Home life was quiet since my mum’s wife died. I don’t really remember her, it had been fifteen years since my other mum had passed, so now it was just a half-empty house with a too-full fridge, an at-home artist, her trans son, and their two cats: Pip and Poyo.
Both Pip and Poyo were black cats, the only distinguishing feature being that Pip had white socks on three of his legs.
The front door was always jammed, so I hopped over the garden wall like always and shuffled with my keys until I found the right one to open the back door.
Pip greeted me by scratching at my jeans, so I stepped aside and let him run around the garden for a bit. Of course, Poyo was stretched out on the sofa like a tired old woman, because through and through she was my spirit animal.
I could tell by how hot the house was that mum wasn’t home; she always forgot to turn the heating off when she left, so I dumped my bag in the kitchen and allowed myself half an hour of Tracy Beaker re-runs before I started my maths homework.
In the end, I didn’t touch my homework, because someone knocked on the door.
“Hold on,” I called, before grabbing the wrench from the kitchen. The front door could be pried open from the inside with the proper leverage.
“You know how to keep a lady waiting,” Kehlani said when the door opened. “Now let me in, you tease.”
“Sorry Khi,” I said. “You know the lock is crap.”
Poyo rolled off the sofa and began slinking towards Khi, because the only reason she ever moved was to hop onto Kehlani’s lap.
“D’you want a fruit shoot?” I asked as I made my way into the kitchen.
“You got anything else?”
I pulled the fridge open. There were three boxes of half-eaten pizza and several cartons of almond milk amongst the compulsory piles of carrots and onions. “Not really? I think there are some Capri Sun’s under the sink.”
“Got ‘em.”
We both sat in the kitchen, me on the table with my legs dangling over the edge, sipping on tropical Capri Sun’s straight from the pouch, because a trait both Kehlani and I shared was a disregard for those crappy little orange straws.
“Heard you were helping out with the school musical.” Kehlani was homeschooled, as was her brother, so I was never really sure where she got her Southside High intel from. Probably one of the many buff guys that hung around our cul de sac for god-knows what reason that all had repeatedly tried asking Kehlani out. She’d said no, of course.
“Nosey are we?”
Kehlani raised an eyebrow.
“Not really, I guess I just sorta recruited the composer.”
“Johnny said it was Felicity.”
I opened my mouth, but she spoke before I could.
“Well, not said, but he told me.” Poyo was purring on Kehlani’s lap, so Khi scratched her behind the ears. “You have a bit of a crush on her, don’t you Luc?”
I didn’t say anything.
“Lucas, you’re grinning!”
I covered my mouth with the back of my hand. “No I’m not.”
“You’re practically giving me and Poyo a full-access show of both rows of your teeth.”
I threw my empty juice pouch at her. “Shut up.”
She caught it, of course. “What, I think it’s cuuuuute.”
“Shush.”
“Lucas gets to spend time with a pretty girl.”
“I’m already spending time with a pretty girl.”
Kehlani scrunched up her nose. “Aw, shucks, Luccy…”
I hopped down from the table and grabbed two of the pizza boxes from the fridge. “D’you wanna watch Corpse Bride?”
Kehlani saluted me. “Of course, put the DVD in Sir Lucas.”
Me and Khi had made our way through both pizza boxes, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and onto Coraline by the time mum came fumbling in through the back door. She had Pip in her hands.
“I forgot to let him back inside, didn’t I?” I said, dropping my head into my hands.
“Luckily he seemed to like it,” mum said sternly, popping Pip down. “Having a Laika party, are we?”
“Come on in here, we’ve got another half a pizza in the fridge.”
“I don’t wanna cramp your kids’ style-”
“Nonsense,” Kehlani said. “You have way more credibility than your son.”
I frowned. “Hey!”
Mum tapped her nose. “That’s true.”
I frowned deeper. “Hey!”
“I’ll put it back to the beginning,” Khi said, grabbing the remote from Poyo’s paws. “And if you wouldn’t mind fetching a couple more Capri Sun’s-”
“Already got ‘em, Cracker,” Mum said, coming back into the room with her pizza, the whole box of Capris Sun’s, and a handful of crisp packets.
“That’s my girl,” Kehlani said, accepting a juice pouch and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps, because she was a heathen who apparently loved to burn off her tongue.
Mum ruffled Khi’s hair on her way down next to me. I occupied the floor directly in front of the TV, but shuffled over so that mum could scoot in beside me.
She put an arm around my shoulder. “If I’m ever as bad as the parents in this, I implore you to go seeking for an alternative set within our walls.”
I snuggled into her. “You’d never be like this mum, you’re kind of a rockstar.”
“D’you hear that, Khi?” Mum asked, laughing. “Luc thinks I’m a ‘rockstar’.”
“As lame as it sounds, I agree with him,” Kehlani said, which made mum do that thing where she clutches her nose and makes a sort of squeaking noise.
And then we all settled into the drama of the film, occasionally passing snacks around and commenting on how awful the parents are and how Coraline should have left them in the other world. For the time being, everything feels alright.
It just me, my mum, and my best friend.
And then the doorbell rings.
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