Acceptance | ✓

Chapter 5

[ETHAN]

"What do you think?" Andrew asked me as he looked down at his notes.

"Kill Hector," I said flatly, earning a high pitched tweet from the chick in Andrew's pocket.

"He didn't mean it," Andrew said reassuring the chick as he patted its head with the base of his thumb. I rolled my eyes, picking the next chick to paint with the deep red-colored chalk I had in my hand.

Andrew and I were outside. He was taking notes - gaining inspiration as he put it, by just being outside in the old termite degraded chair he was sitting on. I didn't mind being out with him. I didn't mind being anywhere with him.

"I didn't ask you about Hector," he said, giving me a soft glare. I rolled my eyes when the chick seemed to tweet in agreement. It's been two weeks since I officially started my lectures. They'd been fairly tolerable, but that chick was not.

One of Andrew's hens had hatched a new brood of chicks, and one got inseparably attached to Andrew. Picking up another chick to paint, I regretted the fact that it wasn't Hector a hawk had carried off the other day. Andrew said painting them red would make hawks think they were dead, and hence leave them alone. So here I am, at the foot of Andrew's chair coloring chicks red.

"I'm asking what you think of the setting. Which one seems more logical; the slums of New York, or the broken-down economy of Detroit?" Andrew asked, retreating into his own thoughts.

"Detroit," I said, figuring that was the more logical answer of the two.

"I guessed so as well," he said, smiling weakly. "I guess I have to start doing my research then."

"You've been acting odd. It's like you're pressured," I said, airing out my thoughts. The way he's been acting recently has been killing me inside. I've been wondering if he's caught me smoking. Maybe—

He sighed, cleaning his eyes with the back of his hand. "Is it that obvious?" he asked, letting out a fake laugh. I nodded, painting the corners of a chick's beak.

"My mum and my agent said they're coming over this Saturday..." he trailed.

"Oh..." I trailed, not being able to help the feeling of relief that washed over me. He hasn't caught me, not yet.

"I don't know why they think I'll commit suicide or something, while I'm here on my own," he said rubbing his thumb over Hector's head. "I've been on my own for a long time; it's quite unreasonable for them to be worrying."

We stayed in silence, apart from the tweeting chicks and Clucking hen watching me suspiciously from her coup as I painted her chicks. Unlike the rest, Hector preferred to be tucked away in Andrew's pocket or shoe. I wasn't the only one not pleased with the chick's new living arrangement. Roxanne barked whenever she caught him in the range of her sight. It sometimes led Andrew to banish her from the house for the night. She never learned her lesson, though, because he always let her back inside after she whined outside the door for a few minutes.

"How's college?" Andrew asked, penning something down.

"Fine..." I trailed, shrugging as I dropped the last chick and dusted chalk and fluffy feathers off myself. I was stained with red nothing less and probably smelled like a chicken coup.

"You're not going to tell me anything about your lectures?" he asked, pushing his hair back with his free hand. His skin looked a lot healthier than it did when I got here. I was glad that his writing if anything brought him outside.

"They're okay - boring really," I said, earning a chuckle from Andrew. I felt my toes curl at the sound. It was beautiful and rare.

"You should laugh more," I pointed out, getting up to open the door to the coup. The mother hen ran out clucking like she wanted to attack. I shoved her aside gently, so she ran to form a small tent over her chicks with her wings.