Solving Keith

Motorcycle

Lance meets Keith in the parking lot, still struggling with his bouquet.

Keith is straddling his motorcycle, pulling his helmet on. He takes the bouquet from Lance, passing him a helmet.

Lance pulls it on, taking a seat behind Keith. "Do you remember how to get to my house?"

Keith nods, starting the engine, "hold on."

"I know," Lance says, wrapping his arms around Keith, holding the bouquet for him.

They drive to Lances house in silence, stopping in the driveway. Lance hops off, removing his helmet. "Are you coming in?"

Keith takes his off too, cutting the engine. "Do you want me to?"

Lance nods, walking up the driveway.

"Mama!" He shouts, startling Keith a little, "Papa! I'm back!" He opens the door, instantly getting tackled by his younger siblings, Andre and Nadia. "Hey guys," he laughs, setting his book bag on the hook.

Keith walks in after him, ducking under the doorframe.

Nadia looks up at him, frowning, "Lancey? Why is it back?"

"Nadia, Keith is not an 'it', we talked about this."

"Hi, Keith!" Andre says excitedly, waving up at him. Keith crouches down, holding his hand out for a high-five. "Lance said I can get as tall as you if I eat my vegetables, but I think he's a liar."

Keith smiles a little, standing back up, "maybe. You have to try to find out."

Andre shrugs, doing a cartwheel and running off down the hall. Keith turns to Nadia, who's bombarding Lance with questions as he tries to walk with her clinging to his leg.

"Nadia," he groans. "I'm telling you, I don't know if snakes wish they had arms, ask Leo."

"Leo said to ask you."

"Ask him again," he grunts, trying to shake her off. He stumbles into the kitchen, tripping over his sister, huffing.

"Hey, mijo," his mom says, screwdriver in her mouth, standing on her tiptoes. Her hair, like Lance's, is dark and curly, piled on top of her head in a bun. His dad is holding up a sheet of instructions, scratching his head.

"What are you guys doing?" Lance asks, watching Nadia run after her twin brother as Keith walks in behind him.

"Trying to fix the fan over the oven," his dad says, flipping the page over. "It's hard because it's so high up, we can't see the damn thing."

"Can I help?" Keith asks from behind Lance, a whole head and shoulders taller than him.

Lance's dad looks up, and then he laughs, "Carmen, look at this!" He says, pulling Keith in by his arm.

She turns around, "oh! Perfect! Yes, absolutely you can help."

Keith smiles, ducking under the light hanging from the ceiling, accepting the screwdriver from her, "what do I need to do?"

"Unscrew the plate and replace fan," Lance's dad reads.

Keith nods and begins twisting, pulling the plate off, handing it to Lance's mom, taking the fan and twisting it into place, replacing the cover.

Lance's dad flips the switch on and the fan begins spinning. He claps Keith on the back, smiling. "Thank you, son. We've been here for 45 minutes."

Carmen smiles up at him then looks to Lance, "were you going to introduce him, or just stand there like a knot on a log?"