Paradise Blvd. Year One

Chapter Four

Saturday

"The Breakfast Club."

"What?" Esau asked.

"Mrs. King. She used to call us The Breakfast Club," said Troye with a light chuckle. "When she died, we inherited her house. The clubhouse. It was her home before it was our clubhouse. Besides the lounge, we didn't change anything to pay our respects. All her pictures are still up there. Can you believe that she only got married to the love of her life ten years ago when they've been together since forty? It's disgusting."

Esau stopped at a red light. "Um, I don't know what you're talking about. Where am I driving you anyway?"

"The clubhouse, man. Haven't you been listening?" Troye slurred the question out. "55 Brock Hampton Drive. Brock Hampton. That's the whitest street in this neighborhood. It's also the name of a boy band, d'you know that?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Stop the car, I think I'm gonna puke."

Esau chuckled. "The car's not moving."

Troye opened his door and fell out of the Triumph TR6 convertible. He crawled over to the pavement, climbed onto a trash can and puked his lungs out. Esau followed him and held his shoulder-length hair back while he was at it.

"I think I had a little bit too much to drink," said Troye after. "Just a little."

•

Esau stopped the car in front of the clubhouse and noticed that the lights were on. He woke up Troye who had been sleeping the rest of the way. "Your parents stay up late?"

Troye shook his head. "You haven't been listening. That is the clubhouse and it's were I'm currently living since my dad kicked me out 'cause I'm gay."

"Huh." Esau shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Anyway, where was I? I was talking about Mrs. Cheyenne King, right?" Troye said snapping his fingers. "If you're not in a rush, I can start from the beginning. That cool?"

Esau nodded. "By all means."

"Alright." Troye smiled. "Mrs. Cheyenne King was a teacher at our primary school. She only taught us in her last year before retirement, but she changed our lives. She changed our lives a lot and I think she'd be disappointed at what we've become. Anyway, she dubbed us The Breakfast Club after she got the six of us in detention for respective reasons."

"The six of you?" Esau asked.

"Oh." Troye paused, thoughtfully. "You're that behind. The six of us, in alphabetical order: Lucia, me, Marion, Tulip, Marceline and Forest. I was caught peeking into the girls' bathroom. I was at the stage of my life where I was under the false impression that the default sexuality was heterosexuality, so yeah. Marion got in for skipping school - it was the first and last time, his dad whooped his ass. Marceline had helped Forest cheat with homework or something, and that was a big deal in primary. Lucia had been bullying Tulip who, in turn, poured paint into her backpack. That was just weird.

"So we all got detention on the same Saturday," he went on. "As troublesome as we were, we were young and curious and smart. That's what Mrs. King told us she loved about us. She watched over us that day and instead of making us clean gum or something - like they do in American movies - she told us stories. She told all kinds of stories that raised all types of questions within us. She said she saw it in us from that very first day. Said it was fate that brought us together and we'd do great things. With her stories and our questions, we teased each other about how dumb our questions were. That's how we-"