No, Zareen shook his head, he shouldn't doubt his brother, maybe his brother had met some new friends or got distracted. That's right, he thought, Tykeim probably just lost track of time and when he realizes it, he'll come to meet Zareen and then they will walk home together. 

Zareen smiled after convincing himself and continued waiting. Continued sitting on the sidewalk as the school buses left, as the other children got picked up in cars, as the last group of children left,until it was only him left in front of the school. By himself, with nothing but the ants to keep him company. 

Maybe I should text him, Zareen thought to himself as his hands slid into his pocket to pick up his phone. Zareen was getting tired of waiting and his butt was getting sore from sitting on the concrete sidewalk for so long. 

‘Hey, when are you coming to pick me up?’ 

                                                                                                                     Delivered

Zareen bit his lip as he waited for a response. When he didn't receive one he sent out another text.

                                                          ‘You haven't forgotten about me have you?’ 

                                                                                                                                    Delivered

The sun was beating down on Zareen's head causing sweat to roll down his face as he tugged his hoodie.

                                                   ‘You're still going to walk home with me right?’

                                                                                                                                    Delivered

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                      ‘Right Ty?’

                                                                                                                                     Delivered

                                                                                                                                  ‘Ty?’

                                                                                                                                     Delivered

Zareen stared down at the screen but his brother never texted him back nor read any of his messages. I should have none better than to get my hopes up, Zareen thought to himself. He let out a sigh, accidentally swiping the screen to his notifications. Oh? It looked like there were a few messages from Kiante. Zareen had nearly forgotten about his neighbor up until now. Well, it wouldn't hurt to check his messages now, he thought, feeling a bit guilty for not seeing them earlier. 

Good morning! 

Read

Hey, today is your first day of school right?

Read

I hope you have a good first day of school and make lots of friends! 

Read

Zareen didn't notice the smile creeping on his face as he read the purple haired boy's messages. Instantly feeling better than he had before. However before he could write back another message came through.

I see you.

Read

Zareen froze for a moment, blinking in surprise trying to comprehend the sentence when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Ah!" 

Zareen screamed, jumping up clutching his phone as laughter rang out from behind him. 

"It's okay, it's okay! It's just me Z!" 

Zareen turned around to find his purple haired neighbor clutching his stomach as he continued laughing. 

"Y-you scared me." Zareen felt his cheeks heating up as he held his phone against his body as he slowly huffed. 

"My bad, I wasn’t expecting you to jump up like that.” Kiante finally stopped laughing and straightened his body. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you." 

"Oh no, you're fine." Zareen reassured him.

"Good. Now," Kiante put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow."Just what are you doing out here sitting on the sidewalk by yourself looking all mopey?" 

"Uh…I was waiting for my big brother to walk home with me." Zareen glanced in the direction of the highschool. Kiante followed his gaze.

"He goes to the high-school?" 

"Yeah." 

"And he hasn't shown up yet?" Kiante’s yellow eyes narrowed.

"No…" 

"How long have you been waiting?" His yellow eyes turned back to Zareen’s figure.

"I…don't know.” Zareen furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged.“I haven’t been paying attention to the time."

“What about your mom? She can’t come pick you up?”

“No,” Zareen shook his head.“She's at work.”

"Your brother hasn’t contacted you?"

"No,” Zareen shook his head again. “But I texted him. He didn't answer." 

Silence hung in the air as the smile faded on his neighbor's face.  

"He didn't answer?" Kiante repeated, his face disturbingly blank as he stared at Zareen. 

"No…" 

Zareen nervously watched as the older boy’s hands clenched into fists. Why was Kiante getting upset? Zareen frowned and shifted his feet in place. It wasn’t like he was the one who forgot about Zareen and left him waiting for who knows how long out in the sun. This has nothing to do with him, Zareen thought, so why is it bothering him so much?  

"Tsk," 

Kiante clicked his tongue, turning his head away from him as he ran his hand through his lavender hair before setting his gaze back on Zareen with a big smile, his face no longer expressionless as his yellow eyes lit up.

"I’ve come to a decision! Forget your brother -for I,”Kiante placed a hand to his chest.“Your dearest and most handsome neighbor will have the honor of walking you home."

"Huh?" Zareen blinked at the older purple haired boy with wide eyes and his mouth slightly agape. Were his ears working right? Surely his neighbor was just joking. 

"Come on, let's go home." Kiante swung a slender arm around Zareen’s shoulders, pulling the dazed younger boy to his side. 

It looks like Kiante wasn’t kidding, Zareen thought, glancing up at his neighbor. Truthfully, Zareen wasn’t opposed to the idea of walking home with his…interesting neighbor but…

“You really don’t mind?” Zareen asked, still filled with doubts. 

Again, Kiante didn’t have to do this, didn’t have to walk him home,didn’t have to help Zareen, didn’t have to cheer him up, didn’t have to involve himself with Zareen at all. Yet, this was the second time the older teenager had chosen to be in Zareen’s company. Almost as if he didn’t mind being around Zareen’s presence. And that was something Zareen had a hard time wrapping his head around.

“Not in the slightest.” Kiante replied, his yellow eyes flickered with warmth and tenderness as he met Zareen’s puzzled expression before giving him a closed eye smile and turning his head away.   

