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Chapter 9
I woke up on Sunday morning feeling better than ever; full of energy and happier than I'd been since we moved here. Not only that but I didn't feel like I was in quite as much pain as I'd been yesterday and I could see the swelling in my hand had gone down dramatically. I walked over to my mirror to check on my bruises and saw my black eye was virtually gone as were most of the bruises on my torso. I was also happy to see that I was obviously getting more exercise than I thought with all these walks to the woods as I definitely looked healthier than when we'd moved here. I was feeling quite proud of myself as I admired my healthier glow, although I must have overdone it a bit the previous day as I was aching all over.
With Josh out of town for the day I decided to have a hearty breakfast and then go see my favourite twins, ok they were the only twins I knew but that shouldn't matter should it? I didn't bother to phone ahead as I was worried that Luke might answer and stop me from going. I had to check the phonebook though as I knew what road they lived on but not which number. They only lived a few minutes' walk away on a road with houses very similar to mine, although their house was obviously bigger as there were more of them living there. I rang the bell and Luke answered, giving me a bit of a scowl.
"What do you want?" I was a bit taken aback by his hostility but I suppose it was to be understood.
"Hi Luke, I'm really sorry about Friday. I know your heart was in the right place and I overreacted." I said with a smile and he seemed to mellow.
"Oh alright, I guess I was just mad at you for not being mad at Josh." He replied perking up, "So what brings you up here today?" Sam then appeared behind his brother.
"Alright gay boy." He said with a smile.
"How's it goin' slapnuts," I smiled back. "I just came up to see if you guys want to come out to play."
"What're you five?" Luke asked with a grin. "Well I was about to go out to the park and numbnuts here was going to read his comics or something so who would you rather hang out with?"
"Fuck you dipshit!" Sam said smacking the back of Luke's head, "I'm up for a walk in the park as well."
We set off down the street to the local park where Luke made a beeline for the climbing frame, which I thought was strange until he started doing pull ups. It was pretty quiet when we went as most people either weren't up yet or had gone off to church or whatever. There were a few people walking along the paths but mostly the park was empty.
"So what's the latest with you and Josh anyway, have you kissed and made up?" Sam asked as we sat on a bench near where Luke was working out.
I went red as soon as he said that. "Yeah, we definitely did."
"Wait, you actually kissed?" Sam asked open mouthed. Luke overheard and stopped what he was doing. I didn't go into any further details about what we'd done but I just nodded to confirm we had indeed kissed. "You sly dog, so are you two an item now?" I nodded again with a big grin on my face.
"Ah shit! So does this mean we need an extra place at our lunch table now?" Asked Luke, looking happy for me and I just nodded again. "Well I'm bringing a bucket in case you two get all mushy."
"No chance of that, I think Josh will still be as quiet as ever but I have convinced him to join us for lunch tomorrow, so be nice." I warned him.
"Nice? I dunno if I can do that. Have we ever been nice to you?" Sam asked.
"Ah fuck, he's gonna get eaten alive by you two isn't he?" I asked, suddenly dreading tomorrow.
"Don't worry, we won't treat him any differently to the way we treat you." Luke said with a shit eating grin.
"On second thought, I think I'll join him in the library." I replied, making the twins crack up. Luke went back to his workout as I watched, wondering if I should start trying to get into shape so I didn't look too pathetic next to Josh, then again, after seeing the way he looked yesterday I think I'll always look like a stick next to him when he's big. I decided to see how hard this working out stuff was and went over to the bar where Luke had been doing pull ups. I jumped up and grabbed the bar then tried to pull myself up with little success. Luke came over to give me some pointers about my hand positioning and I gave it another go, this time I managed to do a few and started to feel quite accomplished. I dropped back to the ground and started to ache all over again which Luke said was probably cos I hadn't stretched and warmed up.
"I don't think I could do that all the time like you." I said to Luke as he cranked out a few push ups on the ground, "It's too painful."
