My Friend Who Is A Boy

16. I'm sorry

Jason had just got home and sighed in relief to see his parents werent in.

He needed to get that letter from Mr Rodes before they did.

He shoved an apple in his mouth and headed into the lounge. He didn't want to go upstairs in case he missed the post, even though it was unlikely to get posted yet, he wanted to take every precaution.

Jason hadn't got far when his phone began buzzing.

"Alfie what is it?" Jason asked, not having seen the boy all day.

"Um...are you still at school?" came Alfie's shaky voice from the other side of the phone. Jason stiffened.

"No, what's wrong?" Jason asked, already putting his shoes back on and slipping into a coat. He heard Alfie sniff and left the house.

"Don't worry, I'm coming to get you!" Jason said and he hung up, jumping in the car his parents bought him when he was 17 and had passed his test.

His parents didn't let him drive it to school as they thought "the exercise and fresh air would do him good'. They had also banned him from driving at all after the window incident but Jason needed to see Alfie.

He drove into the empty school car park and parked at a very precarious angle.

He spotted Alfie immediately. Huddled under and arch way, wearing just a thin shirt on his top half, which looked soaked. through

When Alfie saw Jason in his car, he started running over and jumped into the passenger seat.

"What happened to you?" Jason asked, already backing out of his parking space. Alfie was soaking wet and it wasn't raining.

Alfie said nothing, just leaned against the car door and stared out of the window.

Jason soon had Alfie back at his house. He lead Alfie up to his room, feeling ashamed of how messy it was.

Alfie sat on his bed and Jason quickly rummaged through his draws to find a clean shirt.

"Here change, you are freezing" Jason offered the shivering boy his shirt and he took it.

Alfie pulled his wet top off, stood shirtless for a second and Jason pulled his eyes away, feeling awkward for a moment.

He looked back once Alfie was dressed.

Jason hopped onto the bed beside Alfie and wrapped an arm around him, trying to warm him up.

"It was Greg...he got a bucket of water and poured it over my head whilst I was in the changing rooms. My jacket was soaked so I left it..." Alfie said, leaning against Jason, still shaking.

"Greg huh?" Jason said. Could that be because of what he did?"

"I'm so sorry Alfie" he said, absent-mindedly running his fingers through Alfie's wet hair.

"It wasn't your fault" Alfie stated, shaking his head determinedly.

"I pissed him off at break...I should have known it would affect you so I'm so sorry" Jason said finally and Alfie looked up at him, his face dull and his eyes sad.

"it's okay, there is nothing to forgive Jason" he said with a smile and burried his head against Jason's chest in defeat.

Jason had never meant for his outbreak to hurt Alfie but now the innocent boy was paying the price. Why would he ever forgive me? Jason thought quietly to himself but he ignored his questions and pulled Alfie closer to him as he felt the boy shiver once again.