Home : PCY

1

My door opens.
"Mom, I told you. I'm not hungry."
"You haven't told me anything." I turn around. Chanyeol smiles at me. I stand up.
"What are you doing here," I growl.
"I came to see you." He reaches out for me but I pull back.
"There. You saw me. Now leave before Kai sees you."
"Why would I be scared of him?"
"I'm dating him," I mumble, looking down. "He'd do anything to protect me. Especially from you."
"I broke your heart, I know, and I'm sorry. Please give me another chance, Parker." He grabs my chin and lifts my head. I pull away.
"I'm dating Kai."
"You love me."
"That doesn't matter," I snap.
"Yes it does. Why should you be with someone when the person you truly love is right here."
"Because the person I love doesn't love me back and I'm not going to spend my hours crawling on my hands and knees in broken glass trying to please you, when all you do is-"
He kisses me, cutting me off. We go back against the wall, and I hit it roughly, causing a few things to fall over on my shelves and desks.
"Parker?! Honey, are you okay?" my mom calls. Chanyeol pulls away, resting his head on the wall and laughing.
"Yeah mom!" I call. I put my hands on the sides of his ribcage, holding on to his shirt. He pulls me into a hug, but I stay still, resting my head on his shoulder. "Why are you back," I ask.
"For you," he says softly, resting his head on top of mine. "I came back for you." I shut my eyes.
"You can't stay."
"I've already rented the house next door."
"No, Chanyeol. You can't stay. Kai will rip you to shreds." I look up at him, still holding his shirt. He looks down at me.
"Then I'll put myself back together," he says softly, kissing me gently. I kiss back. He pulls away and looks at me. "And I never said I didn't love you, I only said that I was moving."
"Never speaking to me when I reached out multiple times kinda gave it away." He shakes his head.
"I got a new number. And now I have another one." He lets me go and walks to my desk. He hands me my phone and I unlock it. He does something and hands my phone back. "Text me when you want and I'll do what you need. I'm right next door so I'll probably find my way in through the window." He stands in front of me again. I look up at him. "I'm not scared of Kai. I'm not scared of his gang. I'm only scared of losing you." He kisses my forehead and leaves my room. "See you at school tomorrow." He closes my door and says goodbye to my mom before leaving. I look out my window. He stands back and waves at me, blowing a kiss. I smile slightly as he walks away again.
-
I pull my uniform on.
"Parker! Kai is here!" My mom calls. I grab my phone and walk down the stairs. Kai smiles at me.
"Good morning beautiful." I smile and wave to my mom before leaving with Kai. He wraps his arm around my shoulders. "New neighbors?" I nod.
"Yeah, they moved in yesterday or so. No telling how long, the beds and couches were already in there." He nods, opening the door for me. I put my bag in the floor board and climb in. I pull my seatbelt over my chest and look at the house. Chanyeol walks out, three others behind him. Each are dressed in the school uniform.
"Is something wrong?" Kai asks. I look at him.
"Hmm? Oh, no. Sorry. Just looking at the house." He nods, pulling out of the driveway.
-
Kai looks up and the whole table goes quiet. Xiumin looks up. I keep my head down as the whole cafeteria silences.
"Ah! There's she is!" I hear. It's a voice I don't recognize. Sehun laughs.
"Are they talking about Parker?" Kyungsoo asks Kai.
"They better hope not," Chen laughs.
"No, we are," I hear Chanyeol say. "Parker." I look up. "Miss America," he smiles.
"You must be living in some twisted dream if you think she's going to fall for you," Suho says.
"That would be the lowest she's ever gone. I think that she would hit rock bottom is she ever fell for you," Sehun says, looking Chanyeol up and down.
"Surely she hasn't hit rock bottom and never will," Xiumin says. I look down.
"She has me," Kai says. "Why would she ever need you?"
"Maybe she needs someone she actually cares about. Maybe she needs someone who is brave enough to stand alone instead of his friends trying to scare the person away with petty insults." Chanyeol looks at me as I look up. "So, when do you want to hang out?"
"Not now, Chanyeol," I say.
"When? Tonight? I mean you could leave the window unlocked-"
"Not ever." I stand up and grab my backpack. I take my tray and throw away my trash before leaving the cafeteria, almost in tears. The cafeteria was quiet through the whole thing. I walk into the front office. "Can I have my keys?"
"Name?"
"Parker."
"Parking spot number?" I hear people running through the halls.
"Thirteen." She shakes her head.
"No keys. You came in with your boyfriend," she smiles. I nod, leaving. Someone follows me out.
"Parker!" It's the voice that wasn't Chanyeol's. I turn around. A new kid runs up to me. "Hi, I'm Luhan, Chanyeol's friend." He holds his hand out. "Sorry we had to meet like this. Let me give you my number, I have some stuff I'd like to discuss with you about debate." He grabs a sheet of paper from his bag and writes his number quickly. "Here's Kris', Yixing, we call him Lay, and Tao." He hands me the paper. "Get home safe."