"Same here," Said Sam from where he was sitting. "I can't be bothered with all that shit but at least people will be able to tell us apart easier in the summer when he's got his shirt off."
"You guys want to get some food? I'm starving." I'd never felt this hungry before, but then again I'd never really tried working out before. We decided to eat at McDonald's (I swear every town in the world has one of these places) and I ordered my usual amount of food then sat down to eat hungrily. The twins were about halfway through theirs when I decided to go and get some more. When I sat back down they both gave me a funny look. "What?"
"Is there any food left behind the counter?" Sam asked.
"What can I say, I'm a growing boy." I replied.
"You keep eating that much and you'll end up with an arse crack we can park our bikes in." Luke stated. We finished our food and I felt a little better but I knew I'd need more soon, so we went back out into the main town where the twins showed me a few of their favourite hang outs. Sam told me he wanted to open a comic shop in town as it was severely lacking one but Luke said he was hoping to escape after school to go and see the world. After just hanging out for a couple of hours I decided to go home to see what food we had. The hunger pangs had started to return and were too much to ignore now so I said my goodbyes to the twins and made my way home.
When I got there I only had one thing on my mind. "What's for dinner?" I asked my mum without even greeting her.
"Meatloaf." Came the reply and my hunger nearly went away. My mum's not a bad cook but since our one holiday to America she's been trying different recipes for her meatloaf to make it as good as the ones we had over there, but every time it seemed to get worse. Last time she made it I nearly took it to the road outside to fill in the potholes. That shit would never wear away, no matter how much traffic went over it.
"How long?" I asked and she told me it'd be about 45 minutes so I grabbed some snacks to keep me going.
"You'll ruin your dinner if you eat that now." Mum said.
"Don't worry about it son, nothing can ruin that meatloaf any more." Dad said with a smile as a towel hurtled towards his face.
When it was finally ready I wolfed it down hungrily and even asked to finish off the remains so there would be no leftovers for later in the week. Both parents were amazed and I think my dad was secretly relieved that he'd only have to suffer that ordeal once this week. I went back to my room to check out the mirror and I didn't see anything different to what I'd seen this morning which was puzzling considering the amount of food I'd put away today, I even turned to the side to see if I had a belly forming but I still looked the same. Ah well, maybe it's just a growth spurt kicking in or something. I spent the rest of the night trying not to think about food but eventually had to sneak downstairs for another snack before going to bed.
I woke up on Monday morning feeling really energised and bounded out of bed, straight into the shower. Looking down at my hand I could see that it had completely healed and didn't give me any pain when I opened and closed it. I tested it out by squeezing the shampoo bottle but I must have done it a little too hard as it suddenly popped and shampoo went everywhere. When I'd cleaned up the mess and got out the shower I looked in the mirror to check on my other injuries and noticed they had all gone as well, so you'd never know I got my ass handed to me last week. I also noticed that my body had started to firm up a little which was a surprise considering the amount of food I ate yesterday. Speaking of food, I could smell breakfast being cooked downstairs so dashed straight down to get my fill. While I was eating I asked if there was any more so mum started on a second batch while my dad peaked over his paper with a quizzical look.
"Why is that boy hanging around outside?" Mum suddenly asked looking out the window. "He looks like the one from your picture."
I looked up between bites and said, "Yeah, that's Josh. He's my boyfriend." And carried on shovelling food into my face.
"Boyfriend?!?!" My dad slammed the paper down stalked off to the front door. Oh shit, here we go. "JOSH!! Get in here!!" I heard him shout and saw Josh's eyes go wide with terror. He kept avoiding eye contact with my parents as he shuffled into the kitchen. "Now, what's this about you being his boyfriend?" He fixed Josh with a steely gaze.
Josh looked from my dad to me and back again. "I...we...he..." He spluttered.
