Psych

19. "She's Just a Friend"

‘Morning, Aunt Janice,’ Sineas greeted his aunt as soon as he reached the foot of the staircase. He was wearing a lime green tracksuit and white Nikes.

‘Morning, Sin. Sleep well?’ She was watching TV in her nightdress. The shower cap was on her head. ‘Where do you think you’re going without having breakfast?’ she asked him wearing a condemning look as soon as his hand grabbed the door handle.

He gave her a broad smile. ‘I don’t want to be late, Aunt Janice.’ He headed into the kitchen to grab his lunch. He remembered he had forgotten something. Like an ant, he would move from one spot to another, rummaging, under the couch, behind the cushions. He scratched his head.

‘Sineas!’ She almost jumped when he lifted her legs up to search under her side of the couch.

‘Not now, Aunt Janice, I don’t want to be late for class.’ He stood up and headed for the door. It seemed he had found what he was looking for.

She grabbed his shoulders from behind just in time and turned him around. She looked into his eyes. ‘What happened to you?’

He shrugged free from her grip. ‘Oh, not this again,’ he mumbled. ‘Aunt Janice, I’m fine.’

‘Fine? You look a little more than just fine,’ she commented smiling shrewdly at the corner of her mouth.

‘Like I said, I’m alright.’

‘I’m not stupid. Your face is glowing.’

He chuckled. ‘Glowing? Aunt Janice, my face isn’t glowing. Are you going to tell me there’s a halo above my head too? It must be the lotion,’ he suggested.

She took three steps back, crossed her arms and stared at him disbelievingly. She grinned. ‘You met someone, didn’t you?’

‘I think you’re going to have to narrow it down.’

‘You made friends.’

‘Me? Friends?’

‘You can’t lie to me, son.’ She walked up to him again. ‘Tell me their names.’

He began to smile, shyly, trying hard to avoid her inquisitive gaze.

Her grin expanded, increasing her wildly curious look as it did.

‘It’s not them…its one person,’ he confessed.

‘What’s his name?’

He dropped his shoulders, then he sighed. ‘It’s not a “he”.’

Her face lit up like a firecracker. ‘So you have a girlfriend?’

He now felt deeply embarrassed. ‘She’s just a friend, Aunt Janice.’

‘Invite her over.’

‘What?!’

‘If she’s just a friend then there’s nothing wrong with inviting her over for supper, right?’

He sighed. ‘You’re not going to let this go, are you?’

She shook hear head slowly, still wearing her overstated grin.

‘I can’t just invite people over…people I’ve only known for a few days,’ he tried to reason.

‘Except these aren’t people, Sin. It’s a person…a girl. She could be the only girl you could ever have in high school.’

He pulled the belts of his backpack tighter over his shoulders. ‘I have to go.’

‘Have a great day!’ she waved at him as he walked out the door.

‘Only three minutes left to Math,’ Sineas said to himself as he checked his watch. He got out the taxicab and made straight for the school building. There was less chit-chat among the students as they rushed to catch their lessons in time. Sineas got lost inside the long queues in the path and also began quickly pacing towards the building.

As soon as he walked through the entrance, he was met with a very peculiar sight. Almost all the walls were covered in papers. They were missing posters of Justin. A few students, probably prefects, were standing on ladders, trying to place their posters in the last available spaces on the wall. Standing in the middle of the hallway, amidst the hums and conversations all around him, Sineas wondered if these people would have done the same for him.

Something was suddenly shoved into his face.

‘You mind helpin’ out?’ It was one of the girls who had been in Justin’s crew. The one who had played cosy under his arm during the lunchtime incident. She was wearing a blue baseball cap with the initials “MHS” in white. She was wearing the school sports jacket and judging by its size, she had probably borrowed it from one of the guys. It concealed whatever she had from the waist up but her legs were showing too much skin. On her feet were white tennis shoes. She was chewing on a piece of gum, loudly.

Sineas grabbed hold of the paper. He studied it for a few seconds. He shoved it back. ‘I’m late for class,’ he said then swerved to the side.

Her bottle green eyes widened as she blocked his path with an outstretched hand. ‘Show some sympathy,’ she whispered. It was almost as though she was addressing someone who had come to a funeral but refused to shed a tear.

‘Excuse me?’ he raised his eyebrows.

‘You have emotions, don’t you? If you don’t, then at least pretend you do.’ She offered him the poster again. Slowly this time. She chewed the gum louder as if it was a threat.

As if by courtesy, he returned it, slowly too. ‘I’m late for class,’ he said again. He swerved for the second time and walked past her.

She shook her head as she watched him walk away. ‘Freak,’ she muttered before turning back to her work.