The Boy Next Door

Chapter Fifteen

"Sup!"

I look at Aaron like he's crazy. What does that mean? Supper? Super?

"It means hi you dork. Now you make a sharp nod of your head, like this." He made a sharp nod of his head with a cool look on his face. "Now you try. Sup!"

I hesiently nodded. "Come on Jason. Sup!" I did it sharper this time. "Cool now the hand shake."

You're probably wondering what we're doing. Well after lunch Aaron decided to not do any work and just relax. So he is teaching me some 'slang' and 'hood movements'. Three guesses as to who's words those were. I am just going along with it. It's something to do.

"Okay then, now there's the handshake. Now let's try." We do this weird thing with our hands. "Come on Jason, you gatta get into it. Mo feelin'." I laugh at that. "Its not gonna be funny once some guy wants to do it and ya cain't. Come on." We do it again but this time I put 'mo feelin'' into it. "Cool. Now help a brotha' out an' get me that feelin'." He pauses. "Wait that was hippie. Okay." He clears his throat. In a deep voice he says, "Sup man! Wanna go hang wit the gang. I heard we gonna have fried chichn' and some hot babes."

I put a hand over my mouth to stop laughing. It doesn't help. Aaron's smile drops. "What's funny? I'm just saying' what my gang said." I look over at Watson who looks away with a smile. "Fine, y'all don't wanna learn, then get shot." My eyes widen. I grab his arm as he gets up. I plead with my eyes. "Fine fine. Only because I care about who y'all get shot by. If I can choose, it'd be me. No if's and's or no but's. Haha, butts. Anyways. You gonna learn the right way?" I nod.

"Aight!" I am so lost. "Its like alright, but shorter." Ohh, okay. "So now since you can't talk, this is what we gonna do. Aight?" I made a sharp nod and a cool look. Aaron pretended to cry, putting his fist to his mouth with teary eyes. "They grow up so fast."

That boy can be an actor. "Good response. Now we are gonna do the bro handshake."

The rest of the night went on like this.

._._.

The next morning Aaron greeted me with a very enthusiastic 'sup!'. I nodded and did the 'bro handshake'. He seemed quite happy with it.

Now I'm finishing boiling water on four fires. Aaron finally got what I was trying to say and helped make four fires. It's now mid-day and the water is almost done. Aaron is cutting wood. Jamie is hunting with Wolf and Watson is doing whatever. Probably cutting wood too. Though he should be bringing water. Where is he?

I get up to look over the rocks at the lake where there was no Watson. Where was that man?! I walk down to the water and look around. No sign of him. The only sign that he was here is the water bucket on the ground. I wipe my watery eyes. Being around a lot of smoke does that to you.

I start for the woods. After walking around for about half an hour I found Aaron. I look at him curiously. I motion a tall man and shrug my shoulders.

"I don't know where he is. I thought he was getting water?" I shake my head. "Let's find him then." He drops the axe he made and started walking.

After a few more hours the sun started setting. Aaron stops walking and looks down at my small frame. He opens his mouth to speak when we hear a screech. I leave him dazed for a second as I run towards it. I run for maybe ten seconds, but it feels like hours. I jump over fallen trees and get scratched by thorns, ferns, and other bushes. Finally I reach Jamie and immediately stop. I hesitate for half a second before jumping on Watson and stabbing his shoulder. He cries out and falls backward on top of me. My back hits the ground hard. I groan and twist to get out from under him. Aaron come a few seconds later and yanks the man off.