Clinging to Friendship

Chapter 10

This was a dumb idea. Why did Layne and I choose a movie to watch, instead of going somewhere else? The two of us couldn’t really talk like this without disrupting the movie. I wanted to talk to him and hear his voice. The only good thing about it was that Ji-Yeong’s hand was still in mine. Unfortunately, though, with Ji-Yeong being this close, I could barely pay attention to the movie. His breathing, the occasional squeezing of my hand when a jump scare happened.

“Damn all these gay people flaunting their lifestyle at us, they’re all going to hell.” My father’s hateful words raced through my thoughts. I almost pulled my hand out of Ji-Yeong’s hand, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I forced myself to fight off those thoughts and keep my hand in his. It may be wrong to like Ji-Yeong in this way… I shook my head, attempting to clear my thoughts. Just pay attention to the movie, Kian.

Though that was easier said then done. The movie we were watching was some new horror movie. The effects were amazing, but the people were terrible. I just couldn’t get into the movie. It was probably better to just take a nap and catch up on my sleep.

I’d literally just closed my eyes when Ji-Yeong decided to shake me awake.

“You ok?” He whispered, trying not to bother any of the other movie goers.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just going to take a nap.” I muttered. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I wanted to catch up on it.” I kept my eyes open long enough to see him nod and turn back to watching the movie.

~

“Hey Kian! Wake up, the movies over.” Someone said, attempting to rouse me from my nap. I attempted to push the hands off that were on my shoulder off, but I was too groggy to really do much. “Dude, c’mon. The movie is over and I’m starving!” I groaned but attempted to open my eyes. The lights were too bright which caused my eyes to hurt. I rubbed them, attempting to adjust to the lights.

“Yeah… I’m up. I’m up.” I stretched my arms up to the ceiling and turned to finally face Ji-Yeong. “The movie finally end?”

“Like ten minutes ago.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I exclaimed, jumping to my feet. Ji-Yeong chuckled and stood up from his chair.

“The next movie isn’t for another 20 minutes and besides… you looked really peaceful. I didn’t want to bother you.” Well that wasn’t embarrassing or anything. I hope I hadn’t drooled while I was asleep.

“I didn’t drool, did I?” I questioned. The last thing I wanted to do was look like a fool in front of him... of people. Yeah people.

“Nah, you’re fine. You look good.” He said, winking at me. I rubbed the back of my neck and looked to my feet.

“Oh… uh… cool… That’s good.” I turned to the stairs, trying to look away from Ji-Yeong, even if you couldn’t tell I didn’t want him to see how embarrassed I was. “Let’s… Let’s go to that diner. You’re hungry right?” Ji-Yeong nodded and followed behind me to the exit.

~

“So, what exactly happened in the movie?” I asked Ji-Yeong once we arrived at the diner. I didn’t really care about the movie, but the car ride to the diner had been awkwardly quiet and I’d rather that not continue while we ate.

“Well, basically it was these four teenagers breaking into this asylum to record some stupid video for school and they get hunted down by a ghost of this doctor, that conducted inhumane experiments on the people there.”

“So basically, like every other horror movie? Teens getting hunted down by monsters?” I joked. Ji-Yeong laughed and nodded.

“Yeah, I guess so!” The two of us walked into the diner and took a seat at a nearby booth. The waitress came up and greeted us.

“Hello you two! My name is Amy, what would you boys like to drink?” She asked us. I looked over at Ji-Yeong and I ordered our drinks.

“Two cokes please.”

“Alright!” She walked away and headed toward the kitchen.

“Wow. I like a man who takes charge.” Ji-Yeong teased. I choked at his teasing and looked away from him. Ji-Yeong laughed at my reaction. “You ok?” He asked me when I continued coughing.

“Y-Yeah. I’m good. Just fine. All good.” I answered once I was free from my coughing. Amy came back and set down our drinks.

“Here you go boys,” She said with a smile. “Now, are you two ready to order? Or do you need some more time?” It was at this moment that I realized I hadn’t even looked at the menu.

“Um… I need a little bit longer. Sorry,” I opened up my menu and tried to find something that I wanted to eat.

“Yes, you can. I’ll be back in a moment.” Amy left us to ourselves.

“Is there anything you like here?” Ji-Yeong asked me, before mentioning. “I’ve never been here before.”

“You’ve never been here? Haven’t you been in this town for like a month? Wow, Ji-Yeong, I’m disappointed.”

“You’re disappointed? Man, I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’m destroyed by the fact that I’ve disappointed you.” He said, chuckling.

“Well. Now that that is settled, I think that the best thing to get here is one of their burgers and onion rings.” I told him, checking out what else was on here. “I think I’m going to go with the chicken tenders.” It literally wasn’t a second later, when Amy showed back up. She held her little notebook and pencil out and relaxed onto one foot.

“Hi, so are you two ready?” She asked us.

“Yeah, I think I’m ready.” Ji-Yeong looked down at his menu as he spoke. “I think I’ll have a hamburger, no tomatoes, or mustard, with onion rings on the side.”

