No Strings Attached

Chapter 18: Bulletproof and Tired

"But I hate lying to my parents, " I admitted.

"They don't deserve being kept in the dark."

Saddened, James aroused from his seat, plops down beside me, and puts his comforting left arm around my right shoulder.

"I know, " he mumbled. "Sometimes I want to tell my mom, but I am afraid of what she thinks of me."

I gave him a reassuring smile. "Your mom never hates you. She seems really nice."

James sighs, "she is, but my mom hates it when I do dangerous stuff."

"Really?" a puzzled Marco asked, studying James carefully. "Like what?"

He sighed again. "For one thing, she hates my inventions."

"There was this one time, I built anti-gravity rocket boots, but my mom made me sell it on eBay."

Aria nods slowly. "Wow, did anyone buy it?"

"No, I gave it to a homeless boy, " James began. "Without any charge."

Marco dropped his jaw. "So, you gave a kid fifty-thousand dollars worth of science equipment?"

Even my eyes widen in shock.

James always dedicates his time and efforts on his projects-no matter how difficult it was.

He spends months oiling, coding, 3D printing, tweaking, cleaning, analyzing, and painting his robotic designs.

Sometimes, he loves making things with his hands, but now I think James enjoys it so he wouldn't have to be around his dad.

"It's not always about the money, Marco," he insisted. "I hand the boots to the kid because I gave him a choice to either sell or keep them."

"So, you gave the kid the right to choose?" asked Aria.

James smirked. "Why not? He likes science."

Marco laughs wholeheartedly, "and how do you know that?"

"Because he told me," said James, glancing at the ceiling.

All of a sudden, the house had gotten quiet.

Marco stops laughing, whereas Aria straightens her tired posture and listens to James attentively.

"It was two weeks ago, " James began. "My mom was attending a social gathering at an expensive restaurant, and my dad was engulfed with work at NASA."

"So after robotics club, I hopped into my mom's limo for me, praying for Thursday to end, but on the corner of Hudson Street, I saw a homeless kid lying on the floor."

James grunted, "God, you should have seen him; covered in dirt, bugs, and tattered clothes. So, I told my chauffeur to stop the car."

"What happened next?" asked Aria whose brown cat-like eyes twinkled like stars.

James responds, "I offered the kid my anti-gravity rocket boots that I have spent weeks crafting, told him he could keep them, then I went home."

I drop my jaw. "Do you know what happened to the kid?"

"A loving couple adopted him," James smirks, stretching his arms.

"And what about the boots?"

James pondered for a moment. "To be honest, I don't know. The boy either kept it or sold it to someone else."

As he talked, I studied the cheeriness in his eyes.

It's weird how a sixteen-year-old kid acts like some old white dude.