Death’s Tales: Chapter 14

Light filled the room and I sat up, yawning. Downstairs, there was the clatter of pots, and pans, and voices. It took only seconds to find Micheal’s voice. It was the most familiar voice I knew. Walking downstairs was easier in the light of morning.

Micheal and his parents were all working on fixing breakfast. Micheal was flipping pancakes while his dad was scrambling eggs. His mom was setting the table. There was a jug of orange juice in the center and she was arranging the plates. As I stepped off of the stairs, Micheal turned.

“Morning,” he said, before turning back to his pancakes.

I mentally rolled my eyes. Of course the idiot would respond with “morning” after not waking me up to go home the night before.

“Breakfast is just about ready, dear,” his mom said. “Go ahead and sit down.”

I pulled out a chair and sat down while everyone brought all of the food to the table. Should I help? I bit my lip until everyone sat down. Micheal sat down next to me and served me some eggs and pancakes.

“Thanks.”

Micheal nodded and put some food on his own plate. We ate in almost total silence. Almost. Micheal’s mom was the only one who kept up any kind of conversation. She asked me questions about school and home and everything she could think of. She asked Micheal and his father some questions about what they were doing that day. Most of the time, we answered in grunts and short answers. But she didn’t seem to notice. She just kept talking.

Once Micheal was done, he ran upstairs to change. Seeing as I didn’t have any clean clothes, I just sat at the table until he was ready to go. His mom offered to let me borrow her brush but I refused. I yawned as I pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail that probably looked horrible. Micheal came back downstairs, holding both of our backpacks and I got up to get mine from him.

“Bye!” he called.

His parents yelled their “bye”s from the living room while I held the door open for him. He smirked as we began our walk to school. It was different walking this way, almost like walking backward.

“So, why didn’t you wake me up last night?”

Micheal’s smile grew. “Do you remember that day, when I asked you how you slept?”

I nodded slowly. I kind of remembered that.

“Well,  now I know you sleep like the dead.”

I gasped and pushed him lightly. “I do not.”

He was laughing. “You do. You’re completely still with your hands folded in your lap.”

I stuck my tongue out at him because he was right. I did sleep like that.

“And now,” he continued, “I know what a normal night sleep is like for you.”

I rolled my eyes, now remembering that conversation that we had at the beginning of the year.

We fell into a content silence. The air was cold and I shivered. Micheal glanced over at me and then put his arm around my shoulders.  I looked over at him and saw him smiling at me.

I scowled.

He smiled wider.

I turned away. “I can’t wait for the warmer months.”

“You’ll regret saying that when Summer comes.”

“Maybe I will, but for now, I can’t wait.” I bundled further into my jacket.

Micheal hugged me with the one arm and I laid my head on his shoulder. I was still a little tired. I yawned, closing my eyes for a moment.

“Don’t fall asleep in class,” Michael whispered into my ear.

I nodded and forced my eyes open. “Send me home next time,” I told him, holding back a yawn. “I sleep better in my bed.”

Micheal saluted me and I glared at him half heartedly. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied.

I shoved him away but he held on to me, so we both stumbled.

“Are you ready for school?” he asked once we were walking smoothly again.

“No,” I groaned.

I was right. I was not ready for school. But then again, who is? The day passed in a blur and I barely spoke until we walked out of the school. Micheal was holding both of our bags while we walked back to his house.

It was silence until a thought sprang to mind. “What’s your mom’s name?”

Micheal looked over to me, confusion on his face. “Mirada. Why?”

I shrugged. “I just realized I didn’t know her name.”

Micheal cocked his head, thoughtful. “Really?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He laughed and I smiled.

“So, are you ready to tackle all of the homework we have, Hades?”

I groaned. “No. I don’t even know what we have.”

Micheal rolled his eyes. “Jeez. You were really out of it today.”

I looked at him curiously.

“We don’t have any homework.”

It took a moment for the words to process but when they did, I shoved into Micheal and he stumbled away. “That was the meanest thing you’ve done, Miracle Boy!”

He laughed. “How is that mean?”

“I don’t like homework. Any mention of it is awful and you made me think we had a lot.”

Micheal put his arm around me and twirled my hair. “Well, I won’t mention the H-word anymore. Deal?”

I rolled my eyes. “Deal.”

Micheal opened the door and we both walked inside, going into the kitchen where we knew hot cocoa would be waiting. “We should star-gaze,” Micheal said.

I sipped my cocoa carefully, stopping before climbing up the stairs. “It’s freezing. No.”

Micheal moved past me and climbed the stairs. I followed after him, holding the cup steady so it wouldn’t spill. “I mean, when it gets warmer.”

I sighed. “We’ll see.”

He turned. “Hey, I can star-gaze without you.”

I pushed past him carefully. “Yeah, but you said we.”

He stuck his tongue out at me and we continued to his room to sit on the bed. “So what if I did.”

I smiled and sipped my cocoa to hide it.

Micheal opened up the laptop. “Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I responded. And we settled back to watch something, sipping cocoa and trading comments.