Hands In The Stars

8. Child's Play

Datui looked around the vacant street and sighed to himself as he slowly made his way towards Ai's house. The past few dreary days Ai had refused to answer any of his calls, she hadn't shown up to school either so he had started tailing around Ethan instead. Ai's absence was making Datui anxious for his friend's health and well-being. He stepped up onto Ai's front yard and noticed that their family car wasn't anywhere to be seen. He simply assumed nobody was home. He walked awkwardly around the small, red house til he reached the back porch and peeked in through one of the big windows. Datui scanned his eyes across the dark inside of the house, trailing along the wooden furniture and pictures hung up on the wall. Most of them were child pictures of both Ai and Shun. He sighed as he searched for a familiar face, but he didn't see anybody inside. Carefully, he tried the handle and smiled to himself when he realized the door was left unlocked. He creaked it open and stepped inside, removing his shoes before closing the door behind him. The dark livingroom seemed so dull all around him, eating him up in the depressive aura. It seemed so vacant here, completely abandoned, as if Jia hadn't ever been inside of this room, ever.

Datui slowly began to make his way deeper into the dead silent house, scanning his eyes upon the furniture. It had been a long while since he'd last been inside this building. Almost all of the times they would hang out, they would've been at Datui's parent's house. An old memory of him and Ai playing inside of her livingroom sprang into play as he walked. He soon reached the narrow staircase leading to the second floor. His own steps and breathing remained the only thing breaking the fragile silence. It was too silent in here, he hated the gloomy mood. He rapidly turned his heels, and ran up the stairs with heavy, echoing footsteps before bursting into Ai's room.

"Anyone home?!" He yelled out with a small, forced smile. Ai quickly jolted up from bed into a sitting position and stared at Datui in her doorway with wide eyes full of panic for a few seconds. After a few seconds she let out a deep sigh and fell back down onto the soft mattress.
"Datui..." She mumbled, before she looked down at her bare legs and quickly pulled the blanket over herself. "You know, there's this thing called calling, and texting and not breaking into someone's house." She continued.
"I know." Datui smiled. "But you wouldn't answer and I want to see you. Come on Ai let's go and do something, you can't just lay and rot away here for the rest of your life. Aren't you like, lonely? Bored? Do you even feel anything at this point?" Datui asked, looking around Ai's messy room. He sat down onto the edge of her white bed and waited for a response, but none came.
"Come on Ai, what do you want to do?" he asked as he turned around to look at her.
"Watch me rot away, boy," Ai whispered back, gradually twisting her head to examine the other, before she softly kicked him in his side with her foot. "Do what, either way? There's nothing here."
"There you go being all depressing again!" Datui scolded her with an audible sigh as he got back up onto his feet and picked Ai up from the bed.
"Let's go outside, I don't want to watch you rot away, girl."

"Will you ever give up?" Ai grumbled quietly under her breath, looking at her friend. However, soon, a small smile crossed her lips and she slid her small hand onto Datui's face. "Fine, let's play cock." She gave in, squinting at him.
"That's the fucking spirit! Not like you have much a choice." Datui giggled. Just being able to see Ai's amile again made his heart feel warm. He quickly walked back downstairs, Ai in arms. He slid back into his shoes and stepped out the balcony door, then stopped. "Oh, maybe you want your shoes."
"No, shoes are overrated." Ai shook her head a bit and stretched one of her thin legs out, smiling. "People need to get to see my sweet legs and feet." She giggled, seemingly feeling brighter too. Squirming her way out of Datui's arms, she landed on the ground. She felt the slightly damp grass between her toes.
"That's my fucking girl." Datui smirked. "Just don't step in any glass, okay? You always get your feet hurt." He looked at her, until she nodded. Ai hurried around the house to the garage door, unlatching it and bringing out a small box of street chalks before she closed the door behind her.

