Noah

June 5th 2014

I jerked awake to something cold and soft prodding my face. My eyelids fluttered softly as I tried to open my eyes. A head of soft fur butted against my jaw, and paws kneaded my shoulder. Knowing it was still early, I tried to go back to sleep, but was deterred by an insistent headbutt and an impatient meow.

"I'm trying to sleep, Macrel." I groaned, pushing the cat off. He persisted, climbing back onto me and butting my face again. "Fine!" I sighed, jerking upright and scaring the cat off. I heard another impatient meow from over by the door and slowly got out of bed, rubbing my face tiredly.

He butted and rubbed himself against my legs as I opened the door and headed into the kitchen. He trailed behind me, purring loudly. I opened the kitchen door and the cat darted inside, heading straight for his food bowl.

"You already had food?" I snapped disbelievingly. "You're such a little shit." I groaned, turning and heading into the living room.

I slumped down onto the sofa, checking the time. It was still early, but not early enough that I would be able to go back to sleep. I reached over to the shelf under the glass coffee table and pulled out my sketchbook.

Flicking through to the last page that had been scrawled on, I grabbed my pack of pencils, pulled one out and started drawing.

A few hours later, I had four more panels of the comic book finished. I put down the notepad and pencils, deciding to take a break for lunch. I made a sandwich, a cup of tea and grabbed a large family-size bag of crisps, before heading back into the living room.

I flicked through the channels on the tv for five minutes before settling on a film that I hadn't seen before. I was halfway through eating my lunch when Macrel came and settled down next to me.

I was so engrossed in the film that I didn't even notice the front door open.

"You're up early." a voice called from the hallway.

"Macrel woke me up." I said as Jodie came in, collapsing down onto the sofa next to me. "You're home early." I said, glancing up at the clock as Jodie grabbed the bag of crisps and began munching. "How was work?" I pressed.

"It was okay." she said indecisively.

"Were you working late last night?" I asked, absently stroking Macrel between the ears.

"Yeah." she sighed. "I stayed at Elliot's."

"I figured." I replied, shuffling in the seat slightly. Jodie noticed the notepad out in the coffee table.

"Been drawing more?" she asked.

"Yeah." I said thoughtfully. "Actually, I think I'm almost finished."

"That's good."

"You look tired." I said.

"I was up late last night." she replied.

"Oh." I said. "Work?"

"No it was..." she hesitated, glancing over at me. "That's a story for another day."

"Okay then."

"You know when I was on my way home I got this leaflet for-"

"I don't want to go to college." I cut across. "I never went to school, I'm not going to know anybody, and I'm not going to fit in."

"You'll make friends." she said. "And it'll help you learn about culture and art and other 'normal people' things."

"Things that I don't need to know about!" I said in exasperation. We'd had this conversation at least seven or eight times now and it was really starting to annoy me.