As Lane shuffled away, he trembled. The circles of sweat under his armpits grew bigger and it was not because of the heat from the kitchen. He sat himself on the counter and let the tap run beside him as he revisited the list in his head for what else he had to complete: there was a pudding to set, biscuits to bake, vegetables to boil and so much more. He splashed some of the water on his face and sighed, afraid he might not be able to get everything ready in time or serve any dinner at all. He could’ve asked Lois for a hand if she wasn’t at her ballet lessons.  Kenny being here only made things more complicated as he had to attend to him as well. Worse of all, the whole ‘dog episode’ had put a rough start to what was already a topsy-turvy night. He felt awful – the image of his best friend helpless and shaken up flashing across his eyes. He had told him to go take a warm shower while he did the rest of the prep work.

“Lane?” Kenny called as he entered, “need a hand?”

He didn’t notice it, but he was staring quite intently, with his head tilted under the weight of a thousand thoughts. Something was…different. A good different, that Lane most certainly enjoyed the feeling of. The feeling of finally reaching home after an endless voyage except the home was…Kenny. He had been shooting down this feeling for ages and yet, it had never left – it had been love at first sight….or first day. He had rolled his luggage out the airport to knock into the most dark, most handsome face he had ever seen, and he still agreed that his twelve-year-old self had excellent taste. The first hour had been silent, none of them knew each other, they told each other their name and that was it. Yet as time went by, they had started talking, and Lane realized he was so much more. Nothing like the ‘friends’ he had at school: the students he kept at his side by feeding them useless -  sometimes even vile gossip, even though he knew they never truly cared.  It was like a transaction: they talk to him if he has some dirt to share. On the other hand, Kenny listened. He hadn’t known much English, heck half whatever he had said that day was Slovakian back to back, but Kenny had listened and tried to figure it out. He grasped every word that came out of Lane’s mouth with admiration even if it was nothing to admire.

“Lane?” Kenny said, “everything alright? Should I give you a hand?”

“No! No you shouldn’t” Lane snapped, “Please, go make yourself at home”

He dropped down from his seat and bashfully bit his lip while Kenny scratched his head, weighing himself from one foot to the other.

“Where’s Lois?” he asked roaming around for a bit, unsure what exactly he was supposed to do.

“Ballet lessons” Lane groaned, “I was supposed to have swimming today, but I stayed home” He thought about it. Even if Lois was home, she might not have been the most useful in the kitchen. Kenny looked back at Lane in confusion.

“I thought you did figure skating”

“I do both” Lane shrugged, “does my form not tell you that?” he asked sarcastically, posing quite well despite the bowl that occupied his hands. Kenny averted his gaze, seemingly shrinking into the pot on the stove that he was supervising.

“Uh…” Kenny thought, “Your form? yeah I guess it does… well, I never really looked all that well.” He replied. “May I please help you? You can’t get this all done on your own” Kenny asked while tiptoeing over the stove to stir the milk and eggs for the pudding, clearly trying to move along the conversation.  Poor thing was too short to see over the top of the stock pot. Lane sighed and nodded. “Don’t we need aprons?”

“We’re not cooking for the queen” Lane chuckled and proceeded with whisking the cookie batter. The slightest aroma of warm milk started wafting through the kitchen as the mixture started to bubble, attracting the cats meowing and purring sweetly towards them.

He noticed Percy’s large paw slowly creep and poke by the doorway.

“Ugh” he groaned, “I told you I don’t want you around this place!”

Kenny looked back at him in confusion, jumping back when he noticed his attacker had pursued them back in, “Good dog” he whimpered, “please don’t eat me”. He stood there frozen at his place, only his eyes tracing the pet’s path as it slowly came over to Lane, his ears drooping and head bowed in forgiveness. Lane giggled: if Percy were to stand on her hind legs, she’d be taller than Kenny by a long shot.

“Sorry?” Lane raised his eyebrow, “You realize you would have killed him had I not been there!”

“He k-k-kills??!!!” Kenny’s voice went up an octave. Lane winced – not that the dog had killed anyone. Not yet. But they have had several warnings that the dog was being a little too threatening and rough when playing about. He maintained his scowl, his green eyes flaring daggers at the big black beast that got on his belly, nudging his painted toes with his big black nose as he whined and pleaded at his feet.

“A few squirrels…” he cringed.“I’m not accepting your apology until you get pardoned by Kenny!” Lane harumphed. Kenny’s eyes widened larger than they already were. He watched, biting his lip to stifle himself from giggling while his dog slinked slowly to Kenny, getting on the floor and pleading the same way. His heart melted.

“I forgive you.” Kenny said abruptly. “Good boy.” He was shivering as he put up a thumbs up and a forced smile. Shaking his head and sighing, Lane put the bowl down and opened his arms for Percy to bound into. Back when he was a bit younger, he could have fit the thing in his embrace, now that he was older, he was large enough to knock Lane backward. He cackled and squirmed, pushing the fluffy off himself as he got salved with dog spit and bitten gently. From the corner of his eye, he caught Kenny standing there, his brow furrowed, his fists clenched and his pout knocked sideways on his face. Was he jealous? Was he jealous of the dog?? Maybe Lane just wanted Kenny to be jealous of the dog – maybe Kenny was just worried Percy would bite his face off too.

“OW!!” he yelped, “zasraný pekelník!” he cursed finally getting the mutt off him. Kenny wasn’t the only one in need of a bath. “Out, boy!” he ordered, chuckling as he watched it lumber away to whatever dark void it came from, following at his tail to open the door.

