2018

“You should really consider a haircut” Kenny mumbled, a piece of toast sandwich occupying his left cheek. He and his best friend had been arguing about a topic they had long forgotten since the lesson ended and they took their time to descend the stairs, watering it down to meaningless bickering as they exited the school building.

 “Really?” Timothy pouted, side-eyeing his friend, “reeeally? That all you got? My hair?” he exclaimed tugging a lock of Kenny’s raven tresses. “I…think you’re running out of material to insult me with, Kenster”

Kenny thrust Timothy’s hand off and clicked his tongue in annoyance and swallowing the food in his mouth. “Listen here you sorry excuse for Linguini!” Kenny started. Of course he didn’t mean it, he just wanted to prove Tim wrong.

“Whoa, hey!” Timothy gasped, “You can insult me. You CAN’T insult my cooking!”

“You can cook, he can’t. He can catch a Colette, you can’t. Same difference, Linguini” Kenny shrugged his shoulders arrogantly. A cheeky smile itching at the tips of his mouth.

“KENNY!!! I’m going to murder you-”

“That’s fair.” Kenny shrugged again, making Timothy lunge for his throat. They punched each other playfully for a while before slowly calming down to a truce.

 “Listen,” Timothy put his hands up in defense “It’s frizzy. It’s untamed. It fluffs all over my head like a lion’s mane, I get it! But that’s just how it is” he paused to recollect “You know…Genetics! You’ve seen my dad, haven’t you?” Kenny scoffed at the remembrance of Mr. Navarra’s unruly curls as he took another mouthful. Timothy was a younger replica: the mane, the terra-cota complexion, a square nose on a round face accented with a clean jawline. As far as Kenny had observed, the only things that Tim inherited from his mother were the large purple eyes.

“Yeah.” Kenny cleared his throat, barely saving himself from choking on the food in his mouth “I get it”. They stopped, having reached the football field where kids of all ages swarmed, the occasional ball leaping into the air at random intervals. With the chill of winter officially behind them, the sun was bright yet still not strong enough to scorch everyone’s skin off, giving them the perfect weather to be outside - roaming, playing- anything but delve in the cold air conditioning of the classrooms.

“Welp”, Timothy stretched “I’m heading in. Lois must have started the game without me,” he tiptoed to try and spot his friend’s ash-blonde ponytail as he jogged forward. “You sure you won’t come play?” He turned around. Kenny nodded, knowing completely well that football was not his kind of sport. From previous experiences, he knew he wouldn’t even get the ball - especially if he were playing against both Timothy and Lois. He would rather have played badminton or cricket instead where the burden of team coordination was a little smaller.

“Okay,” Timothy accepted, nodding back in disappointment and jogged a few steps away, his brown mess of hair flopping all around him. He paused and eyed Kenny’s sandwich greedily.

“I’m not hungry” Kenny sighed, shaking his head in a knowing manner and handed it off.

“I LOVE your mom’s cooking” Timothy devoured it in two huge bites. Kenny felt a bit sorry he didn’t have more to offer. He waited till Timothy passed behind the wall of the field.

Alone, Kenny turned on his heel and started heading back, allowing his mind to drown him in deep thought.  Behind his eyes, his thoughts blurred, merging and forming a continuous daydream. He sauntered with his hands deep in his pockets, unconsciously swerving and dodging in between groups of primary graders, like it was a natural instinct or sixth sense.  The racket that boomed around him was soothing - his idea of peaceful. Compared to this, silence felt rather forced and unnatural, stressful or even eerie to an extent. He was so satisfied; he never realized the creeping mass behind him until it pounced.

“Jumped you!” Lane cheered, chuckling as Kenny rebalanced himself and his heart rate. He turned around to face the offense who smirked at him with the most naturally pink lips Kenny had ever laid eyes on, the colour of lotus petals. He exhaled a shuddery breath. The only thing that went through Kenny’s mind was, “wow”. Was it just him or did Lane look different? Did he change over the winter break or had Kenny just not noticed the angelic, awe-striking…whoa. Kenny noticed he was staring with a rather strong intensity and shook his head to come back to his senses. What was he doing? This was his friend!

