At the end of the day, Junie told me that she couldn’t walk home with us because her dad was picking her up, which left me walking back with Arlo. Arlo waited by the gates, and greeted me warmly. Without another word, we started walking.

The silence was a bit unnerving, so I spoke up to clear the air.

“Did your migraines get better?”

“Yes…” He tapped his head. “Somehow, gran’s magic soup does the trick.”

I smiled at that. Arlo lived with his gran, a sweet old lady that I had met a few times. Arlo always told me that, when he felt ill, she cooked up this specific soup, and he instantly started feeling better. ‘Power gran’ I tend to call her.

“I think I need to learn that recipe of hers, or maybe learn her secret.” I joked as we kept walking.

“Ah, trust me, she won’t give up that secret easily. I mean, she won’t even tell me!”

“Shame, shame.”

When we got to the crossroads, where I usually go straight ahead and Arlo usually turns off to go to his house, I noticed that he actually kept walking ahead instead.

“Where are you going?” I called him. “Isn’t your home the other way?”

“I might as well take you to your house… I mean, it’s not that far.”

I titled my head, he has never walked me to my house before. I mean, he and Junie happen to meet ME at my house and, when we walk home together, we usually go our separate ways. Unless they were visiting. But, for some reason, he was ‘escorting’ me to my house. When he realised that I wasn’t with him anymore, he stopped and turned around.

“Are you coming?”

“Ah… Yes!” I jogged to keep up with him.

When we both finally came up to my house, and stood in front of the gate that led up to my front door, I could see, as clear as day, that my house was, luckily, still standing. However, since we were still just outside, I realised that I couldn’t see inside. So, I had a conundrum. I do hope that Ichthys listened to me and did not touch anything. Which also gave me the question, was the bird alright? He was left alone with someone who wanted to catch him as well.

“Well….” I turned my head to look at Arlo. “Thank you for walking me home.”

“No problem.” 

I saw that he was staring intently at something and, as I followed his line of sight, I could now clearly see what he was looking at. I saw that there, staring out of the window on the landing, was the bird from last night. However, even from this distance, I could clearly make out that the bird was staring rather intently at Arlo.

“You have a bird in your house…” He pointed out.

“Ah, I found a baby bird on my balcony last night, I then took care of him and, well… He’s not left my house.”

“So, it’s like a rash?” He turned to look at me.

“I don’t think he’s like a rash though…”

“Ah, excuse me…” Arlo fidgeted slightly. “I don’t know what came over me…” He tilted his head, looking rather confused.

“Maybe you should get your gran to make that super soup when you get home?” I fist pumped the air.

“Maybe I should do that…” He rubbed the back of his neck, as he started to turn away. “I’ll see you later.” 

I gave him a smile and a wave, as I watched him walk away. When he was pretty much out of sight, I opened the gate and made my way up the path to the front door. As I moved to get my keys out of my bag, I put my hand on the door but, as I did that, I fell slightly and, when I looked up, I saw that the door was open, and that the boy who I had left in my house all day was staring at me.

“Hello there!”

“Errr…. Thanks…” I awkwardly got myself back up, as I stepped inside.

Inside the house, it looked exactly the same as when I left it this morning. Which made it look more suspicious, but did he perhaps listen to me? Which begged the question what had he been doing all day? Turning around to face him, I had to ask.

“What have you been doing all day?”

“Me?” Ikky pointed to himself, as he closed the door. “The shiny, moving thingy…”

I blinked at him.

“What?”

“This…” He walked past me, headed towards the living room, and pointed at the T.V, which just happened to be on.

“Oh, the TV. Wait, you don’t know what one of those are?”

“No. But I may have heard of one in passing.” So I guess that was what he was doing all day then. “But…” He continued talking. “I didn’t know how to turn it on, but the ‘bird’ helped.”

I blinked at him, did I just hear that correctly? Did he seriously just say that the bird helped him? Well, maybe the bird stepped on the power button on the remote, but that was one hell of a long shot, if that was the truth. I didn’t pressure him further since I’m glad that he didn’t wreck my house and actually found something to do.

