What if?

Chapter 57: Under the umbrella

Nick

“Bye!” I said as I went outside the club room because we already finished. I am still gonna wait for Michael here so I will be staying for quite some time. There is still 5 minutes left before the club ends and so we can go to our homes. We were able to finish the chords that I needed to know today so Jake decided that we should go home already. Well, at first I didn’t want to because I thought that it would be mean for us to leave first while the others are still inside the club practicing. It was at that time that Moira, the club President said that we should all go back home. She said that the weather seems bad this afternoon so we should go home earlier. She was right, the weather is kind of gloomy now. I think it is gonna rain. 

The club members started to go while Moira, the club president, locked the club room. She said goodbye to Jake and me. I am left here now with Jake. “Thank you, Jake.” I said as we got outside the club room. “You’re welcome.” Jake replied back to me. “Are you going home now?” I asked Jake because he is still standing beside me. “Yeah, bye.” Jake said and started to walk away from me. He did not even wait for me to also say goodbye to him. He just has this attitude which is somehow really really annoying. I guess I can’t blame him, he is not that kind of person in the first place. I wonder if Jake was raised by his parents or if his parents are good people. There is a big possibility that he got these characteristics because of his parents, but that would only be 70% true. 

“Huh?” I said as soon as I felt a raindrop on my neck. It tickled and surprised me at the sametime. “It is starting to rain.” I looked up at the sky and said. I transfered my backpack to the front to get my umbrella. I remember that I have an umbrella here. Well, at least the last time I checked. I opened my bag and looked for my umbrella. “Where is it?” I said as I am little by little losing my patience of finding it in my backpack. “Ugh! Of all the times, why is it not here? I clearly remember that I put my umbrella here.” I said as I tried to let myself remember where my umbrella was. 

“Oh no! The rain is getting heavier and Michael and John are still not here. I can’t leave them so I really need to wait here. But if I wait, I am gonna be wet. I might also end up getting a fever. “The club room is closed and there is a little space beside the club room to stay but it is so little that I might still get wet from the rain. “What to do, what to…” I was not able to finish what I was about to say after I saw a person running with an umbrella coming towards me. “Tell me, didn’t you bring an umbrella with you?” Jake asked me while trying to cover me with his umbrella. The rain started to pour heavily as soon as Jake got to where I am. The timing was right. 

“I don’t know where my umbrella is.” I replied to Jake with a shy voice. I can’t properly answer him because I feel so stupid and shy that he i shere. “What do you mean by that?” Jake asked with a soft voice. “The last time I checked it, it was still here, I don’t even understand why it is not here now.” I answered Jake’s question. “Did someone touch your bag?” Jake asked softly. “Oh! I think it was Michael, he prepared our things together. He might have tried to organize my bag because he mentioned once that my bag was messy.” I said to Jake. “Maybe he forgot to put it back then.” Jake said to me. 

Something came to my mind all of a sudden, why is he here by the way? He already left a while ago. “Why are you here?” I asked Jake because I was curious about his reason this time. “Well, I just had the thought that you might not have an umbrella so I just came to see and it turned out I was right.” Jake said with a soft voice. I can’t tell if he is trying to be caring because his voice is so soft. I turned to look at him. He is by my side right now and I also noticed that we are a bit close to each other. The umbrella is not that big but we can fit in it because we are close with each other. After a few seconds, I noticed that I was staring at him for quite some time. To my surprise, I moved far away from him. “Do you want to have a fever?” Jake asked as he pulled me closer to him. “Of course I don’t want to.” I answered back while looking at the ground. I don’t want to look at his face because I feel like I am really red right now. 

“Then why move away from the umbrella?” Jake asked me while closely looking at me. This time he is absolutely staring at me closely. Even though my eyes are on the ground, I can feel his eyes that are on me. I tried to look at him too but as soon as I did and our eyes met, I looked back again on the ground. I could not stand myself looking at him either. “Do I really have to answer that question? Why is he so stupid to this thing?” I said to myself. I am still deciding because I am hesitant to tell him the truth. Why am I even shy? “We were so close with each other, I just thought it was weird to be seen by other people.” I replied. I really tried to gather all my courage to tell him this. 

“What? There is nothing wrong.” Jake said as he turned his attention to the rain drops in front of us. “Okay then.” I replied back to Jake. s**t! What kind of reply was that? I am so stupid. He was right though, there is nothing wrong with two boys sharing an umbrella. “Aren’t you going home?” I asked Jake. I suddenly remember that I am still waiting for Jake and John to come here. “Not yet. You don’t have an umbrella so I will wait here. There are at least 2 minutes left for them to come here. Well, that is if they are not gonna be late.” Jake said to me. 

I suddenly remembered what happened yesterday. “I think they won’t be late because they went to their club on time so they can finish their tasks early or on time.” I replied to Jake. “Good.” Jake replied. “He doesn’t sound like I'm a bother to him. I think he really wants to help me here. This is really good.” I said to myself as I turned my attention to him. 

“Nick!” I heard someone shout my name. I looked at the person who shouted. “Michael, John?” I said as soon as I turned to look at the person who shouted. “Jake…” Michael said as he saw Jake. “Oh, I think you forgot to put my umbrella back in the bag when you checked it. It is not in my bag so Jake shared this with me.” I said to Michael. “I see, now you can stop sharing. Thank you for sharing the umbrella with Jake.” Michael said to Jake as he pulled me out of Jake’s umbrella. “Ah!” I said when Michael pulled me. 

“Let’s go!” Michael held my hand and started to walk. “Wait.” I said as I stopped Michael from walking. “Jake, let’s go out of this school together.” I said as soon as I remembered that if we leave first, then it will leave Jake behind. I don’t want that, he stayed here with me so it is not good to do that to the person who took care of me while my brother was still not around. 

I then felt Michael’s hold on my hand tightened but I did not care about it. Jake did not reply so I grabbed Jake’s hand and made him walk together with us. “Let’s go.” I said to Michael while smiling. Michael is not smiling neither he is mad he was just overwhelmed. John on the other hand is the same. I think it is because they saw that I am acting like this with Jake. “Okay.” Jake said and started to walk together with me.