STUTTER

Chapter 5

Things I've learned about my new friend Scott:
-He has a habit of putting his middle and ring finger in the holes of his jeans to rest his hands when sitting
-lots of piercings
-refuses to wear the correct pants. always ripped jeans.
-don't mention his mom
-snake boy

"You callin him Snake Boy?", Mai plopped down beside me and leaned over to read my notebook. I had drawn Scott with a snakes tongue next to my notes.

"Uh- yeah-"

"Come on, get up and have some fun! It's a cooking club! Don't just sit around and Scribble."

"I'm not one for cooking..."

"Look, I'll teach you. Come here." She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the kitchen counter, where a couple other students were making some kind of chicken. There were a few different recipes on the board. We each had to pick one, as well as a partner, and cook it accordingly. "Were gonna make the fruit sandwiches. Okay?"

"Uh-"

"Great! Think you can cut some strawberries in half?"

"Uh...."

"Awesome!", she grabbed me a box of strawberries from the fridge and set them next to me. One of the other students handed me a knife that they had just washed.

"Here, this ones sharper than the others."

"Thanks.", I took it from him and grabbed a strawberry from the box, placing it on a cutting board and cutting the stem off. As I began to cut it in half, Mai stood beside me.

"Okay, you're doing fine but you need to be more careful. Pay attention so you don't accidentally-" While watching her, I felt a sharp pain in my thumb. I quickly dropped the knife and pulled my hand back, seeing a rather deep cut in my finger. "-hurt yourself..."

"Fuck- ow.", I grabbed a paper towel and wrapped it around my thumb.

"Maybe you should just make the cream. Since the recipe tells us to make it rather than buy it, she'll have the ingredients stocked up here already."

She took over cutting the fruit and grabbed a bowl for me. I just gather the rest of the ingredients and carefully measured them, pouring each into the bowl. "S-So...you cook like this every day?"

"Well the Vice President gives us a new recipes each time. Every other week though, she teaches a lesson and supervises. Speaking of which, she's coming over here."

I was pulled aside by the club's Vice President, who was a young woman with short brown hair. She didn't say anything and unwrapped the paper towel from my thumb. "Uh- sorry I accidentally-"

"Accidents happen, Kid." She pulled a roll of gauze from her pocket and wrapped it around my thumb, securing it with some sort of medical tape. "It's deep but it'll heal fine. Try not to bump it while you're mixing, it'll hurt."

"Thank you."

"I'll have to give you a cutting lesson since you haven't been here all year."

Trust me, I can cut just fine.

"I'd like that. I should pay more attention...", I bounced on my feet a bit.

"Get back to work, you're doing great."

The rest of the class went by just fine, and the food we made was actually really good. I took some with me on the way out to give to my sister and her daughter. Mai stopped me halfway out the door by grabbing my wrist. "Wait! Can you walk me home?"

"But...don't you usually drive?"

"Well my boyfriend drove me today but we got in a fight so...he left. I hope it's not too much trouble, I just...I'm scared to walk by myself and you live so close."

My heart sunk. Boyfriend?

"Y-yeah sure! I'll walk you."

She didn't let go of my wrist as we walked outside and down a few streets to make it to her own. Her eyes were even prettier in the sunlight, which made me a little nervous. I thought maybe being around her for an entire class would make it easier to talk to her, but not at all.

"Do you think I'm too busy?"

I turned to her as we walked, confused. "Busy? What do you mean?"

"Do you think I focus on my extracurriculars too much? I mean, I'm on the volleyball team plus with the cooking club and being class president-"

"Well, D-Do those things make you happy?"

"Well yeah! That's why I do it."

"Then no. I don't."

"Im just always working. At school, my job, helping my friends with stuff, he thinks I never give him the time of day. He told me that I should give him more attention if I was serious about being with him."

"If those things are important to you, he should understand that. You've got a lot on your plate, that's something to respect. Telling you that he needs more attention just throws you into more work, doesn't it? If anything, he should try to help you with those things if he wants to spend more time with you."

At least that's what I would do. Whoever this guy was, clearly didn't understand how much she had going on.

"I wish he thought that way." She looked down, tightening her hand around my wrist. "I also wish he hadn't ditched me but...here we are."

"If you want, I can walk you to school tomorrow."

"I'd like that.", she smiled to herself. It fell to her feet once we reached her house and saw a boy with short black hair and brown eyes sitting on her doorstep. She let go of my wrist and sighed, walking over to him. "Why're you here?"

"Well you just walked off when I was trying to talk to you so I figured we should talk.", he stood up, hands in his pockets.

"So you just ditched me at school and waited here?"

"Yeah."

"Well it doesn't work like that. Go home, Choi."

Watching her talk to him made me jealous and a little angry. And when he grabbed her by the waist and softened his voice, I thought I was going to cry. I didn't though, just felt my heart twist in my chest as I stared at them. "Look, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you. Will you just hear me out?"

"Yeah okay fine. Let me say bye to him first."

He finally looked at me, smiling brightly and running over to shake my hand. His grip was tight. "I'm so sorry! I didn't introduce myself. My name is Takeshi!"

"....Masaki."

"You're adorable! How long have you known Mai?" He ruffled my hair but I smacked his hand away, a frown on my face.

"Not long. Don't touch me please."

"He's weird like that.", Mai jogged back over to me. "Hates being touched and complimented."

"Really? Looks like he just hates me." He laughed a bit, clearly annoyed that I was there.

"Kinda.", I muttered. They both looked at me in shock, which signaled that they heard it. I just sighed. "I've gotta go. Bye, Fukushima."

"Hey wait!" She grabbed my wrist. I immediately pulled it away and kept walking.

"Ill walk you tomorrow. I'll meet you at the end of the street, okay?"

"...Okay."