After I took my shoes off, I slumped onto the sofa. It’s been one long day, and the comfort of my sofa was just what I needed. But I really couldn’t help but notice that Ikky was watching me.

“Is something the matter?” 

“Huh?” He looked surprised when I addressed him. “Ah, nothing…” He sheepishly rubbed his head. “Just…” He trailed off when something caught his attention.

As I followed his line of sight, I saw the bird standing on the staircase that was directly behind the sofa.

“I guess he likes to be left out, but doesn’t like to BE left out.”

I turned back to the man, who referred to himself as Ikky, I thought to myself that the statement that he just said didn’t really make sense.

“I’m going to continue watching this… Brick Line Non Non.”

I was really about to say ‘what?’ when he said it, but my answer came when the opening credits of this ‘Brick Line Non Non’ was about. ‘Brick Line’ was supposed to be ‘Brooklyn’. Was he really that bad with words, or did he just do it on purpose? As I looked towards where the bird was, I swear that I saw him ‘facepalm’ with his wing, however, I had to ask myself: can birds even do that? But maybe he was just scratching.

“I’m going to change…” I mumbled as I left him. He didn’t say anything, he just waved his hand as he stared intently at the screen.

When I got to the room, I landed face first into my bed. Strange things keep happening and, honestly, it keeps getting weirder. Can I go one day without some weirdness? I can’t explain the non-human living in my house to anyone, I can’t really explain to anyone about the disappearing white horse either… The only thing I could tell people about was the bird. I honestly think that birds are the only normal thing that have come into my life recently. Groaning to myself, I slid off the bed and got into the clothes that I wear around the house. After changing, I thought that I should go and check on the man downstairs and, when I reached the bottom steps, I could clearly see the T.V, and I saw that he was watching something different now.

“Are you ok down here?” I called him.

At the sound of my voice, he turned his head, and gave me a smile.

“I’m fine. Honestly, I can’t believe what I’ve been missing out on. So you go and do whatever you usually do, I won’t get in your way.”

It was, in fact, a Friday, and Friday nights only meant one thing to me.

“Alright…”  As I was about to walk up the stairs, I forgot that I left the bird down here and, as I checked about the staircase, I realised that I couldn't see him. “By the way, where is the little bird?”

I saw Ikky’s eyebrows furrow, and he removed one of the cushions from the sofa, making me ever so curious. As I approached the sofa and looked down, I could see a small head poking out from the sofa itself. Wait, is that the bird?!

“Did you just seriously stuff the bird down the sofa?”

“No?”

I glared at him, and he changed his tune.

“Ok, maybe… He was giving me back talk. So I shoved him down there.”

I didn't even know what to say, as I reached down to pluck the poor bird out from the sofa. I then gave Ikky the dirtiest look I could manage.

“What? He deserved it!”

“He’s a bird! You could’ve killed him!”

Ikky raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t say anything. I used this chance to examine the poor bird. I noticed that he looked alright, except for a few ruffled feathers. I turned my attention to the bird stuffing culprit, who was staring at the bird.

“I’m going upstairs for the rest of the night, you can stay down here. Do NOT come into my room. That’s out of bounds, ok? And I’m taking him….” I raised the bird a little. “With me, so you don’t try to kill him again.”

“Why does HE get the special treatment?”

“Because he hasn’t tried to murder you.”

“I’d like to say otherwise…” 

“That and, well, he’s an animal, and you’re… Well, you’re a male.”

“And? So is he…”

“He’s a man bird.”

“Technically yes, technically no.”

“What?”

“Nothing…”

Ichthys grumbled as he slumped into the sofa, with his arms crossed. I could vaguely hear him mumbling about ‘favouritism’. As I was trying to make light of this weird argument that we had, I heard a tiny snort. Did that come from the bird? It seemed like Ikky noticed it as well, as he turned to stare daggers at the bird again. I moved the bird out of his line of sight, said goodnight to the rather grumpy man on my sofa, and headed back upstairs, with the bird in tow.