Dedicated to MichaellaTettey

DAVID

TWO WEEKS LATER and Jade hadn't looked in my direction once.
He wasn't hiding from me, that was for sure because I was seeing him almost every day at school.

That day I told him everything, I almost felt worser than I did when my dad died. I kept picturing him standing there with that look on his face and he struggling to not stutter.

Now he just pretended that I was invisible even after I had jumped into a conversation of his with Grace once during lunch break.

They seemed to have gotten closer and in as much as I was happy about that, I also needed my best friend to not hate me. He hated me I knew that and I would have to find a way to make him un-hate me.

When my dad had gotten sick at first, he and I thought it was just the flu that had been going around for a while. It wasn't after he began coughing blood that we realized it was serious. The doctors had him stay overnight and because I had started panicking, I called Aunt Cynthia.
She and her husband were the only living relatives I knew of.

When Aunt Cynthia came to us and disappeared for over an hour into the doctor's office, I knew something was very wrong. I was just 13 years old then.

Dad ended up staying at the hospital for a week, after which he came back home and Aunt Cynthia moved in temporarily to take care of him.

After a while, we moved to Aunt Cynthia's place in the next town and she sat me down and told me that my dad had liver failure.

He'd made mistakes in the past and now he was dying, she had told me bluntly. She told me that-

"Dave. David. Universe to David." Grace was standing over me at my cafeteria table.

It was lunch break and the place was noisy. I looked around to see if Jade was following her or was around but I couldn't see him.

"We have to talk about that," she said.

"About what?" I knew she was talking about my fallout with Jade.

"Whatever happened between you and Jade. He's literally pretending that you don't exist. I mention your name and he changes the topic without even flinching."

"Well maybe I don't really exist. You're imagining me," I laughed.

She pinched me on my left arm as she sat down. "See? You're very real. Come on Dave, the two of you were so close. What happened?"

I contemplated telling her about the plan I had orchestrated. How everything changed when I realized the kind of person Jade was.

"I messed up Grace," I said rubbing my hand over my face and continued,

"I did something bad. Really bad. You see, and the worst part is I couldn't bring myself to tell him till he almost found out himself. He won't believe my apology and I am out of options on what to do. I'm just-."

"Why didn't you tell him until he almost found out?" she intercepted me.

"I... I don't know...I guess because he is the closest I have ever had to a brother and I... I didn't want to jeopardize that." I got everything out. I looked guilty and I knew that because I felt guilty.

Grace looked behind me. From the look on her face, I could easily tell Jade was either coming towards us or standing directly behind me. She really liked him.

I turned and saw Jade coming towards us. At that very moment, he looked in our direction and met my eyes. At first, I thought he would veer into another direction but then he still moved towards us.

"Hey Grace," he said when he got to us.

"Hey Jade. What's up?" she said back.

"Up and about. I'm going to sit a few tables from here so I'll see you later."
He didn't even look at me. This guy could make someone die out of guilt. I had never felt bad like this since I moved into this town.

Grace gestured to me to say something so I tried.

"Bro, Bullet's good?" I said, hoping that he would get excited and tell me about the latest adventure of his cat.

Nothing. He didn't even blink or turn to look at me.

"See you later Grace," he said to Grace and walked away.
She gave me an 'I'm sorry' look and mouthed that she would talk to him for me and followed himI just nodded.

As soon as they left, two girls came to sit at my table. They batted their long and fake eyelashes and one of them said to me,

"You're so hot, you know that?"

As if didn't have enough problems on my plate right now. God, help me.

"I'm sorry but I have to leave you ladies." I said and got up to leave.

I was tired of these kind of people. Shallow people who liked you only based on your appearance. I was that kind of person back in my previous high school when I thought looks were everything. Jade had taught me loyalty. From the way he was close to Bullet and to how trusting he was.

I entered my next class, greeted the teacher and sat down waiting for the other students to finish their lunch break.

Just then, an idea sprang up in my head. I had an ace up my sleeve and I was going to use it to mend my friendship with Jade.

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