"So you wanna do this at my place or yours?" asked Jason leaning against the locker beside mine. I ignored his presence and carried on chewing my mint flavored bubblegum loudly whilst sorting my locker out.

"Any time now Sunshine..." he said making me acknowledge his presence for a brief moment.

"Sorry what?"

"I said where are we going to do the project. Your place or mine?" he said in the same cheery voice with no frustration behind his words.

For the past five minutes, he's been asking me the same question over and over again and I pretended not to hear him, hoping that he would drop it. But no. The guy leaned against the locker with his hands tucked in his jean pocket like he's got all day.

"Mine. Be there by six," I said after another five minutes, handing my address in a note.

"Now that wasn't hard, was it?" he said ruffling my hair. I swatted his arm and was going to give him a mouthful but he beat me to it. "Laters Sunshine," he said giving me a playful wink and walked out of earshot.

•••

"Mom, a guy from school is coming over for a project," I said balancing the phone between my shoulder and ear whilst heating some leftovers for lunch.

"Is he hot?"

"Goodbye mother," I said and cut the call, annoyed.

"J feed me," said my brother, sitting on a kitchen stool. I kept his Winnie the Poo plate in front of him and placed the spoon on his hand.

"Grow up Ryan," I snapped and sat next to him, digging into my food. I looked to my side and saw him fiddling with the spoon.

"Ryan stop playing around and eat your damn food," I said firmly.

He looked down and didn't respond.

"Fine,then don't eat," I grumbled and went to clean my plate.

Suddenly, I heard quiet sniffles. Sensing my stare, his the cries got louder and in no time the kid was full blown sobbing.

Oh hell

What did I do now?

Before I could approach him, he got off the stool and ran to his room and shut the door with a slam.

Letting out a sigh, I followed the dramatic five-year-old and entered his room. He was sitting on the floor leaning against the bed with his legs curled up and head hiding on his knees.

Crossing my legs, I sat in front of him. Big puffy brown eyes stared at me as they leaked.

Without a seconds thought, I pulled him towards me and got him settled on my lap. With his legs wrapped around my waist and hands around my neck, he clung on to me like a monkey.

Instantly a wave of protection came over me. No one could hurt my baby brother. I regretted snapping at him but that was a daily occurrence. Besides he wouldn't cry for that sort of thing. Hell he'll laugh or stick his togue out at me or something.

But not this.

This had to be more than that.

"What's up buddy?" I asked softly once his cries died down.

"Where's my daddy?"

Instantly I felt my heart rate quicken.

Taking a deep breathe, I told him the same old story I'd always say when he asked.

"Daddy is in a better place now, okay?"

Lies

"What's the place called?"

"Heaven"

Lies.

"So I was not a better place for him than heaven?"

"You were the best place for him Ryan but daddy was sick and he didn't want you to get sick too so he had to go to a different place."

You mean he was sick in the head and now he's serving his time in jail.

"I told this to my frand and he won't believe me J!"

"What did you tell your friend Ryan?"I asked biting my cheek, anxiously.

"That daddy was in heaven but he said that I was lying and there was no such thing as heaven!"

"Well he's wrong-

"Can't we go to heaven and visit him?"

"No, we can't."

"But why?"

"It's too far."

"But I want to see him!"

Lord have mercy on me!

"He's-

"You're lying!"

"Ryan-

"I'm the only one in class who's not going to have a daddy on father's day! Everyone else has a daddy! I want a daddy!" he screeched and wailed.

No god no.

Why today of all times? God I need mum.

I patted his back and let the kid cry.

Seeing other dads pick and drop their children must've made him feel left out...
And that's the last thing I wanted my brother to feel.

But clearly I've failed as a sister.

•••

Ryan had fallen asleep on my shoulder after the waterworks. It's been three hours and he was in deep slumber.

A quarter to five, the doorbell rang and there stood Jason wearing the same t-shirt from morning. Not that I care. Or minded.

Whatever.

I gestured him to come inside and locked the door. He kept his bag on the couch and looked around.

"Nice place," he said.

"Thanks, now can we begin?" I said wanting to get this over with.

He nodded without objection and went down to business.

One hour and a sore butt later, Ryan skipped into the living room singing one of his imaginary songs on the top of his lungs. I smiled inwardly seeing that the previous session seemed to be forgotten. Slowly his voice trailed off seeing that we had a visitor.

"Hey there dude," said Jason flashing him a friendly smile. My brother gave him once over as if he was judging....what? What did five year olds judge about?

He fist bumped the hand Jason was holding out and immediately the serious expression on his wiped and in came the I-like-you-so-now-you-gotta-play-with-me look."

"Jason meet Ryan, Ryan meet Jason, Ryan now go away we are working," I said without looking up from my sheet.

"Your sister is like the Grinch," whispered Jason loudly making my brother fall into a fit of giggles.

"I know she gets mad really fast, like the other day-" he whispered back.

"Go bring your homework Ryan" I cut in.

"But-"

"Bring it over or I'm telling your teacher."

That shut him up. Apparently his class teacher said he was her favorite student and he took real pride in that. Not wanting her view on him to change he did everything to please her.

"He's so different from you, I mean no offense but you're literally always brooding throughout the whole day in school. Why?" asked Jason with a curious expression painted on his face.

"You see me in school?" I asked a little intrigued. Okay, dumb question. Sue me.

"Of course I do," he said frowning as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

So he did know about my existence before the project.

"Ya know maybe if you for once smiled instead of scowling like someone stole your cupcake, people would-"

"I think we can did enough for today, you know where the door is," I said in a final tone and sat up from my chair not wanting to hear furthermore.

He sighed knowing that he was getting nowhere with this conversation.

Jason packed his stuffed and went to the porch and turned back with a determined expression on his face and started, "Julie like it or not everybody needs a friend and-"

I slammed the door on his face.

Bullshit.

...

Our girl is grumpy af.

What do y'all think about Jason?

Do you feel any chemistry between the two?

Thanks for reading !