So Close To Perfect

At seven o’clock sharp I jumped out of bed. I smiled at the alarm clock my sister had given me for my birthday two weeks ago and turned it off. After my usual routine I began my walk to school. I decided that since Kat was making some friendly changes for me it was only fair that I do the same. Plus, I grew fond of being early to school.

When I arrived at eight, only Mikey was there. I skipped over to him and gave him a big, affectionate hug.

“What’s up? Home-dawg?” I sang.

“Ermm… Nothing much,” he replied with a bit of a giggle. “You want to come over tonight?” he asked, “Well, you always come over but my brother’s going to have some mates over and they tend to get pretty rough… and y’know… I don’t want to be alone I guess.”

I smile sympathetically. “’Course, I’ll be there.”

That night I gobbled down my dinner and was at Mikey’s by seven. His mother greeted me kindly as she always does, however this time she seemed a little uneasy. It wasn’t that rare for Jordan to have friends over and things never got too violent. I concluded that mothers were always overly worried about petty things.

When I entered Mikey’s room he jumped up from his bed and gave me a hug.

“They probably won’t be here for an hour or so, so you want to just play some games and blast some music?” he suggested. I liked the sound of it.

It wasn’t until 9:15pm that Jordan and his gang finally rocked up. By this time I had completely forgotten about him. Getting bored of games, Mikey and I had just been lying on his bed talking about random life issues when Jordan burst through the door. I said I saw him before but I never saw him properly; his face was either covered by his hair or it was too dark to see. Now that he was standing right in front of me I noticed that he, like Mikey, was extremely good-looking.

“Get outta the house!” He shouted suddenly, making me jump. “And take the faggot with you!”

Mikey scurried out of his room in a flash and I struggled to keep up. I felt Jordan’s eyes on me as I passed him at the door. We reached the nearest park within two minutes. We walked in silence.

“Wow,” I said finally, “I knew he was screwed up but… it really has gotten bad aye?”

Mikey nodded slightly, keeping his head down and face covered by his hoodie.

“…And what was up with the ‘faggot’ comment?” I continued, “I mean-“

“Yeah, he’s really screwed up,” Mikey blurted out randomly, sitting himself down at a bench.

“Mmm… But… I guess it did look kinda bad with us both lying on your bed and all!” I said with a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood and take his mind off his brother. Mikey didn’t laugh; he just shuffled his feet a little.

I sighed, “You want to spend the night at my place? Mum won’t mind, trust me.”

That was the key! Mikey’s face brightened, “Yup, cool!”

I didn’t have to explain anything to mum when I got home, she just nodded and we headed to my room. I laid out a mattress for myself on the floor next to my bed where Mikey would sleep.

“It’s nice to have a sleep over once in a while don’t you reckon? Kinda takes me back to the Primary school days. Man, things were simple then,” I said. I wasn’t really sure whether I was talking to Mikey or myself. That’s the beauty about Mikey, I can just be myself around him.

He didn’t respond so I just kept talking.

“Don’t bother waking up for school Mikes, I think you’ve earned your day off. We can go see a movie or something to take your mind off-“

“He’s on to drugs now too… Not just alcohol,” Mike interrupted.

“Umm… Yeah, that’s bad… But look, you have to stop thinking about it for just one second…” I started.

“No, it’s just… ummm… don’t worry,” and with that he rolled over and went silent.