Where to Begin

Chapter 15

"What did he say? What did you say?" Connell got up from the table as I walked back into the kitchen.

"I just spoke to him a bit,"

"And?" Sawyer asked.

"He's feeling better,"

"What did you guys talk about?" Max asked.

"Just small stuff and Shakespeare, you know, that sorta stuff," I said casually, walking to get a glass from the drying rack. "He just feels tired of your attitude towards him basically. He said he feels like he can never get away from it and when it happens, he just feels helpless because no one is ever on his side," I said leaning on the island. The boys all looked at each guiltily, especially Chase and Connell who looked at each other with really sad expressions. Zero came down and walked over to the sink behind me.

"Zero – Wes..." Jackson stood up. "I'm so sorry, bro, we're sorry. We didn't mean to hurt you that bad," The boys all agreed.

"It's fine, I don't care," he shrugged.

I smiled slightly because he was listening to what I told him.

"Really?" Dale asked surprised.

Wesley shrugged. "Yeah, Celine and I talked and I feel much better,"

"You guys didn't – ?" Connell asked pointing between the two of us.

"What? Oh, no, no. Kiss? No, hell no!" Wesley quickly said, laughing awkwardly.

"No! Why would we? Why does everyone just immediately assume that?" I asked. Connell just shrugged.

"You really know how to calm people down," Aubrey said sitting on my bed while I got changed in the closet.

"Not really, I just felt so bad. Did you see his face when he left before I talked to him? He was crying," I said quietly coming out and sitting on my bed next to Aubrey.

"Really?"

"When he let me in his room, his eyes were all puffy and red and he was sniffing,"

"Shit, they really did some damage. Now I feel bad for laughing,"

"I think that they had done it enough and so consistently that he just went over the edge. When he told me how he felt, he sounded genuinely hurt," I sat on my bed next to Aubrey.

"Crap, now I feel really bad and I wasn't even in on the prank."

I smiled at Aubrey and laughed a little.

"He hugged me you know, like, genuinely,"

"Really? He doesn't even hug his own mother. Don't lead him on now too,"

"What? No! I would never see Zero as that. I literally see him as an older brother now. He's actually quite cool and I'm not leading anyone on,"

"Ok, I believe you. And you know, it's Jigsaw and Spec's birthdays next week Saturday and Sunday so if you want to go shopping any time soon for their presents, just tell me and we can go together because I need to get their presents still,"

"It's their birthdays next week?"

"Yeah and then it's Max and Calvin's on the seventeenth of July, so we may as well get their gifts too."

"Oh, no one told me it was any of their birthdays coming up – ''

"Yeah, they don't like talking about their birthdays,"

"How come?"

"They've never met their dad and he doesn't even send money or a card or anything so I guess...their birthdays remind them of their dad," she said sadly.

"What happened to him?"

"I actually don't know."

I went back downstairs where Max and Sage were still playing with Lego.

"Lego, again?" I said curling up on the couch.

"Yeah, hey, um, now that you're done with Zero and his therapy, I was wondering if you wanted to come to the bonfire?" Max said leaning back from the Lego on the table.

"Oh, um..."

I had never really been a party kind of person.

"You'd be able to meet people from our school," he said. "I think you'd probably get along with this one girl. She's a best friend of mine and Calvin, Stevie," he came and sat next to me.

"Really? And how do you know who I'd get along with?" I asked with a smile.

"Well, you get along with this family so you must get along with practically anyone," he laughed fiddling with his thumbs.

"Ok, I'll come, if Lillian lets us that is. But I'm warning you, I have never been a party person,"

"It won't be like a huge party, its just people from school. Look, I'll introduce you to Stevie because I know she'll be there, and you can hang out with her and my other best friend, Conor,"

"Ok. How far away is the beach?"

"It's only about twenty minutes." He said, glancing at my mouth. We were sitting quite close, well; he had sat quite close to me and I felt kind of uncomfortable.

"Ok, fine."

I walked into the kitchen to get some water and saw Noah's tiny puzzle, completed and sitting on the island. I took a long look at it. It was a picture of a herd of giraffes. It made me remember Knysna and all the game parks in KZN that my family went to on holiday. I found a plate in the drying rack and decided to have some fruit out of the fruit bowl but I should have known better than to put a plate of food next to a puzzle. Chase came into the kitchen and asked what I was doing while he opened the fridge, looking for food. I turned to look at him and knocked the plate of fruit, which subsequently, knocked the tiny puzzle, which had taken Noah three days to finish, onto the floor.

"No!" I said dropping to the floor to try and recover the pieces. They were probably the size of my pinky fingernail. "Shit, shit, shit!" I breathed.

"Well, I'll start planning your funeral," Chase said looking at me on the floor, holding a glass of milk.

"Ugh, it took him three days to finish!" I moaned collecting the last few pieces of the puzzle. Hopefully, I had gotten every piece.

"What are you going to do? If he comes in here now and sees it gone, we're both dead, even though I had nothing to do with it,"

"I have to remake it,"

"Whatever you think will help," he shrugged.

"I'm taking this to my room, if he asks where it is, just make something up!"

"What, why do I have to be involved?"

"Jigsaw please! I was lookout for your stupid prank, please just do this for me!" I begged taking the puzzle pieces up to my room.

I spent the rest of the entire day – until two the next morning – rebuilding the puzzle. Multiple people came in to check on me but my heart dropped when Sampson came looking for me.

"Goodness, I thought you were Noah!"

"What are you doing? I haven't seen you the whole day,"

He came and looked at what I was doing; I was nearly finished with the puzzle.

"Oh, gees, when did that happen?" he asked looking at me.

"This afternoon," I said carefully picking up a piece with the tweezers Chase gave me.

"Well, good luck." He laughed and walked out.