That Bloody Damn Pasta Bridge
Harry hates disciplining his children. He hates it so much that there’s an unspoken rule in your marriage where you always have to be the bad cop and he gets to play the very loved role of the good cop. However, he has his moments where he has to raise his voice and though he always feels guilty afterwards, he knows his kid won’t make the same mistake twice.
On this particular night, your eldest son, James, was testing his limits with Harry. You’re away on a business trip and you won’t be back until 3 more days. Harry, of course, does not mind having some alone time with your two kids. In fact, he was over the moon happy when you announced you had to leave for an entire week. In Harry’s mind, you being away meant he got to do things with the kids that you wouldn’t normally allow. Him and James had already spent an evening binging out on some snacks until it was nearing 3 am. Harry even went a step further and decided that your daughter, Evelyn, should skip her usual nap time to go to the park one afternoon. Even though he immediately regretted that decision, Harry lived for moments like these with his kids because he knows its times that they’ll remember forever. In Harry’s mind, you leaving meant that he and his two kids were going to have a blast.
Harry did not plan for your son to come to him on a Thursday night after he had just put his younger sister down for bedtime, telling him that he needed his help with a school project. Harry, also, did not plan on working on this project the night before it was due.
“I cannot believe you let yourself not do a single thing until this last minute,” Harry scowled at his 13 year old son who stood beside him, reading out loud the criteria for the project. “You’ve really gone and screwed yourself over,” He went on. “I shouldn’t even be helping you with this bloody damn thing! You have no idea what you’re doing and I sure as hell don’t! Have fun explaining to your mum why you’ve failed this,” His accent getting thicker as he grew angrier.
“Dad, please. I didn’t know it was due tomorrow, I thought I had another week!” James tried to reason with his father
“Another week,” Harry scoffed. “Says it right here when it’s due!” He grabbed the page out of his son’s hand and waved it around. “Due date, June 4th! Make a bridge that will support as many textbooks as possible! Use time in class to prepare! James’ a pillock! A goddamn twit!” Harry went on reading from the page, making the two last statements up
Your son, hating the fact that his dad was not only angry with him but furious enough to start calling him names, grew more annoyed and frustrated.
“You’re not helping!” James told Harry
“Course not, this isn’t my problem,” Harry reminded his son. “Now tell me how you’re going to make this bridge mate? I’d really love to know,” He asked him
“I-I don’t know,” His son answered
“You know what? I was considering helping you but not anymore. I want you upstairs in your room and I better not see your face until tomorrow morning when you leave for school empty handed,” Harry raised his voice as he pointed to the staircase.
“Can I work on the bridge in my room?” James questioned
“The hell you can!” Harry exclaimed. “There are consequences to your actions, James, and you are going to learn just how much you’re going to have to work to obtain a proper grade once you’ve had a zero. I have never been so disappointed in my entire life, I cannot believe you,” He shook his head.
Now this is what caused James’ breaking point. Having his father be angry with him and call him names barely hurt him but hearing that Harry was disappointed in him cut sharply. James works hard to make both of his parents proud and he knows he’s in the wrong about this project but his father’s words rang in the back of his mind.
The 14 year old inhaled sharply as he felt his eyes tear up.
“You can’t do this to me!” He replied to his father. “I’m calling mum,” He quickly added before stomping up the stairs.
Harry let out a sigh as he walked to the staircase.
“Go ahead and call her! I would love to see how she reacts to you not doing a project! Please be my guest and tattle on me,” He called after his son
The only response he got was a door slamming that quickly followed with Evelyn calling out for her father.
“Now he’s gone and woke his sister up,” Harry huffed as he marched up the stairs.
He debated going into his son’s room and arguing with him some more but he decided that they both had enough. Harry went into Evelyn’s room and stayed with her until she fell back asleep which luckily didn’t take too long.
Harry let out a sigh as he gently closed the door to his daughter’s room as he noticed that the light was off in James’. Harry went into his own bedroom where he took a quick shower and got ready for bed. He climbed into his bed, phone in hand. The only text from you was one he saw a few hours ago when you wished your family a goodnight before you headed to bed yourself.
Content that James didn’t actually tattle on him, Harry laid back and closed his eyes, getting ready for sleep to overtake him. However he found himself tossing and turning.
The next thing he knew, he was downstairs leaning against the kitchen counter with his eyes glued on his computer screen as he searched up the best methods to build a bridge.
