Displaying skills

Josh started sweating from the intensity of the women staring at him, he wondered if Tom felt the same. He quickly snuck a peak at Tom and didn't know whether to laugh or cry, the boy next to him looked as though he'd passed out standing up. His face was white and he was standing still and straight as a board. He didn't move at all, he was so silent that Josh couldn't even tell if he was breathing or not.

However, he noticed that Tom had put his hands together, he looked as though he'd began praying in his final moments for peace. He was pale as a sheet and was in an abnormal pose staring at the heavens with his elbows striking out at right angles. Josh wasn't sure if Tom would start crying, faint or even just die at the spot. However, he didn't know what to do, the women didn't seem like they'd stop anytime soon. Both of them felt uncomfortable under the gazes that seemed like they were picking out every flaw, they were both the prey and the mothers were the predator. The women were looking for their strengths and weaknesses and attacking their flaws mercilessly.

Each word said by the mothers was a dig into both the young boys, their tones and words became harsher as the verbal battle went on. If you could kill people with words, middle-aged mothers would be generals and combatants that led the war efforts.

Young and immature, as young boys tend to be, the words that were spoken around that table felt like arrows piercing the innocent hearts of the two children. The women didn't seem nearly done, if anything, the verbal assaults were getting more and more heated. Josh wondered if he and his new friend would be stuck here for the entirety of their argument, he started nervous sweating just thinking about it.

He was about to give up hope of escaping this barrage of personal attacks, but he had just then realised that somewhere along the line his mother had let go of his sleeve. His mother had first grabbed it when they had walked into the kitchen, and had been holding onto it tightly since.

Josh looked over quickly to his new friend, eyes shining with stars, however, the expression of his friend was almost the exact opposite. Josh thought that Tom looked as though he had given up on living, his expression was blank, he hadn't moved much and seemed to have accept the current situation and subjected himself to the judgement of the two women.

Joshua stifled a laugh that came about from watching his dreary demeanour, they hadn't known each other long but this boy in front of him seemed quite interesting to Josh, his current expression and his being this timid was quite funny.

Josh glanced back at the two women, a couple minutes passed and after he'd decided they'd become so immersed in their conversation that they weren't paying the boys proper attention. The two were sharing pictures of the two boys and were preoccupied by finding new points to argue about that when Josh slipped up out of his chair quietly, and didn't notice when he took hold of Tom's arms and dragged him out of his chair respectively.

After being taken a hold of, Tom seemed to have snapped out of his trance, and shook his own arm gently, this was to alert Josh that he wanted to ask him something. This way of alerting Josh to get his attention as Josh was still holding on to the arm of Tom, dragging him along in his escape. Their steps were silent as they left the room and as they both made their exit from the kitchen and entered the dining room, they then quickened their pace and left the dining room to go back to the living room. The whole time the mothers' incessant chattering continued, as if they hadn't noticed anything.

Josh then turned around to face Tom who had wanted to say something to him, he smiled at the timid boy who almost instantly smiled back at him. The boy raised his arm to scratch his head and Josh was reminded of their still conjoined arms, he quickly let go and Tom opened his mouth to speak.

He closed his mouth again and this caused Josh to ask a question in his stead. "Did you want to say something?" He asked whilst still smiling at the boy.

The boy looked at him for a brief moment before looking away, "I was… you were doing." he replied and looked back at Josh's face gingerly.

"What'd you say, I didn't hear…" Josh replied still with a smile plastered on his face.

"I wanted to ask what you were doing…" he said, repeating himself.

"Hm, I was showing off my cool skill as a ninja." He then pulled a silly pose and clapped his hands, he then waved a hand to the left of Tom's face and caught his attention so he'd turn his head, only to run the opposite direction and hide behind some of the furniture. "See you can't see me now right, you didn't see me move right?" He said while smiling happily.

Tom's expression hadn't changed during those past ten seconds he'd just spent watching Josh do whatever he'd just done, he had seen exactly what Josh had done and had plenty of time to see where he'd hidden, he didn't need to have seen where he hid though. Tom could see Josh's socks like out from behind the sofa, it wasn't totally unnoticeable, actually, both of his feet where almost fully visible.

Tom didn't sigh or laugh or even change his expression, he instead just spoke loud enough for Josh to hear every word, and with a tone that was monotone and filled with sarcasm.

"Wow, you're actually great at this."

"I know right?" Josh then stood up and brushed himself down for supposed dust that he might've picked up from the floor. "Boo!" He called out again after he looked up from his torso to Tom's face.

He had a wide grin plastered on his face and his eyes were slightly narrowed, he looked like a soft and innocent child.