“How are you this heavy?” Kenny finally asked, trying to calculate the sensible ratio of mass to body on the physics of his friend, for the boy was skinny –extremely skinny- yet not in the malnutrition sort of way but the slender elegance you would find on a contortionist or ballerina. Lane only shrugged. Kenny tried to keep a serious face, but the corners of his mouth twitched until he allowed them to stretch into a happy smile. “I didn’t expect you to show up today” Kenny confessed, looking almost two feet up* to meet Lane’s face.

“I went searching for you” Lane complained, “Honestly,” he squinted at the sun “what ARE you doing in this sun? Photosynthesizing??” It was quite ironic for Lane to hate the sunlight, for as far as Kenny was concerned, Lane had a knack for gardening and botanical work, and plants needed sunlight.

*Yes, dear reader, two feet. Not that Kenny was unbelievably small (he’s 5ft 2”) but that Lane was the tallest member of all the senior grades combined at 7ft

“I like it- “

He grabbed Kenny’s wrist and dragged him towards a canopied area where all the picnic benches were placed for students to sit and eat and plopped himself on an empty seat, crossing a knee over his other while Kenny remained standing, giving his legs the blood circulation they deserved after sitting in the classroom for so long.

“Don’t your classmates in the twelfth-grade wonder where you’re off to?” Kenny pondered. Lane ignored the question, preoccupied with some other deep thought that etched wary lines across his forehead. Their parents had a strong history, so the two of them had known each other for quite a while. The only thing that stood between them was the age gap of a year which was why Lane had been put a grade ahead. Nonetheless, they’d try and meet every day, not necessarily because they had anything to say, but just to be there. They quietly watched as a sparrow perched at the edge of their table chirping and pecking at crumbs of lunch, glancing every now and then at them to measure their trust.

“Oh!” Kenny gasped as the bird brushed right past his face and broke their vow of silence. His face felt warm with the embarrassment of getting spooked at such a harmless creature, especially in front of his friend. The corners of Lane’s lips curled upward. “Still scared of birds, Kenny?” he asked, still staring into the distant horizon of the thoughts he had been occupied with.

“I was never scared of birds” Kenny shook his head, his brows crossed.

“I remember you never stepping foot into that sanctuary we went to.” He giggled. It resonated in Kenny’s bones, sending jolts of giddiness through him. “The peacock! You wouldn’t get out from behind your father after that”

“In my defense, I was probably like…” he counted on his fingers, “…like three” he crossed his arms and swayed in boredom, trying his best to act as unbothered as he could.

“We first met when we were twelve, Kenny!!” Lane guffawed, his already heavy Slavic accent amplifying in his humor as he finally faced Kenny, “Back when I had that god-awful crew cut! I can’t fathom how on Earth you became friends with me.” he teased himself.  He gagged at himself, “And that acne!”

“You had acne?” Kenny asked.

“Kenny, I was festering with it!” Lane insisted. Kenny tried and tried to recall the last time he had even seen a hint of discolouration on Lane’s clear face but failed. It was then that Kenny realized how much they had changed over the course of the four years. His friend had become striking. He had always been strangely other-wordly and he had grown all the more angelic: how rich the green in Lane’s eyes were. They seemed to glow and flicker with some sort of voltage every time he got excited – the same voltage that went through Kenny just a moment ago. It was a feeling he had felt occasionally, not something he bothered about. And yet, it seemed to push him now, making him go hot and giddy. That’s when all of peace seemed to break apart. A group of girls Kenny hadn’t really seen before (possible twelfth graders) paraded towards them hollering Lane’s name.

