Special

Emily

"So, let me summarize this. You went on a coffee date with Matt. One of the guys who bullies you at school and forces you to do his homework almost everyday but you just hung out with him?"

Emily was sitting on her bed and drew something while listening to him ramble on about the afternoon he'd had. He nodded.

"And you don't think that it seems slightly weird?"

He shrugged. "He seemed kind of nice actually."

"Which is precisely why every single one of your alarm bells should be going off right now." She put her sketchbook next to her onto the duvet and flicked the pencil against her knee. Daniel continued to fumble with the carpet. It was blue and soft like most things in Emily's room. He looked up at her after a moment.

"But what if he actually means it? What if it's fine and he really just wants help. Like actual help with understanding the homework?"

She shook her head.

"Listen to me, Daniel. There is no way, no way in hell, that someone does a 180 turn like that within a few days. This does not seem right."

"Why can't you be happy for me? It could be fine. I could actually be friends with him again."

She backpaddled a bit. "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit worried to be honest. It seems so strange to me that he is nice to you like that all of a sudden. I mean, don't you agree with me? It is rather weird."

Daniel nodded. He shared her concerns but didn't want to admit it. The possibility of regaining his old friend was too enticing to him and he wanted to believe. If there was a chance, any chance at all, to make their friendship work again, no matter how small that chance was, he was willing to give it a shot.

"But why else would he want to hang out with me?"

"I don't know. But I don't like it."

"Are you jealous?" he teased and before he could move a pillow hit him in the face.

"You wish," Emily laughed. Daniel forced a smile onto his face but she saw through it immediately.

"There is something else?"

He nodded. "I'm so stressed out right now. You know, with exams and preparing for university, getting all the grades and extra course work and extracurricular stuff."

"And then you added hanging out with Matt to that, which is more stress?" she assumed and couldn't be more wrong. Daniel sighed.

"No," he said, "hanging out with Matt is fine. I can do my own homework in the meantime as well and explaining it to him actually helps me with studying. You know how it is said how only if you can explain something you actually know it. I think that's true. So it's a good exercise for me, too."

She nodded and continued to flick the pencil against her knee. "Then what is the other thing that's bothering you?"

He shrugged. He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about it but maybe he should. It had been bothering him for a while now.

"It's why I'm here so often."

She suggestively raised an eyebrow and he threw the pillow back at her.

"No. It's about my parents."

"Oh." Maybe he shouldn't be talking about this. She was a friend not a therapist. Maybe it would bother her to hear about it and it would most likely ruin the mood if he hadn't done that already by talking about his meeting with Matt.

"So, what is on your mind?"

"They are always fighting and yelling at each other."

"Ah, you told me about this before. I can imagine that it is hard to deal with."