Chapter Text
Neil – August 9th, 2025; Saturday; 14h46min.
Water splashed on Neil’s body when Seth jumped in the pool, wetting his UV black shirt.
“Seth!” Allison screamed, sitting on the chair next to Neil’s. “I just put on suntan lotion! If I’m not tanned by the end of the day, I’m going to kill you.”
“Stop worrying, Al. You know you have money to do an artificial tan,” Seth laughed, swimming.
Allison just rolled her eyes and got a towel, to dry herself and put on the lotion again. Dan was in another chair, while Amelie helped Matt in the grill and Nicky, Jean, Renee, and Kevin were in the pool, in a catch ball game. Seth went to Nicky and hugged him from behind, taking him out of the game. Allison made a disgusted face.
“I don’t know how you put up with him, Nicky.”
“He has a personality problem, but kisses well enough for me to forget it,” Nicky laughed.
“Don’t lie. Being a bad kisser is the reason I broke up with him.”
Seth raised his middle finger. He and Allison had a long relationship until two years ago, when they both realized that they were gay. Now, Allison is enjoying her single life and Seth has been dating Nicky for six months.
“Hey, hey!” Matt called, from the grill. “No insults in my house. We are just enjoying the second last day of vacation. It’s the last year for some of us to….”
“Don’t start with the sentimental speech. I will throw up my breakfast,” said Jean.
“Oh, no, no, let him,” Amelie intervened. “He will make us cry with his words of how he and the others are going to miss us.”
She raised her hand as if she were going to smash Matt’s cheeks, but he pretended as if he was going to hit her hand with the spatula.
“You could’ve burned me!” Amelie moved away. “I guess no more help to Matt.”
“You literally were just watching,” Neil intervened.
“That’s because I’m not good at cooking,” Amelie looked at him, irritated. “I was giving moral support.”
“Okay, so it’s time for real help. Kevin, can you come here?”
When Kevin left the pool and came near them, Amelie couldn’t hide her eye roll, or simply didn’t want to. Noticing her inflammation, the striker gave her a no-teeth smile.
After some time, Matt and Kevin finished cooking and they all went to the picnic table to have lunch. Neil was scrunched between Jean and Matt. He took a bite of his vegetarian hot dog, appreciating the taste. Everyone complimented the boys on the food.
“You know, it’s good, but it would be better with my moral support,” Amelie said, between bites of her hamburger.
“Guys!” Dan raised her hand. “We could do a picnic tomorrow at the park. It’s our last day of summer break and I think we should enjoy it together.”
“That’s a great idea! I’ll bring donuts,” said Allison.
“I can cook a pie,” Renee offered.
Everyone started thinking about who could bring what. Nicky, who seemed excited until then, interrupted the conversation.
“I just remembered something. Tomorrow, my cousins and their mom will be arriving in town. I promised to help them with the move.”
“Oh, they are moving here? That’s nice,” Amelie said. “They are your cousins by your mom’s or your dad’s side?”
Nicky seemed a little uncomfortable by the mention of his parents but answered like nothing disturbed him. Amelie, like always, didn’t realize.
“My dad and their biological mom are siblings, but she died when they were ten. Betsy had already adopted Andrew, and, when their biological mother died, she managed to adopt Aaron too, since no relatives seemed interested in it.”
“How old are they? Will they be at our school?” Renee asked.
“Yes. They are going to start Junior year.”
“Are they moving in with you or…?” asked Neil.
“No, but they will live in an apartment that’s literally side by side with mine.”
Nicky had been emancipated since he was sixteen, so he lived alone. Neil was glad his friend would have trustworthy people living next to him, to help with any emergencies.
“Oh, if you want, I can help with the moving,” Amelie offered. “Organizing things makes me so calm.”
It could seem surprising that Amelie could cause unintentional discomfort with her words at the same time as she had such a kind heart, but Neil was already accustomed to his sister and her idiosyncrasies.
“That actually would be great. Thank you,” Nicky smiled.
“I’ll come to. I will love to help,” said Renee.
That, on the other hand, was surprising to no one. Besides Renee being super gentle, Amelie and Renee were best friends and almost never went somewhere without one another.
Later that day, Neil and Amelie were heading home. Neil had offered his sister the opportunity to drive the car, but she said she was too exhausted by all the interaction to try and do something she wasn’t even capable of yet.
Their house was empty. Technically, their uncle Stuart was their legal guardian, but he always had to travel because of work. When they were little, Stuart hired the housemaid, Esperanza, to take care of them. But, since they were sixteen years old, Stuart started to let them on their own and Esperanza only came by once a week, to clean everything.
Neil took off his wet UV shirt to put it in the washing machine. While he did it, he could feel Amelie’s stare. He still remembered the first time his sister had seen his scars.
