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The family was sitting at the dinner table when it happened. It had been a perfectly good day, and Tommy had been having a wonderful evening. He had been hopeful that the good mood would stay that way.
Sure, he was anxiously watching everyone's movement, and judging the way their voices sounded, which emotion each person was feeling and if they would be dangerous, but it was fine. Besides, he had only been staying with the Watson family for a month. Of course he was still a bit jumpy.
He had been focusing on his mashed potatoes while there was a lull in the conversation that had previously been filling the room. But Phil filled the silence with news that made Tommy’s heart stop.
“I had to wait for a bit to tell you, but we’re going camping this weekend, boys. A beginning of summer treat!” He said it with such a bright smile that Tommy couldn’t help the pit in his stomach.
“This weekend, Dad? What day are we leaving?” Wilbur asked, clearly excited.
“Well, I figured we’d pack up Thursday night, leave bright and early Friday, and come home Sunday evening so I can get to work on Monday.”
Tommy caught Techno sending a glance his way before turning and starting to ask Phil a question.
“What about T-”
Tommy stood abruptly, grabbing his plate with him.
“May I be excused?” He asked, hardly waiting for Phil’s surprised and disappointed nod before he turned and put his plate in the sink, then rushed up the stairs to his room.
Once he got to his room, he sat on the floor next to his bed, shoving his face in his knees and forcing himself to breathe as salty tears fell from his cheeks.
He couldn’t help but think of the last time a family went on a camping trip. It was hard to travel with foster kids, so normally they got left behind with a sitter. Someone the foster system had approved. But the family Tommy was thinking of hadn’t gotten a sitter. They had simply left Tommy home for a week.
Tommy Innit is a big man, he won’t hesitate to tell you as much. But he is terribly afraid of being alone. Especially in an unfamiliar place. So being alone for a week in a house that he had been living in for only 5 days. (The family had talked about what terrible timing Tommy had been) was particularly hard.
While he had been living in Phil’s house for longer than 5 days, he had also thought Phil would be different. He didn’t think this family would be the kind to leave a 13 year old boy alone. So Tommy’s heart ached painfully at the realization that this family was just like the others.
He quickly formed a plan. It was Monday evening, so he had three days until everyone left. Maybe if he just isolated himself on his own terms, it wouldn’t hurt so bad when he was left alone. Yeah! That’s it! He would-
Tommy was startled out of his thoughts by a knock at his door.
“Tommy?” Phil’s voice spoke through the wood. “Could we talk?”
A quick glance at the clock on Tommy’s dresser said that it had somehow been over an hour since he had left the dinner table. Phil had probably been waiting for things to “cool off” as he liked to say.
“Yeah, you can come in.” He responded quietly, watching Phil enter and take in his position on the ground. No doubt spotting the tear tracks on Tommy’s face that he had forgotten to wipe away.
Phil softly padded across the carpet to sit on the floor next to Tommy, making sure to keep some space between them in case Tommy didn’t want him close. Phil turned towards the boy and furrowed his brows in a worried manner.
“Do you not want to come camping?” He asked.
Tommy was shocked, “Why would you say that?”
“Well, you left in such a rush when I mentioned it, and you’ve been up in your room for an hour and a half. If you don’t want to go, just tell me and we can come up with something else to do to celebrate the summer.”
Now it was Tommy’s turn to furrow his eyebrows, this time in confusion.
“What are you talking about? Are you wanting me to come with you?”
Phil opened his mouth in surprise, closing it for a second before responding. “Of course I want you to come along! Why would I leave you behind?”
“I mean,” Tommy’s voice dropped a little as he looked down to pick at the carpet, “that’s what the last family who went camping did. ‘S hard to take a foster kid anywhere. More trouble than it’s worth.”
“Tommy-” Phil cut himself off and clearly resisted the urge to hug the boy, holding his arms out awkwardly.
“It’s okay, you can hug me if you need to so desperately.” Tommy says with a fake sigh and a ghost of a smile, not willing to admit that he wants the hug as much as Phil wants to give it.
