Jacob’s face burnt in shame. The way he’d snapped at hisfriend last night, pushed him to come out with him, and stormed away like a toddler when he didn’t get what he wanted. What must the boy think of him?
‘Only one way to find out,’ he mumbled under his stale breath, pushing the door to reception open and dragging his leaden feet through.
‘Wow.’ Kushal winced. ‘You look rough.’
‘I feel it.’
‘Went a bit heavy last night?’
‘Hmm.’ Jacob came and sat beside him, aware that the smell of alcohol may still be strong enough to detect. ‘Not really, I’m just not used to drinking any more.’
‘Well, you were very insistent on doing it.’
‘I know, and I’m sorry about the way I acted. I just …’ He didn’t want to recall the email from his dad, but he also knew he owed his friend an explanation.
‘You don’t have to say anything. It’s cool.’ Kushal smiled, reaching into his desk drawer and pulling out two chocolate bars. ‘You want one?’
Relief swept over Jacob; his kind, pure, overly sugared friend wasn’t mad at him, and that was something.
‘Hell yes.’ He grabbed one. ‘Thank you.’
The pair sat in silence, munching down hard on their bars. It was only when Kushal had polished off his in record time that he turned to Jacob and spoke.
‘So, are you going to leave me hanging any longer, or are you going to get on with the rolling?’
Jacob swallowed, trying not to choke with laughter.
‘Sorry, we’re running a little behind schedule today.’ He reached into his pockets and retrieved the goods: dice, notebook and a handful of hope.
‘I can see that, but I need to know if I’m going to have toclean your room today or not. I’m already very busy.’ A sly smirk pulled at the corners of Kushal’s mouth.
‘Sure you are, buddy.’ Jacob laid the notebook in front of him, clasping the dice and squeezing them tight in his fist.
He closed his eyes and, with a deep breath in, began to shake the dice in his hand.
Two shakes and a roll. Show me, Universe, where I should go …
As the two cubes spilled out across the wooden table, Jacob scrunched his eyes tighter. Was he ready to see an odd number staring back up at him? Could he stand the disappointment when he was already feeling so fragile?
‘NO WAY!’ Kushal yelped, causing Jacob’s eyes to snap open and his heart to fill with expectation. ‘It’s evens … evens is good, right?’
A three and a five.
Permission to go.
‘Yes, it’s good!’ Jacob roared, snatching up the dice and holding them close to his chest. ‘I mean, not good because I won’t get to sit here and give myself type two diabetes every day with you, but yes, it’s good.’
‘OK, now what? What happens now?’ The joy in the boy’s eyes was almost enough to bring Jacob to tears. He was really going to miss his friend.
‘Now I roll again and the number will correspond to a list of countries in the back of my book. Then I roll again to find out where in that country I’ll end up.’
‘What if you roll the same country, and roll the same number as before?’
‘Then I stay where I am.’
‘This feels quite complicated for something that’s meant to be random.’ Kushal scowled, scratching his baby-haired chin.
‘Oi, don’t question the process, please. We’ve got a job to do.’ Jacob released the dice once more and let them fall.
