Your Mistakes Are Yours to Keep (BEING REVISED & REPUBLISHED)

CHAPTER FOUR

Literally, no one is reading this on this site, but this chapter alone is longer than the first three chapters combined, aha

///

"Jay, can I come in?" Kai's muffled voice rang out from behind Jay's bedroom door. He almost didn't hear it over the true-crime documentary he was watching.

Jay paused the video he was watching with a tap to his spacebar. Cole recommended the video, being the true crime junkie that he was.

It had been around two hours since breakfast and his quick departure. Kai, being the secret but not so secret softhearted young adult he was, came to check up on his friend. It was clear that he felt bad, but he wouldn't admit it. Kai was merely a victim of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Jay sat up and abandoned his blanket cocoon. "Come in!"

Earlier, he cried until his throat burned, his head throbbed and his mouth dried. He screamed into his pillow until he felt lightheaded and immediately opened YouTube as if it had never happened in the first place. As if everything was okay, which was becoming a bad habit of his. Something to distract his thoughts was always something comforting. As long as he did not have to think about all of the things he wanted to grieve, he would be okay.

Kai slipped into Jay's room and closed the door with a soft click and quietly sat next to him on his futon. It was quiet, except for the rain that had rolled in earlier that seemed to calm down. The rain was gentle and softly pittering against the foggy window panes. Kai stared at his lap for a moment and licked his lips. He glanced at Jay's laptop screen and tried to find the correct words to say, this time.

"I'm sorry if I upset you earlier." He finally spoke. He fiddled with his fingers.

Jay kept his gaze on his floor. "It wasn't your fault. I was going to have to tell you all anyway."

Kai nodded. He took a breath before apologising again.

"Still, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or something."

Jay looked at his friend and smiled.

"And I'm sorry for making stuff awkward by leaving so abruptly."

"When did you find out?"

Jay hummed. He didn't want to lie; he really didn't. Bad things happen when you keep secrets, but he would have to tell a half-truth to keep his secret a secret. To keep their secret a secret.

"It was sort of a self-realisation thing. I don't look like either of my parents and I have no one I could have inherited my powers from. Not my parents, nor a distant relative or anything. I mean I would have known because my family is kind of close? To be fair we are close, for a family that's so spread out and all that. Y'know, I know Wu knows something. He probably knew this whole time but didn't tell me! Not to be mean or anything, but he always keeps stuff from us and then it becomes an issue at a later date.

"I haven't even spoken to Ma and Pa about it. I don't know how I'm going to have this conversation with them at all. I already know things won't change, because Ma and Pa are just like that, and I am just me. I just don't know how I'm going to bring this up the next time I go home. Also, why did my other family members not say anything at the yearly get together? My cousins are downright bad for not saying anything. It was so obvious this whole time and no one said anything. What do you think, Kai?"

Kai blinked and stared at Jay for a few seconds. His eyebrows knitted together, trying to process the dump of information. It had been a while since he fell victim to one of Jay's long rambles on a subject that didn't need more than two sentences to be expanded upon.