[17] Busy, Busy, Busy

(Kyle)

Living with Ace is nothing more than a give and take. To others, I must seem like a spoiled prince with a bad attitude –not many people know I live in the neighbourhood fit for the rich, but the ones who do are surely talking about it. They must picture my life to be full of maids, expensive things and breakfast in bed.

Ace has a lot of people working for him. His entire organisation is built on blackmail. There are only a few people who are genuinely afraid of this monster of a man, but the rest are just afraid he would reveal what he knows about them. The majority of his minions are average men with secrets they just don’t want spilled out into the open because their reputations or perfectly-calculated lives would be at stake. You wouldn’t believe the kind of petty crimes people are willing to do anything to cover up.

This man is no true uncle to me. He could never be. All he sees me as is a servant; his personal slave; his backup plan. Why he hasn’t killed me yet, I will never understand.

I got home from school this evening expecting Ace to be on his way back home. His two weeks away on ‘business’ were up. He’d be back to wreck havoc on my period of peace again for a while soon.

This time, however, I didn’t expect him to be at home before I arrived. He was standing tall up on the balcony, looking out at his kingdom. I inhaled deeply and opened the gate to go inside.

As a child, he would religiously ask me to pour him a glass of whiskey whenever he was standing on the balcony. I’m not sure when he stopped asking, but I hadn’t stopped doing it since then. When I get to the balcony, this time however, he’s already half done with the drink in his hand. I greet him to let him know I’m home, and then I turn to leave.

“A little birdie told me you’re in the April Fest Play,” he says, suddenly.

I stop short of a step, holding my breath. Who told him? “It’s true. They made me as a lead.”

He laughs, a little too amused. “A lead, huh? How adventurous. April Fest is always a three day event, isn’t it? Sounds like it could be a great opportunity for me.” He takes a sip of his whiskey, turning to me and smirking. “I should start planning.”

I suddenly feel all of winter weigh down on my spine. If Ace tries to sabotage the play –or worse, if he tries to hurt anyone at the school- what would I do?

And what about Malory, Olivia and Ron?

“Pack your bags, boy. We’re going on a trip.”

A trip?

No trip is ever a walk on the beach with Ace.

What madness is he plotting?

I swallow my fear just enough to speak. “What should I pack?”

“Enough for three days and nights. You have until Wednesday to pack. We’re leaving at noon, then.”

With that, he sips at his whiskey again and waves me off. I leave the balcony, uneasy.

Why must I go?

What does he want me to do?

***

(Malory)

I know that Kyle’s uncle is back home. I lean against my locker, waiting to see if Kyle would even come today.

When he enters the building, I stand a bit straighter, sucking in a breath before walking over to him.

He fixes the straps of his book bag over his shoulders and grunts, strolling through the doors. He pauses for a moment when he notices me approaching, but then he continues walking as I fall into step with him.

“Lloyd,” he acknowledges, scratching the back of his ear.

“Hi, friend,” I say.

“So, is this is how you’re going to greet me every morning?” He asks, “Standing by the locker and then running over when you finally see me? Are you a puppy?”

“No, but I don’t see why I can’t.” I say, shrugging. “And you’re going to have to get used to the attention since you’re the lead in Masked at Midnight. Everyone is going to notice you. If you can’t even stomach me approaching you, you’re going to go crazy when it’s a mob of students you don’t even know.”

“The attention I get from you is already unbearable, Lloyd. I think I liked it better when Ron was the only one tied to my umbilical cord.”

I laugh.

He looks down at me, taken by surprise.

A shy, embarrassing smile creeps over his face.

I hesitate before speaking again. “So… I decided I’m going to drop a few activities that I do during the week so we can pitch in some time to rehearse at my place. I’ll try to get all my teachers and group leaders notified that I won’t be in the clubs anymore or at least for a little while so we can get this done. I can’t do anything about my part time job, though. There’s obviously gotta be some way I’m not starving to death.”

“Sounds like you’ve really figured this all out,” he tells me, but he doesn’t sound genuinely pleased to hear it.

“That’s it?” I ask. “No... suggestions, no... ideas about the rehearsing schedule or anything?”

He stops walking and shoves both his hands into his pockets to look at me.

“Everything’s alright,” I say, worriedly, “... Right?”

“Everything’s fine,” he tells me. “But I won’t be able to practice this week. I’ll be busy.”

“How busy? Do you have to work? Is it because of your groups? Can’t you drop them, too?” I ask.

“No. Look,” he says, “take this week to make your final arrangements with whoever you have to. And,” he shifts on his feet so he’s slightly closer to me, “can you do me a favour?”

“Uh... sure?”

