Immature Mistakes | mj.q✓

Thirty-Five

'Hey mom, I was wondering if I could hang out with my friend Ava this Friday evening.' Jiaqi suggested as he unloaded the dishes from the dishwasher that afternoon after school.

'Jiaqi...' she started.

'I know what you said. And I listened to it. I just want to spend some final happy moments with Ava. Is that wrong too?'

'No.' she shook her head. 'I'm glad you're mature enough to listen to me.'

Jiaqi nodded and continued with his work. A few moments later, the doorbell rang. Jiaqi stopped unloading the dishwasher and looked towards the door.

'It's okay, carry on. I'll go get it.' Mrs. Ma told him before she proceeded to walk into the living room.

She opened the door and was surprised to see Michael standing on the other side.

'Michael.' She said in surprise.

'I needed to talk to you. Is your husband home?'

'No.'

'I guess that's better.'

Mrs. Ma stepped away from the door to let Michael in, and he walked into the living room and took a seat. Jiaqi peeked in from the kitchen, already knowing Michael was about to do what Ava had apparently told him.

'I don't want to stay too long Shufen,' he called her by her first name for the first time in years.

Mrs. Ma listened intently, a sad look on her face.

'I must say, when you left me, I was very hurt. And that pain has lived with me for a very long time. I carried it with me and it even made me mistreat people who didn't deserve to be mistreated. Perhaps I need an apology.'

Mrs. Ma nodded. 'I'm sorry for how things turned out. I never wanted you to get hurt, but it just wasn't going to work between us. I never told you but when I left you, I left loving you. And it took me a long time to get over those feelings I had for you.'

Jiaqi stopped unloading the dishwasher and listened to the conversation instead. He was curious as to how it would turn out, but at the same time it broke his heart because that felt like the fate of him and Ava if he wasn't going to put a stop to things soon.

'All this time I just thought you moved on because you loved another man...'

'No Michael, no.' she immediately interrupted. 'It was because of all the pressure from my family. I'm sorry.'

'It's fine...it's been long and there's no way things can change now. I just wanted to tell you that...I guess I forgive what happened and now I want to move on. Move on as someone who isn't held back with the feelings I had for someone.'

Mrs. Ma wiped a tear that had just rolled down her cheek. 'That's all I want for you as well Michael. Take care of your daughters and be a good man. It's never too late. Don't let someone from the past ruin your life.'

Michael nodded.

Jiaqi continued to unload the dishwasher, no longer interested in the conversation now. It had made him quite emotional and made him think about what he was going to say to Ava.

'Please keep your son away from my daughter. It will only hurt her.' Michael continued.

The ceramic white plate Jiaqi was holding slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground, smashing immediately into pieces. He quickly walked to the corner of the kitchen to grab a dustpan.

'Jiaqi are you okay in there!?' Mrs. Ma asked him.

'Oh I'm fine! It slipped out of my hands!' he answered from the kitchen, then quickly walked over to the broken pieces and started sweeping them inside the dustpan. He wondered why he was so concerned about Mr. Habibe saying that he should stay away from his daughter. He was already planning to do that, but the fact that Mr. Habibe somehow echoed his mother's words confirmed to him that his friendship with Ava would probably end in disaster.

'Yes I know,' Mrs. Ma turned her attention back to Michael. 'But Jiaqi says he wants one final happy moment with her, they want to hang out on tomorrow evening. Is that okay?'

'Hmm, if it's really the last time.' Michael nodded. 'Sure.'

...

Friday had come quickly, and it was a bittersweet moment for Jiaqi. Even though this was probably going to be the last time they were going to be this close, he wanted to live in the moment.

Jiaqi and Ava were at Jiaqi's home, and thankfully, Mr. Ma was not coming home that evening. He had announced that he was spending the night working and would probably arrive the next morning, although Mrs. Ma highly doubted if that was the truth. But she felt it was no longer any of her business. The two were soon going to go through a divorce anyway.

'Isn't it weird that my dad agreed to let me come here? I didn't expect he would even drop me off.' Ava told Jiaqi.

'Yeah that's weird.' he answered briefly, although he had a feeling her father did that because this was probably going to be the last time. Now he had to face the pressure of making sure this was the last time in order not to disappoint both the parents.

'Sometimes I feel like you have a million thoughts in your head.' she observed him, putting her chin in her hands.

'Yeah I think I do too.' he agreed, then turned to the television. 'Anyway, we're going to watch lots of movies tonight won't we?'

'Totally!' she agreed.

'Which one do you want to watch?' Jiaqi asked her as he scrolled through the box office options with the option.

'What about that one?' Ava pointed at a movie called "Better Me", there was a young man and a woman on the cover.

'I don't know, looks like a romantic movie.' Jiaqi told here.

'I know. I think I'm kind of a sucker for romantic movies, don't tell anyone.' She put her finger on her lips as if to hush him.

He laughed. 'Fine whatever you say. I didn't expect you to like romantic movies though.'

The two of them started to watch the movie, commenting on everything they could. They made fun of outfits and appearances together, Jiaqi cringed at some moments while Ava cooed.

The movie was generally not unique, not very entertaining, but it was something they were both able to endure because they were together. Even though there were a lot of scenes that made Jiaqi yawn, one scene caught his attention.

It was a scene where the two protagonists on the cover who had started to like each other promised to always be friends. And even though they went their separate ways in the end, they were always close. They wrote each other letters since it was one set in the Victorian era, and they paid each other visits whenever they could.

'Jiaqi, are we going to be friends forever?' Ava asked him, referring to what had happened in the movie.

He looked at her, suddenly feeling emotional. 'I don't know. Life can be pretty unpredictable.'

'Well promise we'll always be friends.' She smiled.

He shook his head. 'I can't promise we'll always be friends, but I think I can promise that I'll never forget you. You'll always be someone who had such a huge impact on my life.'

She leaned in and wrapped him in a hug. 'I can surely say the same thing about you.'

Jiaqi returned the hug tightly, emotions beginning to flood him. He pulled away quickly and grabbed the remote.

'Okay, enough of these mushy movies,' he said. 'Now we're going to watch Fast & Furious.'

'I'm game.'

'Popcorn.' Mrs. Ma announced as she walked in with a bowl full of popcorn and handed it over to them.

'Thank you.' Ava said. 'Do you want to join us Mrs. Ma?'

'Maybe later.' she answered, even though she knew that she was not going to join them. She wanted them to have their moments comfortably together, and she surely knew she would not enjoy the movies the two of them would prefer to watch.

'This is really fun. I'm glad you invited me.' She took a mouthful of popcorn.

'And I'm glad you came.'