With a smile over her lips, she walked up onto the warm street of the highway and began to draw out light blue hopscotch on the gray asphalt below her. In each square, she started writing out the numbers, 一, 二, 三, and so on. When she had finally written down ten numbers, she walked up to the tenth square and drew two balls on each side of the square, finishing it off by constructing the square a lot longer on the top. She backed off and clapped her hands together, trying to get the uncomfortable, light blue dust from the chalk off her hands.
"Ah, there we go." Ai said with a smile. "A masterpiece."
"You look too charming." Datui admitted with an embarrassed laugh as he watched the girl's piece of art. He looked around the road and soon picked up two rocks the size of his palm. He half-danced over to Ai with a broad grin on his face and got down on one knee, holding the rock out for her.

"For you, Love." He declared Ai's name in his broken English. "A passionate rock fresh from the street." Ai couldn't hold back her giggle as she looked down at her friend, accepting the stone and holding it close to her chest. Datui's heart felt warm at the sound. A smile which he hadn't seen in such a long time, a laugh that he had lately only heard in his dreams. He could do this all day long, every day, if it only kept her mood up.
"Ah, my hero." Ai answered, her English even more broken than Datui's. She looked at the hopscotch and was just about to toss the rock when she suddenly stopped herself and smiled at her friend.
"Well, ladies first." She proclaimed. He smiled at her, and she returned it.
"I'd look astonishing as a lady, at least." He commented. "Cccock." He said as he tossed the rock onto Ai's hopscotch, noting it land on one of the squares before he started to jump. "One, two, five, seven, eight, twelve, fourteen, yooou, smell like piss." He counted with each jump, causing Ai to raise an eyebrow at him with a beaming smile over her face. Their age did not stop them from acting like children, when the two best friends were put together. The two of them always caused a chaotic mess, every parents worst nightmare.
"You suck, Datui." She told him.
"Yes, I do." Datui informed the girl.
"I did not want to know that. Cock." She flung the stone. "One, two, three-"

"Hey, Datui!" A male's voice interrupted Ai from behind them. "And... Ai, right? The, uh, not his girlfriend but like, sort of his girlfriend anyways? What- What are you two doing?" Ethan's voice caused both Datui and Ai to turn around to look at him, and Datui greeted the other with a big smile.
"Well, obviously, we're bonding, can't you see? What are you doing here? You don't even live on this block."
"Eh, not much." Ethan answered in a lowered voice, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his white jeans. "You forgot your jacket at school yesterday so I got over here to leave it back to you, and you're not even home! How fucking rude." Ethan scolded Datui and threw the black jacket of their school's uniform arrite onto him. Ethan looked back at Ai and have her a small head bow. "Hey, I'm Ethan."
"Ai." She answered directly, bowing a bit as she greeted the older teen.
"Oh hey Ai, by the way." Datui interrupted the others. "Since we haven't been in contact the past few days, I thought I should probably sleep at your place. You seem to be alone anyway and I don't want you to be. We have a lot of time to start catching up on." Datui half suggested, half demanded.

Ai looked at Datui for a few seconds, trying to figure out what he was planning.
"Mh, I guess that's okay." She answered after a few silent seconds.
"You guys should get to know each other better, you'd probably make good friends if you'd simply stop being such shy babies. You two got way too much in common." Datui continued and looked between the two stranger-friends. Ethan gave off a small, awkward smile. He didn't know what to expect of the situation. He rarely hung out with others than his three closest friends outside of school, unless there was some party to go to. He almost regretted butting in. Ai's presence made him utterly nervous. All the more so, the house she lived in gave him shivers down his spine.
"Uh, yeah, you think? Maybe, I suppose-" He eventually agreed but got cut off by Datui speaking once again.
"Hey Ethan, you could probably sleep over at Ai's place as well! It would be fun, you're both plenty of fun you just need some time to warm up to each other. It will be excellent!"
Ai stared at Ethan for a long while, and eventually offered him a slight smile.
"Fine then." She, too, agreed.

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Do you think it's right of Datui to invite his other friend like this? How would you have reacted if you were in this situation?