°°° Blackmailed to Blackmail °°°

     The rest of the drive to the Whites was uneventful. They’d given Sean quite a tour of downtown Louisville. The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory was one that Mr. White and Andrew were most excited about. Mr. White promised to visit with them before Sean leaves, but Sean and Jason weren’t that excited. When they passed by the Muhammad Ali Center, they both could hardly contain themselves. They immediately made the decision to visit, no matter the cost.

Arriving at the Whites, Sean immediately went up to Jason’s room.

      It was a shared attic bedroom. Initially, Jason and Andrew shared a room until Andrew decided he was ready to have a room to himself. Jason loved the idea of an attic bedroom and decided to move out, insisting on the shared attic bedroom design he’d seen online. He was relentless with asking and finally got his wish after convincing Andrew to help him out by asking their parents to sleep in his room every now and then. Seeing as Jason’s bed was too small for both and moving mattresses each time was stressful, his parents finally broke and promised to meet his demands if he could raise a certain amount, which he did in a week.

       The walls were painted white. Two windows were at both ends of the left wall with another above the space between both beds. A wooden reading table was at the right side of the room with two shelves above it, both holding Jason’s trophies.

"Nice room," Sean said, dropping his bag. Last time he was here, Jason and Andrew still shared the room next to their parents' downstairs.

"Yeah… "I saw some ideas online, mixed them up, and boom," Jason said, feeling proud of himself.

"I’m guessing the bed with the rope dart design is yours?" Sean smiled, pointing at the bed on the right side of the room. The wooden foot board had a rope dart—a long rope with a metal dart attached to one end—engraved onto its surface.

"Good eyes bro," Jason laughed and walked to the wall opposite the bed. He opened the wardrobe that stood on the wall from end to end and tossed Sean’s duffle bag in. "We’ll arrange your stuff later. My mom’s back," Jason said and walked to the door.

     Sean heaved a sigh and turned to follow Jason downstairs. All attics he’d seen had ladders to go up the attic hatch, but the Whites had built theirs to have a door.

     A spiral staircase led up to the attic, but where the ceiling was meant to be was broken and raised higher at that point to allow a door to be fixed up. They believed a hatch would be dangerous if it would to be a room.

      He walked out of the room, trying not to think of how much was spent on Jason’s dream room, and even more trying not to think about the fact that they’ll be moving out, leaving all that to whoever would buy the house from them.

"Would they build another attic bedroom for Jason when they get to Canada?" Sean couldn’t help but think about it. He shook his head to get his mind under control. "Focus on having fun, Sean." "Forget Canada for now," he cautioned himself, and he walked down the spiral staircase.

"Sean!" Jason’s mother, Ann, exclaimed with joy as she saw him. "It has been ages," she smiled, spreading her arms open for a hug.

Sean felt a bit awkward. A few years ago, he’d have run into that hug, but at age fifteen, it felt like a thing for kids.

Ann pulled him in, noticing his hesitation.

"No one is too old for a hug, Sean," Jason’s dad shouted from across the hallway, his mouth filled with a bite of the cake in his hands.

"Manners, Dan," Ann cautioned his talking with food in his mouth.

"Sorry, ma’am," Dan, Jason’s dad, said, standing straight as though he were a soldier in the presence of a superior.

"Can you guys not embarrass me any further?" Jason face-palmed.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. White," Sean smiled, slowly pulling out of the hug.

"Come on Sean… "Lunch will be served in a moment," Ann smiled, pulling him along.

~~

"I don’t recall your folks being so... I don’t know... "Warm, playful, huggy," Sean said to Jason later that evening back in the attic bedroom.

"They are nice people, but yeah... this was kind of extra," Jason said, lying on his back. "It’s probably because of the move," he added, and the atmosphere became gloomy almost immediately.

"A consolation prize, huh?" Sean smiled to himself.

"You could call it that," Jason shrugged while sitting up. Silence descended for a moment. Jason’s face suddenly beamed with a mischievous smile.

"What?" Sean asked, noticing the smile.

"I don’t know," Jason shrugged, his expression changing immediately as he looked unsure—a look that was never on his face when it came to ideas.

"What are you cooking up in that crazy head of yours?" Sean asked figuring he was up to something.

      Jason chuckled as he had been caught. "Alright. I was thinking. My parents right now are probably feeling bad, Dad especially. His job is going to be taking us away from friends, far away for like the bazilliont time."

"Is that even a word?" Sean raised a brow.

"I don’t know," Jason shrugged. "The point is, Dad is feeling bad about the move. "He is willing to do virtually anything for us, well, more for you," Jason said, making a weird face. "Anyway, I think we can use this to our advantage," Jason smirked.

"Take what to our advantage?" A voice came from the door.

Both Sean and Jason turned to the entrance, and standing there was Andrew. His brown hair touched his shoulders; his hazel-green eyes screamed innocence.

"What the…," Jason yelled. "Andy I told never to come in without knocking," he ran to the door and slammed it shut.

"Hey, it was open!" Andrew screamed in defense.

"Quiet Andy," Jason covered his mouth.

"What’s going on up there!" Jason’s Mom yelled out downstairs.

"It’s nothing, Mom!" Jason shouted back.

"Andy, honey, are you alright?" Ann called out; they could hear her footsteps coming up the staircase.

Both Sean and Jason turned to Andrew, not sure what would happen next. If he were to say he wasn’t, Jason’s plot would be uncovered.

"I’m good, Mom." "Jay was mad; I saw him lose an arm wrestling match against Sean," Andrew answered.

Sean started to look at him as a not-so-innocent ten-year-old kid. His reply carried so much sincerity that he would have believed him if he had not been in the room.

"Okay, babe," Ann replied, and her footsteps receded. "Don’t play rough, kids," she added.

Jason let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding as the tension cleared.

"I’m in, or your little secret is out," Andrew threatened before anyone could say anything.

"Can you believe this kid?" Jason turned to Sean.

"Blackmailed to blackmail," Sean face-palmed. "Just great."