Chit and Jake

Chit

The rest of school was a blur. More Jake whispering jokes under his breath. Us laughing a little too loudly, only half listening to the teachers drone on, off in our own world. I love it when Jake's like this, in such a joyful mood. My day becomes a little brighter, my laughing gets a little louder and my smile becomes a little wider. Life just seems better.
"What?"Jake asked with the stupidest quizzical face ever.
"You're such an idiot," I chuckled.
"Why?" He said, a smile slowly finding its way onto his face.
"Hmmm, which reason shall I choose?"I teased.
Ring, Ring.
The bell rang, barely decipherable over the chatter of students.
"Looks like you've been saved by the bell," Jake retorted, smirking.
I gathered my books in my arms, laughing with Jake as we walked to our shared lockers. Yes, we share lockers, purely for convenience of course. In the bottom locker, we store our bags and in the top locker we store our books, organized neatly in individual folders. We both have a key for each, as well as spare keys, and in case we lose all of those, there are two spares in each of the lockers and two spare keys at home. Jake says I'm just being paranoid, but I think I prefer to call it being prepared. We reached our lockers approximately five minutes after leaving class. Jake was telling me a story from his history class, which he'd already told me multiple times today however I listened just as I had the first time. After we'd finished at our lockers we begun heading out of school.

"So...study at my house tonight..?" Jake asked sheepishly. We almost never went to Jakes; I'd basically only been there for Christmas or Thanksgiving, which we alternate each year. "Um, sure. But what's up? We never study at yours." I replied feeling a terrible sense of guilt the second I'd finished speaking. Why did I have to say that? God I was such an idiot.
"Well...mum says she misses you." He replied still sheepish.
"Alright then," I said smiling to reassure him that I wanted to. It wasn't that I didn't like his mum, it was just that she doesn't leave us alone, ever. It's sort of like she doesn't trust me with Jake, which hurts, a lot. I mean, we've been best friends (or bros as Jake would say) since forever and she still doesn't trust me. We started walking in the direction of his house, which was only a few blocks from school, in silence.
"Uh...um, Chit? Are you mad at me?"Jake asked after walking a block, face looking in the other direction, to hide his expression.
"Of course I'm not mad at you. Why would I be?"
"I don't know, you're quieter than normal. Is everything okay at home?"He said with deep concern lacing his voice.
"What do you mean at home? Why do you ask? Of course everything's fine." I replied defensively.
"Because...well...I know how much pressure your parents put on you. I know they think that straight A's aren't enough. I know they don't approve of you 'wasting time' with sports but then call you unfit and lazy for not doing any. I know they don't approve of 'wasting your time or education' chasing girls so that's why you don't; it's also why you're always so oblivious when a girl likes you. I know the mean, uncalled for things that they say to you. I know how unfairly they treat you. So of course I'm going to ask. Of course I'm going to worry."He rambled, his voice just above a whisper.
"I-I don't remember telling you any of that..." I stuttered as I looked over to Jake. A hurtful expression flashed across his face but had disappeared as quickly as it had come. Hurt? What did I say wrong? Did I say something that had hurt him? Jake mumbled something under his breath which I missed and even after asking about it he refused to tell me and acted as if it hadn't happened. Maybe it hadn't. Maybe I was just being paranoid and hearing things.