Kye woke up that Wednesday morning early, which was unusual for Kye since usually he wakes up either on time or late. He crawled out of bed and walked to his door, it was about three hours until his mom would come wake him up. He went to the bathroom to take a shower then back to his room to put his hearing aids in. Once he had them in he made his way to the. "Ok, I have about two hours to make breakfast and my lunch. I think I'll make a bacon and pepper omelet for mom and tamales for lunch. I'll go ahead and prep the tamales then while they steam I'll make breakfast." Kye thought as he started to gather everything he needed for homemade tamales. He laid everything out on the counter and go started.
Isabel walked into the kitchen while her son was cooking breakfast about an hour later. She could smell all the different ingredients that Kye was using and smiled. He hadn't noticed her yet, so she slowly walked to the counter and took a seat on a bar stool. Kye turned around and jumped when he saw his mom sitting there.
"Hey mom, breakfast is almost done. I also made my own tamales for lunch today for my friends and I."
"Gracias Hijo."
"You're welcome Mamá"
Kye continued to cook, releasing the steam from the steamer and putting the omelets onto plates. He set one in front of his mother and starting piling all the tamales into a large container before sitting down in front of his mother and eating his own breakfast. He had about ten minutes before he had to head to the bus stop. He tried to eat quickly so he could double check his bag and finish getting ready. There wasn't a lot of talking at breakfast, or at most meals in their household. Kye was done before his mother and bolted to his room to finish getting ready.
He slipped his shoes on and fixed his hair. He opened his backpack and made sure he had everything before heading out of the apartment to the bus stop. They sun wasn't up yet, but it was the perfect temperature for skateboarding, Kye decided he would head to the skatepark today after school, as long as we wasn't needed at the restaurant. The bus pulled up and Kye climbed on, taking his new regular seat. Erin glanced up and gave the deaf teen a small smile, almost not even there. Kye smiled wide, and raised his hand for a high five.
"Why are we high fiving?"
"Because why not." Kye stated as he continued to hold his hand up
"No, I'm good." Erin says turning back to his book, hiding his smile.
Kye pouted and dropped his hand back down to his lap. Kye crossed his arms and continued to pout for almost ten minutes until he heard a loud sigh and a book close.
"Are you going to sulk for the entire bus ride because of me not high fiving you."
"Yes, Yes I am." Kye pouts.
"You're such a child." Erin says, but he contradicts himself by holding out his fist. Kye perks up and fist bumps Erin. Erin rolls his eyes and opens his book back up. Kye smiled to himself for the rest of their bus ride to school. His smile didn't drop once until the bus stopped and Erin climbed off without him, not even bothering to wait for him. Kye frowned as Erin climbed off and got lost in the crowd heading into the cafeteria without even a fraction of a second to wait for Kye. Kye was last off the bus and just like everyday Finley was waiting outside of the school. Kye had a small smile when he saw his childhood friend.
"Aw why so frowny? Did new boy ditch you on the bus?" Finley teased. Kye pushed him, but didn't argue. Finley laughed as the two walked through the doors of the cafeteria. They quickly walked over to their usual table where Mae and Erin already were. The two were smiling and laughing. As soon as Erin saw Kye he looked the other direction as if the wall was suddenly fascinating. Mae turned to the two boys and smiled, gesturing to the empty seats, next to herself and next to Erin. Finley sat next to Mae across from Kye who was next to Erin. Erin acted as if Kye hadn't sat next to him and continued to talk to Mae, not noticing the way Kye watched him as he spoke. Finley poked his childhood friend's cheek to get his attention.
"Dude, cool it with the staring."
"Sorry, I zoned out," Kye admitted. It wasn't a lie, he had zoned out, staring at the way that Erin's plump lips formed words and smiled as he talked to Mae. Kye turned back to Finley and started to talk to him about band, trying to ignore the thoughts that crept into the back of his mind. Kye wasn't in band but he knew that Finley was and he wanted to know when the first football game was. Finley always had a huge smile on his face when talking about music. Finley had been playing music since he could hold a pair of drumsticks. When it came time to join middle school band Finley had jumped at the chance. Sadly the band didn't have a position for Finley's favorite instrument, the violin. Finley had instead opted to play percussion, his second favorite thing to play. He had quickly learned anything he didn't already know and became a school favorite.
