Be A Pest

Chapter 9

This time, I couldn't fall asleep. Probably because of the cold shower. And to make matters worse, Wakko stood by the couch all that time, which annoyed me. He thought he could help me, while all he did was make it harder for me to recover. But I couldn't simply tell him to leave.

"How are you feeling?", he asked after some time. I sighed, "Awful...weak", then turned my head to see him frowning. That painful frown, showing he was disappointed with my answer. And I was pretty sad about that. "I'm sorry", I said, "But it is what it is. You can't do anything about it". "I know", he murmured in response. "Don't worry", I smiled, "It's not your fault". He smiled back, and for a moment, I wished it was, so I could blame him for something. Thought it would make me feel better.

I rested on the couch for the next half an hour and then we went to my room again. While reading yet another fantasy chapter to him, I was exceptionally glad he finaly didn't interrupt me. After finishing, I went to my parents' bedroom and found a clothes dryer with already dried clothes hanging on it. I quickly went back to my room and took my earbuds, hoping I could get away for a while.

It was great for some time. Listening to some music and taking the clothes off the dryer. Some I left on the bed for mom to iron, and some I put into the closet because they didn't have to be ironed. True, I could get away for some time, but not for too long. Out of nowhere, one of my earbuds got taken off. I swiftly turned around and clenched my teeth seeing him there, smirking as always.

"Please...give it back", I said quietly, trying not to be annoyed. But he only shoock his head and ran off. So now I was doing two things. Playing yet another round of tag with him and this other thing I had started doing in the first place. He was making up for not interrupting me during reading, I thought. Exactly as I expected, it was pain and laughter all at once. My only hope was that everything had an end, so did this. It was the only thing that kept me going.

This round of tag was at first me trying to get the earbud back, but when Wakko realised what I was listening to, he had to forcefuly give it back to me, so then it turned into real tag. With clothes. Yeah, it was kind of a challenge on how many clothes I could put in their place in a short period of time.

"Eres más alarmante de lo que imaginas!" ("You're scarier than you think!"), he shouted in the middle of the game. My heart and stomach dropped. I'd think, finaly. But at the moment, what I was hearing sounded like the biggest insult ever. I sprinted up to him and grabbed his shoulders from behind, "Then tag you're it!". I kept running past him and we continiued playing.

I got all of the clothes off the dryer and walked back to my room. Wakko followed me as I put the earbuds back to their place and we sat down on my bed again. I looked at Wakko and he was frowning. "We're stuck in here, you know", I said in a softer than usual voice.  He turned his gaze to mine. "No, we're not", he hissed, "You're not being fair", he repeated. If he only knew who really wasn't being fair towards both of us.

"Life's not fair, many times", I said, "But I'm trying to be". "And failing", he mumbled. "Well...", I chuckled nervously, "That's normal. We all fail, but we try again, right?". This was getting a little difficult to handle. It was actually important for me how he was going to react. I kind of feared he was disappointed in me. Like, he couldn't accept my explainations, ever. He seemed to me like a little kid at times.

He sighed, "Right". I got up and managed to slightly smile at him. "Come on, let's go for a walk", I said. He got up as well and we got ready. We went out and headed to the town, making sure to stay near the sea. The awkwardness of that whole walk though, was overwhelming. Once again, we barely uttered a word. I started asking myself if this was a good idea. I didn't know who was supposed to decide what to do so I did it since this was my home.

A heavy feeling layed on my head as I couldn't take my eyes off of the sea again. I was one foot into something I couldn't explain to myself. I didn't know if he was ok with this or if he wanted something else. My guess was that being fair was wanting to do something and that he didn't mind what it was. That all he wanted to do was spend time with me. But guessing was nothing towards many things that could be true.

After a while of thinking, I realised the heaviness on my head was insecurity. I couldn't quite understand if I was actually doing the right thing or not. I was born ready for him to start complaining and to tell me where I had gone wrong, but nothing came out. Maybe he was too shy to ask. But why would he be? Or perhaps...he really thought I was scary.

I still considered myself offended by that, no matter how well I knew him. I thought he had no right to insult others simply because of what he was going trough. There was something called understanding and we all had to learn that skill very well so we could appreciate eachother. And because he didn't understand me, I guess, I felt like a wild animal, or a which. Something like that.

I was so trapped in my own mind that I didn't notice it was already getting dark and we had gone to another end of the town. I glanced at Wakko and he had that expression on his face as though he was deep in thought. "I think we should slowly head back", I stated. "Let's go to the beach", he suddenly turned his head towards me and smiled cheerfully.