Mars? Yeah Right!

Chapter 17

17

When I woke up the next morning it was to the smell of pancakes. This surprised me, since Mam only ever made them on special occasions like a birthday or an anniversary. I got up and threw on a hoody over my pyjamas, then made my way to the kitchen to investigate.

Kevin was sitting at the table, dressed in an old pair of pyjamas that must have belonged to Dad at some point, while Mam handed him a large stack of the said pancakes. When I walked in, he looked up and grinned at me sheepishly. "Hey Aine."

I blinked at him a couple of times. This was truly weird. "Um, hey. Didn't you go home last night?"

At this, my mother tutted as she flipped another pancake at the cooker. "Don't be ridiculous Aine! As if we were going to send Kevin out in that torrential rain!" She pointed to the table with her still dripping spatula. "Sit down, I'm making your breakfast now."

I took my place at the table as she had requested. I was hoping Mam was planning on being chief communicator this morning, as I didn't really feel up to it. I was still completely baffled by my weird reaction to Kevin's presence the night before. Seriously, I had no freaking clue what was wrong with me. Maybe an alien parasite had eaten my brain or something.

Just as my own breakfast was being put in front of me, an angry yell from upstairs cut through the lull in conversation, making Kevin, Mam and I jump about a foot in the air.

"CAROL!"

It was Dad. Mam sighed. "Bloody Norah, what has he gone and done to himself this time?" she muttered. She turned back to myself and Kevin, the latter of which was looking somewhat bemused by the turn of events. "I'd better go and make sure he hasn't killed himself. Aine, chat to Kevin until I get back, there's a good girl." With that, she hurried off to check on her woefully careless husband.

I turned back to find Kevin staring at me very curiously. "What?" I asked, feeling my face get very hot for some reason. Yep, aliens definitely had a hand in this somehow.

"Does that sort of thing happen....a lot?" he asked gesturing upwards. I sighed. "Unfortunately. Dad has a habit of turning an innocent situation into a dangerous one. He's unbelievably accident-prone."

Kevin chuckled. "So that's where you get your clumsiness from then."

I stared at him. "What the hell are you talking about? I am not clumsy!"

"Uh, yes you are!"

"No way!"

"Okay then, I guess you need some examples." Kevin folded his arms and grinned at me. "Remember the time the two of us went to the park together and you decided you wanted to go on  the seesaw, only you forgot you were supposed to push yourself up and down, so you ended up falling off and whacking your head so hard you got a concussion?"

"That's not fair!" I protested. "I was only eight!"

"-Or the time you broke your ankle walking with me on top of the big wall because you weren't looking where you were going and put your foot straight through a massive crack in the top of it?"

"Hey that crack was huge, anyone could've done that!"

"- Or how you always ended up running into that lampost on the corner of the estate whenever we played catch?"

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. He had me on that one. Actually, I was amazed at how much of our old friendship he remembered. We had lost contact so long ago that I had assumed he'd forgotten me completely.