The Person Who Makes My Days Brighter

CHAPTER 3: FIND HIM A GOOD HOME

"Why do you keep throwing the ball up there?" She asked him.

"I'm used to playing by myself." He responded. Chloe, the girl he was talking to, shrugged him off but just continued to watch him anyway. This went on for a little while longer. No words were exchanged, just the sound of the ball landing on the roof, sometimes bouncing a few times more than the other times he threw it up there, and then the sound of it rolling back down before he caught it in his hands and repeated.

"You don't have to keep standing there," he began to say. "You can always go back inside and talk to my Mom," She gave him a stare and he paused to stare back, still saying nothing to each other, so he went on throwing the ball up onto the roof.

"Nathan, can you walk me home? it's getting dark," Chloe asked. He knew she was only asking this because she was bored. He didn't know what else to do with her around that would keep her entertained. "Do you want to give it a go?" he asked. "Like throwing the ball up there?"

She folded her arms and rolled her eyes at him. "No, I do not. Plus I don't want to disturb your Dad." The man who she believed was Nathan's father was sitting in the living room, and they were right outside, not too far from the windows.

"Dad?— That isn't my Dad!" he exclaimed.

"OK, so who is he then?" Chloe wondered. "And why is he inside your house?"

"He's a friend of my Mom's. He's just visiting," Nathan explained.

"OK. So where is your Dad then?"

"He doesn't live with us anymore. He lives somewhere out of town. He has a new house. He lives with another woman who has kids that call him 'Dad' but he isn't their Dad. I haven't seen him in a year but he calls me every now and then," he went on talking about his dad. "He always tells me how much he misses my Mom and I; and he wants me to go live with him—but my Mom won't let me."

"Your Dad sounds like such a great guy," Chloe said. She knew like everyone else that Nathan's father wasn't the man Nathan thought he was. She also knew that he didn't miss Nathan and that he wasn't going to be living with him ever. But she couldn't say all of that to him because it wasn't her place to say it. She didn't want to break his heart; all she wanted was the opposite really—but clearly, Nathan had a lot more growing up to do so she had to wait.

"Can you walk me home now?"

"Yes. I'll just go inside and tell my Mom that you're leaving now." And so he did. And they went on walking in the direction of Chloe's house. It wasn't that far away from where Nathan lived but it wasn't that close either; at least not on foot.

"Are you going to call me later?" Chloe asked.

"No, I can't," Nathan responded feeling a little embarrassed, "because I don't have credit."

She laughed aloud after a failed attempt to hold it in. "I will call you instead," and Nathan nodded in agreement.

"Oh My God, it's so cute!" Chloe exclaimed running out on to the middle of the road. Nathan was confused but he didn't ask why she was running nor what she saw; he just stood there and waited. Chloe had found a kitten. She marvelled at it's white and black fur and it's bright green eyes and she couldn't help but pick it up. "Look at it, Nathan." She said swooning and holding the cat up to his face. Nathan sneezed pretty hard. He always thought he would be allergic to cats because he had heard his father was, and he was so desperate to be his father's son. "I can't keep it, my parents won't let me. But you can keep it, right? Or you can find him a good home. Will you do this for me please?" she begged. When he looked at her and what all of this would mean to her, he knew that he was going to say yes to what she asked of him. He had made a habit of doing that, making decisions based on how they make others feel.

And so as they approached her house, she told him he had come far enough.

"Please look after him," Chloe said one last time.

"OK, I will, " Nathan responded. And before she went running off inside, she kissed his cheek and she smiled at him and that was it—but it was also enough.

...
Ten Years Later.

Nathan was walking to the bus stop to meet Chloe. Chloe didn't live close by anymore. As a matter of fact, she lived over four hundred kilometres away. Her father got a promotion and was given a new post in a different state. And although they hadn't seen much of each other over the last ten years but for the times he was in her city, they still remained in contact.

The whole time walking there, Nathan was thinking about what he was going to say to her. He knew he had messed things up between them and all he could do was hope that everything he planned to say to her would be enough—and that she would forgive him.

"Wow, this neighbourhood is exactly how I remember it."

"Yeah, not a lot has changed since you left," Nathan responded. "Everything's still pretty much the same."

She looked at him and shrugged him off, "You've changed Nathan—a lot."

Coincidentally as they were walking on Nathan's street, they saw a cat. White and black just like the one they saw many years ago. Just like the one Nathan took back home with him.

"Whatever happened to the kitten we picked up?" Chloe's curiosity sparked by the sight of a cat that looked so similar to the kitten she picked up all those years ago. "Did you look after it like I asked?"
No sooner after she finished her sentence than the cat ran from where it was perched. They watched as it scaled up one of the walled-fences. It stopped and turned to look at them, almost as though it remembered who they were. The two kids who saved it, now all grown up.

"Well, would you look at that Chloe—green eyes..."