Hand to Hold

Chapter 16

Friends should fight like children, they make up earlier than others and are back to playing even if they are sure they are wronged.

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Lying, on the bed exhausted I didn’t want to get up even though my phone showed it was five-thirty in the morning.

Somehow it was odd that he contacted me although I couldn’t pinpoint why. Reason was beyond asking for help.

Sigh.

Getting up, I followed through my morning rituals and left the room with hopes of returning early and hitting the bed again. I wanted to take my medicines before I slept and for that, I cascaded down to fix myself a quick breakfast.

As I entered the kitchen an unexpected sight greeted me, Blake was kneeling before the fridge as the electronics’ light was the only source of illumination in the dark. I turned on the kitchen lights and he turned around with widened eyes and tense shoulders.

“Thank god it isn’t Mary.” He turned back to the fridge.

Walking over to him, I voiced my curiosity, “Why are you up so early?”

The toddler craned his neck, “I am hungry.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “At this time?”

Blake guiltily averted his gaze to the floor, “I didn’t eat dinner last night. I was angry with myself.”

He then glanced up to look in my eyes, “You know, sissy, Sally cried because of me. She is angry with me.”

Tears rolled down and he sniffed, “She is angry with me. She was crying, sissy.”

Kneeling down, I hugged him and he broke down reciprocating me. I closed the fridge with one hand and stood up holding him in my arms. In attempts of soothing him, I cooed and rubbed his back muttering things would be fine.

I placed him on the kitchen counter, after a while he stopped crying and narrated what happened as I worked on the pancakes. Usually, only Sally and he used to play in the school but yesterday they were invited to play with another group of students.

It was a team game where members of one team hid things of the other and second-team tried finding it and vice versa.

Blake and Sally were divided into opposing teams. Amid such a round his team hid Sally’s bear in bushes. Upon finding out it came into light that the bear was pricked badly from thorns.

The bear was special to Sally and Blake’s group blamed it over him that he suggested the thorny bushes in the first place. Sally was so upset that she even forgot to take her bear with herself after school ended and... Blake spent the whole evening gazing at that soft toy.

I flipped the last pancake to let it turn golden from the second side and faced the young boy sitting on the kitchen counter, his eyes were red and face was puffed up from all the crying.

Internally shaking my head, at his state I twisted the gas knob placed the last pancake on the plate beside the stove. Not knowing where maple syrup was I resorted to honey and poured it over pancakes on his plate and mine.

The bear could be sewed.

But, I couldn’t do that, I wasn’t good with needle and thread. However, Aunt May could sew and I was sure Mary could also stitch clothes and I proposed the same to Blake, with a sweet encouraging smile.

His lips stretched into a disbelieving smile, “Really?”

I nodded, explaining with the help of hand gestures, “Really. Since you have bear all you have to do is to convince Aunt May or Mary to treat it for you since I can’t do that. However, I can prepare a batch of muffins Sally won’t be able to say no to.”

He kept his plate down on the kitchen counter forgetting all about his hunger, “Then we should go and convince them. I want to be friends with her... She isn’t even talking to me. Once, she will talk to me I will tell her everything.”

Glad that he was back to his usual ranting I smiled but he huffed frustrated at my reaction, “Why are you still standing there... Help me. I need to go and convince Aunt May or Mary if she doesn’t help me.”

I hummed, “I will. But first, finish your breakfast. You haven’t eaten anything since last night. Then you can go and ask Aunt May or Mary to sew the bear. And then, I will also bake muffins for you to take them to school.”

Hurriedly Blake placed the plate back on his lap and began chewing.

It took quite efforts to get Aunt May out of the bed because Aunt May entered the kitchen with the toddler about half an hour later.

Passing a tired smile to me she turned towards the coffee machine and I returned to mixing the ingredient in a bowl. Once caffeine started functioning, she left the kitchen supporting a small smile at over-excited Blake.

When about half an hour was there for the clock to acknowledge that two hours have gone by since I woke up, Blake left with Mary following a hearty breakfast which I joined as a spectator.

The moment my back hit the mattress and my eyes drooped I realized I was more sleepy than I thought. Maybe, I would wake up past lunchtime. That meant after eating late lunch or early dinner I would concentra...