Chit and Jake

Jake

I don't know if what I'd done last night was right. Maybe it was, maybe not. Mum always said to be careful what you wish for and I really should have. Wishing to see Chit was selfish, and I'm not sure how he'd known but he had. Why would he do that? It'd only been a week and even after what mum said, he still came. He's always been like that though. If I scraped my knee, he'd be right there with a Band-Aid to stick on it and an arm to help me up. He always knew when I needed help, and he usually knew when to take a step back and give me some space too. He really was the best friend I could ask for. I pushed him away and I know that it was selfish. It wasn't me trying to protect him from mum; it was me trying to protect myself. I couldn't do anything because in front of her I became as powerless as a kitten. It was difficult for me to admit that I needed protection because I was usually the one doing the protecting. I don't know if this had happened before, I don't think it had. I wasn't gay, so what was wrong with having a best friend I loved so much? Isn't that loyalty? Friendship? I really don't understand my parents but obviously I wasn't allowed to have male friends, especially Chit. So what was I going to do? Just ditch him? He'd stuck with me through so much and I was just going to leave because mummy said so? Like hell. I was going to see him, maybe not so much after school but during school definitely. I could try finding an excuse, someone else to say I was hanging out with. A girl even? Maybe if I got a girlfriend she'd get off my case. That sounds like a good plan. It was going to be difficult to get a girl that would be okay with covering for me and I didn't really want to play with her feelings to get that. I wasn't as much of an asshole or bad-boy as everyone thought, but that was okay- I could act it if I needed to. Downstairs I could hear rustling, mum was looking for something. She was probably riffling through every draw looking for a pair of scissors or something silly like that, gods she was hopeless. I opened my door and wandered down the stairs slowly. It was nine am and some dork had woke me up at something past three that same morning, so being tired was to be expected.
"What've you lost, mum?" I rubbed my eyes sleepily as I yawned.
"Oh, Jakey darling don't worry about it. You look tired maybe you should go back to sleep." She looked concerned but I wasn't sure if that was real or not anymore.
"I would but somebody's making a racket so, why don't you just let me help?"
"Fine." She sighed before continuing, "I'm looking for the whisk."
"Oh, third draw, to your left."
"...thanks. I could've sworn I looked there though." She frowned as she picked up the whisk and disappeared around the corner.
"Hey, mum...what're you doing?" I asked curiously, lately she'd been going to work at five am and coming home at around ten pm. What was she doing here at this time, and in the kitchen no less?
"Cooking breakfast. I moved all my work for this morning to this afternoon and all my afternoon stuff to tonight so that I could have breakfast with my amazing son." She smiled warmly as she poked her head around the corner.
"Oh, okay then. What's cooking? Let me help." I started making my way down the rest of the stairs but stopped as she said brightly,
"Now, now Jakey. You don't want to ruin the surprise do you?"
"I suppose not. What do I do then?"
"Go back up to your room and check your emails on your computer and make a start on any homework you missed. I emailed your teachers yesterday with an explanation and they said they'd be happy to send through some work." She called from the kitchen proudly.
"Ugh, really?" How annoying, I was hoping to just skip it all.
"Yep. Go on."
"Fineee." I groaned as I stomped back up the stairs and down the corridor into my room.

She wasn't lying. I had at least eight emails when I checked, all from my teachers. I scrolled through them and stopped when my eyes caught sight of an unopened email from Chit. It was sent at one pm on Thursday, from memory he had SOSE then. If so, it'd explain the email. I opened it to find a compilation of answers and texts to help catch up on the stuff I'd missed. Jesus I loved that guy.

I started with Math, my worst subject. I'd gotten halfway through my second worksheet when I heard mum yell my name from downstairs.
"Coming!" I yelled back. I saved the documents on my computer then turned it off before going down to the kitchen.
As I walked into the kitchen my senses came alive. The overwhelming smell of fresh crêpes topped with banana, home-made caramel and whipped cream. My mouth watered instantly at both the smell and look of breakfast. I looked up at mum in amazement; I didn't know she knew how to make crêpes.
She smiled proudly at me before chuckling, "This is exactly like that time back then."
Despite how good this all looked and smelt, something was tugging at me from the back of my mind but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I tried not to dwell on it as I hooked into brekkie, but the off feeling never dissipated. Something about this was wrong. I'd been here, done this all before...no, no that's not possible I've never seen mum make crêpes. It must have just been something I'd seen in a movie or read about. Mum was talking to me but I was just smiling and nodding along, I wasn't listening. This feeling was too distracting. It's always annoys me when I can't remember things like this. It seems important; it must be because if it wasn't why would it be pulling at me this way?
"Yeah. Thanks mum, that really was delicious!"
"Not a problem, Jakey. You're going to school on Monday aren't you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah I am, why?" I replied imitating her expression.
"Oh, no reason." Oh there was a reason alright and his name was Chit. She didn't want me to see him. She didn't want me to hang out with him. What was her problem? "Make sure you finish off all that work your teachers sent you, okay? I've got to go into work after I clean up so I won't be here to harp on you but don't leave the house and make sure you finish it. Okay?"
"Yeah, sure mum." I beamed at her reassuringly.
"Promise?" She looked at me dubiously, like she didn't believe I was telling the truth.
"Yes, I promise I will try to finish it and I won't leave the house."I rolled my eyes; she couldn't just trust me with anything, could she?
"...okay, I'll yell goodbye before I leave. So go up and keep on working on that schoolwork." She smiled sadly which had an unsettling affect on me.
"Yeah, okay. I'll go do that now." I said as I turned and went up to my room. Time for some more maths.
Yay.