“Oh! Hey Percy!” coincidentally Timothy had been reaching for the bell when Lane had opened it, “who’s a good boy?” he exclaimed picking up Percy gently by the front paws and dancing around while the big wolf wagged its tail and lapped its tongue in excitement.

“Leave him outside, Tim” Lane whined to himself pointlessly. He dragged his feet behind Timothy who enthusiastically invited himself and the dog that followed him to plop down on the couch. Lane could do nothing but look up at the invisible forces in the sky and wonder if they really existed.

“Am I too early?” Timothy asked, looking around as he stroked the boulder of fluff at his feet. Lane could feel his own eyes flash with annoyance at how comfortable the dog seemed to be, it’s gaze proud and happy in triumph.

“You were going to have a sleepover? Without me???!! Not a chance!” it seemed to say as it peered with a look of absolute delight at Lane, its tail thumping loudly against the carpeted floor. Throwing his hands in the air in exasperation, he decided it wasn’t worth wasting the energy on and walked away. Overwhelmed with his defeat, and all of the cooking left to be done, he walked head on into Kenny who was on his way to the living room with the pudding ready to be refrigerated.

“Dude!” Timothy cackled catching how wrecked his friend looked, “what the heck happened to you?”

“Wait, why didn’t the dog attack – AH!” he heard Kenny yelp momentarily before everything suddenly slowed down: Lane felt his momentum conduct itself through the unset dessert, sloshing its thick liquefied state to and fro wildly while the tray retreated hard into Kenny’s ribs. He lurched forward, his long arms stretching beneath and cradling the dish - locking it in place against gravity. And then, everything stood still. A small dollop of thick pudding goop escaped over the wall and splattered lightly on the floor to mark the end. Nobody moved, except for their bulging eyes jerking from tray to splatter and back to the tray and the dog that jollily trotted over and licked the evidence clean off.

“Thank goodness” Timothy whooped, “Otherwise we would have had banana-split”. Lane exchanged an unamused, tired look with Kenny, giving Timothy the signal that he better shut up.

“Kenny” Lane exhaled, “I’m so sor-“ he trembled with embarrassment, his knees wobbling beneath him and the sweat making it almost impossible to hold the glass properly.

“Nice catch” Kenny huffed, slowly balancing the dish back into his custody (or CUSTARD-Y you could say!). His soft gaze never once moved away from Lane as they searched deep within Lane’s soul, still analyzing how awful Lane felt after the incident. It made Lane smile back in return- a full smile that flashed his set of perfect pearly whites as he murmured Kenny a shy “thanks”.

Everything unfroze when Lois kicked down the door. Lane jumped, letting out a scared high-pitched squeak. Another drop- SPLAT!

“Ah.” she acknowledged, striding proudly across the hall and imprudently sticking her finger in the pudding batter, “pudding!”

“Panebože!” Lane huffed, “ste nechutný! Choď hore a umy sa!” He quietly noted Lois being sweatier than she usually was after classes and how her ballet slippers seemed dirtier than usual. He kept his suspicions to himself and moved on.

“Tastes great, Kenny!” Lois commented, Lane’s words clearly beyond her attention and continued to march on with as much dignity she can pull off with a flouncy pink tutu bouncing behind her- she pulled it off surprisingly well. She stopped to mess up Tim’s hair.

“Ballet.” Timothy said in disbelief, “Really?”

“Why?” Lois asked, doing a dramatic pirouette, “I am the epitome of grace”. She bowed with poise, despite the boys sarcastically nodding and stretching out a “Su…re” of disbelief and skipped upstairs.

“Tt.” Lane grunted, rolling his eyes.

Lane loved Lois- no, he adored her. Although, she made it very hard to show, with her rowdy behaviour. She was his box of Pandora – his diary. The volumes of tears he had shed onto her, curled up as tightly as he could, his head laying on her shoulder, could have filled a thousand leagues of the Pacific. She was younger but definitely stronger. Each tear was always full of regret and the acceptance of being rejected. Half a litre of tears, maybe even three-fourths, every time his classmates caught him alone in a corner to bully. That’s why he went around searching for Kenny when he was free – otherwise he was alone. His parents tried consoling him, but they didn’t really do a good job – they couldn’t force anyone to like him. They had done quite enough, to be honest, deciding to move from their perfect home in Slovakia to England just so Lane could express himself more freely.

‘You should’ve just stayed a girl. Then we might have actually considered giving you some of our time’

‘It’s not like you’ll ever actually be a man anyway. Freak!’

He never told anyone besides Lois how serious it was – not even Kenny. Luckily for him, it was the weekend. He wouldn’t be facing anyone for another three days. Three days he was excited to spend with people who loved and adored him.

“OW” Lane barked, rubbing the sore spot that Timothy had punched, “Why?!” Kenny was nowhere in the picture. Lane figured he probably left to put the sad pudding in the fridge before any more accidents happened to it.

“Aren’t we going to eat?” Timothy asked.

“I-“ Lane nodded, “Yeah”

“Well, let’s finish that mess in the kitchen” Tim said, pulling his messy hair back with a hairband.

Translations:

SLOVAK -zasraný pekelník: Fucking hellspawn!

              - Panebože! ste nechutný! Choď hore a umy sa!: Oh my God! You're disgusting! Go upstairs and wash yourself!

SPANISH -el gato! : kitty!