Kaeos

FOUR

It feels forced.

Ever since Daniel started school again his mother has been working half days. Allowing her to be home when he gets out of school. She even offered to come pick him up each day, but Daniel has been able to talk that one out of her head.

Now she is waiting for him again.

The moment he closes the door behind him he hears the now familiar sound of clinking cups coming from the kitchen. And before he's been able to shed his coat his mother appears out of the kitchen with a tray packed with everything one might need for a high-tea party. Or so Daniel expects, he's never been to a high-tea party. At least not until his mother started throwing them.

"Come sit," she ushers with a smile, placing the tray onto the side table near the couch.

Even though he's used to it by now, Daniel wishes his mother would just let him have a moment to himself. All he wants right now is to take a shower and be alone. But he also doesn't want to upset her. So he does as she suggests.

She beams at him for a moment before placing the cups on the table and pouring hot water into them.

"How was you day?" The question isn't a surprise anymore, it's the same she's been asking for the past days now.

When she's done pouring water she offers him a box with countless little tea-bags. Daniel has never been a huge tea fan but this ritual seems important to his mother, so he mutters a /thank you/ while grabbing one of the colorful bags. He's then presented with a plate filled with a variety of freshly baked cookies and even some cupcakes. Taking a cookie he starts nibbling.

"Anything new?" she asks.

Meeting her eyes Daniel realizes he hasn't answered her first question yet.

"No, it's fine," he says, "Everything's fine."

"That's nice," she nods, still smiling. Their eyes hold each other for a moment longer than necessary, before Daniel diverts his attention to his tea. He knows this small-talk isn't what she's really after. It's not what she's really hoping for. And as he swallows the tea, which tastes just as artificial as this tea-party feels, he wishes he could just get up and leave.

He finds it difficult to meet her eyes again, afraid he'll see the truth behind her smile. The truth of how she's suffering, and all because of him. And he doesn't know how to fix that.

How to fix her.

"How are your friends? I'm sure they are pretty happy to have you back."

Wrecking his brain for a snippet of mundane information he can share with her Daniel comes up empty. So he decides to go with something in between truth and make-believe.

"Amber thinks she's in love."

She nods and he can see she's struggling to keep that smile in place. "That's nice."

It's not what she is hoping for.

When Daniel finally makes his way upstairs he feels drained. It actually takes strength to climb the stairs. In the kitchen his mother is putting the tea-party away, surely to be retrieved again tomorrow.

Sighing deeply he closes the door to the bathroom. Rids himself of his clothes with heavy arms. The moment the spray hits his skin is when he notices it. Wiping water from his eyes Daniel steps away from the shower to look at his thigh. Carefully touching the odd spot on his skin.

It's black, like ink.

When it seems stuck he roughly rubs at it, nails scratching the discolored patch. With absolutely no affect. The spot doesn't go away.

Ignoring the uncomfortable stirring inside his chest Daniel focuses on washing his hair instead. Something he's been doing every single day now. For some reason his hair feels dirty all the time. He's never been one to care too much about hygiene, but the past days the skin on his scalp feels abnormally greasy. To the point where the only thing stopping him from sticking his head under the shower again right after school are his mother's unavoidable tea-parties. He's aware though that it's probably not a good idea to get all OCD about a bit of greasy hair. So he tries to keep the showering to once a day.

Failing most days.

Throwing some extra shampoo onto his head Daniel revels in the warm water washing away the grease, forgetting all about that weird black spot on his thigh.

Until he discovers another one.