"So, does anyone want to hangout after school today?" Mae asks the group.
"I'm not busy, I'll be there. Where is there anyways?" Finley asks and Mae shrugs.
"I would have to ask my mom if I'm needed at the restaurant." Kye states pulling out his phone.
"My dad won't mind." Erin says doing the same as Kye.
"Perfect, we could go to the old park across town, I'll drive." Finley says.
"Cool, so everyone meet out front of the school after final bell. We'll pile up into Fin's car and head over to the old park. Would anyone need to go home first?" Mae explained as Finley looked at her confused.
"Did you just call me Fin?" He sounded confused, but not angry.
"Yeah, I shorten everyone's names if it makes sense. Erin and Kye can't really be shortened."
"Ok then."
"So, like I said does anyone need to go home before we go to the park?"
Erin reaches down into his bag and checks the secret pocket for his vape. Once he confirms it was there he just told Mae he had everything he would need and she smiled.
"So, what's so cool about this old park?" Erin asks.
"Nothing too special. It has a large creek that flows through it. A kid had fallen in once and almost drowned. The equipment was getting really old so instead of fixing it they just built a new playground by the library, which is so much better anyways because the old playground wasn't near anything, just by itself." Kye explains.
"So how long has it been abandoned?"
"Since 2005, although it's technically not abandoned since teens still go there to throw big parties but it's usually empty," Mae explains right as the bell rings.
Erin sat in his third hour business class taking notes when an unwanted thought slithered into his head, about Kye. "Kye's eyes are really pretty, sure most people wouldn't notice them because they're distracted by how built he is." Erin shook his head to clear his mind but it didn't work to get rid of the thoughts. "His hazel eyes stand out against his caramel skin. Did you notice the way they lit up when you fist bumped him?" Erin's thoughts are running rampant in his brain. He's used to this happening about things, a new book, his driver's test, and anything that excites him. What he doesn't like is how quickly his thoughts seem to be falling into 'crush mode' and Erin is not ready for that so soon after getting into a new school. Erin decided to try and focus all of his attention on his notes on leasing a building.
Once third hour was over Erin had basically already forgotten about those thoughts, that is until he ran head first into Kye in the hallway. Luckily neither teen was hurt, both of them were just shaken and surprised.
"Oh, hey Erin. Sorry I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Kye apologized.
"Yeah, no it's okay. It's not like I fell or anything doofus. Just keep your lanky limbs to yourself and watch where you're going." Erin teased. Despite only being two inches shorter than the basketball player, Erin felt like he was looking up at a giant when Kye stood in front of him.
"Yeah, I'll do that." Kye joked.
"Hey, Kye how tall are you?" Erin suddenly said, mentally face palming himself for it.
"Oh, 5'9. Why do you ask? You've gotta be like 5'6, you're not much shorter than me."
"Yeah, I'm 5'7. Sorry I don't know why I asked" Erin chewed his bottom lip and left quickly.
Kye was confused when Erin walked away towards his fourth hour.
"Maybe he's just tired." Kye thought as he opened the door to his english class. Kye had only known Erin for a couple days but he was pretty sure he knew the teen's personality pretty well, at least the basics of it. Erin was closed off and cold towards others, but the Erin that ran into him in the hallway was odd. He seemed nervous and eager to leave, he was very easy to read. Kye shrugged it off as being a teenager for he himself had moments where he knew he wasn't acting how he normally would, but still. Erin was arguably adorable when he was seemingly flustered. Kye smiled to himself as class started with that thought in his mind.
It was almost lunch time and Erin decided to leave a little early. He grabbed his phone and slipped it into his pocket, he grabbed his pencil bag and made a beeline for the teacher's desk, acting as if it was an emergency.
"Sir, can I go to the restroom." Erin said clutching the pencil bag.
"Erin, there are only a few minutes left of class can't you hold it?"
"Sir, It's a...female emergency."
All of Erin's teachers knew that he was trans, he was forced to put it in his school forms. Luckily the laws were changed back in 2021 for his state, he was allowed to use the boys bathroom and play on any boy teams he wanted. Erin looked at his teacher with fake urgency in his eyes.
"I thought testosterone stopped periods." The teacher stated in a whisper.
