It Wasn't That Way

Chapter 10

Cake didn't sleep a wink the night after he told Eiw that he was leaving.

All he wanted to do was cross the short distance between their houses and bang on the door of the Dim Sum shop until they let him in. It was torture to lay still in bed and bite back his tears. He tossed and turned all night before finally giving up. He went and got ready for the day before sitting on top of his covers like a statue, waiting for Eiw to come and get him.

As the early morning rays of sunlight filtered through his window, Cake alternated between watching the door and looking at the clock. He got more and more anxious as time went on. Was Eiw not going to come?

But sure enough, Eiw opened the door at exactly the right time, and greeted him with a smile.

Eiw told him that he wanted to make the time they had left together count and it was exactly what Cake needed to hear.

Relief flooded his body and he thawed suddenly like a cube of ice dropped into boiling water. Eiw was being so strong, stronger than Cake had ever seen him, and Cake was grateful for it.

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It wasn't that way with them, but once Cake told Eiw that he was moving, he dropped everyone else from his life. It wasn't that way with them, but Cake tried to squeeze three years of time spent with Eiw into his last three months. It wasn't that way with them, but Cake spent every moment he had left in Thailand with Eiw.

Aware that their time together was limited, Eiw started to hang out with him at school. He sat next to him in class and ate lunch with Cake every single day. He even kept him company when Cake played football after they finished eating. The boy that used to shy away from acknowledging Cake at school, courageously pasted himself to Cake's side. When his friends expressed their shock because seeing Eiw in any kind of proximity to Cake at school just wasn't a thing, he told them that he was moving and didn't see them much after that at all. Cake and Eiw had been inseparable before, but now, they didn't dare to spend even one night apart.

Despite how hopeless Cake was feeling, spending so much time with Eiw put him a little more at ease. But in the rare moments that he was alone, Cake crumbled. He sat on his bed and gripped his hair to the point of pain, unable to feel anything other than despair.

He wanted to scream and cry, make a fuss, or maybe punch a wall. Anything to get his frustration out. This wasn't fair! He didn't want to leave! He felt out of control and like nothing made sense anymore.

Cake became distant from his parents, and was unwilling to have conversations with his dad about their upcoming move. He wanted to be understanding, but his impending separation from Eiw was clouding all rational thought. Whenever he looked at his dad, all he saw was the enemy, the reason that he wouldn't see Eiw for so long.

One night when Eiw was over, his dad tried to sit him down and talk to him, but Cake just wasn't in a place to listen. He dismissed his dad with a fake smile and an impudent roll of his eyes, wanting nothing more than for their interaction to end. He wasn't going to waste time talking to him when he could be hanging out with Eiw instead.

Cake was feeling a lot of things, many of them bad, but he never dared to show Eiw anything except his smile. He didn't want to worry him by telling him what was going on at home.

So Cake did what he did best. He took care of Eiw and put him first. That's what he'd always done and that's what he should've been doing this whole time. Who was he if wasn't looking after Eiw and protecting him from the world? Cake didn't want to know, and he didn't want to find out. All he knew was that he liked the way things were and he didn't want them to change.