“Would you like some dipping sauce with that? Honey mustard? Or…” Amy was asking, her face in her notes.

“Nope, I’m ok with ketchup!”

“Alright! Now, what about you?” She asked, turning to me this time.

“I’ll have the four-piece chicken tenders with onion rings as well,” I ordered.

“Any dipping sauce?” Amy asked again

“Yes, please. Can you bring me some mustard?” I asked her.

“Right away!” She put her pencil behind her ear and headed back into the kitchen. Once she was away from the table, Ji-Yeong leaned across the table and rested his hands on mine.

“Ok…” He looked sideways before whispering to me. “So, Poppy told me this legend about our school and how we should go and see if it checks out.” He stated excitedly. “She said that we should do a test of courage! Doesn’t that sound like fun?” That damn Poppy. I should’ve known that she wasn’t going to go down quietly without a fight. Of course, she had to tell him about that.

“Yeah… Sounds like a lot of fun…” I trailed off. I seriously did not want to break into the school late at night to just walk around for no reason.

“What’s going on? Why don’t you sound excited?” He questioned me. I took my hands out of his and rested them on my seat.

“Well… Poppy told Layne and I about it, but we didn’t really want to do that… It sounded stupid, ya know?”

“So, you just said no? Why did it sound stupid to you?” He asked.

“Well first off, we’d have to break into the school, and if we got caught… We’d be in so much trouble.”

“Come on! Live a little. You’re leaving school soon, why don’t you make the most of it?”

“Because! If my dad finds out that I’m in trouble with the police, he’ll pretty much disown me. I can’t have that happen to me!” I argued. Did he really not understand that if we got caught in the school after hours we’d probably be arrested. I couldn’t let that happen just before getting accepted into college.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t do that! You’re like his only kid. Why would he disown his only son?” He asked me. Demanded almost. I didn’t like it at all. I was about to respond to him when our food gets set down in front of us.

“Here you go, boys. Hope you enjoy it.” Amy said. A bright smile on her face. What wonderful timing. Maybe it was planned? My stomach rumbled and that was the last of that thought. I dug into my food.

“Please don’t ignore me… Do you really think that?”

“What the f**k happened to your brother?” I demanded. “Why are you trying to pry into my life, when I barely know anything about yours? You have pictures of him all over your living room, but you and your family never talk about him. What the hell happened to him?” I shot question after question at him. Barely letting him breathe or answer me.

“Shut up…” Ji-Yeong whimpered. It was quiet, almost inaudible, yet despite that it was firm. “Just go away!” He screamed at me.

“Fine then.” I reached into my pocket and grabbed my wallet. Pulling out a ten and a five. I slammed the money down on the table, stood up and walked out of the diner.

~

Am I the stupidest person alive? I can’t believe I did that to him… What I did, what I said… None of that compared to what he had asked me. I had been so rude to him, because of what? Because he asked me a question about my father?

Currently, I was in my room, lying face down on my bed. First, I wanted to make him happy and treat him well and now… now I was asking him really personal questions. Questions that probably had a terrible answer.

Bzzz. My phone buzzed from its place on my nightstand and against my better judgment, I checked it.

“Hey, Kian! How’d the date go?” I groaned, why couldn’t Layne just leave me alone.

“It went awful!” I shut my phone off and tossed it somewhere on my bed. I didn’t want to answer any more questions from anyone.

~

It was a couple hours later when I decided that I was calm enough to reply to any of the messages I’d received from either Layne or… Ji-Yeong. I waited for my phone to power on and once it was on, I brought up my messages. I had two new messages, all from Layne.

“Come to my house.”

“Tell your parents you’re going to Ji-Yeong’s to sleep over.”

I really didn’t want to go over… It would just be awkward for me and for Ji-Yeong. Yet… I really wanted to go. I needed to apologize to him or else our friendship would be ruined. On one hand, I wanted to see them and apologize to Ji-Yeong but on the other… I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to hear his voice or see his face. One thought, one word. Go or stay. My first thought. Whatever it was I was going to go with it.

Man… I was so weak. I knew my father would be so disappointed in me. By what I was going to do. I could almost hear my father’s deep, stern voice saying: “Kian Okoye. You disgust me. Get out.” Then I could hear my moms soft but firm voice: “Kian… You know how your father feels. Why?”

I viciously shook my head, attempting to clear those thoughts. No that wouldn’t happen. All because this test would prove that I didn’t like him, and I wasn’t gay.

~

Layne’s house was only a couple blocks from my house, so there was no reason for anyone to come pick me up and take me there. I left my room and headed over to my mom and father’s bedroom. Knocking softly, I waited for my mom to come to the door.

“What do you need?” My mother asked me, once she came to the door.

“Ji-Yeong invited me over to his house to sleep over.” She nodded, not suspecting a thing, and closed the door behind her. With her approval, I quickly escaped out the front door and headed towards Layne’s house.