Phil wraps his arms around the boy and Tommy is quick to melt into the embrace.
“Tommy, I will never leave you home alone without anyone, and I would never leave you in order to take Wilbur and Techno on vacation. You’re a part of the family now too, and that means you don’t get left behind.”
Tommy’s eyes fill with tears a little out of relief and a little out of happiness. He cracks a small smile that Phil can feel on his shoulder and mumbles:
“Ohana means family.”
Phil smiles brightly, “and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
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The camping trip turned out to be just as hectic as one would guess a camping trip with a thirteen year old, and two seventeen year old boys would be. Tommy loved each and every second of it.
Phil had assured him that he had worked everything out with the social workers, which had been why he didn’t tell them about the trip until Monday.
“It takes a little bit to get everything cleared so you can come. Man, it’s almost as if you were protected by like, the government or something.” Phil joked, causing Tommy to smile and Techno to mutter something about anarchy and rebelling against the government.
They left the house at Too Early o’clock on Friday, or at least that’s what Wilbur grumbled about as he collapsed in the backseat with his shoes half on and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The messy haired boy hardly waited for Tommy to put his seatbelt on before dropping his head onto the younger boy’s shoulder. Which made Tommy tense for half a second before he relaxed and smiled brightly, reaching over to run a hand through the curly hair that Wilbur hadn’t even covered with a beanie.
While Wilbur was exhausted and appalled at the idea of being awake so early, Tommy was filled with excitement and wasn’t anywhere near ready to fall back asleep. He tried to hold back all his “are we there yet?” questions, and instead fidgeted with a toy Techno had given him while he gazed out the window and watched the scenery change.
Eventually Tommy fell asleep with his head on top of Wilbur’s and Phil had quickly handed Techno his phone so that a picture could be taken.
The family reached the campsite and quickly set up camp, then Phil told everyone to change into swim trunks and they walked the few minute walk to the lakeside.
Tommy worked hard to hold back his excitement at the fact that he was being included and was camping with them, but Phil, Wilbur, and Techno all noticed, and cast soft smiles at each other while Tommy wasn’t looking.
The day flew by and eventually the boys had been put in charge of starting a small campfire while Phil bustled around camp and got ready for the night to fall.
“Hey Tech,” Wilbur said, gathering wood.
“Hm?”
“How big do you think we can make the fire?”
Tommy looked up from where he was gathering brush and small twigs to give Techno to start the fire.
He was met by two mischievous faces and had to hold back laughter that would alert Phil of something going on.
“The real question here, Wilbur, is how big do you want the fire?”
“Like, at least a Tommy Innit. Maybe a Tommy Innit and a half.”
The boy snorted, “am I a unit of measurement now?”
“Of course you are, child. Now help me get enough wood to build a Tommy Innit and a half tall fire.” Wilbur said with a grin, ushering Tommy to follow him into the woods surrounding the campsite.
Fifteen minutes later they were standing around a very, very tall fire. Pyromania aflame in their eyes.
“Boys!” Phil’s voice rang out from behind Tommy. Startling them and causing all three boys to sheepishly look to where Phil was walking towards them.
“Small fire!” He said, “I told you that you could start a small fire.”
“That means we should have only started a Wilbur Soot sized fire,” Techno stage whispered to Tommy, causing Wilbur to smack Techno’s shoulder.
They let the fire die down a little bit, and spent the rest of the evening roasting marshmallows and telling stories. Ranging from scary stories that made Tommy slide his chair a little bit closer to Techno, all the way to a retelling of a memory Wilbur had from when he was younger, starting the story out in third person and with the sentence “he was an unfortunate lad.”
Tommy had laughed loudly as Techno informed him of the fact that “Wilbur has never not been an unfortunate lad.”
Tommy fell asleep that night in a camp chair next to Techno with the moon and stars overhead, and woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside the tent as the morning broke. He found himself in a sleeping bag snuggled between Phil and Wilbur, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.