The Little Mistakes (boyxboy)

Chapter 6

I jumped off the bed and yanked open my bedroom door. Patrick was leaning against the doorframe. “Don’t you have anything better to do than stand out here?”

“No,” he said sarcastically.

“I figured.”

“Who were you just talking to?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why were you eavesdropping?”

“Because I don’t have anything better to do, remember?”

“Screw off. I was talking to my best mate from NZ.”

“Oh,” he said before pursing his lips.

“Why do you care?” I asked.

“Why do you care that I care?”

“Oh my God,” I said. “You are so annoying.”

“So are you!”

“Patrick! Caise! Get up here for dinner,” Marck yelled down the stairs.

I ignored my cousin as we went up to join his parents. The whole meal was tense and quiet. I gave them the vaguest answers to anything they asked me about school. I just really didn’t want to talk about it. But even more than that, I didn’t want to see the smug look on Patrick’s face. No doubt, he’d probably find it hilarious.

“You know you can talk to us,” Kristian said.

I snapped my head up. I’d been deep in thought, staring at my plate. “What?”

Patrick snickered. Marck shot him a look.

Kristian cleared his throat. “I was saying that you should feel free to talk to us about anything.”

I set my jaw. Perfect. Now they wanted me to talk to them like I was some therapy case. I sighed and went back to pushing my food around.

“Loser,” Patrick whispered.

I dropped my fork and pushed back from the table. “Can I be excused?” I asked irritatedly.

“Yeah, of course,” Marck said. “And you can go too, Patrick.”

“I’m not done yet!”

“Yes, you are,” Marck said sternly.

I stood and Patrick elbowed me in the side once we were out of the dining room. My jaw dropped open. My temper got the best of me and I kicked him in the ankle. He stumbled a little and stopped short. He turned around to glare at me. I put my hand to my mouth to stop myself from laughing loudly at his reaction.

He walked back to me and shoved me roughly. I was glad that we had already turned the corner. That way Marck and Kristian couldn’t see us fighting. I brought my elbow up and caught him in the jaw with it. Patrick growled and swung his fist at me. I dodged out of the way and ran at him. I pushed him backwards and we both crashed into the wall.

It made such a loud noise. Patrick stuck his foot behind mine and shoved me to the floor. I grabbed onto his shirt and dragged him down with me. I landed on my ass with a loud thud. Patrick fell on top of me, knocking the wind out of both of us. We were coughing and pushing each other around when my uncles came running over to us.

“What the hell, you guys?” Marck asked when he saw us sprawled out on the ground.

They rushed over. Kristian grabbed the back collar of my shirt and yanked me to my feet. Marck did the same with his son. We were still glaring daggers at one another.

“Will one of you please tell me what is going on here?” Marck asked. Neither of us said a thing. “Fine, then. If you’re not going to talk, then you can go to your rooms.”

“We were going there anyway!” Patrick yelled.

Marck pushed him in the direction of stairs. “Good. Keep going. And you can both stay down there for the rest of the night.”

Patrick shook his dad off and walked away. Kristian let go of me and I brought my hand to the back of my head. I think I hit it in the same spot I had at school earlier. It was smarting like a bitch.

“You okay there, kiddo?” Kristian asked.

“I’m fine,” I grumbled.

Then I stormed away and fled down the stairs. I looked over when I heard a loud noise. Patrick was standing in his doorway. “You’re a real idiot,” he said to me before slamming his door.

I yelled in frustration. I went into my room and slammed the door as equally angrily. I wanted nothing more than to just go back home to New Zealand. I wanted to hang out with Eryn. I wanted to see my brother and the girls I considered my sisters. I wanted to give Crow a big hug and take Garner for a walk. Tears pricked at my eyes. I just wanted to be back with people who didn’t laugh at how I talked. I wanted to feel comfortable and normal again.

I heard a loud buzzing. I wiped at my eyes, pulling back my hand to see it was wet from tears. Glancing around my room I noticed my new phone sitting on the dresser next to my television where I had left it.

Curiously, I stood up to go see if that’s where the buzz had come from. I unlocked the screen and saw that it had a new message. I thought that was weird. I hadn’t given a single person my number. I didn’t even know anybody here.

Do you want to talk? the message read.

I scrunched my eyebrow and typed back, Who is this?

It’s Phoebe!

I frowned. How did you get my number?

From Aria.

I scratched my head, completely confused. How did she get my number?

From Patrick.

Okay, now I was totally baffled. How the fuck did he get my number?

Hahaha I don’t know. He does live with you, though. It probably wasn’t that difficult.

I guess, I typed back.

I set my phone on my bed and went to my dresser. I pulled out a nightshirt and changed into it. I took my jeans off, leaving me in my underwear. Then I shut the light off, picked up my phone, and crawled into my bed.

When I checked my screen, I saw Phoebe had replied to me. So I heard about what happened earlier. Did you wanna talk, maybe?

Wait, what are you on about?

You know, your gym class today?

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. Oh my God. This was so not good. I hadn’t told anybody besides Eryn about that. I had no clue how Phoebe found out, but if she knew, it was more than likely that people at school were talking about it. That was just humiliating.

Who told you about that? I typed back angrily.

I overheard Aria and Patrick talking about it on the phone earlier.

I was done right then. If those two were talking about it, that means either Patrick really had been listening in on my conversation, or it was going around school. Either way it was bad. But what worried me the most was the prospect of Patrick hearing what Eryn and I were talking about. At this point it was a very real possibility that he’d heard about Eryn kissing me.

