Trapped with a Way Out

by Jeffery Martinez

  "That's it then." With this murmur, the teen approached Hans and offered him the handcuffs while contorting his wire into a ball and stuffing it deep into his pocket for safe-keeping. "Here's your handcuffs back. And-" He rotated to face the door where Richard and William were standing. "Can I use your bathroom and then go scare Rodriguez real quick? I've gotta go, since it's dark and everything. I looked through your books, but I put them back where I found them, so that's about everything…"

  Vincentimir... Richard closed her eyes and took a breath, adopting the indomitable front that would complete her character when, in a normal tone, she gave Vincent permission to use the bathroom as well as permission to scare her son. Vincent smiled, a mask with a few thin cracks the woman was able to detect, though she didn't show it, and the boy thanked her and then asked 'Female Rodriguez' not to betray his plans, before running off to the upstairs bathroom near the guest room he had slept in before.

  Richard, after a time, asked her confused daughter to finish getting ready, if she had not already finished, in order to give Hans and herself time to prepare to go out. Time that might be spent in silence.

  The characteristically blonde Leroy Rodriguez, a creature well suited for life in his natural habitat, the rather comfortable and peaceful setting of his bedroom, was currently visiting the local wireless signal to refresh his teenage body's demand for internet exposure, when, unknown to him, his natural predator sat crouched behind his computer chair, like a lion hidden in the grass on the Serengeti plains. With a toothy, hungry grin filling his face, paralyzing his other features that were molded into a display of excitement, the predatory Vincent licked his lips, steadying his aim as he crept into a ready tackle position. Then, with all the savagery of a wild animal and a vicious roar that would serve to strike terror into his prey, the Vincent pounced on the unsuspecting Rodriguez; long, thin fingers grabbing the muscular shoulders of the Rodriguez while the Vincent's open grin brought his roar next to a tan ear.

  A terrified, high pitched scream filled the Rodriguez house, broadcasting hunter-Vincent's triumph to all of the other Rodriguezs in the vicinity. Then the scream was followed by the victorious cackles of the beast that feasted upon his victims fear with sadistic glee and little grace.

  Vincent stepped back, still laughing while Rodriguez gasped for his dignity, grasping the collar on his shirt and twisting around to gawk at the pale teen, the blonde sputtering nonsense for a moment. Then he finally stammered Vincent's name, sending Vincent off on another bout of laughter until the delinquent doubled over and fell to the ground, gasping for breath so that he could laugh harder when Rodriguez's expression didn't change.

  "I got you! I got you! Oh god! That was freaking perfect!" Vincent howled his mirth and gasped some more, peeking up to see Rodriguez's face compose and develop a scowl that amused Vincent to no end.

  Rodriguez allowed Vincent to have a generous amount of time to enjoy himself, spinning his chair to face the other teen while crossing his arms patiently. When the delinquent had stopped laughing and lay limply on the ground, emitting airy outbursts of hilarity from time to time, Rodriguez lost some of his scowl to rising curiosity, and then worry, when he finally spoke. "When did you get here?" Did he hear my parent's fighting? Mom was yelling earlier…don't need him seeing that and getting the wrong impression…

  Vincent's lips curled, his eyes flashing at Rodriguez when he identified a new game. Then the pale teen rolled over and took his time getting up, dusting himself off to prolong the interlude. "What are you talking about? I've been here all day."

  Rodriguez's eyebrows fell flat and he stared at Vincent, not entertained. "No. Really…when did you get here? …Did you hear anything earlier?"

  Vincent ignored the last question, keeping his smile when he looked about the room, wandering a little. "No…really, I'm telling the God-honest truth. I've been here alllll day, practically, Fat Ass."

  "Don't call me that." Rodriguez snapped back, having forgotten the name in Vincent's prolonged absence. He was unused to the name now, and less tolerant.

  Vincent continued with a smirk. "I've been here since this morning."

  "Right."

  "Really."

  "…Just tell me. I'm not up for this right now."

  "…Rodriguez…you're boring today."

