Not a Best Friend Thing

Chapter Four: Brad

Shortly after she got the message, Klay’s mom called out for dinner. Her mother’s going to cook special today because his father’s going back in town. He was away from Downlake to attend to job matters.

“Be there in a sec,” she shouted back and slammed the pen she twirled around her fingers, down the desk.

“Okay”… she muttered, finally possessing the courage to reply to the email.

The message puzzled her, what does the person on the other end meant with it? Finally he – she, whoever it was, noticed her? So whoever was on the other end wanted her attention… and… had tried getting her attention..? She first rubbed her hands against each other before setting them atop the keyboard. Then she started pressing the keys.

“Tara, I know it’s you if you were plotting for some blackmail thing on me, you’ve gotta think again. My father is a detective.” She wrote aloud then shook her head and started to delete the last sentence. She sounded like so damsel in distress… what if it isn’t Tara? What if this person is really an author? No, the facts were on the book. It must have been Tara. She typed the last sentence back. She heaved and placed her pointing finger above the “enter” key and hit sent as she exhaled.

xxx

Seated on the chair beside Sonny, her mother across and father heading the dining table, Klay was silently groaning. Wishing that the dinner would end very soon so she could sprint upstairs and check for a reply. One rule in the dining room, no one leaves the table until all of the family members have finished eating. Her father is a man of rules but unlike what he seemed, he isn’t strict or what he even has a soft spot for his children. The rules were just attributed to his job, “duty” and “valor” like the words he always uttered. He lives with honour and honesty, cue the lie about the lost badge. Thinking about it made her shudder.

“Klay, why aren’t you eating?”

His voice brought Tara back to her senses.

“I’m” full dad,” she responded.

Detective Henry look down her plate, “your food’s barely touched” he stated pointing a fork toward her.

“Don’t you like my branzino?” her mother butted in.

“I’ve eaten some sandwich earlier, mom.”

“Maybe she’s trying a diet to get herself a boyfriend.”

Her brother sounded on his side before choking out few chuckles.

She shot him a sharp look then made a face, “your sister had no interest in that matters, honey, weren’t you Klay?” her mother soothed out. Her dad said nothing but eyed her reaction. “Yeah” she said lifting her chin to form a smug face.

“Because no one asked her…” Sonny continued laughing, damn child.

------

“Mm” Jacey rolled over his bed. “Sunday morning, no boring classes!” he sat up and smiled wide through the space. It’s over eight and the day is as bright as his mood. The summer had extended through the latter days of October. “It’s going to be a good day!” he stated lively. He marched toward his window and saw Klay sitting around her desk. A memory flashed at his mind. His eczema had subdued this past few days, thus his lifted mood. A surge of wind surged through his face, ah…the peaceful breeze of October, he smelled it in.

“Good morning, ugly face!” he greeted before leaping to the parallel window. Klay taken aback turned her body on the swivel chair to face him.

“What’s gotten into you?” she chuckled and hurriedly closed the tab of her computer without leaving her sight on him.

“What are your plans today?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

She responded defensively. Did he saw their chat with the mysterious email? It’s too early to tell him that there was a man who had bugged her through a book. Knowing him, he’d knock the man out of his soul, surely. Fred Johnson back in the day was beaten to a pulp. Even now she can still imagine the image. Just because he pat her leg. Her best friend can be extremely protective. Last night after they finished eating, she ran upstairs to check her computer for a reply. She was starting to feel guilty about directly assuming Tara had done her dilemma and of the threat about his father—geez, she was acting like a dam paranoid. So she was planning an apology to try to explain where her frustration was coming from. But she realized there was no need.

wrote: “Last time I checked, I was male and Tara’s certainly a girl’s name.”

She narrowed her eyes on the screen. As if she was examining a live person. Is he telling the truth? That he was male and weren’t Tara? Her fingers poised on the keyboard, she typed a reply.

“Oh yeah? Why had Tara given the book to me then? Are you two some type of connivance?”

This was insane she thought, she isn’t a criminal or that sort of people why had this creep happening to her? Or was it really that the person on the other end only wanted her attention? She thought about what her brother said earlier at the dinner. She hadn’t had a boyfriend since birth. Yeah, she had a lousy life, but she had all the reason, she couldn’t find someone else to like because she already liked someone! And it was plain stupid. All of the people, why him? She let out a frustrated groan, then the familiar ting sound was heard.

: wrote. “At making you notice me? Then yes…”

Why do she had the feels that the man on the other end was grinning? Geez. This is really really something.

“What are you, a desperate creepy, crazy admirer?” she typed back.

Before she could breathe after she send the message, the email replied, : “Crazy… for you.”

