you're gonna go far, kid | ON HOLD

chapter 1

It was not his own desire to buy a Panic! At The Disco t-shirt that made Keith go into the wretched Hot Topic, but his brother Shiro's, and the multitudinous amount of Hot Cash brought by Shiro's best friend/not-so-secret-boyfriend, Matt.

"Come on, Keith," Matt had whined. "It won't be that awful just coming along. And there's no way that I'm going to let four $25 off coupons fly past me. Who knows, maybe I'll let you get yourself a nice bracelet that says Iron Maiden or whatever bands you listen to nowadays." Keith had rolled his eyes but agreed to go anyway, if only because he didn't have anything else to do.

Since he was a little kid, Keith found it excruciatingly difficult to connect to other people, especially those that were his age, and because of it, did not have many friends. Even the small half friendship with Matt's younger sibling, Pidge, felt more like a forced acquaintance than anything. That meant that Keith was the obnoxious little brother that followed around the cool and popular older sibling, Shiro, and the best friend, Matt.

Whenever Keith tried to apologize for third wheeling, they tried to assure him that they didn't mind, but there's only a certain amount of sibling-trailing that one can do without said sibling and his boyfriend getting deeply annoyed. Keith assumed they reached that point a while ago.

Shiro and Matt just pitied him-- and good at pretending that he didn't annoy the shit out of them.Which is why Keith was still a bit surprised that Matt had invited him to come along.

Probably just to add to the purchase total.

He fidgeted with the coin hanging around his neck subconsciously, and stared down at the Hot Cash thar Matt entrusted him with when they arrived at the mall, then up at the two men who had wandered a bit ahead of him. Keith kept at the pace he was going, even if it was significantly slower than his normal speed. They deserved to have at least some time without him being right there considering how often they felt like they had to invite the teen along.

Besides, Hot Topic wasn't exactly his favorite store in the world. The music was loud, the merchandise was all crammed close together, and there was always a lot of people. Keith tried not to mind it too much, he really did, but something about being in the store half in a rack of boy band merch, half in the way of some edgy thirteen year old girl, and unable to really move gave him irrational anxiety. More than the usual amount.

Hot Topic wasn't the only store though, the experience was the same in almost every store Keith walked into-- minus the emo middle schoolers and Five Seconds of Summer t-shirts.

Shiro stopped and turned around to look at Keith who had dropped back about ten feet now. He was definitely not stalling. "Keith?" he asked, concern in his voice.

Keith shot him a look but quickened his pace, internally cringing as they approached the store. And then scowled. Why the hell was he afraid of going into a stupid store he'd gone into a hundred times before? Pathetic.

He stormed inside an entire five steps ahead of Matt and Shiro.

As they entered the store, the smell of rubber assaulted Keith's nose. Why did it always smell like the tire section of Costco in here, he wondered in distaste.

The employee standing near the door, a man who in his early twenties wearing a Twenty One Pilots beanie and had snakebite piercings, barely even glanced up at them as he recited his greeting. Once he was finished, the man unapologetically went back to texting on his phone again.

Matt grinned, relieved Keith of Hot Cash Duty, and moments later he and Shiro disappeared into the far right corner of the tiny store.

Not wanting to just stand there awkwardly, Keith turned and stared at the closest shelf. When he saw what it was, he didn't try to hide his eye roll. Anime.