“Don’t tell any strangers that you’re the lead in the play,” he says, sternly, “Not a soul. Got it? ”

When the ads for the play start circulating the school and the community, as well as social media, there will be no point to keeping it a secret. My face will be everywhere. And his probably will be, too.

He doesn’t take his eyes off me until I answer.

I guess I’m just going to have to trust that he has a good enough reason why I shouldn’t.

“Got it,” I say. “I’ll just tell the leaders of my groups. That’s all. After everything’s finalised, I should have time every evening to rehearse after school until about five. Around five is when I usually have to head off to work. And then I guess the weekends are fine for rehearsals, too. I won’t make you stay longer than you need to.” I can’t quite tell what’s on Kyle’s mind as I say these things. I don’t know if he’s trying to process what I’m saying or if he’s worried about something else. “Anyway,” I say, “We’ll talk more about it when everything is settled.”

As we approach his locker, he doesn’t take anything out or put anything in. He just opens it and stares at the titles of the textbooks before pulling out his phone to check the time.

“Uh... Malory,” he says; careful, hesitant.

“Yea?”

He turns to me, nervous. “This is off topic but… you do know that my uncle is back home… right?”

My expression goes dim. I frown slightly as I look at him. “I thought so.”

“So you can’t… randomly appear at my house,” he tells me.

“I know. I won’t. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He’s taken by surprise as I say this. “But if for any reason you’re being stubborn,” I say, “I’ll take my chances.” I smirk, trying to lighten the mood.

He rolls his eyes and scoffs, but then he smiles and looks away. “Not this week. Okay? If I’m being stubborn this week, it’s because I’m genuinely busy. So don’t be too concerned. Alright?”

Kyle speaks so calmly about being ‘busy’. I can easily understand how he managed to keep his home life a secret. He knows how to talk about things without giving any valid information about them to anyone who doesn’t need to know. He just smiles at people and speaks as casually as possible. Nobody would know a damn thing about the truth.

And that sort of frightens me.

“Alright,” I whisper, nodding.

***

(Kyle)

I promised Ron I would be more open with him. Still, I feel hesitant towards revealing all the messy shit about my life to my best friend. There are some things that we just can’t tell certain people –whether it’s to protect them or because we’re afraid we’ll lose them. I feel like I’m doing both. People often think that just having everything out in the open will be easier and that it will solve a lot of problems, but it’s easier said than done. Emotions are what drive people –not logic. I’ve been in the world of numbers and reason long enough to understand that.

“Hey, man,” Ron says, falling into step with me as we both enter the cafeteria.

“Hey, Roomie,” I say, plastering on a smile.

“I’m not feeling for the burgers today,” Ron whines. “But that’s what’s there for lunch today.”

With that, lunch time becomes a sad ritual of normalcy as we spot the tall stack of buns behind the lunch counter.

Malory and Olivia are, as always, already seated with their lunch before we get there.

Olivia waves at Ron and he waves back. Malory rolls her eyes at me and shakes her head. I scoff.

I want to smile. Back before things between Malory and me had simmered down, I just assumed she loathed me. Now, I know that all these little gestures between us aren’t because we hate each other. They’re just a part of what makes us ‘us’ and, somehow, the thought of that comforts me.

***

(Malory)

It’s Tuesday. Kyle, Ron, Olivia and I are sitting in the cafeteria again. Today, we’re all eating fries. We’re also all caught up in the thought of a million different things at once.

“Yesterday I practiced the scenes with Morgan during the last two periods because they were free for us both. Ron was there. He was watching us. I think Morgan’s a great actress. Her only problem is she doesn’t feel the emotions of the characters very easily –or without guidance. It takes her a while before she actually gets it.”

“I think it’s just because of the role she has. She’s not doing history so maybe it’s the thought and pressure of having to inhabit the body of a lady from the eighteen-hundreds in Europe,” Ron suggests.

“Probably,” I say, biting into a fry.

“And then there’s me,” Kyle says, “I don’t do drama, I don’t do French, I don’t do History, but I’m the leading male. I do adore our education system and praise them for their use of common sense.”

Olivia laughs.

“It’s alright, Kyle,” I say, “because I can help you to pronounce the French words properly. Did you forget? I’m always first in French class.”

“How could anyone forget? Everyone knows that,” Ron says, sulking. “You top every class. I don’t know how you do it but I’m too scared to find out.”

“What about me?” Kyle asks, offended. “I’m as smart as she is. We just excel in different subjects.”

Ron looks at him for a moment, contemplating. “Na,” he says. “I never had a thing for Science and Math.”

I almost snort. Me either.

After that, there’s a short silence and then Olivia kicks me under the table.

“Hey!” I say, glaring at her.

“Mal...” she says.

“What?”

“When is your mom coming home?”

