Patrick shrugs. When did Patrick start shrugging! Michael wonders. "You want some ice cream? I won't tell." Patrick looks up. That's the ticket, Michael thinks. "Yeah, I won't tell if you won't tell. How about ice cream and sprinkles? You want that?" Patrick nods slightly. "Cool." Michael turns toward the kitchen door. "Patrick," he calls, leaning toward his brother who is back on his feet. "You know I love you right? I wouldn't hurt you. I was only playing." "I love you too, Mikey." Patrick smiles. "What a retard," Michael mutters as he opens the cabinet above the sink looking for the sprinkles his mom tends to hide behind the canned tomatoes and peas.
• Later, he looks up from the television and sees Ms. Lynch, not Patrick, next to him. And oddly enough, while his teacher is still wearing her Northface jacket, she isn't wearing pants. "I wanted to watch a movie with you, Michael," she whispers. "It's about dancing but not really. You know what I mean?" His teacher holds up a video with a naked blonde woman on the cover. "Yeah?" God, he sounds stupid. What's wrong with him? What is Ms. Lynch doing? "I want you to see my breasts, Mike. Want to touch them?" "Okay." Michael leans forward. Is he supposed to take off her Northface? Or just put his hands underneath it? How did she get in? His mom will kill him if he forgot to set the alarm. He opens his eyes and sees that it's his mother, not Ms. Lynch next to him. "What?" He's surprised at how nasty he sounds. "Nothing." His mother sounds hurt. "You were sleeping. It's after two. You should go to bed." Michael stands up, hazy and unsure. "Michael?" his mother asks quietly, as ifshe wants something from him that does not exist. "Everything okay! Pat gooeH" Laundry, Michael realizes-he forgot to do laundry. Ifhe had put the clothes in the washer before they went to the video store, then instead of threatening Patrick when he got home, Michael would have put the clothes in the dryer and halfway through the movie, which was really dumb, he could have folded everything into neat piles the way his mother does it. Patrick could have matched all the socks and when his mother came home to clean clothes, she wouldn't Summer 2004
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