Beneath / Small Town

5

18/04/20XX
I guess the humidifier somewhat helps. My throat still aches and hurts like fuck- gosh, like a goddamn knife is constantly being stuck down my throat, but it’s a lot better. I guess I’m a lot better too. Grandad said he hasn’t seen me so…content after everything, and he seemed hesitant to say that. Mega also appeared rather silent today after that, but turns out he was just thinking. I tried to look into what it was, but nothing on his face gave it away. Maybe he’s trying to find a way to leave school early, considering that he starts next week.
 
He hates change as much as I do, sometimes. I guess that’s one thing we have in common. 
 
19/04/20XX
Went for a walk with grandad today,
Weekends always end so soon, and then it's back to the regular cycle of having to do work and sleep during the day. He was keen on visiting our family friend, Zuka, so I couldn’t say much about it. He’s got a nice kid though, a year or two younger than me I think, and I’m pretty sure his name was Rocket. I haven’t seen the two of them in a while, he wasn’t used to my…whatever, but we made it work. He’s still the same kid who doesn’t know when to shut up, even when he’s sick (I swear he’s sneezed maybe ten times in the last minute). Luckily, it just means that I don’t have to find an awkward way for us to communicate, since he talks a good 95% of the time. That extra 5% is just when we’re playing games and he has to focus, or I guess when he’s eating. I know for a fact that he probably talks in his sleep, so I can’t count that. 
We made some brownies together, except it was mainly him and I just cleaned up after. I don’t really mind, his temper’s not as bad as mine, but definitely shows a lot more. He also kept trying to smear leftover brownie batter on my face whilst attempting to get me to eat some, since he felt bad for eating it by himself. Really weird kid, but I gave in after a bit. Salmonella isn’t one of my main concerns within life, so I guess it's OK. 
Zuka showed up maybe once or twice, just to check in on us. Most of the time, he sat with grandpa, probably talking about random shit like ‘the good ol’ days’ or something. I don’t really pay attention to what they talk about, but I do know my grandad likes watching sports. He nodded as a  gesture of hello, I nodded back. Doesn’t talk much to me, which is honestly fine since there’s nothing to talk about. Nothing to say to him, but that’s good. Zuka’s one of the only people who seem to understand me in a very odd way, somehow, but still supportive nonetheless. That’s probably because he has a hyper kid who continuously jumps off the walls, so a change of quiet atmosphere sometimes might improve him a bit. 
 
As I’m writing this, I just heard Rocket yell out “WHAT THE FUCK, THEY’RE STILL UNDERCOOKED!” from the kitchen, and now I’m a tad bit afraid to go near him. Maybe he’ll throw me in the oven alongside the brownies or something, I don’t know. Rabid ass kid, someone PLEASE help him.
 
CAN CONFIRM. ROCKET DOESN’T LIE. Brownies spent maybe 40 minutes or so in there, and the center was still raw whilst the edges were burnt. Very interesting combination, but who am I to judge? It's brownies. 
 
Megaphone texted me just now. He said he found a part-time job at a shop, and starts really soon. I showed it to grandad and he seemed really proud of him, and I’m sure that I am too. He spends more time indoors than I do, mainly due to studying, so I’d hope that a job would help him get out more, the same way school has made me explore the universe and back. I am the one who sailed the seven seas and returned. Fear me, world.
 
27/04/20XX
Something happened and now I’m not allowed to go to school for a while. I’d like to explain what the fuck that it is, but in all honesty, I really don’t. Mega seems disappointed in it, since my attendance is already so bad, but everyone saw it coming, even the deities who seem to have little to no clue about what has happened from the time I was born to now. Skateboard saw me this morning, asked if I was going to school and seemed concerned when I shook my head. “You should stay inside if you’re sick, y’know? Go home soon, dude.” He said, and then waved goodbye before dissipating into nothingness (he just left my line of sight. I am exaggerating because he seems like a nice guy and I do want to be friends with him but I can’t ever prove that.)
 
Boombox’s guardian was home, surprisingly. I knocked, expecting to see him, and instead I’m greeted by the tallest demon alive who towers over me before giving me the most judging stare before proceeding to invite me inside. They didn’t say anything, just gave me one good look and decided “This kid is most likely homeless or one of my kid’s friends, so I might as well let him inside.”
 
I guess that’s nice of them, but now I’m trying to write these words as fast as possible and my writing’s turning into half-cursive and unintelligible but maybe that’s the point because I don’t want them to see it. School was meant to start a couple of hours ago, meaning I have to wait maybe a couple more if I wanted to see someone I knew. Was it going to be super uncomfortable, considering that I don’t have any connection to his guardian whatsoever and I clearly look like I might die on the spot at any given moment? YES. YES IT WILL BE. But at least this guy understands space, I mean, it’s expected from most Blackrock citizens…I’m assuming they’re from Blackrock due to the faction’s symbol being presented on their work clothes. I’m sure that’s their work clothes, I don’t know. Hopefully they are, so I don’t look like an asshole right now.
 
It wasn’t that bad! Surprisingly, they’re quite nice. Second day in a row that I spend cooking and baking, which is good I guess. Gestures are really easy to understand when you start to forget how to talk, so communication between the two of us was as smooth as it could get. I chopped mushrooms and chives and all sorts of things, and we made these fall-themed cookies out of box mix which had been sitting in their pantry for a while (I read the date on the back, and the ingredients MAY have been expired, but the cookies tasted fine so that’s not a worry.)
 
So then I was just sitting there, eating some pasta with Boombox’s guardian because eating lunch with your friend’s parent is totally a normal thing that people do. I think. And then I’m sitting here, and they SPEAK!
They didn’t really ask much of me, just a thanks for being Boombox’s friend, in which I nodded. I tried to perk my lips up into a smile, ignoring the pain as much as possible, but I had no idea if it appeared like one, so I just nodded. Then apparently it was some sort of ‘20 questions’ type of shit, because this guy is throwing questions right and left and I’m trying to catch them like pokemon or something.
“Had a good day?” I nod.
 
“Boombox has been a lot happier ever since you showed up. He talks about you a lot, have you noticed?” I shook my head. 
 
“..Your parents don’t mind you staying here so often?”
 
And I dropped my head. It hung low, my eyes staring down at my lap, trying to drown out the sound from my ears and erase the question from my brain. It didn’t work, but they understood that they said something they shouldn't have, apologized, and we left it at that. Then this piece of shit Boombox shows up right after that happens, and it takes everything within me not to fucking break down!
 
It went alright. He was confused about why I was there, raising his eyebrow when his guardian told him. Maybe his guardian thinks I’m dating him or something, because I have never seen someone so kind of a stranger that they met not so long ago, accepting them into their home and letting them cook and clean and eat in their home too. Even Zuka isn’t that welcoming of me, and he calls me the weirdest things ever. He doesn’t bother to remember my and Mega’s full name, so sometimes he just bases a nickname over whatever comes to mind. One time he called me ‘Macaroni’, and another time he called Mega  ‘Melon’. 
 
Boombox suggested that we watch a movie, so I might go do that and then go to bed. If I can, I’m going to beg for him to play Mean Girls. That shit was literally a cultural movement, it shook the universe to its fucking core and it SHOWS.
 
My silent convincing worked. We are watching Mean Girls. Fuck whoever didn’t believe me, because I proved you wrong.