“Linguini noodles, really?” He questioned himself.
After reading different articles, he found that the pasta was a frequent method used.
Harry got up from his seat and went into the kitchen to retrieve a few boxes of the noodles before going into the laundry room to find your hot glue gun.
“Okay, let’s do this,” He said as he sat back down.
Taking a few noodles out of a box, Harry glanced back to his computer screen to make sure he was about to do the right thing.
“I guess… I just… A triangle… Right right… Makes sense…” He mumbled to himself as he started to break the pasta in pieces.
Harry started to glue the pasta together to form a triangle, since his source said that triangular trusses would work better than rectangular ones.
He kept building from there, only stopping to check his source to make sure he was doing it correctly. He gave himself one break where he chugged down two cups of coffee in order to help him stay up.
Harry glued the last piece of pasta onto the bridge, his eyes feeling heavy. He let out a content sigh as he laid his head on the table, telling himself he’ll rest his eyes for a moment before cleaning up and heading upstairs.
“S’not even that late,” He argued with himself as he closed his eyes.
The clock on the stove flashing 3:43am would argue otherwise.
Harry abruptly woke up to someone shaking his shoulder. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his surroundings, completely confused as to why he was being woken up in his kitchen to James holding Evelyn in his arms.
“Wha’s going on?” He asked his oldest
“I, uh, woke up and found you snoring at the table so I go Eve ready and make us breakfast but now I need to get ready for school,” James told his father
Suddenly the memories of arguing with his son over a school project became clear in Harry’s mind. He glanced at the bridge he built which still stood where he had left it. Clearly James had seen it.
“Right right, go on then. Thank you for taking care of yer sister, I couldn’t sleep last night. Didn’t mean to fall asleep here,” Harry said.
James handed his sister to his father and raced up the stairs without saying another word. Harry glanced at the clock and saw that there was 20 minutes left before James had to leave for school.
“How’re you this morning princess?” Harry asked his daughter who made herself comfortable on his lap.
“Perfect! James made me cereal while he cleaned up noodles from the table,” His daughter answered. “Why were you playing with noodles at night, daddy?” She questioned him.
“I wasn’t playing with them baby, was helping your brother with something and fell asleep before I could clean up,” He told her. “Don’t you go telling mommy that, y’know how much she hates it when I leave the kitchen dirty,” He quickly added, knowing that his youngest would tell you everything that happened once you came back home.
He learned that he had to ask his daughter not to tell you certain things or else his secrets would be out.
“Pinky promise,” Evelyn agreed, locking her finger to Harry’s
“Thank you baby,” Harry kissed her cheek. “Now go on and play in the kitchen while I talk to your brother,” He said as he let her down from his lap once he noticed his son walking down the stairs.
Evelyn listened and skipped her way into the living room.
“Sit down,” Harry told his son.
James wasted no time to take a seat next to his father.
“I want to apologize for what I said to you last night, wasn’t nice of me to call you names even if you were driving me bloody mad. I’m sure you’ve noticed the bridge I built last for ya last night and I want you to know that just because I’ve helped you out this one, I won’t always be bailing you out like this. You’re about to start high school, James, and you need to learn responsibility. I’ll always want to help you with projects or help you figure school work out but I can’t be putting in more effort than you mate. This is the one and only time I will ever do one of your assignments by myself and the only reason I did build this damn bridge was because I couldn’t bear the thought of you failing a project. That and your mom would absolutely murder the both of us for letting that happen,” Harry said, earning a laugh from James during the last part of his lecture.
“Thank you dad and I’ve learned my lesson. Assignments are important and waiting until the last minute won’t do anything but bring you anxiety,” James replied.
“You’re telling me,” Harry mumbled. “You should head to your bus stop, bus will be here any minute,” He said.
James nodded and leaned over slightly to grab the bridge. He gave his dad a hug and thanked him again before making his way to the front entrance to grab his backpack and put on his shoes.
“Oh and James?” Harry called out as his son paused in the doorway. “That bridge should be able to hold at least 22 books, better come back home with a perfect grade,” He said
“Only 22? I feel like you built it to be stronger than that, how about 27?” James suggested, earning a cheeky smile from his father.
They exchanged goodbyes one last time before James left.
“That bloody damn pasta bridge,” Harry shook his head once the door closed behind his son.
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