"Sure, is this really appropriate? I could go through an explanation but I don't think you want blood on your floor." Erin said causing the teacher to grimace.
"Fine, go to the bathroom but if the bell rings the door will be locked until after lunch."
Erin thanked the teacher and left the room. He smiled when he got into the hall and started making his way to the cafeteria. Once he reached the doors to the cafeteria he stood in a small alcove, hidden from the staff that was already inside. He decided to wait there until the bell rang and let a few students walk in before he followed them. Erin was the third person in line and he smiled to himself. Once he got to the table Mae was setting down her bag.
"No lyre today?"
"Didn't feel like it. How did you get here so early?"
"I said I had to go to the bathroom, after lunch I'll go grab my bag from the college prep class."
"Smart, I've done that a few times. Although, they typically don't let anyone go so close to lunch unless. How did you get him to let you go?"
Erin thought for a second before replying.
"I threatened to pee on his desk."
Mae laughed loudly as Kye and Finley walked up to the table. Erin turned and gave the other two a small smile. Kye returned the smile as he sat down, setting a large food container on the table.
"More food for all of us?" Erin asked as he reached for the container.
"Yeah, I woke up early this morning and decided to make tamales from scratch."
"Oh sick, hell yeah." Finley said as Erin opened the container and took a deep breath in.
"These smell so good dude" Erin said and Kye smiled. Mae reached over and grabbed one. Everyone else followed suite and started eating.
"so what were you laughing about when we showed up?" Finley asked turning to face Mae.
"Oh, Erin threatened to pee on Mr. Forester's desk so he could get out of class."
Kye and Finley both started laughing and Mae couldn't help but join in. Soon enough the whole table was laughing loudly, drawing attention to them. Sadly a choice group of students noticed that the container of tamales seemed to be sitting in front of Erin and Mae, the two laughing the loudest. The group at the next table over decided to comment on it.
"Can you two fatties go back to shoving food in your face and shut up?" A guy snapped throwing a french fry at Erin. Mae bit her tongue so she didn't snap, she was used to cruel words being thrown at her. Erin stood to his feet, but Kye was faster. Before anyone could say anything else Kye had punched the guy square in the nose, causing blood to rush down his face. The guy's friend jumped to his feet and swung at Kye, missing by an inch.
"You deaf freak!"
He lunged for Kye and got the same treatment as his buddy, a broken nose. A teacher finally rushed over and dragged both groups to the office. Erin stared at Kye as they walked. A fire burned in Kye's hazel eyes, and lit another within Erin. No one had ever really fought for Erin, except his mother. Kye looked over at Erin with confusion. Erin didn't say anything, he just gave Kye a large smile. Kye's heart stopped when he saw Erin smile, up until now Erin had only given Kye small grins and smirks. Kye couldn't stop smiling even when the principal said he would be suspended for two days and his mother was called. Kye didn't know what punishment his mother would give him, but whatever it was it would have been worth it to defend his friends.
Kye wasn't sent home, he was told to finish that school day at not come back tomorrow or the day after. The other kid was sent home and would only be gone for a day, since he started the interaction but didn't throw a punch. Erin and Mae were apologized to by both the principal and the boy that insulted them. The school had been extremely strict on bullying after an incident a few years back. Kye went to his fifth hour and sat in his seat, waiting for the day to be over.
The final bell rang, ending the school day. Kye apologized to his friends for not being able to go to the park after school. None of them were upset with him for fighting.
"If you hadn't punched I would have." Erin said gritting her teeth
"I know Erin, I would have loved to see that," Kae said, "I gotta get to the restaurant, see y'all in two days."
Kye got onto his bus as the other three climbed into Finley's car. Erin sat in the back by himself as Mae took the front passenger seat.
"So, we're surprising Kye at the restaurant right?" Finley said and Mae smiled.
"Of course, I love Reúnanse y coman. They have the best Chile Rellenos," Mae stated.
"Cool, so who needs to go home and grab money?" Finley asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"I do, I'll show you the way." Mae answered.
"Why didn't we all just take our busses home?" Erin asked.
"Because this is funner and the busses stink." Finley said as Mae lead him to her house.
The three made it to Mae's house. Mae lived a little bit outside of town, in the less crowded area. When Finley pulled into the long driveway Erin looked around. There were a few apple trees and the house had a huge plot of land, a good portion was wooded. The two story house sat in the large field with a small building off the side and large area of woods in the back.
