7. She Keeps Coming Back

Julius comes home with groceries and sees his mother is drinking tea in the living room. She looks at him and then gestures him to sit down. He sets down his grocery bags and takes a seat.

"I think Alice is wrong about something, Julius," she says. "I'm not a really good mother...I just realized after years that she's the first friend you've ever brought from school."

'She's not my friend. She's not. I have no friends.' Julius reminds himself of this fact. He doesn't want to get swooped away by that beautiful rubbish delusion.

"Julius," Mrs. Monrey says with a serious look, "All this time, I know that I've been very strict about your studies, but I think...you should let off some steams. All work and no play is not good. I think I can trust you with your study, but..." she takes the Midsummer Night Dream manga illustration from the table and smiles gently. "Being creative and knowledgeable is important too. Knowledge isn't only gained from school subjects; I think it's good for you if you watch movies and read fictions. It'll be better if you and Alice can go and hang out to play."

Julius feels really anxious for some reason when his mother smiles warmly to him.

"I'll talk to your father about this. He's really a hard man to deal with, but you should have fun, alright?"

"Yes, mother." Julius nods and takes off to kitchen and puts in the groceries to the fridge. The navy haired teen then retires to his room, and the first thing he does is hitting the wall with his fist.

'Damn it...' he mentally groans. 'Why now...No, this is irrelevant. It's good that mother lets me to have fun...but I still don't need a friend.'

'I don't need a friend—Alice is not my friend.'

"When is this stupid project going to be over...?" Julius mumbles.

~.X.~

It's finally weekends. Julius feels relaxed to think that he doesn't have to interact with anyone today, but boy, is he wrong. His parents are home, and his mother isn't ignoring him like usual, it feels really uncomfortable.

"I just got back here at dawn," his father says, sipping his coffee and watches Julius taking a seat. "How's school, son?"

"The usual." Julius shrugs and his mother serves coffee for him. He covers the warm mug to get the heat into his palm, watching the steam coming off.

"Are you going to hang out with Alice? It's weekend," his mother suddenly asks, taking a seat across his father. Julius freezes in the spot.

"N-No." He quickly answers, trying to look indifferent.

"Well, you should play outside, Julius," his father begins to say. "I think you're old enough that we can trust you to have fun while taking responsibility about your studies. Oh, coincidentally," the man suddenly stands up and walks to the coat hanger in the corner of the room and takes out some tickets. "My friend owns a cinema and he's handing out some free premiere tickets; it's for an animation called Cloudy with A Chance of Meatball, the second..."

Julius is still unable to comprehend how his father is actually letting him to watch animations when the tickets are handed to him. "You can have them; you should go and watch it with your friend,"

There is an awkward silence, due to how Julius is over-thinking this turn of events.

"Oh, or you can buy some fictions at the bookstore. I hear that teenagers are into the Hunger Games series, no?" his mother takes on the conversation.

Julius looks up and stares at his father with a frown. "Why...? I'm alright if you don't allow me to things like these...Why start now?" he says this coldly, and his parents exchange stares.

His father hums and thinks to organize his words carefully. "Look, Julius...your mother and I had a talk, and after hearing what your classmate opinion about your social life at school, we're getting quite worried."

"Julius, we know that it's our fault for never spending time with you," his mother says with an apologetic frown. "We thought that you're alright as long as your grades are fine, but I guess that's not the case with school nowadays,"

His father nods. "You've worked hard and proved that you can be responsible for your assignments as a student...We should have rewarded you, but I hope it's not too late to start now. You can ask for anything, alright, son?" he squeezes Julius' shoulder, and awkwardly returns to his newspaper.

Julius feels like he's going to snap if the awkward silence continues. He wants to yell at them for saying such nice things after all these years, he wants to yell at them that they're too late. They're too late. If only they realize this way back, he'd probably...have friends...He'd have things to talk to with anyone...

'Stop...I don't need this...' Julius grits his teeth, wishing something or someone will break the silence.

"Oh, I have a meeting in thirty minutes—we should go get ready, Minerva," his father says and the adults stand up. Julius sighs in relief.

He's so used to not having his parents home that it's unbearable to have them idling around the house. Julius decides to read the newspaper after his parents left. However, the silence becomes strange for him, and he feels restless that he can't concentrate with his reading. Julius then makes some coffee, and when he's pouring it into his mug, he realizes that he had just made a two-mugs worth of coffee.

"I got used to make coffee for her..." he mumbles with a frown and sets the kettle back to the stove, thinking that he can just drink it later.

Julius returns to the living room and continues to read while frequently sips his coffee. Still, he can't concentrate due to the silence, and then turns on the TV. He sighs and returns to read again. When he finally finishes his coffee, he says this out of habit;

"Can you make the coffee this time...?" Julius trails off and twitches. He narrows his eyes, sets down his mug, and facepalms. The navy-haired teen groans. He's also got used to have Alice makes the second serving of coffee.

He shakes his head, reminding himself that he still has the leftover. He tries to concentrate to the news about suspicious taxi driver that attacks female passengers. After a while, he really craves for the bitter sweet coffee and sighs. When he stands up and is about to get more coffee, the bell rings.

"Julius, this is urgent, you seriously got to help me," Alice Liddell asks intensely the moment he opens his door. "Please, please teach me statistics, it's driving me crazy..."

Julius scowls in distaste. "You shouldn't have dozed off during the lessons. It's your own fault," he huffs and is about to close the door, but Alice uses her hand to hold it.

"No! I'm just stupid!" Alice argues desperately. "I'm really, really stupid in school subjects...Teach me, please, I need to do the homework for Monday's class...please, please, please?"

He sighs. "I'll lend you my work—"

"No!" he flinches when she stubbornly snaps. "I know I'm stupid, but I don't copy stuff," she puffs her cheeks.

He groans and finally opens the door again. "Why are you so..." he sighs and she squeals in delight, dashing into his house.