The Arcade
Chapter 23

Friday morning, Cosmo got ready for school as usual. His mother and father were downstairs just sitting down to breakfast, with his dad leafing through the newspaper while enjoying his morning coffee.

Cosmo came downstairs and into the kitchen and, reaching the breakfast nook, stopped to give his mom a peck on the cheek.

“Good morning mom, ’morning dad.” He said. Rosie and Joe looked up smiling.

“’Morning, buddy.”

“Good morning, Stinky!”

Cosmo rolled his eyes and smiled at his mother’s nickname for him. “Mom, you know I use deodorant – right?”

Smiling, Rosie replied “Of course you do, sweetie – now have some breakfast.” At that point Cosmo heard a small, muffled snort coming from the direction of his dad’s newspaper. “Oh, you too?”

Joe laughed out loud this time, and was immediately joined by Rosie and her melodic giggle. Cosmo simply shook his head, and starting spooning hash browns onto his plate.

Within an hour, everyone had finished their breakfast, and Joe and Cosmo were out the door and on their way to school and work, respectively. Once on the road, it was a few minutes before Joe glanced over at Cosmo and asked “So when are you gonna tell ’em?”

“Tell who what?” asked Cosmo.

“Tell your friends about how you monkeyed with Theo’s dirt bike, and how it was Sal’s idea, and so forth.”

Cosmo thought about this for a moment. “I’m not sure. I thought about waiting until we got together to talk to Sal, and then go from there. You said you had an idea. When we meet with him Sunday, hopefully I will too. Anyway, today we’re all going to go see Theo after school. Today sure wouldn’t be good timing.”

Joe raised an eyebrow and cocked his head slightly. “You got a point there, kiddo.” Giving his son a quick glance, he replied “We wait.”

Cosmo turned to look at his father. “‘We’?”

“Of course. You don’t think I’m gonna let you swing on this alone, do you? I’ll always have your back, buddy – especially on this.”

Joe looked at Cosmo briefly “Remember, I knew about Sal before you told me. I carried the same secret around for almost twenty years.” His eyes took on a distant look. “I often wish I could forget.”

Looking back to the road, he continued “It’s a heavy burden to know something so amazing and yet so unbelievable to most people – something so amazing you wish you could tell everyone, but you can’t, because you know they’ll think you’re nuts.”

“Yeah.” Cosmo was silent for a few minutes before continuing. “Dad?”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“Thanks. Not just for believing in me, but for standing by me.”

Joe smiled, then glance at his son. “Home team, son. Home team.”

Turning to look back out the car window, Cosmo smiled. He wouldn’t trade this solidarity with is father for all the wealth and success in the world. He now knew that this trip back in time did more than save a life: it gave him a relationship with his father. That alone was worth the trip.

Pulling up in front of the school, Cosmo climbed out of the car. “About what time do you think you’ll be here?” He asked Joe.

His father replied “I should be here about three thirty or three forty-five, depending on traffic.”

“Okay. I’ll see you then. Have a good day, dad.”

“You too, son. Hey – you okay on cash?”

Cosmo checked his pockets and came up with a five dollar bill. “Yep, I’m good – thanks.”

“Alright. I just wanna make sure you don’t starve. School food can’t be much better than prison food.” Joe chuckled.

“Cruel and unusual if you ask me.” Cosmo agreed. Waving, Joe put the car into gear and drove around the semi-circle of the school drop-off area and into traffic. Cosmo returned the wave, then headed up the short flight of steps and into the school.

On entering the front doors of the school, Cosmo immediately headed for the hall where his locker was located. Halfway down the corridor he spotted Holly at her open locker. Walking up behind her, he leaned in and gave her a little kiss on the cheek.

Giggling, she turned around to look up in to his eyes. “Good morning, doofus” she said with her usual brilliant smile. “I’ve missed you!”

Cosmo could never get over how her smile seemed to warm him right down to his toes, and make his heart skip a beat. “I’ve missed you too. It’s only been a couple of days, but I feel like I haven’t seen you in weeks.”

With another kiss – on his lips this time – she leaned against him and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “We’ve all missed Theo, too – how is he?”

Resting his cheek in her blond curls, he said “Well, his mom called my mom yesterday evening to let her know that he was okay to see visitors, so I thought we’d all go and see him today after school – you, me, Bobby, and my folks.”

Excited by the news, Holly replied “That sounds great! I take it your dad is driving us over?”

“Yeah. He’ll pick us up after school.”

“Cosmo, that is totally awesome! I can’t wait to see how he’s doing. Everyone is totally worried about him.”

“Well, he was banged up pretty good – but he’ll be okay. We haven’t been to see him yet, but when we were at the hospital yesterday, that’s what the doctor told us after he came out of surgery.”

“Surgery!” Holly practically yelped. “How bad was it?”

“He had some really bad breaks on one of his arms, and a leg I think. It’s all kind of a blur.”

Holly nestled herself back into Cosmo’s arms. “Well, I’m just glad he’s alright. It’s gonna be hard to concentrate during classes today, but it’s totally cool of your dad to drive us all over to see him this afternoon.”

At the mention of classes, the First Period bell rang, and Cosmo said “Speaking of which…”

“Yeah,” Holly continued “Let’s go, doofus. We don’t wanna be late.” Standing on her toes, she gave Cosmo a light kiss and, shutting her locker door, took his hand as they hurried down the hall to their Homeroom.

At lunch the two of them met up with Bobby at their usual table, and filled him in on all the details.

“So you’re telling me he actually sailed over his handlebars – as in, like, flipped?” A wide-eyed Bobby asked. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Cosmo was sipping his chocolate milk through a straw and nodding. “Yup. The front tire came off, I guess, and he went all ‘Superman’. The paramedic said the only thing that saved his life was his helmet.”

Holly was pushing her salad around with her fork. “It’s just amazing to me that you and your dad were there when it happened. If you hadn’t been, who knows how long it might’ve been before anyone knew about it. His folks would’ve been sick with worry.” Looking at Cosmo, she asked “Who called the ambulance?”

Cosmo thought for a moment. “Ya know, I don’t really know. I just assumed that my dad did. I’ll have to ask him. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Holly began “If there weren’t a lot of people around, he might have laid there for a while until someone saw him.”

Bobby was shaking his head. “With him in the middle of the intersection like that, he would have been seen, alright – luckily it was by Cosmo and his dad instead of a car coming through the intersection.”

“Yeah” said Holly.

“Yup” echoed Cosmo.

The bell sounded, letting the students know that lunch was over. As the friends were gathering their things and getting up to leave, Bobby said “So I guess I’ll meet you after school out front then?

“Yeah” Cosmo replied. “My dad should be here around three thirty. Mom will be with him.”

“Cool. Later dorks.”

“Tootles, geek.” Holly smiled and called after him as he walked up the hall waving over his head.

Slipping her hand into Cosmo’s, Holly said “Hey doofus.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re cute.”

“You’re goofy.”

Holly giggled. “But you love me.”

“You’re right, Goofy.”

“I always am, Doofus.”

“You always are what – goofy?” Cosmo chuckled.

“No. I am always right.”

Cosmo rolled his eyes. “Here we go…”

“You betcha, Doofus…” The musical tinkle of Holly’s laughter trailed the couple as they walked up the hall.

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