Thinking about Kieran, I don't know where to start, so I might as well go back to the beginning.
I met Kieran in first grade. You could say that we grew up together. We were in the same classes, same lessons, Kieran the extroverted one, me as quiet as you'd think. I don't remember how everything happened. It just did. We let our projects speak for us, working on parallel paths. Hop, skip, and jump a few months later and...woooosh!
In a flash, we were the best of friends, bound together by good grades and an imagination, our hottest fire-starter. You know all about mine. Kieran treated every interest like it was a profession, piano, painting. Everything Kieran did had a purpose, really, expected to be good at it. I think it was a parental thing, but I never said anything.
It's funny. One time I'll always remember that first year is how the two of us and one other kid we wrangled in had our own creative trio. Our story? Sea creatures and trading cards. We'd write up scripts like it was a TV show and he'd sketch crude drawings of the characters, passing them out to curious minds in our class.
A couple times, it took emotional bribery with puppy-dog eyes, but Mrs. Tudor let us perform our scripts. We'd get a slot before dismissal. I was the jellyfish with a wavering voice LiKe THissss...
What? I was seven.
I loved it!
...Our golden dream team jogged on, the two of us excelling together. We were wily creators who, you guessed it, others sought out for help.
There's your "Chase the Ace" origin story in less than a page!
Chase the Ace and Kieran the...well, he didn't get a cool nickname. Kieran didn't need a gimmick. He was one hundred percent genuine. He knew it, and he made sure you knew it, too. I didn't need to know. Chloe picks up on thoughts and feelings. She doesn't need somebody to tell her. I didn't need a lit-up sign to state the obvious.
I felt it.
Little anomalies where I'd feel like I was a step behind somehow, in work, in personality, in creativity, in anything we did together.
Sure enough, our parallel paths began to split off. Helping kids fell more on me while Kieran focused on himself. He tapped into his gifts and rocketed skyward, becoming a shooting star, me tailing behind. Normal talks turned into arguments over...nothing.
An unintentional passive-aggressive attitude.
I like you, but sorry, dude! I do it better!
I didn't care, but I did.
I remember when I invited him to my apartment once, but he never showed up. Something about getting gas. Something about a meeting. Calls were made. I'd sit and wait on the couch, peeking out the window like I was a watchman. Kieran never did make it. His dad apologized. Kieran lived across town, so I figured...distance.
That's what I made myself believe anyway.
Deep down, I realized that this boy, who had been a friend for years, was now nothing like me. Our closeness was hanging on by threads. Yet, like a sucker, I kept jumping at the chance to see him when I could. It would be different. We would get along. We'd have a fun day out and everything would be normal. There would be no arguing.
It wasn't.
There was.
Sucker!
The last time we saw each other was at one of Kieran's piano recitals. It was B-O-R-I-N-G, but I sat there, wondering...
YOU ARE READING
Castling: A Novel (NaNoWriMo21)
Novela JuvenilIt's a slice-of-life centered around "Chase the Ace," who finds himself changing schools against his will mid-year to help make the most of that brain of his. It'll be good for him, they say. He won't be so bored. He'll get to be with an old friend...
