Fated to Hate You

Chapter 20: The Halloween Festival

"What the hell?"

Parker dropped the spatula he was holding, and French toast batter flew everywhere. "Did I scare you?" I asked.

"Of course you did. Are you aware of how you look right now? You look like a ghost" he exclaimed, clearly angry at me for scaring him. But, what does he mean by the way I look? He must've sensed my confusion, because he handed me a spoon and told me to look at my reflection.

Oh! That's what he was talking about! I still had my face mask on. I do look as pale as a ghost right now. Quickly, I tore off the mask and threw it in the trash. At least my skin felt clean and refreshed.

"Why'd you scare me like that?" Parker wondered while he cleaned up his mess. I grabbed some paper towels and cleaner and bent down to help.

"Uhm, what are you doing?" he asked me. "Helping you clean up. What does it look like?" Parker should be grateful I'm helping him at all. I was in a good mood today, so I was being generous.

"But my question is why? You never help me, and I never help you." Parker's eyes looked at me like he was trying to figure out the world's hardest puzzle. "Please, I help you all the time."

He laughed. "Yeah, okay." he said in a condescending tone. "I'm serious, I have!" I exclaimed. "There was that time when uhm, no that wasn't me. OH! How about that time last year when, no I said something else," I mumbled too myself. Parker's lips turned upwards in a triumphant smirk.

"Wait!" I suddenly shouted. "How could I forget? It's so obvious. I helped you with your math and history homework. Ha! I'm a genius."

"No you didn't," Parker rebutted.

"Uh, yeah I did. It was literally 2 days ago. How do you not remember it?"

"That doesn't even count. I didn't actually need help, I only asked you for help because-" he cut himself off before I could hear the rest of his sentence. So he was only faking having trouble with his worksheet. Why would he do that?

This is not the Parker I know. The Parker I know would've completed it in 5 minutes with no help and bragged about getting an A on it and being the first one done.

The Parker I know wouldn't ask for help when it's not needed, he's too stubborn to ask for help. He must be sick, that's the only explanation. He recently found out he has some disease that's killing him and he only has a few months left to live so he's making amends with people.

It would also explain why he's been so nice to me these last couple weeks and why he's helping me get with his best friend.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out without thinking. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "I'm sorry that you're dying."

The house was silent for a few seconds, but soon filled with a boisterous laugh. Parker was clutching his stomach, laughing the brightest I've ever seen. This was the first time I've seen his real laugh.

I wonder if anyone else has seen this, it looked really nice. It made me feel warm inside. Soon, I joined in on the laughing. His voice was very contagious. He had one of those laughs that made everyone around him crack up, even if they were crying.

I was soon clutching my stomach and wiping my tears away as well. "Ahh, that's a good one. Thanks for making me laugh!" Parker squeezed about between laughs.

"T-thanks?" I fumbled. I suddenly felt very nervous.

After an eternity, we both settled down and focused on the cleaning. While I was cleaning, I thought about what just happened. If someone witnessed this, they would've thought the world was ending.