Zareen continued staring at Kiante’s face for a few seconds before moving his gaze to the concrete below them. The two walked side by side on the sidewalk, their book bags occasionally brushing against each other. I must be seeing things, Zareen thought to himself as he watched their combined shadows moving together on the sidewalk. He had to be imagining things, for why else would Kiante look at him like that? 

Zareen recalled how his neighbor reacted earlier after he told him about his brother accidentally forgetting about him. Kiante was acting weird then too, his usually smiling face turning expressionless was a bit unnerving. Then again, I could be overthinking it, Zareen thought to himself. Maybe this is how Kiante usually acts. This was his second time interacting with the boy outside of texting, so Zareen wasn’t completely used to the older boy or his behavior. 

“So, how was your first day of school?” Kiante asked, bringing Zareen out of his thoughts.

“Huh? Oh, it was okay. It'll take me a while to get used to everything, but all my teachers seem nice.”

“Good thing you didn’t move here too late in the year, 'cus then it would have been a pain trying to catch up. You're lucky it's still the beginning of school, it shouldn't take you long to adjust.” 

“Yeah, I don’t think my mom took into consideration that school would have already begun once we got here.” 

His mother was just eager to move away from Honey Hill. Zareen still remembered the day his mother told him and Tykeim that they were moving. A rare smile lit his mother’s face and she was holding papers in her hands-divorce papers Zareen learned later on. That day was the happiest he had ever seen his mother but the news had the opposite effect on his brother. Tykeim never said a word, in fact he looked quite detached from the news as his mother celebrated but Zareen could tell his brother was holding back tears. Zareen watched as his mother popped open a bottle of wine to continue celebrating by herself and his brother retreated to his room, closing the door behind him where he remained until the next day. Looking back on it, it appeared that their mother’s decision to move had something to do with their dad.

“Speaking of your mom, what does she do?” Kiante asked curiously.

“She is a nurse. She got a job at the ER at the hospital downtown.” Zareen answered with a small smile.

His mother was very proud of her job and put her job first before anything, even her own children. 

“That's cool, your mom is out there saving lives.” Kiante laughed. “While my mom is out here educating young minds. She is a pre-k teacher and works at the local daycare. My mom is popular among the children, they absolutely love her.” 

Kiante spoke fondly of his mother, his yellow eyes softening as he talked about her and bragged about her popularity at her job. 

“Your mom sounds really nice.”

Zareen couldn’t help but feel a small pinch of jealousy in his gut. Sometimes he wished his own mother could be a little nicer but he knew there was no changing his mother.  

“She is, but sometimes I think she is too nice.” Kiante narrowed his eyes and a frown tug at his lips before switching back to his regular smile.

“Looks like we made it home.” 

Kiante stopped walking and Zareen did the same, glancing around as he realized that they had stopped in front of his house. He didn’t even notice when they had walked into their own neighborhood.

“Thanks again for walking me home. You didn’t have to.” Zareen thanked Kiante while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Again, I didn’t mind but you're welcome. Especially since your brother bailed on you.” 

“Tykeim probably forgot that I asked him to walk me home. Sometimes he can be a little…forgetful.” Zareen tried to defend his brother but Kiante threw him an unimpressed look.

“ Yeah, sure he is.” 

“Anyway,” Zareen cleared his throat, his eyes moving away from his neighbor and towards his house. “He is probably waiting for me inside.”

“Are you sure about that?” Sharp yellow eyes examined his house.“The house looks pretty empty to me.”

“Well, he should be inside but if he went out somewhere,I’m sure he would've called or texted me to let me know.”

Zareen tried to defend his brother again and Kiante raised an eyebrow.

“How about you go check your house first? I’ll wait right here for you just in case.”

Zareen nodded and turned to walk into his house. He tried the door, but it was locked, forcing him to dig into his pocket for the house key. Once he unlocked the door, he took a few steps inside. There were no lights turned on and it was so silent that he could hear his own footsteps echoing inside the house.

“Ty? I’m home. Are you here?” Zareen called out but he didn’t receive an answer. 

Confused, Zareen searched the house starting from the bottom floor and up to the top floor, but he couldn’t find Tykeim anywhere or any evidence that he had even made it to the house before him. With a defeated sigh, Zareen returned outside back to Kiante.

“Ty isn’t here, the house is empty.” 

“I figured, that's why while you were in there confirming, I called my grandparents to ask if you could come over to my house.” Kiante smiled, showing off his straight white teeth. “They would love to have you over, if that's fine with you. They are out running errands right now so it’ll just be us.”

“I…” Zareen hesitated before continuing. “I’ll come over but first let me text Ty to let him know-”

“You shouldn’t bother. If he didn’t see your other texts, I highly doubt he’ll see this one. Plus you're just next door.”

Kiante interrupted him, rolling his eyes at the mention of his brother.

“Okay.” Zareen relented, his hand that was about to pull out his phone returning into his hoodie pocket.

“Great, just follow me. You're probably hungry so let's go straight to the kitchen. I’ll fix you something to eat.” 

“You don’t hav-”

“Zareen, you're going to be fed whether you like it or not. It's part of our house rule to feed guests.”

Kainte cut him off again, closing his eyes and strolling towards the house next door with his arms folded behind his head. 

“Fine, you win Kiante.” Zareen couldn’t argue against house rules.

Zareen sighed, unable to come up with anything else as he followed behind his tall neighbor. Kiante opened the door, holding it open for him with a smirk.

“That's right Z, I always win.”