"Y'all can come inside. Most of my siblings are dispersed at different places until it's time for us all to be home."
"How many siblings do you have? Finley asked as they all climbed out.
"Oh, there are about six of us."
"Six?!" Erin exclaimed as they made their way up the small sidewalk. As an only child Erin didn't like the thought of having that many siblings around.
"Yeah, luckily this is a pretty large house so no one has to share a room now that the twins and Garrett are out of the house."
"How many rooms are in this house?" Finley asked as they stepped inside.
"Five bedrooms, a living room, two and a half bathrooms, a kitchen with pantry, a basement, the two car garage, and the pool house. I can give you a tour if you want."
"Mae why didn't you tell me you were a rich kid?" Erin exclaims as he looks around the large room.
"Because I didn't want you to base our friendship on my parents money. My parents are big time lawyers, they work at my Great Grandfather's law firm, and we inherited this house from my mother's mom," She gestured towards a family photo that hung above the fireplace. Erin walked over to it and saw a large family surrounding a small elderly lady, fancifully dressed. Mae stood out in the picture with her lime green contacts and aquamarine hair.
"Well, I'm not going to ask you to buy me things if that's what you're thinking?" Erin said.
"I might." Finley joked.
"Cool, I can give you guys the tour real quick and go grab my wallet."
Mae walked her friends around the house like she had promised. She walked them through the large living room and stopped as they looked around.
"Is that a cat walk? What's the funnest thing to drop off the catwalk?" Finley asked excitedly.
"Definitely water balloons of glitter, frankly I think our parents drop more on us than we do on them." Mae laughs as the walk into the kitchen.
"Frankly it's pretty boring down here, the film room and all the bedrooms are upstairs." Mae explains as she leads her friends back through the living room and to staircase. They all walk upstairs and to the left. Mae opens a white door with her name painted on it. The room wasn't extremely large, but it did have a ladder in the far corner. There were shelves everywhere, covered in plants, animals bones, jars of random things, and so many different odds and ends that just wrapped up perfectly for Mae. There was a low sitting table by the full length mirror that was covered in roses, candles, and different trinkets of swans and dolphins. another smaller table had more candles and crystals, that is also where Mae's Lyre sat behind a statue of Apollo.
"Where does that ladder go?" Finley asked.
"Oh, it leads to a small little nook area that leads out to the roof. You can head up there if you want, the roof is pretty flat, but that doesn't mean you can goof around and fall."
Finley excitedly climbed out of sight, leaving the other two teens alone in Mae's room.
"So, this is a pretty big house." Erin said looking around her room.
"Yeah, My family got kinda rich from my Great Grandfather's law firm, then My Grandmother started designing and building houses and got even more money from that. This is a custom built house, she designed it about ten years ago."
"That's pretty cool. My grandmother died when I was a little kid, so I never got to know her."
"I'm sorry." Mae put her hand on her friend's shoulder and he shrugged it off.
"It's all good, we should probably make sure Finley didn't fall." Erin said as he climbed the ladder and crawled into the small space, then out of the window onto the roof. When he got out onto the area he notice Finley doing TikTok dances on the roof. He was far enough from the edge to not fall but it still made Erin very nervous to see his new friend doing something so stupid.
"What on earth are you doing?" Erin said, causing Finley to jump back and stumble.
"What the hell man?!" Finley shouted.
"I didn't mean to scare you," Erin defended himself as Finley stood to his feet. Finley brushed off his jeans and placed a hand of Erin's shoulder.
"It's alright dude, I'm fine."
The two teens made their way back inside to find Mae gathering things into a small backpack.
"Are we all ready to head out?" Mae asked and the other two nodded. The three teens made their way back downstairs.
"So where are all of your siblings?" Erin asked as they took their seats back in the car.
"oh well, Garret, Jessica, and Xavier are in out of the house. Jessica went to a university in Pennsylvania, Garret is out living in a small apartment with his roommate near his college, he didn't earn any scholarships and so he took out a small loan while mom and dad help him. My parents believe in earning and not just getting, so of course they only help when he really needs it and he has work, Xavier is taking a year off. My little siblings, Dexter and Vic are off with their friends or at school clubs. I already texted my mom that I won't be home by the necessary time." Mae went on a long ramble about her siblings and her the rest of her family and it filled the drive to Erin's house. Once they stopped, so had Mae's talking.
