Echoing Back (BxB)

※ 𝔼𝕡𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕕𝕖 𝕀𝕍 ※

(04.05.24)

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Louis," Kagan said, poking my shoulder.

"Hm? Yeah?"

"You good?"

"Yeah, fine, just tired." I checked the time on my phone; it was nearly 1 o'clock, and Molly was passed out in Haden's lap. Isaiah had nodded off, revealing his cards, which lay sprawled out on the floor. Not that it mattered anyway, because right after we came back upstairs from dinner, Isaiah had put on a movie 'to play in the background,' which had distracted us from the card game hours ago.

There was still a huge mess, though. In my room.

"I'll clean the cards up," Kagan said, picking up the pack and sorting the cards.

"Sure. I'm going to go check on my mom. Be back in a bit." It was a bit weird that she had invited friends over for dinner, yet it was the next day and they're still here, even weirder considering school started in like–2 days and they had 3 kids.

I walk down the stairs, and when I get to the living room, I realize why there has been barely any noise. All three of them are sprawled on the couch, beer and wine bottles in hand, laughing and swirling liquid in fancy glasses. And I was pretty sure Linda was dead asleep, leaning on her husband. She and Molly looked a lot alike.

"Do you need anything, sweetie?" My mom slurred.

"No, I was just checking on you."

She smiled, "Aww, aren't you just the cutest," she said, grabbing my cheeks. "Have I ever told you about the time when Louis was just a wee baby and–"

"Mom please. Not now."

"And what?" Mr. Campbell asked, seeming interested.

Great. This was going swimmingly. "It's getting pretty late," I told her.

She waved her hand, "Oh, nonsense! The night has just started." Mr. Campbell furrows his brows and checks the time. He makes a weird face; his eyebrows go up and his lips curve downwards, and I wonder how adults never get bored of drinking. "Oh! While you're still here," she said, handing me a tray with dishes. "Could you go put this in the dishwasher for me, please?"

"Sure."

I got out of there quickly, in case I had to witness another retelling of an embarrassing childhood memory. I try to be quick as I load the dishwasher, putting the tray in the sink after I'm done and hurrying out of there.

As I got up to the second floor, I saw Kagan leaning on the wall in front of my room. Well, shit, this couldn't be anything good. I had half a mind to just turn around and go hide in the kitchen again, but he had already spotted me, and I wasn't really looking forward to explaining that on top of everything else.

"Can I ask you something?" He asks, face serious, and with none of the twinkle from his poker face.

And my heart skips a beat. Why couldn't my life just be one long cutscene that I could skip specific parts of? This would definitely be one of them. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"

He takes a deep breath. "So–I know you probably want nothing to do with me, and I'm probably just being really annoying and not taking the hint, but I really want us to be friends again. Like we used to."

"Excuse me?" My brain blanks. What the hell am I supposed to say to that? Yes? But what if he wasn't asking? Why do I even care if he was asking? I mean, obviously, he's asking to be friends, but how do I tell him no? Just saying so would be the better option in the long run, I guess, but what long run? And I don't really want to say no. I want to be friends with him. But how the hell was I supposed to tackle the topic of our eighth grade musical, because surely he'd want to talk about it sometime down the line.