They were twelve years old. It had been some weeks since their mother was killed, and they moved to Stuart’s. Neil was in his bedroom, putting on sunscreen to go to the pool, when Amelie knocked on the door. Forgetting about his situation, he let her enter and she saw him without his shirt one.
“What… how that happened?” she had murmured.
“I don’t know what to answer you besides what you already realized.”
She had swallowed dryly.
“But I protected you. I-I did everything I could so he would never touch you.”
“You thought you did,” Neil had whispered.
Neil would never forget the consuming guilt in his sister’s face and the cries he had heard all night. He shook his head to stop thinking about it.
“When you mentioned Nicky’s parents, he got uncomfortable,” Neil said.
Since Amelie had difficulties predicting how her words and actions would affect people, the siblings had an agreement: every time Amelie did or said something weird or rude Neil would warn her, so she wouldn’t repeat the act.
“Oh, okay. Thank you for your warning. Would be proper to apologize to him?”
“I think it’s better to just let go and don’t do the same thing again,” answered Neil. “Apologizing probably would make him more uncomfortable.”
Amelie nodded, pressing her lips against each other.
“You know they know you don’t do these things with bad intentions, right?”
“I know, I just…,” Amelie looked down at the floor. “It just feels like I’m navigating through an unknown ocean without no map or compass.”
The other day, in the morning, Renee came to their house to walk with Amelie to Nicky’s. At lunch time, Neil followed to the park. Everyone was already there. When the get-together hit the end, Neil’s stomach was full, and he was feeling that warm feeling in his heart.
Neil got home and noticed the light on inside the house. Amelie was on the couch, writing something on her computer.
“So, how was the get-together?” Amelie asked. “I hope you are enough full to not have dinner, because I already ate with Renee, Nicky, the twins and their mom.”
“It was great. What did you eat?”
“Bee did pizza. She’s amazing,” Amelie began to type more rapidly.
“Who’s Bee?”
“Their mom. Follow up. She is a psychiatrist. She made us hot chocolate afterwards.”
Neil sat next to Amelie, stretching himself.
“And what about Nicky’s cousins?” he asked.
“They are okay. Not really the affectionate type. But I think I liked Andrew.”
Neil waited for her to elaborate and, when she didn’t, he asked:
“Why?”
She shrugged.
“He’s easy to understand.”
The next day, when the alarms seemed not able to take Neil out of bed, Amelie had to wake him. Amelie drove them to school, passing by to get Jean and his sister, Elodie. Jean’s dads, James Rhemann, their PE teacher, and Adijan, waved goodbye to them.
“So, Elodie, excited to your first year of High School?” Amelie asked.
When Elodie began to chatter, Neil tuned the conversation out. Elodie was the sweetest, but he was too tired to pay attention to any of it. First days were always rough.
Neil got his schedule, put his things on his locker and followed to English class with Jean. He was lucky that Amelie was on the advanced subject, so they wouldn’t have to hear her chatter about the amazing world of grammar and literature after class. Laila was also there. She waved at the two, who sat next to her.
“Hey, guys. How was your summer?”
“Great. How about yours?” Neil asked.
“Awesome. Did you guys go to the amusement park? Me, Cat, Jeremy, and Katelyn went. It was really cool.”
“We didn’t” answered Jean. “Is it still in town? Maybe we could all go together.”
Neil tried not to roll his eyes at the attempt to spend more time with Jeremy. Jean had this crush on their vice-captain for ages and, even with Neil’s encouragement, he refused to try and hit on him.
The teacher entered the classroom, interrupting their conversation. After class, Neil was in his locker when he heard a tumult.
He followed to sound to find a crown. When Neil entered it, he saw one student on the ground and Nicky holding a small blonde guy. It was Riko on the ground, he noticed. The blonde seemed strangely calm, so Neil wasn’t understanding why Nicky was holding him. Seth, by his boyfriend side, was the one who seemed the most pissed off.
“Who the fuck do you think you are to punch me in your first day?” Riko yelled.
The blonde looked him with an uninterested look, as if he forgot Riko was there.
“You used a word I don’t like. Don’t do it again.”
Before Riko could yell more, a teacher entered the scene.
“Hey, what is happening here? You two, come with me to the principal’s office.”
With an end to the moment, Neil got close to Nicky and Seth and asked what had happened.
“Riko called Nicky a fag and the little guy jumped on him before I could even punch Riko. He’s sick,” Seth smiled.
“That’s a little worrying. It’s Andrew’s first day and he already got involved in confusion.”
Later that day, when he was leaving a class, Neil bumped into someone.
“Sorry,” he murmured, then looked at the person’s face.
Andrew, he recognized, gave him an uninterested look, and continued to follow his way.