Hitman's Creed - 9

 

"So," Joey's mother said as soon as he came through the door, "how did you end up there?"

"I told you when I called, I got lost."

"You don't get lost. You know this area like the back of your hand."

Joey looked at the back of his hand once he took off the borrowed jacket. "I never could figure what that saying meant. I don't know the back of my hand."

"Joey, answer the question," she said in mock exasperation.

"Okay. I really was lost for a while, or at least way off course. But I figured out where I was more or less and started back. Then, well, I was freezing my ass off and I thought I was close to his place and so…"

"You decided to take advantage of the situation and do a little snooping."

"Make friends with a neighbor," he replied with an innocent stare in her direction.

"He's hardly a neighbor, so you were snooping."

"I was getting out of the snow and cold!"

"Joey Fairburn, you were snooping. So what did you find out about the elusive Mr. Glenn whatever?"

"Nothing really," Joey admitted once he'd finished stuffing the borrowed socks into the borrowed boots. "He makes a mean pot roast, from the smell of it he smokes though he didn't while I was there, and his place is totally neat."

"A neat male; I didn't know they existed," she said with a laugh.

"Hey, my room's neat, mostly, usually."

"Sometimes." She glanced at the clock then nodded toward the stairs. "It's late so maybe you should get to bed now? Put everything in the hamper and I'll do a load of laundry in the morning so his sweats are clean when you take them back to him."

Joey was about to tell her that Glenn would pick them up… someday. He thought better of that. After all if his mother wanted him to return them then return them he would.