DAVID'S PLACE turned out to be a few blocks away from mine. There had to be a reason why he hadn't told me that but I trusted him to know he meant well. And I felt I was a bad friend. If I had been more caring and not so absorbed with myself, I would have found out where David lived a long time ago.

"Hey, snap out of it," he snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.

We were standing in front of his house. It was a homey looking one story that looked like it had seen a few renovations in its lifetime.

"Come on in," he took the lead and opened the front door and entered.

When we entered the hallway and a girl about 8 years old ran to us and engulfed David in a hug around his knees. He picked her up and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"I missed you!" she squealed.

David gave her a pointy touch in the nose with his forefinger, "I missed you more Jane."

I stood there looking at them confused. Now I felt really bad. He had a sister and I didn't even know about that? What kind of friend was I?

"Is Jane your sister?" I asked him.

"She's my cousin. Jane, this is Jade, my friend."

She waved at me shyly and said, "Our names are almost the same!"

"Indeed they are," I smiled at her and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

I loved kids. They were so fun to be around and I'd made up my mind a long time ago to probably be a teacher.

"Jade is my new best friend," she squealed at David.

He faked a cry and pretended to be on agony as Jane and I laughed at his antics.

Jane got down from his arms and left us to change the television channel.

"Dave, is that you?" I heard a feminine voice coming towards us.

Immediately David got alarmed and turned to me,
"want you to know that you're more than a brother to me now and I would never hurt you okay?"

I didn't even time to fully grasp what he said when a woman entered the hallways from a different room. As soon as she saw us, she screamed and dropped the basket full of clothes she was holding.
She turned to me as if she had seen a ghost. "Thomas."

I rushed to her and helped her pick up the clothes that were scattered around her. Thomas was my dad's name and my confusion was growing.

"Err- no ma'am. That's my dad," I said as I finally got all the clothes and stood up to face her.

"The resemblance is uncanny. Just like Dave and Laser, " she muttered.

I turned to David for an explanation as to what was going on but there was a guilty and sad look on his face.

"You looked for him even after I asked you not to?" the lady screamed at David.

"Aunt, I can explain," he rubbed his hand on his face and let out a breath.

"No. No. You listen to me David, I'm going to pack Jane's clothes and when I get back, he should not be here." she was so furious as she pointed a finger at me.

She walked past us and if looks could kill, I would be six feet under because she was stabbing me with daggers with her eyes.

"This was a bad idea," David said as he walked out of the house and I rushed after him.

"What just happened there," I asked knowing that there was definitely a frown on my face.

"I'll explain as we walk to your place," he said and we started walking in the direction of where I live.

I wasn't going to like this.

▃

A few minutes later he started talking, "My dad's name was Laser."

Dad's friend Laser? The one who was dead?

I opened my mouth to ask why he never told me that our dads were related but he continued,
"He was very good friends with your dad. My aunt used to say that they were inseparable. Then they started doing drugs together. Your dad introduced him to the drugs and when he got addicted, he just deserted him. My dad had organ failure seven years ago and my aunt took us in. She's a nurse so she looked after both of us until finally he died.
He always talked about Thomas Mensa. How much he loved him and felt so empty when your dad cut all ties with him. When he died I felt so alone. My aunt made us move back here last year and told me not to ever look for you and your dad because she hated him."

He took a breath and looked at me. There was so much pain in his eyes.

"Why did you?" I asked.

"When I learnt your dad had a son and we were age mates, I made a plan to become his friend and then hurt him in a cruel way. Make him pay for what he did to my father. I wanted his son to feel the pain I felt when my dad died."

That stopped me right there in my tracks. "That d-day we met in the hallway wasn't an accident?"

"It was and I was so glad that I could finally put my plan in motion. That was before I got to know you Jade."
He stretched his hand around my shoulders but I moved away from him.

"So you realized how p-pathetic I was and saw that you could hurt me because of something my dad did?"

"No...Yes," he kept shaking his head and continued, "I mean at first. I got to know you and realized that you were the brother I never had."

Enough of this bullshit. My temper was rising and fast, something rarely happened because whenever my temper rose, I could hardly say a word without stuttering.

"I t-trusted you D-Dave, told you about how my s-stuttering made me lonely s-since I was born. I told you about my mom and b-brother," I was getting emotional and for once, I didn't really care.

"Can we just reach your place and talk about this? There's so much more that I have to tell you."

"No," I looked directly in his eyes

"Jade, you have to-"

"No David. You are like a b-brother to me but all along you p-pretended to be my f-friend so that you c-could hurt me in w-whatever way you saw best?"

"There's more that you have to-" he tried saying but I cut him off.

"Go back to your family. Because I don't think I was ever p-part of it."
I turned and walked away from him to my house.

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Author's Note

More revelations in this chapter too. Hope you were surprised as I was!
Did you ever think David was hiding something?