As I find myself going down the stairs, I start questioning myself who could be the one wanting to see me. My mom is waiting in front of the door and as I start looking away from her, I see a familiar face outside the house. It's a tall boy with brown hair and eyes who looks rather smart.
"How are you doing these days, buddy?"
That's when it hits me, he's Fujita. I haven't seen him in 3 years, and he looks quite different. Well, I've done a great job in avoiding him all these years. Everything is destroyed by an opened door by mom.
"What are you doing here?" I say with a bored tone, while making faces.
"Do I need a reason to visit my old friend?" he replies with a smile on his face.
"Whatever, I'll just go back to my room. Bye, and I hope you won't ever come back!"
Who does he think he is? Why does he come and visit me after 2 years? I thought he had already given up on contacting me. After a little time spent thinking about his reasons for his visit, I resumed watching the new movie that came out last week. While I'm watching the movie and eating the rest of the pizza that's left, something keeps bothering me. What will he do from now on? I don't want him to pay me visits anymore. Without noticing, the movie has already finished. I can't even focus on the movie because of my thoughts. Suddenly, I start hearing something which seems to come from downstairs. I don't have a big house, rather a small one, so I can hear almost everything that happens downstairs.
"Nakata, dinner is ready!"
This is what happens every evening. My mom calls for me to come down and eat dinner. I don't respond and go downstairs to take the dinner to my room. But something seems different this evening. As I'm going down the stairs, the house seems too quiet. I enter the kitchen, and then my face drops. My mom is sitting at the table with Fujita. They're both waiting for me.
"What are you doing? Sit down, dummy." mom says.
What can I do? I can't go back, that'll make him return in the future. So I stay for dinner.
"I let Fujita have dinner with us. I thought it was a good opportunity for you to chat a little."
"Who said I wanna chat with him?"
"Nakata!"
"It's alright, Mrs. Koichi. So... how is school, Nakata?"
"Fine, I think..."
"He's lying. He's not good at all at math."
"Mom!"
"It's okay, Nakata. I'm quite good at math. If you want, I can help you."
"It's fine, I don't want to learn math in my free time. I can handle it myself."
"Nakata, come a second with me. Sorry, Fujita, wait just a second."
What does she want from me now? It's not like I said or did anything wrong. She pulls me outside of the kitchen, and with an angry face, she starts talking.
"You should do private lessons with him!" she says, her face changing from anger to concern.
"Why would I ever do that?"
"Son, you're bad at math. You're gonna fail the exam if you don't start learning, and you can't learn on your own. At least I know that."
She starts looking more concerned than angry. Some thoughts of listening to her cross my mind, but the words come out by themselves.
"Don't call me your son! And why would I want to pass that exam?! It's all for nothing!"
I suddenly became angry. I don't even know why.
"You can't be like this forever! All you're doing is going to high school and watching movies in your room all day. You should do private lessons. You know that PS5 you said you wanted? I'll buy it for you if you pass the exam. But to start, you need to do private lessons with Fujita. Do you understand?"
I don't know if I should say yes, but if I say no, then this argument will last longer.
"Fine, I'll do private lessons with Fujita. Now let's get back, I'm not in the mood for arguing anymore."
We go back to the kitchen and continue our dinner.
"Sorry it took so long, Fujita. I had an important talk with Nakata, and he said he's alright with it, so now I have to ask you. Would you be interested in doing private lessons with him?"
"Of course! I'll do anything to help an old friend."
"Sure…"
"Thank you! You don't know how much it means to me."
"Oh no. It's really not a big deal."
He would do anything to help an old friend... Where were you all these 3 years? You were there for me just the first few months. Yes, I isolated myself, but you didn't try to reach me after that. After some time, I realized I made a mistake back then. But now I don't. I realize true friends don't exist. The lasagna is at least pretty good. I haven't eaten some in a long time.
"Nakata, do you have any new friends?"
What's he thinking? He wants to mock me in front of mom? Not that I really care, but he should know the answer.
"No, not really..."
"I see. If you want, I can introduce you to some of my friends. We could spend our time with them after the private lessons. What do you think?"
"I'm fine, thanks."
I'm honest with him, but mom gives me a weird look that says, "You must go!" I don't want to argue with her later or jeopardize my chance of getting a PS5.
"Actually... I think we might try."
"Awesome, I'll talk with them in the coming days."
After a little more talk, we all finished dinner. Fujita looks happy to see me, and mom looks happy to see him too.
"Goodbye, Mrs. Koichi! Bye Nakata, I'll see you tomorrow at my home, at 12 PM for the private lessons. Do you remember where it is, right?" he says with a laugh and a smile on his face.
"Goodbye, Fujita!" mom says while waving. "Bye..."
Mom closes the door and cleans the dishes. I go to my room and play some FIFA before going to bed.
"Don't forget, tomorrow you have private lessons at 12 PM. Set an alarm so you don't forget to wake up," she says loudly from downstairs.
Damn, what have I gotten myself into...