"We have one rule in this house young man," Josh looked like he was about to cry but then my dad suddenly surprised him by smiling and saying, "If you're going to be his boyfriend then you better get used to coming in and not hanging around outside." Josh gave me a confused look and dad burst out laughing. It had taken every ounce of strength not to crack up while my dad was being mean to him but the look on his face was priceless.
"Don't worry about him." Mum said, "He likes to think he's funny."
"Oh...I thought it was just Alex who thought he was funnier than he is." Replied Josh with a smile and I nearly choked. I made the introductions and mum offered him some food. "No thanks, I ate before I came out."
"Well that's a relief, if you eat as much as he's been going through these last couple of days we'll be bankrupt in a week." Josh gave me another confused look as I just shrugged my shoulders and carried on eating. We set off to school together and Josh asked what my mum meant about me eating more, so I told him about how much I'd been putting away since the day before and he seemed little concerned. I told him not to worry and that I was probably having a growth spurt but that didn't allay his fears. In history I was pleased to see there was no sign of Brandon as he was still suspended for a few more days so I felt more relaxed. Today we were looking at some of the tanks from World War Two and all I could think about was what could Josh do to one of those? I asked him about one of the bigger ones while Miss Freeman wasn't looking and he just gave me a mischievous grin. I now had something new for my bucket list; break into a tank museum with Josh. We parted ways after class and I had a couple more lessons before we met up at lunch.
I'd grabbed more food than usual as I was starving by lunchtime. Josh joined me with some food but it was mainly just for show as I knew he'd already taken his weird protein shake earlier. Sam sat down with us next and Josh tensed up as soon as he recognised the face.
"Josh, this is Sam." I said introducing them.
"Yeah we already met the other day." Josh said coldly while Sam tried out his best smile.
"Actually it was me you met." Luke said as he sat down and Josh looked even more worried now. "Don't worry; I'm not going to shout at you again, I was just looking out for this dickhead." He pointed at me then held his hand out to Josh who shook it a little harder than I'd have liked. "Yeow, ease up mate." Sam held his out to shake and Josh was a lot softer with him.
"Wimp." He said giving Luke a sly smile then turned to Josh. "I'm the one he sends to the library all the time to stalk you." I could feel my face flush as Josh started to crack up.
"So Josh, what do you like to do besides read? You look fairly healthy, do you do any sports?" Luke asked.
"No, I never got into sports, I don't think I'd be that good at them." I sat there thinking about all the trophies he'd win and records he could break but said nothing. "I prefer to make things and read books."
"He's another comic nerd." I added and then we spent the rest of lunch in a three way conversation about our favourite heroes and stories, all the while Luke was losing the will to live. The rest of the day carried on as normal and Josh surprised me by waiting for me to come out of detention so he could walk me home. I invited him in again but he declined as he had to get home to the horses but before I knew what was happening he kissed me, right out in the street. I was really taken aback and as he bounded off home I felt really good inside at least until the hunger pangs hit again.
The next two days went into the same routine; Josh would come by in the morning to walk with me to school and we'd have lunch together, and then he'd wait for me to get out of detention to walk me home. He was really starting to get more used to the twins and they all seemed to be getting on well. I was surprised on Wednesday to find they were already sat together at lunch, chatting away happily before I joined them. I'd found that I was getting hungrier every day and my growing pains seemed to be getting worse, especially the more I thought about how my well my life was going right now.
On Thursday morning I found a note on the fridge saying my parents had gone out early and they'd be home a little later as they needed to go food shopping since we were running low. I checked the fridge and found very little in there so it looked like it would just be cereal for breakfast. Without realising it I'd finished the whole packet and we only had a few snacks left, besides that there was nothing else to eat yet I was still starving. I started to panic because I knew I wouldn't get any food until lunch and I couldn't last that long. The more I worried, the more the pain set in and it felt like needles stabbing all over my body.
Just then Josh let himself in. "Hello? Anybody home? Alex?" I cried out in pain clutching my stomach and heard him run into the kitchen where he discovered me curled up on the floor. "OH SHIT!!"