Innocent

Chapter 13

The smell of pancakes filled the house the next morning. I figured it was Aunt Zoe getting breakfast for James and me. I glanced over at James in the bed beside me. The bed was neatly made. He must be downstairs with Aunt Zoe. I got out and headed to the kitchen. Surprisingly when I entered the kitchen I didn’t find my aunt there at all. Instead I found James standing at the stove cooking.

He didn’t take any notice of me standing in the doorway of the kitchen and I didn’t even let him know that I was standing there. I watched him cook. I smiled, thinking of the times when he would cook for me when his dad wasn’t home. He was a good cook I have to say. He had to learn how to cook for himself at an early age.

“Mmm, what smells good?” Aunt Zoe said as she walked pass me into the kitchen with Charlie behind her.

James turned around to face us. “Pancakes,” he answered with a smile on his face.

Aunt Zoe headed over to the coffee machine while Charlie headed to the food bowl beside the fridge, munching the dry food he had in there. “Smells delicious.”

“James is a great cook,” I replied, forcing myself to move from the door. I walked over to the fridge, patting Charlie good morning before opening the fridge door, grabbing a carton of orange juice.

“Well, I can’t wait to try some of his wonderful cooking. If he is really good like you said, maybe I should hire him as my cook.”

James giggled.

I have to say he would make an excellent chef someday, but not really sure he would ever become one or not. He isn’t quite sure what he wants to be at the moment. All he wanted to do was move far away from his father. James had only ever made breakfast for me once and the food was to die for. It was Saturday night and he had asked me to come over to have a movie night with him. Mr Waters was out having drinks so we had the house to ourselves. We ordered pizza and sat in front of the television watching the Jurassic Park series. Well, we only ended up watching the first two. I fell asleep half way through the second one. Somehow without waking me, James had carried me to his room and lay me down on his bed. The good thing was his dad never returned home that night. If he had found me sleeping on the couch or in James’ bed, he would have thrown me out of the house and then beat up James.

I almost freaked out waking up in James’ bed the next morning, not even remembering how I had gotten there. But then I remembered falling asleep on the couch and smiled to myself at how sweet James was for placing me on his bed rather than leaving me on the couch, even though it didn’t really bother me if I had spent the night on there. But then I remembered his dad and panicked that he might be home and would kill me for spending the night here. I had tried to leave before we watched the second part to the movie, but James didn’t want me to leave so I stayed. I was going to climb out the window without saying goodbye to James. It was then the smell of his cooking drifting its way into his room and filling my nostrils that I knew I had to stay and I did. I headed to the kitchen where James stood at the stove.

“What are you cooking?” I wanted to know.

He turned to me. “Oh, you’re awake. I wasn’t sure whether or not to wake you up. I thought it would be nice to cook you something for breakfast. I’m making French toast.”

I have never had French toast and had always wanted to try it. I sat down at the table and waited for James to serve the food. I was a little nervous sitting there waiting, keeping an eye out for Mr Waters in case he walked into the room.

“My dad never came home last night,” James replied like he had been reading my mind. “But he will probably come home soon so we better eat up and then get you out of here.”