Jerard Manton tapped his foot on the stone steps of his school impatiently. He had been waiting for 20 minutes. What had happened to his older brother? He shifted his footing on the steps as children who were late for class sped past him. Jonathan better not have sent him off ahead so that he could skip school with out him, he thought to himself. Just because he was 8 years old, 5 years Jonathan's junior, it doesn't mean that he can't skip school with him. Jerard sighed. No, Jonathan wouldn't do that. He included Jerard in almost everything he did. The relationship that he had with his brother exceeded most of the relationships that older brothers had with their siblings. Jonathan considered Jerard his company, his partner, his best friend. Jerard considered Jonathan the same. But then, where was he? He considered going back after him for a brief second, but then saw him running up the sidewalk towards him. Jerard put his hands on his hips, and frowned at him.
"Sorry, man." Jonathan flashed him a guilty smile.
"And what, may I ask, took you so long?" Jerard answered him, pretending to ignore his apology.
Jonathan made a face at him, sighed and said," Just needed to be alone for a while, that's all."
Jerard arched an eye brow at him curiously. "Well, Johnny, it's 7:59 and we're not in school yet. So I, with my limited knowledge, might give the suggestion that we move into the school building and proceed to our assigned class room."
"Fine with me," Jonathan snapped back at him, and then lifted on corner of his mouth into a half smile. He looked to Jerard as if he wanted to laugh. However, Jerard found nothing in this regard funny. He shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked through the opened school door knowing that Jonathan would follow.
He was about half way to his class room when he suddenly stopped, and breathed heavy. He felt abrupt warmth through his entire body, running up from the tips of his toes to head and back down. The warmth in him became heat, and the heat became a fire scorching the insides of his body. He leaned on the wall of the hallway for support, and breathed deeply. The heat was becoming more intense...and more intense. It took all that he had not to simply explode right there and then. He had experienced this before, and the instances were becoming more and more frequent as time passed by. First every week or two, then every day, and now it seemed every other hour. He gasped as he felt a tingling in his fingers, and winced as he struggled to control it. The world was slowly becoming a haze at the corners of his eyes. He suddenly felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see Jonathan peering down at him with a concerned look. He gave Jonathan a weak reassuring smile to tell him that everything was OK. Gritting his teeth, he concentrated as the world came back to him. The blurry haze at the corners of his eyes lifted, and he realized that he was bending over with his hands on his thighs. His lungs were out of air, and his breath was quick. He painfully straightened himself out and began to walk again.
"You sure you're OK?" Jonathan asked as some time passed. They were at the door to their classroom, but paused before entering. The fact that they were late didn't seem to bother Jonathan any more.
"Yeah, I'm fine," answered Jerard. He smiled at Jonathan to thank him for his concern. He felt Jonathan give him a pat on the back as he walked in to face the scrutinizing eyes of his math teacher. Exhaling slowly, he tried to come up with an excuse for being late…again.