My Best Friend Jeffrey

Chapter 1: I found my best friend for life!

I'm pretty sure all mothers feel like jumping for joy when they hear the outstanding news of their child telling them they finally found a best friend. 

Ethan was a very different kid from the rest, he told ridiculous tales that everyone knew were not real in the slightest. He never really connected with the other children at school, which can break any mother's heart. 

However one bright afternoon, Ethan came home and joyfully announced to me that he finally did it, he had finally found a friend for life. As any mother probably would feel regarding their child's struggle for friends, I was ecstatic, simply gleaming with pure bliss! 

I asked him, "What's his name? What's he like?" 

Ethan responds with a sentence I would despise for the rest of my life. 

"His name is Jeffery, and he is very nice."

"What does he look like?" I asked him that day in curiosity. 

"How about you see for yourself!" Ethan smiled at me with the purest intentions. 

"He's right here, next to me!" Ethan spun his head to the right. 

"Say hi Jeffrey... Wait, what's that? Oh! You're really shy? Mhm... Yeah got it... Okay, don't worry! I can talk for you!" He laughed.

 At this moment, a shiver went down my spine, who was he talking to? There was nothing there, Ethan was nodding and talking to absolutely nothing next to him, just a blank space. 

"Uhm, Ethan? Are you pranking me right now?" I assumed. 

"No. What's there to trick you about anyways? Jeffrey's right here mom, right next to me. I'm talking to him right now, I'm telling the truth!" He looked at me so sincerely that I believed he was being honest.

I broke out in a cold sweat, I worryingly began to shake. I felt a drop of sweat roll down my burning cheek. He was being completely serious.

 "Ethan, y-you know there's nothing and no one there... r-right?" I stammered. "No. Jeffrey's standing right here!" Ethan pointed in "his" direction. "W-what? You see him there?" I gulped nervously. 

"Can you not? Mommy are you blind? I can see him and we are talking!" 

"Ethan, please stop joking with me now." 

"But mommy, I'm not." 

We argued. That's when I realized something. "Wait, Ethan. Your best friend here..." I suspiciously peered towards the direction he kept looking at. "He's just your imaginary friend right?" 

"No. He is real. He's my best friend."

No way. I didn't believe it. Ethan's probably just telling another silly tale... right? I needed more information of this "Jeffrey" boy.

 "Ethan, I think you're the only one who can talk and see Jeffrey. Because I can't see him and talk to him. What do you see and hear when he talks?" I gave him a serious face to tell him I wasn't playing around. 

"Really? No wonder my classmates didn't believe me when I was telling them about Jeffrey. Well Jeffrey here has short blonde hair, a white shirt and some jeans. And when he talks he sounds similar to me but he's always whispering so you have to listen closel—" 

Ethan stopped talking and looked at the area "Jeffrey" is standing.

 "Oh. Jeffrey just told me that's his loud voice." Ethan laughed. "He's so funny!" I felt concerned again.

Is Ethan hearing stuff in his head? This was the start of my concern for Ethan's well being. No, I didn't want to think that Ethan was different in that way. So I didn't bother worrying about that at the time. 

I asked Ethan more questions to try to grasp this crazy idea he was telling me. "Ethan, I need to ask more questions on how you are able to interact with your invisible best friend." I sat him down at the table. 

Ethan and I talked, even though I didn't exactly believe his best friend was real, I wanted to see how far Ethan's imagination can go. 

"Okay, let me get this straight. This morning at school, you saw Jeffrey come up to you, but you didn't know where he came from." 

"Yep." 

"Then you said hello to him and he replied saying hello back?" 

"Yep! He said hello quietly back!" 

"Okay... Then you talked and got along; and became best friends (in a day)?" 

"Yes!" 

"Then you brought him home with you..." 

"Yeah! And I forgot to mention, Jeffrey told me he has no family so he's going to live here with us. Because he's my best friend!"

I wasn't buying his story but kept playing along. 

"Oh where exactly is Jeffrey right now?" I asked. 

"Let's see. Oh found him, Jeffrey's over there on the sofa." Ethan ran to the sofa and sat "next" to him. I followed him into the room to see them interact.

 "What channel? Okay... Sure you choose." Ethan put the remote on the pillow in the middle of them. 

Suddenly the television turned on and started playing some cartoons. I was shocked. The t.v. turned on without Ethan doing anything. 

My jaw dropped. Was there really a boy there that I couldn't see?!