"Let me just go in and get my wallet." Erin said as he climbed out of the car.
The three finally made it to Reúnanse y coman pretty quickly. Climbing out of the carm Erin noticed that the parking lot was pretty empty. The group made their way inside and looked around, five tables were full and there was one group of twenty people at the back by the kitchen.
"Hola Finley, how have you been?" Isabel said as she made her way to the group.
"I've been good mama, is Kye working the floor tonight?" Finley asks looking around.
"He is not, he is on dishes for the next two weeks as punishment for the fight at school. Now, introduce your new friends here."
"This is Erin Laemer and Mae Maxwell."
"I just moved here a few days ago, I ride Kye's bus and he wouldn't take rejection so I was forced to be friends with them." Erin says with a smile.
"That's Kye for you, once he feels drawn towards a person he won't let them go. He has a big heart and a lot of love to go around. Now why don't I get you three seated and I'll let Kye be your waiter for tonight, so he can get a little conversation in." Isabel leads the three to a booth at the back by the kitchens and sets menus in front of them. She takes their drink orders and walks away, leaving the three teens to their conversation.
"So, when's the first football game Finn?" Mae asks
"It's September 7th, it's next Friday."
Awesome, I can't wait," Mae said excitedly as Kye walked up with their drinks.
"Can't wait for what?" Kye asked as he set the drinks around.
"The football game," Erin answered taking a sip of his tea.
"Yeah, I'm always excited for the football games."
Erin starts to look at the menu while Kye talks with the other two teens. There wasn't a large selection of foods but everything sounded so good that Erin had a hard time deciding, especially while his friend's were trying to get him to conversate. Finally when it got around time to ordering Erin decided on Chile Relleno .
The trio waited for their food and snacked on the chips and salsa during that time.
"We'll go the park once Kye is ungrounded." said Finley, taking a sip of his drink.
"No worries, I mean it's just an old park, how special can it be." Erin scoffed.
"Well, I go there to collect flowers and stones from the creek. There's some myrtles growing around there and a few sage plants, if you know where to look." Mae said.
"Why do you need myrtle and sage? Are you some kind of witch or something?" Finley laughed.
"Yes, actually. The myrtle goes on my altar and the sage is for smoke cleansing."
"Oh s**t, I was joking. I didn't know people still did witchcraft and stuff." Finn choked.
"Did you not see my altar when you were in my room? It's kind of hard to miss, all the candles, crystals, roses, and everything." Mae explained as Kye set the food down in front of the trio
"Oh really? Is your altar for honoring a certain deity?" Kye asked.
"Yeah, the one by my mirror is for Aphrodite, who I've work with for almost two years now. I have another altar by my window that's for Apollo, I've only worked with him for about four months now."
"Is that why you play the Lyre?" Erin asked taking a big bite of his food, instant regret. Erin covered his mouth with his hand as he breathed heavily to cool off the food that instantly burned his tongue.
"No, you fireless dragon. I've played the Lyre since I was nine." Mae explained as she blew on her pork carefully as to not make the same mistake her friend just did.
"Did you just call me a fireless dragon?" Erin laughed as he swallowed his food.
"Yeah, you were breathing like a dragon with no fire cause your dumb a*s bit into your food to quick."
Finley laughed and Erin threw a chip at both of them, causing a small chip war to break out just as Kye was coming to refill Mae's drink.
"Come on guys, I have to clean that up once you leave." The teen groaned as he poured the tea into the girl's cup.
"Come on Kye, lighten up." Finley jokes.
Kye send a playful glare towards his childhood friend before leaving once again for the kitchens.
The trio leave the restaurant about two hours later and Finley drops Erin off before heading back to Mae's house to take her home. Erin walks up the steps to his front door and waves to his dad on his way to his room.
"Aren't you gonna say hello Callie??" Nathan called, Erin was only three steps upstairs.
"I'll say hello when you call me by my proper name." Erin snapped.
"I did, Callie is your proper name. Erin is just your fake name, sooner or later you'll realize that and you'll start acting like my little girl again."
Erin didn't justify the comment with a response, instead he made his way to his room to read a book until he fell asleep.
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