It Wasn't That Way

Chapter 6

The next morning, Cake's mother pulled him aside as he and Eiw headed out for school. He'd never imagined something so momentous in his life could happen as he walked down the stairs.

She'd tried to break the news to him as gently as possible, but when she told him that they were moving, he felt as though he'd been doused by a bucket of ice. His heart froze into a crystal and with every word his mother said, he felt himself splinter and shatter into shards.

Moving? To America? For three years?

Cake should've been scared, angry, or even just depressed, but he was just in shock. He felt insensate... numb.

He stood by motionlessly as his world came apart at the seams, the only worry on his mind wasn't how this was going to affect him, but how he was going to tell Eiw.

Because it truly wasn't that way with them, but Eiw would be devastated. And Cake couldn't even begin to process everything that he was feeling.

He stepped out of his mom's bakery in a daze and met up with Eiw outside.

"What did you mom want to talk about?" Eiw asked, his voice chipper.

They'd finally just made up, things were on their way back to normal, dammit! Why this? Why now?

Cake was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. How could he not be when he'd always had Eiw with him? But now faced with the bracing reality that they would no longer be together, Cake was short-circuiting. That concept did not compute.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." Cake replied as he led the way onto the bus.

He didn't hear a word Eiw said to him on the way to school. He didn't feel the rattling of the bus as it jolted over the jagged street. He didn't feel the warm metal of the handrail in his fist. Usually, he'd be dripping sweat by now on the non air-conditioned bus, but he didn't even feel the heat from the blazing summer sun. All he could do was fill his eyes with Eiw.

His best friend Eiw, so cute with his little bowl cut and sweet concern shining in his gentle eyes. How could they be away from each other? They'd been glued at the hip since they were kids. Cake couldn't fathom a world where he didn't see Eiw every day. How could they be apart from each other for three years?

He didn't hear a word his teachers said that day, and he didn't even care to shoot the shit with his friends.

Cake was the kind of guy that could take any blow, any punch, everything always rolled off his shoulders and he tackled life with a smile. But as the day went on, for the first time, Cake felt anguish. He didn't even know pain like this existed.

His mind overworked like his computer when he had too many MSN tabs open. His parents were ripping him away from the one person that made his life make sense. They were removing half of his heart. How was he supposed to cope with that?

As much as he just wanted to pretend that this wasn't happening and didn't want to ever have to tell Eiw, he wanted nothing more than to just talk to his best friend.

Eiw always knew the right things to say, always knew how to make him feel better, and when words failed them, being wrapped up in each other was enough. But how was he supposed to talk to Eiw about this when telling him would destroy him?