“HI…iiii!” Lane suddenly got up yodeling back at them sending Kenny’s pulse to the sun once more. At that moment, it was quite obvious who the ‘yapper’ in the duo was. Lane talked to people. A lot of people. He bounced around during the breaks between all sorts of friend groups, getting all sorts of information and sharing some of his own. Sometimes, he’d take Kenny with him.

The girls swarmed around the bench feeding him with the latest gossip, inside jokes, to which he giggled and teased back accordingly. They were all very prettily dressed, putting a unique spin to the black and grey school uniform so that they wore it but also didn’t at the same time. Certainly, Kenny was proud of him for knowing so many people, but at that moment he also felt a little out of place, perhaps even just a bit inadequate as Lane never seemed to be so alive and full of color when it was just the two of them hanging out. Was he a boring person? Regardless of what might or might not be the truth, he decided to slowly head out without being there and potentially disturbing the group from chatting at their own comfort.

“Kenny” Lane called out. Seems Kenny did not do a good job at casually sneaking off. He winced at himself as he slowly turned back around to address his friend “Where are you going?”

“To class. I’m guessing it’s almost time”

Lane checked his phone, “There’s five more minutes, c’mon!” he pat the side of the bench next to him. Kenny couldn’t help but smile, he also couldn’t help but accept the offer with most of Lane’s friends looking his way. It might offend them if he declined. So, he returned and sat back down, feeling the weight of eyes scrutinizing him. It felt even more awkward when Lane put his arm over his shoulder and pulled him closer. He returned an uncertain smirk.

“This is Kenny” Lane introduced.

“Oh!” one of the girls analyzed, “So you’re the person Lane talks about so much!”

“SINCE WHEN??!! Držať hubu!” Lane argued and bit his lower lip in guilt.

The other girl rolled her eyes at him. Obviously, the exchange has gotten old between them- old and thus was deemed untrue. “It’s an honor to meet such a celebrity” she held out her hand which Kenny politely shook. Celebrity?

“I always thought you’d be taller!” one of the others contemplated aloud. She gave off a Barbie-doll vibe, hair streaked in pink, and mouth stretched in a constant smile. “You know…like…” she tried to form the appropriate terms, “…I thought you were some hot guy Lane was dating!” she exploded into a fit of embarrassed giggles.

“Right?” Another agreed with Barbie. Kenny just had to burst into a hearty chuckle and look Lane in the eye. He was pinker than clouds at sunset.

“Why? Am I not hot?” Kenny smirked, wiggling his eyebrow as he composed himself, sending the girls into fits of ‘awws’ and laughter. They were literally their school’s version of The Mean Girls-except they were nice. His friend was still staring daggers at the rest of the crowd. The bell rang. All at once, the buzz fled back into the unceremonious school walls, the girls vanishing just as quickly as they had appeared in the first place.

“Heh, I’m sorry. They’re a bunch of…šialenci*” Lane apologized, although unable to find the English term for whatever he had meant, hoping Kenny hadn’t felt insulted. His mouth opened as if to say something that he had forgotten, as he looked deep into Kenny’s eyes, possibly scanning whether anything that was said had embarrassed or hurt his feelings. Kenny swallowed, wondering what it was that kept him holding that gaze for so long. He searched for something that he was certain was written clearly all over Lane’s face, the only problem being he didn’t know what exactly he was looking for.

“You seem to be pretty popular” Kenny backed away as he became aware and turned away to think. Lane shook his head wordlessly and crossed his arms close to his chest, making himself smaller. “No?” he asked – confused as to why Lane was denying what was so obvious. Maybe it was deeper than what he saw? Was that why he came searching for Kenny every day?

“Um…uh..sleepover tonight?”  It came out of nowhere, too obvious that Lane was fibbing through his teeth: nothing related to the emotion drawn across his face or the content he had actually tried bringing up, but Kenny let it go and nodded

 “Yeah, sure!”

Translation

*lunatics