Flowers For Apollo

Headaches and Hyacinths

Lester runs into a classmate.

Apollo can avoid reality for only so long.
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Lester stood at the edge of the community gate where he normally waited for the school bus early in the morning. His mother had been talking about getting a car for him once he got his license and he could drive himself to school. Part of him had been excited, but he could already feel his mother's eyes on the back of his neck if he tried to drive anywhere besides home and school.

It was stifling and it sucked.

But he didn't have her eyes on him now, at the edge of the gate standing near the little bush of pink flowers.

And there was a gas station down the road with a little store.

There was also no rule that said he couldn't just walk down the street, even if it was hard to think of doing so when his mother had asked him to stay nearby. Down the street was nearby and he was a teenager, a couple years from adulthood! He taught his younger sister piano and his (older? younger?) twin was off gallivanting everywhere with her friends. Going down the street shouldn't be a big deal.

He walked out the gate. A knot he didn't realize was tight in his chest loosened as he passed the sign for Hyperborea Condos.

Lester huffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he kept walking. He wished he'd thought to grab his wallet on the way out, but at least he'd remembered to slip on his flip flops. They made a thuddy sound as he walked and he may or may not have let them slap slap slap extra loudly against his feet as he stomped down the road.

He may not be able to actually buy anything at the store, but at least he could get away for a few minutes. As much as his mother did her best to make the house a home and as often as his sisters and Aunts and Uncles would visit it still felt suffocating in a way he couldn't put his finger on.

It wasn't like he couldn't make his mother more upset than she probably already was about him storming off like that. Sure, she'd probably have dinner ready for him and not make a fuss like all the other times he was overdramatic, but there'd be this concern in her eyes that always made something in his chest want to shatter.

"Lester?"

He whipped around to find a girl around his age with long dark hair pulled into a braid in a pink sweater and jeans. Both wrists jangled under the weight of her many charm bracelets.

It took him a moment to remember she rode the same bus and was in his music class at school.

"Lily?"

She rolled her eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you: It's Liliane," she said, falling into step beside him, "I didn't think your mom let you do anything on the weekend with all the family stuff you have going on?"

Lester laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. He did talk about his sisters and cousins a lot at school, didn't he?

"Yeah, well... The family stuff didn't happen today."

Everyone knew about the piano lessons with Meg, though. Not too long ago, he'd had a week straight in detention because he'd used those lessons as to why he knew more about teaching.

(It isn't his fault he knows a better way to explain scales!)

What he failed to mention was his 'busy weekends' were usually him waiting at home struggling through concentrating on homework while trying to call his cousins or waiting on his Aunts and Uncles to visit.

"That sucks. You always sound so excited about it. I wish I had family like that."

Lester winced.

"What do you mean?"