Life Alone

Chapter 2: The Smile of Deception

"Well..." Jay started

"I-it's nothing"

"Please don't lie to me, Jay" Kai said, his gentle tone remaining.

"It's clearly something you need to talk about."

"JUST SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE" Jay shouted and hung up.

Jay started to cry, he didn't mean to do that. No one had ever tried to help him with his problems because of how well he kept them hidden. Kai's gentle tone and true kindness freaked him out.

" Why am I so stupid?" Jay mumbled to himself.

The next day he got ready for school as normal, hoping that Kai didn't hate him. He got on the bus and someone sat next to him. No one ever sits next to him ever. Everyone else was either driven by their parents or rode a different bus. Jay turned to see Kai. Kai must have asked his parents if he could take the bus so he could talk to him.

"Morning Kai" Jay said in a cheerful voice and with a smile.

"Are you okay?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be" Jay said, as he continued to force a smile.

"I don't hate you," Kai said out of the blue.

"I know you did that because you're not used to help and that's why I want to help you even more"

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of that," Jay said, finally dropping the fake smile.

"I know you didn't, but next time something like that happens, let me know please," Kai replied.

"I want to help you, you're one of my closest friends"

The bus suddenly stopped, they had gotten to the school. Jay wasn't ready for today because now Kai knew, now more than ever, that all of his smiles were fake and he wasn't actually happy. They both got inside the school and were greeted by Nya.

"Hey guys, how's it going?"

"It's going great" Jay replied with his normal shy and timid voice.

"Kai, why'd you take the bus today?" Nya questioned.

"Oh, Jay and I were working on something together and I remembered we forgot a detail" Kai responded.

"Alright" Nya said and she left to find the others.

Jay mouthed thank you to Kai. Of course, Kai mouthed back.

"We should probably catch up with the others" Kai sighed

"Yeah you're right" Jay said as they started walking.

They walked toward their lockers and looked over to find everyone else around Lloyd's locker. Lloyd always got the attention of the other ninja other than Kai, but it was understandable he was bullied a lot. Jay always thought that he should be grateful because others have it worse, but from Kai's perspective Jay needed much more help than Lloyd.

"Hey guys," Cole yelled to them.

"How's it going"

"It's going great" Jay replied, putting back on the fake smile.

"Glad to see you're back to your normal self." Cole joked.

"Yeah, yesterday you seemed a little tired." Lloyd said, sounding a little concerned.

"Oh, I just didn't get enough sleep yesterday, but I'm fine now." Jay lied, with the smile never dropping an inch.

That's not what actually happened, Jay thought. What actually happened was his mother came home drunk, again. No one has to know though, Jay thought again, slightly shaking his head. Kai noticed him shaking his head. Why won't he talk to me, Kai wondered sadly. Kai hated seeing any of his friends sad, especially Jay.

"Come on we're going to be late for class," Nya yelled, starting to walk to class.

"We're coming." Kai yelled back.

They made it to their first hour class. Lloyd was being picked on as usual and Nya was talking with Zane and Cole. Jay sat alone like usual until Kai came and sat next to him.

"Mrs. Laudita asked me to move over here, if that's okay with you of course," Kai said.

"Yeah sure, whatever" Jay mumbled back.

"Alright, time to turn in your homework" Mrs. Laudita called.

She started to make her way around the classroom, when Jay remembered that he hadn't finished the homework. He was too busy with what happened last night.

"Jay, where's your homework" Mrs. Laudita asked, with a warning tone.

"Here Mrs. Laudita, Jay finished it yesterday, and I accidentally grabbed it." Kai said, handing the teacher his and Jay's homework.

Kai had always been good at forging someone's handwriting, but he never did it. He did this time because he knew Jay would be too tired and distracted to do it.

"You didn't have to do that," Jay said, looking down.

"But I wanted to, and I thought you might need help." Kai said in a light tone.

"Thank you" Jay mumbled.

"No problem," Kai replied

"Just do me one favor and no saying no."

"So I don't get a choice," Jay said, looking at him.

"Nope!" Kai said happily.

"Come to my house tonight, so that we can talk."