STORY OF THE CHUBBY

STORY OF THE CHUBBY 14

She nodded enthusiastically. I smiled at her before opening Alex’s door.

‘Alex...Sammy’s here,’ I said, getting in before Sammy. Alex smiled and sat up to meet Sammy. I turned to Sammy. ‘Sammy, meet my big sister, Alex.’

‘Hey Sh’ammy!’

Sammy looked shocked as she looked...more like stared at Sammy. I nudged at Sammy with my elbow and that seemed to wake her up from the state of shock she was in.

‘H-hi ...umm...’ She stammered.

I looked at Alex who was looking down at her hands with a sad smile on her face and my heart broke a little.

Grabbing Sammy’s arm, I walked out of Alex’s room and entered mine. ‘What’s wrong?’ I didn’t want to be angry. Sammy was my friend ...but...right now I wanted to be so mad at her.

She looked at me, ‘She’s a Down’s kid.’

I ran my fingers through my hair, ‘No. She’s not! She’s just a normal person who just happens to have Down’s syndrome!’

‘You’ve never told me...’

‘Yea because I was afraid you’d react like this... Honestly, Sammy,’ I took a calming breath before continuing, ‘I know I kinda bombarded you with this...but she’s a normal person. There’s no need to treat her differently. Look, if you can’t handle this then leave, okay? I can’t have you over if you’re going to act like this all night.’

With that I entered my bathroom and locked it. Crap! Crap! Crap! This did not go as planned at all. I thought out of all people, Sammy would be okay with this...

I washed my face at the sink then stepped out. Sammy was not here. I stepped in Alex’s room just to here the front door close and a car drive off soon after. Alex was looking out of her window, ear buds in her ears, a sad look on her face. When she saw me she gave me a smile and patted the spot next to her on the window seat.

‘Cheer up, Gwacie. I’m fine,’ she said, giving me a hug. I hugged her back, laying my head on her shoulder.

‘I’m sorry, sis,’ I whispered, as she lay her head on mine. I know she was hurt but she was just playing it down for my sake. God, Sammy, why did you have to be the one who couldn’t handle it?

The curiosity was killing me. That and the need to know about him more. I mean, come on, he knew more about me than most people and I knew nothing. Chris was a mystery I’ll tell you that.

Well I knew he had a grandmother who he had just met. And one of Mrs Watson’s daughters had passed on. What was the connection in all this? I tapped on my steering wheel, deep in thought. I had a theory; an absurd one, but a theory nonetheless. The only way I could explain this was that Chris’ ‘mother’ was his step mother and his dad had remarried when his mum died.

I watched Mrs Watson’s house from my car where I’d been sitting for the past ten minutes. I needed to know. Call me nosey but I needed to know.

And it’s not like I had not tried to ask Chris. I had during lunch. I could literally see him putting his guard up when I asked him how he didn’t know about his grandmother.

He gave me this tight forced smile and told me, ‘It doesn’t matter. Just leave it alone, okay?’ And started to talk to Leroy about something I didn’t listen to. I was busy trying to wonder why he would close up like that. Part of me was a little hurt he wouldn’t share anything with me.

Part of me resigned to asking Mrs. Watson about it later on. I didn’t want to assume things but he seemed to ignore me the rest of the day…only fuelling my curiosity.