He Was Duressed, Your Honor

Chapter 1

"No," Jun said firmly throwing their head to one side. "I won't let you disrespect your saint of a mother in such a way."

Poe smiled and took another bite of the falafel his best friend had placed in front of him. The two sat at a pop up table that they constructed outside Jun's food cart Kwik Bites. 

"I love my mother," Poe responded, "but I promise you I have just found the one thing better than her lasagna..."

He paused.

"Don't tell her that though."

Poe Cameron and Jun Cage had lived across the street from each other since Jun's family had moved in when Jun was just six. At first they were annoyed at the three year old Poe Cameron that would follow them around like a puppy, but the older they got, the less the age difference mattered.

They spent their summers holding bake sales, at Sunday dinners with each other's families, and causing both of their mother's an unnecessary amount of exasperation when they tracked mud into the house after playing in the sprinkler on the lawn for hours.

Poe was always studious and was known around the neighborhood for being a good kid. Jun... less so. School was never for Jun, but that's not to say they didn't have a plan for their life. Although it took a few failed tests for Poe to realize that maybe they shouldn't use the old copies of tests that Jun had to cheat off of.

"But seriously though," Poe said grabbing his friends arm and shaking them as the two laughed "I told you that one day you'd be famous for your cooking."

Jun smiled and turned to head back into the small kitchen area of the food cart. They watched through the window as their friend continued to thoroughly enjoy the meal they had prepared.

The two had gotten up at nearly 4 am to drive downtown and open up the food cart that Jun had set up across from the tallest building in Midlands, Miller Tower. 

They had spent a few years in culinary school and when they graduated, Kwik Bites was an instant success. They had several locations around Midlands, but Jun always chose to work the downtown location. They loved downtown. It was busy, it was loud, and you could smell every kind of food known to man.

But mostly, they loved being downtown with Poe.

"Dumbass, eat slower," they yelled through the window as Poe continued to shovel food into their mouth.

"Why would I?" he yelled back over the buzz of the city. "My friend owns the joint. They can always just make me more."

Jun always volunteered to open, but when the next shift showed up, the two decided to walk for a while before heading back home.

They had gone about a half a block before Jun cleverly ran into a lamppost. 

They stumbled for a moment, rubbing their head, while Poe supported his friend by bending over and laughing until he could barely breathe.

"Shut up," Jun said more embarrassed than they'd like to admit.

"I-" Poe tried before realizing he was no where near regaining his breath and continued to laugh.

When he finally regained his composure, he slung his arm around his friend and continued walking down the sidewalk. 

"I swear those fumes are clouding your brain."

"Yeah, well you get great food out of it so I don't want to hear you complaining," Jun said.

Poe and Jun did what they considered to be a lap of the entirety of downtown. As they started their walk back to the car, Jun decided to approach what they knew would be a sensitive topic.

"Have you heard from Memphis recently?"

Poe stared at his feet as they walked, kicking tiny rocks along until they inevitably tumbled over the curb and into the road.

Memphis was Poe's older sister. 

Jun liked to tease Poe about their three year age difference making them more mature, but seeing Memphis who was even a few years older than Jun, they weren't sure that age was necessarily the make of maturity.

Memphis had fallen in with what was known around Santo Ivo to be a bad crowd. She had run away from home at sixteen and then again at eighteen, but she never got very far.

Recently she had been living in a rundown apartment building on the east side that Jun would be scared to walk into without a weapon of some sort. He never told Jun, but whenever Poe pulled up his phone he could see call after call to Memphis that went unanswered.

"Same as usual," Poe mumbled. "Mom wishes she'd come home for dinner every now and then."

Jun put his hand on Poe's arm and the two stopped for a moment outside Miller Tower.

"She can handle herself," they told Poe. "I know I'd be the one running if I saw Memphis in an alley."

Poe chuckled and hugged his friend before they continued walking back to the car and began the drive home. After a brief argument about who gets to pick the music, the driver or the passenger, Jun connected their phone and made the executive decision for the car.

Poe pulled up in front of Jun's house and stopped putting on the most dramatic face possible.

"I don't know if I'll see you again," he said dejectedly looking at the floor. "This might be goodbye."

Jun stifled a laugh before grabbing Poe's hand and staring into his eyes. 

"I'll never forget you."

They made an elaborate display of seeming to be pulled out of the car and yelling behind them. Poe drove two houses down, pulled into the driveway of his house, and rolled down his window.

"It's like I can almost see your ghost," he yelled across the street.

Jun chuckled and walked to their front door.

"Never forget the memory of me."

The door slammed behind them and they walked to their room, knowing it would take less than a minute before a text from Poe popped up saying how much he missed them. 

Jun passed their dad who gave a quick nod as he was entrenched in a newspaper on the couch and an article about and event for the children's hospital. They ran up the stairs, felt their phone buzz, and smiled as they read through the dramatic Shakespearean scene that Poe and put into text form.