do. On one hand, it felt wrong to lie to my mom, but Zach had caught me in a pretty compromising situation this morning. What if he told everyone if I blabbed? “Are you…are you gonna tell everyone I wet the bed if I tell ?” I squeaked, a little frightened by the uncompromising serious frown on Zach’s face. ”Because that wasn’t me!”

Zach flinched. “What?… No!” He said a little offended, then scoffed. “Just do this for me as a favor.” He asked. “Since we're friends… right?” He said sincerely.

I looked at Zach in his eyes. Were we friends? I suppose we did spend a lot of time together, but he always seemed so standoffish. The only time we played together outside school was that one time in his tent at camp. “O-okay.” I agreed, feeling rather unsure about myself.

“Thanks Cooper.” He said, and seemed to relax immediately. Laurie bounded down the stairs with an armful of guns and Zach took away the dishes - acting like nothing had happened.

“Let’s play!” Laurie shouted and opened the backdoor.

I hopped off my stool to follow, but as I was getting to the door I stopped and looked at Zach again. He was frowning to himself, stoically standing over the sink and doing the dishes. “Aren’t you coming?” I asked him.

“I can see from the window.” He told me reassuringly.

“Don’t you want to play?” I asked again, a little confused. I understood why Zach was apprehensive about some of our more pretend kind of games - but these were nerf guns! “I want you to play.” I said softly. ”You know, since we're friends.”

Zach turned his head and stared at me. It looked as if he had just taken off the heaviest school bag ever. He dropped the dishes in the sink with a clatter, and finally gave a proper smile. “You know what, I do want to play.” He agreed happily. And we all went outside.