Deciding I needed quick answers, I hit the button to call my little cousin. I tapped my fingers on my arm impatiently as it rang.

“Hello?” she asked.

“What were they saying about me?” I asked hastily.

“Jeez, you don’t waste any time, do you?”

“Just answer the question.”

She said. “It wasn’t a big deal, Caise.”

“Yeah, right. I didn’t tell anyone about this. If people are talking about me, I need to know,” I said. “So what did they say?”

“Just that some guy in your gym class was giving you crap,” she sighed. “They said that you hit your head pretty hard when he tripped you and that you ditched class early.”

I blinked. “And that was it?”

“Well, yeah. What else was there?”

I shook my head even though she couldn’t see it. “Nothing. But how did they find out?”

“I heard Aria say that a few guys near her locker were talking about it.”

“Oh fuck me,” I grumbled.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Phoebe said quietly.

“Yes it is,” I said. “People are gossiping about how much of a loser I am.”

“Caise, you aren’t a loser.”

“Whatever. That’s what people are saying.”

“No, they just said you talk funny and you have a bad attitude.”

“Phoebe!” I yelled.

“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to say that,” she mumbled.

I groaned. “No worries. It just honestly sucks that this is already happening. It’s only been one day, too!”

“People are just rude. Trust me, I think your accent is so cool. I bet those guys are just jealous.”

“Cheers,” I said. “But that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well I also heard Aria say that some guys are worried because their girlfriends thought you were cute.”

I raised a brow. “Seriously?”

Phoebe giggled. “Yeah, that’s just what I heard!”

“Okay. Well I think I’m going to head to bed. But I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Night, Phoebs.”

I hung up my phone and set my alarm for the next morning. I sighed and rolled over, pulling my comforter up to my chin. I guess that there was some good news coming from that conversation. Girls at school were interested in me. That would be nice to finally have a girlfriend.

It also settled my mind a bit. Because Patrick hadn’t heard about my kiss. That was a private conversation. And I really didn’t want him to think I was gay. I wasn’t. I really, honestly did like girls.

***

I sighed, messing my hair up with both of my hands as I walked towards the stairs. Early mornings still weren’t my thing. And they never would be. I tightened my rucksack over my shoulders and slowly started to head up the stairs. I paused at the top--the door was still closed--when I heard voices coming from the kitchen.

“You should really start being nicer to him, Patrick,” my uncle Marck said.

“Why?” Patrick asked angrily. Somebody was testy today.

“Because he’s your cousin.”

I frowned. Of course they were talking about me. It’s like all people ever did these days was talk about me. It pissed me off to no end.

“He really isn’t, though, dad,” Patrick muttered.

“His parents have always been family to us,” Kristian threw in. “Therefore, he’s family. So be nice to him.”

“I am nice!” Patrick protested.

“You most certainly are not,” Marck said. “Last night at dinner? That was rude. Besides, I talked to Scott last night. He heard you refused to show Caise around at school. What’s with that?”

“He had Phoebe! He did just fine. Can I just eat my breakfast?”

“Whatever, kid,” Marck said.

Kristian sighed. “Just, please talk to him more. Be his friend, Patrick. He’s new and everything is so different to him here.”

“Fine, pops. But he’s still a freaking loser. And why does he talk like that?”

“Knock it off. That’s just his accent. Stop disrespecting him or you’ll be grounded.”

I heard a loud grumbling. Then two frustrated sighs being drowned out by the munching of cereal and the clanging of metal on glass. I was scowling deeply by now. I pushed the door to the basement open and angrily walked into the kitchen.

“Morning, Caise,” my uncles chirped at the same time.

I didn’t even respond. I made my way through the kitchen and to the breakfast table. I skirted around it, deciding it would be a great idea to smack Patrick upside the head as I went. He let out a surprised and pained yelp. He dropped his spoon right away. Milk splashed onto the table.

I dropped my rucksack and grinned as I fell into my chair. I glanced at Patrick. He was positively fuming. He glared daggers at me.

“What the fuck?” he yelled.

Patrick picked up the cereal box next to me and threw it at my face. At the last second, I moved my arm to deflect it. It went flying, popping open as it hit the wall next to me. Patrick and I gaped in surprise as corn flakes went everywhere in the little nook.

“Boys!” Marck yelled, clearly irate.

We both turned to look at him at the same time. Shock and a little bit of apprehension on both of our faces. Neither of us had planned for that huge mess to happen. Now we were worried we were going to get in a whole lot of trouble.

Kristian walked back into the room. He took in everything in front of him with wide eyes. Then he walked up to Marck and grabbed his arms. Probably to keep him from murdering the pair of us at the table.

“Okay, you two just go,” Kristian said. He pointed at the door. “Go to school before you get into anymore trouble.”

Patrick and I scrambled to our feet in a flash. Our chairs scraped the floor as we stood. We both snatched up our bags and threw them over our shoulders before we hurried out of the room. Whenever we stepped on the cereal--which was often--making even more of a mess, we winced visibly. Both of our expressions filled with guilt as we snuck past the two older men on our way through the kitchen and out of the house.

Patrick unlocked his car in the garage and we clambered in. We didn’t make eye contact with one another. I knew we were both feeling bad about what just happened in the house, but on top of that, we were still pissed off at each other. So we stayed silent--once again--as we drove to pick up the girls.

I bit my cheek and stared out the window as we went down the road. This was certainly looking like it was going to be just as crappy of a day as yesterday had been.