gossip ;; 2jae [Editing]

CHAPTER 28

BEFORE WE START!

I apologize for not updating! (even though no one really cares). My internet was non existent during the weekend and I actually socialized like a normal person. My grandmother was on-island and I got some good food (bless her soul), birthday party yada yada yada. Here is the update (COMING TO YOU LIVE and on a Tuesday). SOPE WITHOUT FURTHER ADO...

|||||||| » Growing Pains «||||||||

Mark had always loved the insects on the playground.

He was too shy to talk to his fellow snot-faced-two-legged-bugs (as he liked to call them) so he preferred being crouched down and staring at the small, normal bugs go about their routine for the whole of snack time. Today he was watching a beetle race through the half dead grass.

He feels a tap on his shoulder and quickly turns his head, met with a confident smile on the face of a boy probably near his age.

"Do you like cats?" The boy asks. Mark stares at him blankly. He really wants his mom to magically appear and save him.

"Why?" He asks stiffly.

"You look like a cat person," The boy replies, shrugging nonchalantly.

"I like dogs and cats," Mark states proudly, a smile creeping onto his face.

"Wow! That's so cool! Most people that I ask like only cats or dogs and the girls, that I ask, say that they like dogs because the boys do. Girls are yucky like that." Mark's attention had accidentally shifted to a nearby anthill.

"You're not listening," the boy whines, stooping down next to Mark.

"Sorry."

"It's okay," he reassures with a gummy smile. Mark calms down a bit and returns the smile. "How old are you?"

"Six - I think," Mark replies, grabbing a stick and turning the beetle onto its back.

"I'm Jackson and I'm five years old - that's what my mom says," the boy chirps enthusiastically.

"Mark."

• • •

"He's so cute!" Mark and Jackson's moms say in unison while pinching each other's son's cheek.

• • •

It had been thirty minutes and all four were saying their goodbyes.

Mark skips happily in front of his mom on the way to her car. He climbs into the back seat quickly and watches his mom walk to the driver's side.

"I hate those cheery middle classers," she remarks once she starts driving away from the school. Mark wasn't sure 'classers' was a word but he was offended so he made it slip.

"Don't be like grandpa, mummy," Mark reprimands softly. "Isn't Jackson's mom nice to you? She doesn't make angry faces at you like the other mummies," he explains. His mother stops at a red light and looks back at her son.

"They do?" His mom asks sadly. Mark nods.

"I like Jackson. He's cool," Mark states after a while. His mom sighs, a sad smile on her face.