Page 33 of Snowballing

The floor was wet. I didn’t think - I went straight for the door, opening it. The hall was partially lit.

“Trey?!” That was who I heard earlier while still asleep. He practically left me breathless with the force of his arms wrapping around me. “Hey, it’s okay. Let’s go find your dad.”

“There’s water coming through my ceiling.”

I led us down the hall, towards the kitchen. “I bet the roof is leaking or maybe a pipe broke.”

Thankfully, the floor was dry once we stepped up into the main part of the house, and there was enough light coming from the dimmed pendants over the island to see. Trey left my side to flick on the main light, which was when I realized I was wearing only a jockstrap.

Trey hadn’t said anything about that, and I wasn’t about to journey back through the wetlands to find my other clothes. They were likely soaked anyway.

He grabbed my hand, pulling me back to reality.

“Dad!”

I didn’t even have to set a foot in Eli’s bedroom. He met us at the door. Unlike me, he was clothed - a t-shirt and sleep shorts. He focused on Trey first, who seemed to lose it a little, collapsing into his dad’s arms.

“What happened?”

He turned to me, noticing my lack of coverage immediately. I watched his eyes travel down my body, focusing on my bulge. It was only a few seconds, but heat blasted through me, though I was still shivering.

“Everything’s wet. I don’t know what happened, but Trey said his ceiling has water coming through it. Maybe a burst pipe or a roof leak? It seems to just be that wing of the house. The kitchen’s fine.”

“Okay.”

Eli handed Trey back off to me, and he snuggled his head against my chest, arms wrapped around my stomach.

“Here. One for each of you.” He handed us each a blanket from the hall closet. “If you both want to jump in my shower real quick, I’m guessing I’ll have to turn off the water if it’s a pipe.” And he was gone.

I was the adult in charge now.

“Let’s go, Trey.”

I led him to the bathroom, on autopilot, said a silent ‘thank you’ when I saw it had a dual shower, and turned on the water. The whole setup reminded me of a locker room - there was plenty of room in there for both of us. The water warmed quickly, so I turned to check on Trey. He had stopped in the middle of the bathroom.

“We’re showering together?”

Oh Jesus.

“If you’re bashful, I’ll just face the wall. I won’t look.”

He didn’t move.

“Look, if you don’t want to freeze, we need to get in soon. Like now.”

“It’s not that. You’re just-” He gestured to my body and gave me an up-and-down.

“Hey, you’ll be twenty-four someday. You play sports. You can build all the muscles you want. I’ll even train you, but right now, we need to warm up.”

“It’s not that. What if your body, you know…affects me?” He pointed to his crotch.

“You’re twelve. Looking at a box of cereal affects you.”

I stripped off my jock, jumped under the stream of gloriously warm water and leaned back to get my hair. There was a reason mothers always made their kids put hats on in the winter. A warm head meant a warm body.

I heard a change in the water's sound and knew Trey had joined me. He was facing away from me, so I turned to face the wall as well. I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable, and I wasn’t really interested in being a voyeur to what could easily be an embarrassing moment for him.

“Don’t use soap,” I warned. “Your dad could shut the water off at any moment.”