All of his life, James had painfully learned to ignore others' remarks about him. It was not just that they talked bad about him, they always attack him physically and emotionally, and it hurt him a lot, but yet, it was hard for him to ignore it.
Over time, he grew numb over these snide remarks and all his life he thought he had mastered the art of showing indifference to others, and that was until Josh spat out those twelve words.
James had never felt this depressed before ever since Martha and Esther had said something similar to his before. Each time it would hit him hard, but right now, it seems he was not immune to it. James stared at Josh hoping he took back what he said, but Josh saw his reaction and grinned.
"Oh, so you wanna cry, huh James? Ha-ha-ha! I was right after all. You are an entity of bad luck. Don't you see that wherever you go, there is always destruction in its wake? Look, I'm not saying this because I'm a jerk, even you know I'm, right, right?" Josh spoke and stared at him in the eyes.
There goes all the joy he was feeling a moment ago. James tried to dismiss those words, but every time, it rings back to his mind. As much as James tried to forget it, he couldn't ignore the hard fact here. It was his presence that caused the death of the two people that mattered to him, and it was because of him that a very innocent and happy family almost got destroyed.
Maribel stared at James throughout the time he was eating and could not help but ask, "Hey James, what's wrong? Did Josh hurt you?" Maribel glared at Josh, who heard his name and dropped his spoon. James did not hear what Maribel said out of his depression.
Something was amiss. Maribel touched James gently, which caused him to jerk violently, almost causing his plate to fall. "James, what's going on? You've been playing with your food for more than five minutes. Tell me, did anybody hurt you?"
James slowly raised his head with tears on his face and stared at Maribel's worried face. "No mom, no one hurt me" he slowly said, and took a glance at Josh, who was staring at him threateningly. "So why are you crying?
James shook his head and smiled. "I—I just miss my family, that's all." James partially lied. Although Josh caused his sour mood, he didn't blame him completely though.
"Awwww," Maribel said with a worried expression and held his hands tightly. "Look honey, I know we cannot replace your family, and we cannot be your father and your mother, but I want you to know that I love you, and I would always do my best to make you happy, you understand?" Maribel said, lovingly looking James in the eye.
"Yes," James mumbled as a tear dropped out of his eye. "Come on honey, eat. Look, I know what would make you better. A trip to the mall. I had planned to buy you a ton of stuff for your birthday, but since this was an emergency, we would go together right now, so happy birthday in advance dear."
Josh rolled his eyes in anger and continued eating silently. F**k you James, he thought angrily.
This was the last thing he wanted to do, James thought. I don't want to go outside, not where they are people. He had almost told Maribel that she should not bother, but since she claimed it was for his upfront birthday, he did not have the heart to stop her.
"Thank you mom" he simply said.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
It was eight pm, and Maribel and James were just coming from the mall, with a lot of clothes and wrapped gifts for him. James took the gifts and smiled at Maribel. She then hugged James tightly. "I love you. Always remember that."
James went to his room and closed the door behind him. He climbed to his rarely used bed and stared at the ceiling. "What should I do now mom and dad? I am so lonely in this cruel world. Please help me. Am I a " James said and sobbed silently.
After relieving himself from all the suppressed emotions he had for a long time, he felt better. No, he felt great, like so relieved. James was surprised at how crying can make a person relieved.
He then left his bed and headed to his study desk. "I need to distract myself". He launched his browsers and the AI program almost immediately. "Previous time was 03:33 pm, and current time was 08:33 pm. Hi James, you were late. You said in under thirty minutes, you will be back, but it was four hours and thirty minutes overdue. What happened?"
James stared at the virtual face on his screen and sighed. "Nothing, I just forgot. No worries, can we start work?" The AI made a smiling gesture and said "Sure, let's begin".
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
James spent twice the time he used to deliver the finished work to the client, cutting the time from thirty minutes to less than fourteen minutes, which surprised the people he worked for greatly. They began to suspect that it was not only him that did this.
"How was it possible that I gave you this to do and expected it for at least, two weeks, and you did it for, I don't know, fifteen minutes, and you want me to believe that you did not do nonsense for me?" The Indian entrepreneur asked suspiciously.
James smiled gently and shrugged. "I don't expect you to believe me. I would not blame you at all. You can verify the authenticity of your website with other professional web designers. Trust me." James said.
The entrepreneur looked at James fake face avatar and proceeded to make a call on his phone. After two minutes passed, the man disconnected the line and sighed deeply. "You are right. I asked four people to review the website, both the front end and back end, and they said it was the most sophisticated thing they had ever seen before." the man said solemnly.
James raised his hands in confirmation. "See, I told you I didn't do anything sinister." James smiled heartily. The man looked at James with interest and rubbed his chin. "How old are you?" he asked. "I'm twenty-four years old sir."