"Do you... do you live next door with Chanyeol?" He nods.
"There's six of us there total, Baekhyun is at home taking care of Kris."
"Do you have pictures you could send to me of them?" He laughs.
"You'll know them when you see them, trust me. Baekhyun is the cute one and Kris has the looks that scream 'touch me and I'll kill you in your sleep.' Tao looks scary, but he's easily scared. He has panda rings under his eyes. Yixing, or Lay, is kinda quiet most of the time, always kinda looks like he did a bunch of stuff before school, but he's clean," he laughs. "You wanna go by when schools over? Maybe have it out with Chanyeol? Punch him a little?" he jokes. I smile.
"Yeah, sure. I'll text you and you can just tell me when you're home." He nods.
"Alright. Get home safe, okay?"
"I'm not going home," I sigh.
"Why?"
"Kai brought me. So now I have to walk to somewhere else."
"I'll take you," I hear. I turn around. Chanyeol looks at me.
"No, you won't."
"I will," another voice says. "I'm Tao," he smiles, holding out his hand. I shake it.
"Wow, Chanyeol. Did you all have one friend that rubbed off on everyone but you? They're all so nice and you just don't know when to stop." He looks down. Someone else appears, and I automatically tag him as Lay.
"Ah, Yixing my boy," Luhan says, wrapping his arm around Lay's shoulders. "This is Parker." Lay nods.
"Hello. I'll probably forget your name for a while, bare with me. Chanyeol, have you tried these strawberry snacks? They're so good." He offers Chanyeol the bag, but starts laughing. "Hey, that's kinda funny. Chanyeol's last name is Park and your first name is Parker. Strawberry snack?" He offers me the package. I take one and try it. "I got like fifty at the store last night. They're Japanese. Speaking of which, there's a lot of Asians here." He offers the package again to me. I take one again, thanking him.
"This is a town focused on school work. A lot of people of all races want their kids to be doctors or lawyers or CEO's. Plus, it's a lot about racial mixing, I guess." I take another strawberry snack, laughing slightly. "The school likes diversity, so theres different racial groups. Sometimes the board members will reach out to other schools, offering to take two weak students and two strong students of a race." They nod. Lay looks inside the bag.
"Can we go home? I don't have anymore strawberry snacks." Chanyeol laughs.
"Yeah, buddy. Lets go get you another bag." They leave the school and I watch them go. Before the door closes, Tao runs in and grabs my arm, pulling me with him.
-
"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol calls into the house. I follow them inside. Lay pulls me with him to the kitchen.
"None of the others like these snacks but you do." He hands me a bag and pulls another out.
"Thank you," I say. He nods and closes the cabinet. We open the bags and walk to the others.
"Hush. Kris is slee- who's this?"
"Baekhyun, this is Parker."
"Hello, Parker. I see Yixing gave you a strawberry snack."
"They're actually really good," I laugh. Baekhyun smiles.
"I was actually about to watch a movie in my room, but we can watch it here if you'd like?" Baekhyun offers.
"Please stay?" Lay asks. "We can eat all the strawberry snacks."
"You'd get sick," Chanyeol says.
"Five bags each?" Lay suggests.
"Three."
"Four." Chanyeol nods. I set my bag down and take my shoes off. Luhan stands by me.
"Yixing tends to over work himself, so that makes him really loopy. The more you hang out with us, the more used to it you'll get." I nod.
"So, Parker, how does it feel to still be in high school?" Baekhyun asks me, sitting on one of the two couches.
"Fine," I answer. "Aren't you...?"
"Finished a year early. Starting my first year of college this year." I nod. Chanyeol nods to the recliner and I sit down. Lay walks back in and hands me four bags of strawberry snacks.
"Just take them home if you don't finish them," he says. I nod, thanking him.
-
I offer a strawberry snack to Chanyeol. He looks at it before taking it. I smile slightly as he shakes his head, coughing a little. My phone vibrates. I look down at it.
Mom:
You left your keys on the table and no one is going to be home tonight. Spend the night with a friend. Love you.
I sigh and set my phone down.
"Tao?" He looks at me. "Think you could drive me to a friends house?"
"Why?"
"I can't go home tonight."
"Just stay here," Chanyeol says.
"I don't want to im-"
"You're not. You'd make sleepy head over here really happy." He nods to Lay, who's drifting in and out of sleep.
"I don't have clothes and I don't want to sleep in my uniform."
"Borrow mine," Chanyeol shrugs. "And we can take you to class tomorrow."
"Please?" Luhan drags out. "Please stay?"
"Fine."