She literally rolled her eyes, don’t this man something else to do? She barely typed two letters when another message popped out.

: “Yeah, that line was corny… and overused,”

She bit back of laugh.

Biting her lower lip, she typed back, “smart ass, glad you know.”

Then she shut her computer. “This is a freaking nutcase” she murmured and went to sleep, she can now relax because certainly the book wasn’t about blackmailing or what.

First thing after she awoke, she checked the email again and there were two messages. They were a smiling face emoji and the other was a, “good night.”

Then Jacey climbed in her window, with a smile plastered wide on his face.

“How about we watch HP? “Jacey rose from the bed, the last word lit something on Klay’s face.

“Really?” her eyes widened. It’s going to be a thousand and five hundred times that she’ll be watching Harry Potter but the excitement is still the same as the first even after reading the book.

But she knows he doesn’t like to watch the movie, so from her eager look, she narrowed her eyes, “Hold on…” then like she what had thought, he flashed her a shy smile.

“I know something is not right… what is that you want me to do?” she said, “this time? she added thinking about Jacey’s thousands of requests before the stride three steps toward her.

“It’s about the essay on my scholarship application?”

He scratched the back of his head, “I need help.”

She sighed, “alright”. He thrust toward her, “this is why I love you…” then he squeezed her.

“Ew! You stink.”

“Get off!” she shooed and he just laughed.

“Stay away, stinky face!”

She shouted as Jace stood on her windowsill to leap back to his room. He didn’t even take a bath or brushed his teeth before coming here.

xxx

Jacey was shaking his head every other while.

“No, no, no It’s too much unrealistic.”

This was the reason why he doesn't like watching movies that his best friend seemed to be obsessed with. She would try to convince him to like them too.

“Come on, admit it, it's just genius,” she said with a smug face.

“Genius? Think about this... why would Voldemort attached always at the end of the school year? Huh? He cares too much of Harry's education?”

It made Klay think for a while, when she stayed quite long enough, Jace raised his brows and then a finger to her face it was his turn now to form a smug face.

“Voldemort was preparing at the initial days of every year. Of how he’s supposed to attack...”

Klay reasoned, backing up to what she believed.

“And... See that? That legend?”

She said motioned to the screen of the television, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was playing, the scene where Hermione was narrating about the legend.

“One of the objects was James’s cloak, Harry’s father…and it appeared first on the first book..., do you know detailed that is?”

“For fantasy, I still go with the Lord of the Rings,” he said dismissing her away.

“You were supposed to like this, didn’t you forget about your essay?” she warned.

“I like it,” he automatically took back his words.

“You convinced me with that legend, in fact it's now my second favourite. I like it... a lot.”

He tried hard to get the act. She narrowed her eyes, “no you don’t.”

“I do.”

“Don’t.’”

“Do.”

“Don’t.”

“Do.”

“Can we watch avengers instead?”

Sonny sounded on their feet, splayed around the carpet. They totally forgot about him.

“Sonny, why don't you, play X-box?” Klay responded to her your brother and he just answered her with a yawn.

“Why don’t we both play X-box Cap?”

Jacey asked and suddenly Sonny’s sleeping state turned into hyper-active mood.

“Yes!” He exclaimed.

“We have to finish it this, Jace!”

Klay countered, it was boring to watch all by herself and besides she didn’t watch the movie for her own, all she wanted was to brag about how good the movie was.

Sonny pouted, “Klay please?”

Her brother was often a pain on the ass but she loved him with all her heart.

“Come on Klay, have mercy on your brother.”

Jacey said making her look like the bad guy.

“Argh, I hate you two!” she shouted.

Then the two marched away, happily.

Turning the TV off, Klay decided to make a snack for the boys. The HP vibe has now disappeared and she had nothing else to do. She walked to the kitchen after taking a glance to both of them, who were now positioned for the game they were about to play.

She arrived with her mother checking the fridge, her back on her.

“Mom, do we have peanut butter?”

She sounded and stood by the sink. Her mom, still checking the inside of refrigerator replied, “mm” then mumbled a: “need to shop already,” to herself.

A soft notification sound made Klay looked down. It was her mother’s iPhone. The name Brad flashed on the screen. She was about to pick it up when her mom snatched it first.

“It’s on the last tray, honey” she tried saying it passively as Klay, stared at her.

“The peanut butter,” she added and walked away.

After making the sandwiches the boys surely like, she headed to the living room and both of them squealed happily. They were obsessed with peanuts, it was Jace who loved the flavor but Sonny imitated everything he did--or like. So now it’s the both of them. With her own sandwich in hand, she walked to the sofa, snatched a book on the way and settled to read.

Before she succumbed to the ocean of words, she wondered, “who's Brad?”