Catboy

01

Yawning, he stretched, forcing himself to open his eyes. He had been up far too late, but he didn't particularly mind. Running a hand through his hair, he rose to his feet, muttering something about breakfast to himself.

"Morning," he called out to Lawrence, already seated at the table. Lawrence glanced up, smiling slightly.

"You look... bad," he said slowly, politely. He'd been living in Canada for just over a year, and his English had improved, but every so often a slight Russian tone returned to his voice.

Julian threw himself down on the couch. "You're allowed to swear, ya know." He stared up at the ceiling. "I'm fairly certain I look like shit."

"I was trying to be polite," Lawrence replied, turning back to his cereal. "You're lucky the cops didn't get called."

"What, for three of us taking shots?"

"It's illegal."

"Good point."

A moment of silence. Julian rolled over on the couch. "How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm sixteen," Lawrence replied between small bites of food. "Seventeen soon."

"Hmm," Julian replied. He tilted his head to the side, as if studying Lawrence. "You could pass for eighteen. Not twenty-one."

"As nice as the thought is," Lawrence said, rising to his feet and picking up his bowl, "I don't quite fancy getting a criminal record."

"Come onnnn, Lawrence," Julian groaned. "Live it up a little! We don't have any parental supervision!"

"That's why I'm the parent here." Julian pushed himself up on the couch, staring at Lawrence.

"For someone with broken English, you can be a real smartass sometimes."

Lawrence shrugged. "I try my best." Another moment of silence. And then- "Wait, where's Lloyd?"

As if on cue, a familiar head of bright red hair appeared at the doorway between the two separate apartments- one belonging to Lloyd, Julian and Lawrence, and the other belonging to Julian's brother, Arin.

"Where've you been?" Julian asked. Lawrence took a sip of water from a glass, discarded from the night before.

Lloyd strolled in casually, as if he hadn't only showed up at 12:30, but had spent the night sleeping on the couch. "I fucked your brother," he said easily.

Behind Julian, Lawrence spat all over the wall. Julian spun around to see Lawrence coughing violently. Lloyd seemed completely calm, watching the older boy choke.

"Christ, Lloyd, he's pure for God's sake," Julian said, ambling over to pat Lawrence on the back. "Not in front of him." Lawrence coughed a couple times, then nodded slowly.

"I'm fine," Lawrence said, setting down his cup. "I think I should... uh, go," he said nervously, his hand returning to the bit of hair that never sat just right. He hurried out of the room without another word, slamming the door to his bedroom shut.

"Good one," Julian grinned, high-fiving Lloyd. "He'll be in there all day now." Lloyd grinned back at him, knowing Lawrence wouldn't be returning to them anytime soon.

"Arin said you could use his car," Lloyd said, pulling the keys out of the pocket of his crumpled jeans. "If you're gonna go up to the shops, I suggest you do it now."

"What, you won't come with me?" Julian asked. "I'm gonna need help carrying all the stuff we're getting." He was referring, of course, to balloons.

Thirty-six packets of balloons.

An hour later, both the boys climbed into Arin's car, dumping the party supplies into the backseat. Planning everything had been hard- they had to make sure Lawrence would stay in his room. That had been easy- Lloyd had put a chair up against his bedroom door. Even if he wanted to, there was no way in hell he was getting out.

Luckily, they could hear the sounds of soft music playing from Lawrence's room. Lloyd began hanging up streamers as Julian pumped up the balloons. There were enough to cover every surface in the tiny apartment. Some were unceremoniously shoved into the back of closets, and into Lloyd and Julian's rooms.

Finally, the two boys were done. Lloyd, who had been crouching on the floor, tried to push himself up and failed. Maybe it was his lack of depth perception. Maybe it was his missing eye.

Julian, Lloyd and Lawrence lived together for more than one reason- as well as the fact that they were all training for sport scholarships, they all had some form of a defining trait, usually physical. See, in a world where looks are valued, these boys didn't quite fit in.

Lloyd had lost his eye at the age of three. There was a rare disease going around, one called Floria. It caused plants to grow in the human body, usually flowers, bushes, or trees. It seemed harmless, but once plants began growing inside the lungs and stomach, causing difficulty with everyday tasks, it became a problem.

Lloyd had caught the disease. A tree had begun to sprout just below his eye socket, not pushing through the skin, but heading backwards, towards the brain. In order to protect it, doctors had been forced to create an escape route for the tree. They had removed his eye, the tree had grown out of it, and now there were a few, characteristic branches, melded to his skin. Although it wasn't painful, Julian would sometimes wake up at night to hear Lloyd crying, whispering that 'the tree is gonna kill me'.

Julian, himself, had some strange DNA. Although not attributed to a disease, he didn't have any ears. At least, not human ones.

Julian's mother's DNA had been mixed with a cat's, in a strange circumstance gone terribly wrong. She was extremely allergic, but her allergy medication, a free trial being tested by university students, had made her more susceptible to strange genetic mutations. She had simply breathed in too much cat hair, and it had somehow affected her, and affected her two sons. To this extent, Julian had a small, black nose, and large, grey cat ears, which could pick up on the slightest of noises.

Cool, until you realise the amount of migraines he got from hearing even bees.

His brother, Arin, lived next door. Arin had been the more fortunate one- being the older brother, his mom hadn't been as affected by the medication yet. Despite having the ears, sandy in colour, he didn't have any of the other afflictions. He had been born at home, never taken to hospital or a doctor.

Both him and Julian lived private lives, afraid of the strange experiments that might be carried out on them if found out. They wore hats when they went out, with Julian coating his face and nose with makeup to hide the catlike features. Lloyd, on the other hand, had no issue with showing his face. He had been celebrated all over the news when he was young. He couldn't exactly turn back now.

Lawrence was partially deaf, but he hadn't let it stop him. He'd moved from Russia to Canada to pursue a scholarship for baseball. That was a year ago, when the three boys (and Arin) had moved in together. All of them, apart from Arin, were waiting for scholarships, and they all went to the same high school. Each of them captained a team for a different sport- Lloyd captained the soccer team, Lawrence the baseball team, and Julian ran the track and field team.

Somehow, all three of them ended up living together, an arrangement their parents affectionately called the freak show. Arin was just there because they needed an adult to live in the building. Not that he actually stopped them from doing anything.

Lloyd rose to his feet unsteadily. Julian glanced over, tying up one last balloon. "You okay there?" Lloyd nodded, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Man, your balance is getting worse."

"I know," Lloyd groaned. Then, after a minute of thought- "Who did you invite to this thing, anyway? It's not like Lawrence's parents are gonna fly in from Russia just for his seventeenth birthday. Actually, it's not even his birthday today."

"What?"

"It's tomorrow, Julian. We're both idiots."

"Guys?" They heard Lawrence, yelling from down the hall. "Did you put a chair against my door again?"

"Dammit," Lloyd said calmly. "He figured it out."