Operation Sal | Sally Face x Travis Phelps

20

TW - CHILD ABUSE!!

Travis was so incredibly happy.

He had watched Sal and his friends play Dungeons and Dragons, a game that Travis had eventually realized was both super nerdy and also extremely complicated.

He had listened to, and, dare he say it, enjoyed listening to Todd Morrison babble on about recent gene mutations in a population of emperor penguins. Science was a lot more complicated than he had thought, and he realized that, maybe, he had a lot he could learn from Sal's geeky redhead friend.

He had actually smiled at a few of Larry Johnson's stupid "your mom" and "that's what she said" jokes.

He had spent a day with people his age outside of school and despite the anxiety it caused him, he had fun. He felt just like a normal teenager should.

And perhaps more important than anything else, he had gotten home before his father did.

Nine-thirty was really pushing it. Travis had assumed that his father wouldn't be home yet because it was the weekend and Kenneth Phelps was unusually busy on weekends, but even so, he had grown nervous, realizing how late at night it was.

He knew that there was still a small possibility that his dad would already be home, standing on the porch with his arms crossed firmly, awaiting his return with a fire in his eyes, and that was enough to propel Travis to practically demand that Larry and Sal drive him back to his house.

He stared out the window on the way there. His body vibrated as the brothers blasted their satanic "songs" on what must have been full volume in the car. Travis was so tired and so worried that he found that he didn't mind all that much.

   With his head rested against the window, he fought a smile, and despite the vibrating of the glass against his skull, and the waves of nausea in his stomach, he almost fell asleep.

   But Kenneth wasn't home, and because of that, everything was okay. Travis had the house to himself. There was no one around to catch him grinning over another boy, like an idiot, pressing the curve of his back into the wall and hiding his face in his palms.

Sal had given him the courage and motivation to be himself, and he felt good. He went to sleep feeling lighter than usual, like some of the fog in his head had been cleared away, like he was finally loved. He held his stuffed bear to his chest and fell asleep smiling, hoping for many more happy days like this one in the future.

   The only problem was that Travis had become far too comfortable.

His recent actions had been fatal missteps, on his part, and as the sun rose from the ground, all of the scheming with Sal and the lying and the kept secrets had finally begun to catch up to him.

Travis had been making his bed quietly, the morning light streaming in through his window and onto the exposed, tan skin on the back of his neck.

   He tucked the edges of his blanket securely under the mattress, lifting it up slightly in the process in order to gently push the fabric underneath.

He had been asleep up until a few minutes ago, and in his drowsy, early morning daze, he hadn't even noticed the familiar, recognizable sound of Kenneth Phelps's black, suede shoes marching up the stairs and down the hallway.

The shapes in Travis's vision were ambiguous and fuzzy, and in his delirium, all he could think about was the way Sal's gentle thumb had brushed against the top of his hand, sending shivers down his spine.

As he tucked the second corner of blanket fabric under his mattress, his door burst open, the knob going flying into the drywall and making the already apparent circular dent there all the more noticeable.