Immature Mistakes | mj.q✓

Twenty-Nine

Jiaqi couldn't stop thinking about what had happened as he ate his supper that evening. He couldn't believe what had happened with Ava, and a part of him didn't think he had really done that. It almost felt surreal.

'Is everything okay?' Mrs. Ma asked him after looking away from her laptop. She had already had her supper and had proceeded to continue with her accounting work. She had noticed Jiaqi repeatedly stop eating and look outside the window.

'Yeah I'm fine.' he quickly answered.

'Hmm alright.' She smiled and continued to work.

'Dad isn't coming is he?' he asked his mother.

'Well he's working.' She assured him, but Jiaqi had a feeling he wasn't. He had a feeling his father just didn't want to come home because he didn't want to be around his mother. They had been fighting much more intensely lately.

'Right.' he answered briefly not to extend the story. 'Hey mom can I ask you something?' he suddenly said.

'Sure honey.'

'I have this other friend, we're really close.' he started. 'And weirdly this friend's dad doesn't like me, for no reason at all. He doesn't even know me. What should I do? And I really wanna be friends with this person!'

'Yaowen?' Mrs. Ma spoke the first name she thought of.

Jiaqi chuckled. 'Yaowen and I aren't even friends anymore. Just answer me mom, what would you do?'

'Um well,' she slightly smiled at him. 'Jiaqi, friendships or relationships which parents don't approve of are really difficult. And especially at this time of your life where parents have such a big influence on you. I'd say just let it go and listen to the father, perhaps he has a good reason.'

'He kind of started hating me when he heard my surname.' Jiaqi told her, trying to get an explanation as to what was going on.

'Oh really?' Mrs. Ma rubbed her chin. 'That's strange. Must be one of your father's enemies. Trust me your father makes a lot of enemies because of his attitude.'

'You don't have any enemies?' Jiaqi joked.

'Of course not, I'm perfect.'

'Oh mom,' he rolled his eyes. 'Anyway, I guess I understand what you're saying. I'll probably stay away from this friend if that's what the father wants I guess.'

'Great, by the way why aren't you and Yaowen friends anymore?'

'It's a long story.' Jiaqi answered and put his fork back in the plate, having finished his meal. 'Anyway mom, I have to go do my homework now. Thanks for the advice.'

'You're welcome.'

...

Jiaqi sat at his desk writing his homework, feeling a bit irritated with how difficult he was finding it. He clearly remembered zoning out in class that day, so it made sense to him why he was finding it quite difficult.

He took an irritated sigh before his cell phone started to vibrate.

'Oh no,' he groaned to himself, already assuming it was Janine. She was the only one who seemed to be continually texting him or calling him lately, and he didn't appreciate it.

He took the phone and checked the caller ID, only to realize that it was Ava. She had probably never called him before, so he was curious to hear what it was about.

'Hello?' Jiaqi answered.

'Hey Jiaqi, how's it going?' she asked him a friendly tone.

'Good I guess. Are we going to pretend it's not weird that you called me at 8 in the evening when you don't call me at all?'

'I guess.' she told him. 'Anyway, what happened today has made me realize that I really-really like you.'

Jiaqi felt heat rising in his face. 'Yeah that's cool.' he suddenly didn't feel like talking about it, it made him embarrassed.

'So I'm going to tell my dad that I'm going to continue being friends with you regardless of what he says. Because you're really...'

'Yeah I don't think that's a good idea.' Jiaqi cut her. 'We all know how tough your dad is. You're just going to make him really mad at you. I wanna be hanging out with you too but if your sister is going to be looking at us, it just work.'

'That's why I actually wanted to ask for his permission.' she continued. 'He needs to give me a good reason why we shouldn't be friends. I don't see why I should listen to him if I don't know why.'

'Well I want to be your friend too but my mom says it's pretty hard when someone's parent doesn't want it to be that way.'

'Well I'll still do it!' she said determinedly then hang up the phone.

Jiaqi smiled to himself before putting the cell phone back on the desk and continuing to solve his work.

A while later, Jiaqi heard his father's car pull up in the driveway. He ignored it and continued to work on his homework, until he heard his father's footsteps approaching the door.

He knocked two times before opening it, not waiting for a response. But to Jiaqi's surprise, his father walked in with a smile. After Jiaqi's suicide attempt, his father hardly smiled. Seeing his father smile genuinely for the first time in a long while made Jiaqi return the smile even when he didn't know what his father was smiling about.

'Guess where I'm coming from.' Mr. Ma announced as he sat down on Jiaqi's bed. 'I was with my friend, your principal.'

'Oh,' Jiaqi didn't understand how anything good could come out from going to the principal, he had probably told Jiaqi's father about the Janine issue which he still hadn't communicated to his parents about. Even though Jiaqi knew the truth, it was still unknown to almost everyone in the school.

'He told me you joined guidance and counselling club and you're doing such a good job in it?' Mr. Ma continued with a smile. 'Why didn't you even tell me that you joined it? That's amazing son.'

Jiaqi's smile widened. 'I didn't think it was a big deal. It was something I just liked.'

'But I heard you made such an impact on someone, in fact the principal wants to add such content to your high school diploma. You're going to be more marketable for college, and here I was thinking that you'd have quite a difficult time getting into college.' his father stood up. 'Maybe I should even get you a tutor to improve your grades before the final exams right?'

'Well...'

'So who is this person you impacted so much? How did you change them? Tell me more.' his father walked closer to him.

'Well, she was a troublemaker just like me...'

'Oh a girl. Are you sure she just didn't change because she likes you?'

'No dad.' Jiaqi shook his head in humor. 'Anyway, her name is Ava Habibe, I never really knew her except when I saw her at the hospital this other time, I thought she was an angel. But now I get it, she came to the hospital because she felt guilty about something so in my half-conscious state I kind of thought she was an angel because she was wearing a white dress and...'

'Ava Habibe? Has a single father?' his smile faded.

'Yeah how'd you know?' Jiaqi asked with a confused look.

'Oh I know that man. Now I wish you didn't even help that daughter of his. He's some kind of mechanic right?'

'I don't...know.' Jiaqi said unsurely, but there were car parts outside of Ava's house when he went there. The man must have surely been a mechanic.

'Hmm, he's lucky his filthy little child was helped by my son.' Mr. Ma said in disgust. 'I hope you don't talk anymore, stay away from her.'

'Do you mind telling me why?'

'Yes I do mind.' Mr. Ma turned his eyes on Jiaqi's notebook. 'Continue with your school work. I'll be off now.'

'Just tell me.' he pleaded.

But he got no response. His father walked to the door and left the room. He now believed his mother: Mr. Habibe was probably his father's enemy. But he wondered what kind of enmity it was that made them despise each other.