Gay Chicken | ✓

{24}

Chapter Twenty-Four

Casper didn't feel any different that one fully anticipated morning but he felt like he should've been. Casper just thought that this age - his age - sixteen, was the age. It was the age you finally grew into your looks and looked good in them, it was the age where you got through all your classes with no sweat and it was the age when everyone suddenly noticed your existence and wanted theirs to be linked to it - you had everything going for you.

Yes, it was the year you dreamed of ever since you were young; the pinnacle of success and on an easy road of further prosperity and to live a life of luxury and little worries. And it all started right there and then, on that one morning of your sixteenth year in the world - or so your five-year old self thought because that was all kids looked up to in their youth; getting older.

Sadly, for Casper, it was a bitter disappointment.

He woke up that morning; still small and scrawny and his eyes being too big for his face, his baby fat still intact and the same puny little hands; still with the same mindset as the day before, groggy and below average; and still with the same empty inbox as before. He was even presented with a huge spot on his forehead, Casper liked to think that it was his way of his body shaking him into reality and hating is life even more. At least his hair was attractive - but it would be, after spending so much time to turn it into (what looked like) an effortless perfection.

After spending a long time in a state of depression in front of the mirror the smell of bacon came wafting into his room. His mother hadn't gotten up early and was hunch wearily over the grill as he walked into the kitchen. She turned to him and gave a bright smile like she always did, forgetting about the bacon and sausages sizzling on the stove and engulfing him in a hug.

She had already put up the celebratory signs he was accustomed to every year and he knew they'd be appearing all around the house along with balloons. He smiled, some things never did change.

"Happy Birthday, Darling," she cooed, squeezing him tight. Casper just stood there until she let him go when the bacon was in threat becoming charcoal, muttering to herself of how just yesterday he was crawling around the floor and calling her mummy.

Casper rolled his eyes at her am and kissed her on the cheek and sat down at the dining table before she made a bigger fuss of him. She would always baby him on his birthdays more than she usually did.

When it was put out, a full breakfast with his runny egg yolk and all, he was already drooling and dug in quickly. Although it looked as if he was shovelling in everything without thought he really did appreciate and savour the breakfast that he rarely got for his mum on weekdays. His mum really was the best cook in his opinion. She smiled at him from the other end of the table, a slight sadness in her eyes as she ate her own.

It was a comfortable silence between the two, they didn't have to say anything but rather just feel each other's presence and that was enough. Casper hummed contently, buttering a bit of toast to plunge into his beans. Of course, with his mum's overpowering problem with sticking her nose where ever she swung it, that silence didn't last long.

"So who's the girl?" She asked suddenly then taking a sip her tea cup in hand in a casual way as if she wasn't dying inside to know.

Casper almost choked on his black pudding, he heaved comically. When he was finally able to breathe, tears streaming at his eyes he gave his mum a long, wide-eyed stare. "I don't know what you're talking about," he squeaked unconvincingly. It was pathetic really; if he and James were supposed to be hiding their great big homosexuality from the world minus their friends then he had to get better at lying under pressure. Although, he wasn't lying exactly: James wasn't a girl - Casper knew that for sure - but that didn't mean his mum wasn't catching on all the same.