  "…"

  With Rodriguez's reluctance to join in the immature conflict Vincent was endeavoring to start, Vincent's hyper-ness toned down, leaving two pale hands laying in the teen's lap when he sat calmly on the carpeted floor. He chose to change his seating arrangement, standing to fetch the extra chair he had used once before to explore Youtube with Rodriguez. This time he placed the chair in the corner, a little ways off from the desk, but comfortably in his own zone of isolating space. Rodriguez watched without commenting as these changes took place.

  Vincent pivoted on his rolly-chair, leaving his gaze on the floor, too nervous or uncomfortable with looking the other teen in the eye when he spoke.

  "Hey, Rodriguez-"

  "Now you actually have a real greeting." Rodriguez huffed, displaying more humor in his tone this time. The interruption that Rodriguez appeared to be ignorant of, startled Vincent, bringing his eyes to stare at the tan jock before the delinquent gave a quirky smile and swiveled his chair, taking his eyes to the floor and keeping them there.

  "Yeah, hey Fat Ass. I forgot to say that."

  The 'Fat Ass' muttered something, but didn't pronounce his displeasure to a further extent.

  Coaxing his features into a casual expression, Vincent swallowed, gradually stilling the chair. He shoved his hands into his pockets. "No but…hey, what kind of guy is your dad? Like, do you get along with him? Does he seem nice? He's- just what type of person would you say he is?"

  Unprepared to answer this, and not sure if he was willing to come up with a description of his father, Rodriguez averted his eyes, humming when quiet seemed to last too long after Vincent had asked his questions. "Um…I don't know. You just need to know him yourself…I mean-" The green eyes gained the confidence necessary to look at Vincent, meeting the red eyes that were turned to him. "I could introduce you to him. He's here right now."

  Vincent's lips tipped upward ironically and the red eyes flicked away from Rodriguez's face, though the rest of him remained stationary. "Na. You don't need to do that, Rodriguez. I already met him, earlier, when I was downstairs." There was a pause which Vincent tried to fill with a swivel of his chair. He swallowed again, feeling the thirst that had accumulated through the day. "You like your dad? You get along with him? -I just never got along with my dad very well…so I was wondering."

  "Hm? Yeah. Oh yeah, sure we get along." Rodriguez's voice seemed a bit forced, weakened for some reason, so he cleared his throat and gave a fake grin, fighting off the odd discomfort he was experiencing. As his nerves settled down, the grin became more natural, the transformation being noted by Vincent who looked up again to watch it. "No, he's gone sometimes and he's not home as often as some people's parents, but that hasn't affected our relationship or how we are as a family, at all. He knows what's going on in our lives when he's not there. Today we spent most of the day together."

  Vincent looked away again, turning on his chair slowly, resuming his previous swivel motion. "You came back at 2-something though, and it's only about 5:30 p.m."

  A little surprised by the knowledge, but assuming his mother or William had informed Vincent, Rodriguez shrugged off the detail. "I was busy earlier. That's all."

  A quiet that didn't sit well with either teen, filled the room. Eventually, Rodriguez's hands itched to find something to occupy them, and he glanced at his laptop. Green went to Vincent again, causing him to look up and view Rodriguez's lopsided smile.

  "Wanna watch something, or listen to some music? This site called Pandora is like an internet radio station, you put in a song you like and the site will play different songs that are similar to it."

  Vincent saw the laptop that was now showing a scr
een-saver. He glanced at the window and decided that it was already dark, so it didn't matter if he stayed for a couple of extra minutes. Vincent shrugged and scooted his chair to the desk. "Sure."

  Richard found the two sitting in front of the laptop, classical music enclosing the room in a thin bubble while adding to the delicate peace it seemed to contain. Though delicate, the peace was not easy for her to interrupt, it seeming so precious in the face of everything else that goes on from day to day. In this single room there was peace; despite all of the contaminating agents that could have infected this place, it was calm. Almost defiantly calm.

