Getting a Clue | ✓

Chapter 4

By the time the second Friday of March rolled around, Jethro and I had been talking pretty solidly for about a week and a half. Or mostly, he talked. Not that he was rudely dominating the conversation or anything, there just wouldn't have been one at all if he hadn't been there to keep things going. I was bad at this whole friendship thing. Really bad.

Jethro was probably so much better at it than me because he didn't hold back. He was so good at having things to say and questions to ask and he didn't second guess himself all the time like I did. I was pretty sure that the thing that made me most boring was my deep fear of being boring.

But I supposed Jethro didn't think I was boring. I'd thought long and hard about why he might want to talk to me if I was, but I couldn't come up with anything. I'd even wondered if maybe my dad had paid him to be my friend, but that seemed unlikely.

Anyway, it was the second Friday of March and that meant my psychiatrist's appointment was today and then I'd be at my dad's work for the rest of the day and there was a chance I might see Jethro. So I had to carefully consider my outfit.

I didn't really know why. It wasn't like Jethro was going to be like, 'you know I was straight, but after seeing the way your ass looks in those jeans...'

Anyway, my ass looked pretty decent in these jeans. I didn't normally wear them because they weren't super comfortable, but I guess trying to change someone's sexuality with my ass meat was just that important to me.

I considered taking the necklace he'd given me off just so he didn't think I always wore it, but fuck it. I did always wear it and I didn't want to change that. I dug up another purple T-shirt so that it at least looked like I was maybe just coordinating.

My psychiatrist's appointment was uneventful, as always. I never had anything to say, but he still insisted on seeing me every month. He seemed determined that he could make my brain at least a little less fucked up, but if it required basically any effort on my part I was against it.

Like yeah, okay, maybe some of this shit would make my life better in the long run, but do you think I had enough spare energy to invest in my eventual betterment? I did not. Most of my energy for today, for example, had been invested in wearing slightly uncomfortable jeans and worrying about what I was going to say to Jethro if I saw him.

Maybe he could at least appreciate my ass from an aesthetic perspective. He was artistic like that.

And then Jethro did show up and he looked at me and I had no idea what to say.

But he did. He always did. "Hey, Cas! I didn't know you'd be here today."

Cas. Why did that sound so good when he said it? "Hey."

Jethro wasn't wearing any make up today, but he'd done a few tiny plaits throughout his hair. The necklace he was wearing was pink, yellow, and blue, a sharp contrast to the plain colours of his school uniform. "Doctor's appointment again?"

"Yeah. Second Friday of every month."

"I'll add that to my calendar. You busy?"

I looked down at the math problem I'd been working on. It wasn't even homework, I'd just been that bored. "Nope."

"Cool. Well, I'm going to go microwave a sausage roll if you want to come hang out in the kitchen for a bit."

I shut my notebook and tossed it in the general direction of my backpack. "Beats math."

Jethro laughed as he led the way towards the kitchen. "Not exactly high praise, but I'll take it."

"Do you need to go tell your mum you're here?"