Sunflower Boy

1

"Dude, you need to come over." Lance urges. "I gotta bring the disc back to blockbuster tomorrow!"

"It's the 21st century. Why don't you just get Netflix?" I ask.

"Aesthetic purposes." I can almost see him smiling through the phone. He doesn't even have a cellphone, because he insists that fights are much better when you can hang up by slamming down the phone.

"I'm not watching Mean Girls or The Princess Bride or The Breakfast Club again." I decline.

"We've never seen this one before! I swear!" He pleads.

"What are we watching?" I ask.

"You'll have to figure that out yourself. Virtual wink."

"If you had Skype on your laptop you wouldn't need to virtually wink." I roll my eyes. "Alright. I'm coming over."

"Bring snacks?" He asks excitedly.

"You're pushing it."

We exchange goodbyes and I shove a four-month-old, half-empty bottle of Mountain Dew into my backpack along with a stale bag of gummy bears.

"I'm going to Lance's!" I call out.

"Are you spending the night?" Asks Shiro.

"I don't know yet. I'll call you." I grab my keys and leave the house.

I drive my car to Castle Drive. It's not even a second-hand. It's third or fourth-hand, with chipping red paint.

I reach Lance's in around fifteen minutes, and park in his driveway. I don't even ring the doorbell. I practically live here.

Just when I'm about to close the door, I hear the crunching of tire on asphalt.

Lance comes rushing down the stairs.

"Hi Keith!" He hugs me, then joins me, looking at an aesthetically pleasing yellow Volkswagen. A large, dark-skinned man steps out of it, with a basket of sunflowers and a bag filled with something that rattles.

"Who's sunflower boy?" I ask.

"A friend. You'll love him." Lance whispers.

"Hey, Lance!" He smiles as he reaches the front step. He doesn't look surprised at all when Lance jumps up for a hug, as he is known to do. And he doesn't budge at the high-speed Cuban impacting with his chest. They let go, and he looks down at me. Normally, when a tall person looks at me, it feels condescending. But I don't feel that. He gives me a warm smile.

"Are you Keith?"

"Yeah." I nod quietly. "How do you know my name?"

"Lance used to give dramatic monologues about you." He responds. Oh, yeah. Lance is my ex. We didn't have a bad breakup or anything, we just noticed thy we enjoyed each other's company more as friends, and went on to act like it never happened.

"This is Hunk." Lance introduces me. "He's a great cook, and his parents are literally loaded. They have the biggest garden, and they fix cars."

"I'm Keith." I state the obvious.

We're let inside, and we put our stuff on the counter.

"We got Mountain Dew from Shakespeare's era and Winnie the Pooh's Steven universe OC." Lance examines my flat soda and rock-hard gummies. "Sunflowers for the vase, and some M&Ms."

"Hey, it's all I had." I defend myself. "The gummies are better when they're stale."

"Big mood." Hunk agrees.