  With a silent breath that brushed off her lingering reluctance, the woman let her hand rest on the frame of her son's doorway. But thoughts sparked as soon as her lips parted to speak, and she hesitated, ideas and a scene of imagined development spawning from her thought. She blinked and the hand on the doorframe slid down the wood for only a few inches of movement.

  "Are you ready to go Leroy?"

  Both of the boys turned and the classical music was forgotten or banished to the background to become nothing but white noise. Rodriguez nodded, rotating his chair to the side so that he could look at his mother when he responded.

  "Yeah, I'm ready to go when you guys are." Then he paused and a slightly uncomfortable atmosphere entered the room, that he, perhaps, alone experienced, though Vincent shifting in his seat could have been a possible sign that he had felt it as well. The exclusion, maybe, if that was what it could be called. The awkwardness, surely, for that was what made the two teens swallow or chew their bottom lip. Vincent glanced at the computer screen to avoid eye-contact, and then he planted his palms on the desk to push himself up out of his chair. When he was half standing, ready to give his farewells, Richard's voice cut in before he could speak.

  "Vincentimir will be joining us for dinner."

  Green and red stared, Rodriguez's mouth becoming slack while every muscle in Vincent's body became tight and rigid. Muscles worked in a pale jaw, blue and red staring into one another. Only Richard possessed enough ease to blink.

  Rodriguez swallowed for the second time since his mother had entered the room, his gaze hitting a bed post and bouncing back to the woman. His hands thrummed and then grasped the armrests of his computer chair restlessly. This is a family dinner. A Christmas thing, making up for dad's trip. He is not going to like this… I don't think… This wouldn't work out. It'd be weird. Weird, weird, weird… The chant whispered in his head. "Does dad know?" He asked and then instantly regretted the question, again assaulted by how awkward this situation was…with the friend oriented aspect of his life intruding on his family life. Both were close, but should not be permitted to mesh. There was a special boundary that needed to distinguish one from the other.

  Already uneasy about the conflict his appearance had caused earlier, the red-eyed teen stepped on his own shoes, frowning at the ground while he hoped his bangs would hide the expression.

  Richard's finger tapped the wooden frame of the door. "Your father doesn't know, but it is my decision. We have been discourteous to Vincentimir, who has been our guest for most of the day but was not permitted to join us until now." To speak more directly to the teen, Richard let her gaze switch from her son to Vincent intermittently. "We enjoy your company, Vincentimir, and would like it if you would join us for dinner."

  Rodriguez was blinking, confusion muddling his thoughts and response when he considered the cat and mouse game Vincent had been playing earlier - when he had asked the younger teen when he had arrived and Vincent had given an answer similar to what his mother had just announced. Dumbfounded, without any way to explain how this could've been the case when he had seen no sign of Vincent all day, Rodriguez squinted, pursing his lips at the wall to make sure his mother did not misinterpret the expression. "Vincent's been here for most of the day?"

  Ready to downplay what had transpired between her spouse and her son's friend, and preferring to avoid the topic at the moment, Richard shrugged it off. "He had been occupied, reading in my room, and your father forgot to fetch him."

  The confusion that remained in Rodriguez's face plainly said that the teen was going to pursue the subject, so Vincent distracted the jock by spontaneously straining his arms over his head to stretch, predicting the symphony of alarming crackles that would come as a result. The teen hummed casually, swung his arms into his jacket's pockets, and viewed the room and its inhabitants. "I'm actually going to head home now. I've been gone all day and have some things I need to see to."

  The teen suffered the duration of a strained paused, hoping that someone would speak up as quickly as possible before his nervousness shone through his façade. He calmed at bit when Richard's frown emitted a question, not hearing it at first. But then, when the boy realized what had been asked, a fist in his pocket wedged itself into his stomach to grab hold and restrain the irritating butterflies that suddenly ran rampant in that area.

  "Where do you live now Vincentimir? I'd noticed that you moved. …Why didn't you tell me you were moving? We had no way of finding you, and it came as a surprise."

  Vincent swayed on his feet in a rhythm that seemed to comfort him, and he rolled a shoulder stiffly. "I-"

  "Mom! We're all ready to go, and Dad says we're already pushing it with the time if we leave now! We need to go or we'll be late!"