I scratch the back of my neck for a few seconds. “I... don’t... know?”

Ron raises a brow, confused. “What do you mean you don’t know? Didn’t she leave for China around the time when this term started?”

“Wait,” Kyle says in realisation, “Ron, you knew about her mom?”

Ron stares at Kyle, almost dumbfounded. “She’s in my class, Davidson. We talk. Of course I know about her mother.”

“So I was the only person out of the four of us who didn’t know her mother worked outside of the country?” Kyle asks, baffled and offended.

Ron laughs.

Olivia nods. “How could you?” she asks. “All you two ever did was argue. She never would’ve had the chance to bring that up in a conversation and… if she did have the chance there’s no way she was going to tell you that anyway. You might have used it against her.”

“I’m sure she’s still looking after the panda. She’ll tell me what’s going on once she’s not busy working or too tired to talk. I’m not worried about my mom, though. She’s got everything handled,” I say, confident.

“Sometimes she has to go from one continent to another and she doesn’t make a stop here at home, isn’t that right?” Ron asks.

I nod. “It gets pretty lonely, I gotta admit. But I’m used to it by now, and I mean, everyone knows I can take care of myself.”

A beat passes –then two –and I can feel Kyle’s eyes on me while his lips are pressed to a straw, a bottle of grape juice is tight in his grip. I hear him swallow. “That’s pretty messed up, Lloyd. You’re all alone here. I could see why you were all depressed last week when Olivia stopped talking to you.”

“Hey!” Olivia says, throwing a fry –two –three at him. “We resolved that issue already. Don’t bring it back up!”

He bursts out laughing as he keeps dodging fries.

Thanks, best friend.

And thanks…

Kyle.

***

Kyle is absent today. I been trying to consider his wishes for this week; to consider him busy. I shove the thought of him aside for the rest of the day. When school finally ends, Olivia approaches me just as I’m walking to the exit.

“Hey, Mal,” Olivia says, meeting me at the entrance door, “you don’t have a meeting this evening, do you?”

“I have an Animal Rights meeting. I’m just heading out to go get a coffee from that place up on the hill. Apparently it’s a miracle,” I say, remembering Kyle’s enthusiasm over the same drink the other day.

“Didn’t you say you were going to resign as the president?” She asks, confused.

“Yea,” I say. “Today I’m going to have someone else take over. We’ll do some voting or something. I don’t know. I’ll be talking to the other members of the group about it. I think it’s a good thing that I’m dropping all these extracurricular stuff for now. It gives me more time to focus on actually studying –and of course the play.”

“Okay,” she says, “I’ll see you around, then.”

“Wait, why did you ask?”

“I thought of coming over to your place to practice the role of Valerie with you. My Valerie might be vastly different from yours if I don’t take a thing or two from you. I don’t want it to be too different. It’d be good to see how the two of us portray the character.”

“I’ll have time from next week,” I say. “How about we do that then?” She nods, smiling brightly and waving me goodbye.

***

It’s Friday. Kyle hasn’t been to school since Tuesday. Does this delinquent know how much of a pain in the ass it is to have to come up with lies and excuses to tell the teachers at rehearsals when he doesn’t show up? It’s not like I can just tell them he’s busy. What kind of excuse is that?

After rehearsals, Olivia meets me at the doors of the auditorium.

“Here are Kyle’s notes,” she says. “You have some time today, no? Could you drop them off for me? I’ll appreciate it.”

I scoff and take the notes, “This boy is such a delinquent, I swear to god. No problem, though. I’ll go over there and give him this along with a piece of my mind –and maybe my fist, too.”

“I messaged him,” Ron says, “He just keeps saying he’s busy, he’s busy, he’s busy. He promised he would start telling me what’s going on.” He rolls his eyes and sighs.

Looks like Kyle and I are on the same page again. He told Ron that he would open up to him more and I told Olivia to trust me until I tell he everything. We’re both such jokes.

“I’ll tell you guys what’s going on, don’t worry,” I say, leaving.

As I leave the compound, walk up the hill and call out to a taxi, I get a message.

Kyle: Don’t go to the house.

Huh?

How do you even know that I was going to-

-My message tone rings again.

Kyle: You won’t find me there.

Me: Then where are you? Olivia nagged me into bringing you notes. Ron says the only thing you’re telling him is that you’re busy

just like you told me you would be

Kyle: Just don’t go to the house, Lloyd.

Me: where the hell are you, Davidson?

When he doesn’t reply, I call him, and he cuts the call off before even answering. I call again. He cuts it off again. I call. He cuts.

Kyle: alright, alright. Stop calling me! I can’t answer the phone right now

Me: where. are. you.

Kyle: I’m

Me: ?

you’re?

Kyle: I’m out of the country.

You’re what!?