Two of a Kind

Chapter 9

For the rest of the week we went around the city doing random stuff. We went to the mall, the movies, to shops, we even went to the beach at one point. Eventually though Friday came and we had to head home. Me and Jamie were sad to go, but we were happy that we had such a great time. Not much happened on the car ride back, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Not long after our vacation, summer ended and school was starting up again. This year I was going to the 8th grade and Jamie was going to the 9th grade. Luckily, I was able to convince my parents to let me go to the same school as Jamie. The junior high was connected to the high school so we would get to see each other at lunch and in the hallways.

I really liked going to his school. I was no longer having to deal with bullies and I also made a lot more friends. Jamie had his own set of friends too, but during lunch most of us sat at the same table together. They all knew that me and Jamie were dating. Jamie's friends were from his past years, so they had known for awhile. My friends figured it out after seeing me and Jamie around each other for awhile. We were always being goofy together and sometimes we would subtly flirt with one another. All of our friends seemed fine with the idea of us dating, even if it was weird for some of them for awhile. Eventually they all got used to it and it became secondhand knowledge.

I also liked the food that they served at his school. It was much better than the food my old school served. We both bought our lunches there now instead of bringing packed lunches.

After school, Jamie and I usually went to his house together and hung out and did homework together. I had noticed his parents had stopped arguing as much since the vacation. So I guess I was happy that Jamie's family issues were getting better. My parents were still gone a lot, but even they were making an effort to spend more time with me.

Jamie had also helped me with my Russian a lot during summer break and I helped him with math. We both were much better at it now. Sometimes when I would help him with his math, he would correct me on mistakes I made! I guess the student was starting to get better than the teacher. I also started getting really good at Russian. I was now able to have full conversations with Jamie and his family in Russian, even if I was still rough around the edges. Most of the time I spoke only Russian now when at his house. Jamie said that the only way for me to get better was to practice in realistic scenarios. He said there wasn't much else I could do since I already had finished learning the vocabulary and grammar rules and I was fairly good at writing and reading Russian.

I was laying on Jamie's bed and turned to look at him laying on his floor.

"Hey Jamie."

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever think about how different our lives would be if you hadn't found me crying in the forest."

"Sometimes," he said still looking at the game he was playing on his 3DS.

"I'm really glad I met you."

Jamie paused his game and looked up at me. "I'm really glad I met you too Sebastian." He got up and climbed on the bed. He laid down next to me and brought me into a warm hug. We laid there for awhile just looking into each other's eyes.

"What you thinking?" I asked.

"I really hope were together forever," he replied.

"Y-yeah, me too," I stuttered.

We fell asleep like that just holding on to one another. So much had changed from the day that we met almost a year ago. I never would have imagined that I would have a best friend let alone a boyfriend. If someone had told me this a year ago, I would have said they were crazy.

Soon dinner came around and Jamie's parent's were calling us downstairs to eat. Tonight they made chicken along with some traditional Jewish dishes. Occasionally Jamie's mom would make them. Even though I was Christian, I didn't mind any of the Jewish traditions or dishes that Jamie's family had. In fact, I loved them. Other than some of the practices, their religion wasn't all that different. Awhile ago Jamie had told me that they were specifically Messianic Jews. This meant that while they still followed the Torah and everything else, they also still believed in Jesus as the Savior. I was also surprised when he referred to himself as a Jew. I had always thought it was a derogatory term. According to him, it originally wasn't one, and has only been used as one in recent times. The term is simply a reference to being Jewish. It was anti-semantic people that had turned it into a derogatory term.

Dinner was amazing and I complemented Jamie's mom on her food. She's really good at cooking. I'd even say she was a better cook than my own mom. Sometimes I wonder why she never became a cook. It seemed like she was always learning new recipes and she seemed to really enjoy cooking, especially baking. She almost always had treats out whenever I spent the night over.

After dinner, I went upstairs with Jamie to wash up and get ready for bed. We stayed up for awhile watching tv like we usually do. But after about two episodes of Futurama we started to get bored. So we turned on YouTube on Jamie's Xbox One and watched Markiplier videos. Markiplier has seemed to become the go to for us lately on YouTube. We just really enjoyed getting the pants scared off us. Plus, it was a good excuse for us to cuddle whenever we got scared. Soon we fell asleep in each other's arms while Markiplier continued to play in the background.