  Frowning sharply at the interrupting voice that traveled up from the stairs where William was waiting, Richard shot a quick glance at Vincent, catching the relief that swept over his face, and then noticed when her son shut his laptop and stood to go downstairs. Richard pivoted and was the first to leave the room and descend the stairs, arriving at the bottom when her husband was still adjusting his wristwatch. Hans didn't look up when Rodriguez and Vincent came down the stairs.

  Vincent hung back on the last step, hoping to become inconspicuous enough so he could slip off with a final 'goodbye' without too much trouble. But nothing about his day was fated to come about so easily.

  Richard proceeded to announce her decision for a second time. "We're all leaving now."

  Hans nodded, checking to see if his watch was too tight or too loose. It seemed fine…

  "Vincentimir will be coming with us."

  Hans' head shot up and his eyes widened to take in the form of the mad woman he suddenly found wearing a wedding ring that tied his life to hers. He immediately began to shake his head, in earnest, to dispel the illusion and deny what she had just declared.

  William was staring at her mother with a puzzled frown. Her mother was acting strangely today.

  Richard focused on her husband, her tone causing the boys behind her to wince. "He is coming with us."

  No. The shaking head said, hands moving. No. This is a family occasion. A family dinner. It is inappropriate.

  But she combated the man. "It's because of your forgetfulness that we owe Vincentimir some of our time, and an apology."

  I've fallen into Hell. And if I haven't, just let me die now… Vincent hid his face with his hair, his hands still buried in his jacket as he hunched his shoulders protectively.

  Hans continued to frown. That doesn't matter. We are going to be late-

  "Did you just say that what you did to this boy 'doesn't matter'?" Light glinted in the blue glare as the same light weakened in her husband's eyes, coming back only when he sent a quick glower to the pale teen who didn't see it.

  The chronic awkwardness returned and triumphed.

  Vincent rose up to dethrone the tyrant, the ruling awkwardness, and he did so by stepping from the last step on the staircase and wandering a short, isolating distance away from the Rodriguez family. He made his first jab at the awkwardness with the typical throat-clearing/cough technique. "Thank you for the offer, Chief, and I would like to go with you guys sometime, but maybe today isn't a good time."

  "It's as good a time as any." Richard stated to end the argument.

  But Vincentimir interpreted this statement with a different view, h
is head dipping slightly when he agreed with what the woman had said. It would never be a good time. He should never bother this family. The teen moved his neck uncomfortably. "Yeah…but I've really gotta get back to the wife and kids, you know?"

  The opposing awkwardness gained some ground when it became silent and all eyes stared at the boy curiously.

  Richard spoke slowly, watching Vincentimir with narrowing eyes. "You not only moved, but now you're married and have children, Vincentimir? All within a week? You must have shifted into some sort of hyper drive in order to accomplish all that. …You do know that the typical human baby takes nine months to develop?"

  No. I didn't really know the exact time it takes. Vincent shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to another, scuffing a shoe on the tiles. "I don't know…jus' got the wife and kids I've got to get home to, so I should be leaving on my own about now." And this sounds a lot weirder than I thought it would. They don't get what I'm freaking saying…at all… Ho hum, I am so dumb…so very fucking dumb…

  Though others would have liked to join Vincent in this interesting conversation to inquire more about this new family, Richard did not allow any openings, casting aside her sarcasm this time to be more frank. "You're not married Vincentimir…and unless you're trying to make fun of that kind of situation-" Her thoughts dwelled on her own family.

  Vincent shook his head, almost violently, his mouth dry when he tried to swallow the bile in his throat. This is the worst thing that could've happened with what I said. "I'm just saying that I've got to get back home, Chief."

  It was quiet for a moment. "Where are you living right now?"

  Bad questions. Stupid bad, fucking, annoying-ass questions, and I should not have come here. It was so stupid. I am so freaking stupid. I can't believe I was so stupid, and I actually came here -and GOD DAMN IT am I stupid! So stupid!