When he woke up the first morning of summer, Snake walked down the stairs to see his mother carefully looking through a pile of vinyls tall at least as much as the coffee table.
She was currently looking at a particularly old looking 33, one Snake couldn't tell if it had always been in the house or was bought, although second hand, that day.
She noticed he was downstairs and tried to show him the record. «How much do you care for the music of Mason Boley?»
«I didn't know he existed before now»
«So you're not planning on taking it with you?»
She didn't seem in one of her moods, but it was still better for Snake to lower his head. «Everything can be useful»
«We're not going to finish packing in two months, there's so much to go through! If you stayed near, we wouldn't need to» she suggested.
As if he didn't feel terrible about deciding to leave already. How much stress it was causing her, how selfish of a choice it was. How he was abandoning them.
But Snake felt himself going insane living at home. He refused to even acknowledge some of the things he thought when his mother was at her worst, but even when she was pretty okay, the fear it could all go wrong in one second kept haunting him.
He'd gotten extremely good at making sure everything went as right as possible, to the point that it almost was innate for him. But he just hoped he could not worry so much. And university in Kingston seemed the place. Honestly, if he had a reasonable excuse for going to school in Antartica he would. He doubted many penguins were clinically insane. And if they were, at least they weren't related to him and he could at least try to avoid them.
«Well, Banting is the Harvard of the north» Snake said, hoping she'd drop the conversation soon.
«At least you're closer than the actual Harvard» she joked.
She stared at the vinyl for some seconds, then placed it on the sofa, far enough from her, then picked up the next.
«There's a krapfen on the kitchen table, but first, do you enjoy "The Barumfelds"?» She asked picking the next record from the pile.
«Not particularly»
She placed it on top of the previous one. «That's a no then»
Snake went to the kitchen. The krapfen was in a once white paper bag, now transparent due to the oil. Cream, not his favourite, but still good.
He opened the leather case that was sitting on the table. Such a fancy thing for the container of mostly headache meds, but the other choice was a small-ish crate with no lid, so fancy it was.
A small notepad was in there, hidden under all of the meds. On the sheet on top was written, with his father's handwriting, the date of the day before and the number thirteen. A pen was also somewhere in there. Snake took it, removed the sheet and wrote that day's date on the next one.
Someone entered the room, and he scrambled to hide the paper again. They had to check, but his mother took it personally, as if they didn't trust her specifically, so they had to do it in a sneaky way.
Thankfully it was just his father, making himself a cup of coffee. «Don't worry. How many?»
«I still have to check» Snake said, taking the prescription box and counting the pill inside. «Seven»
«That's low, can you go buy some later?»
«I'm starting the job at the pool in like an hour, dad»
«She's got enough until tomorrow morning, so you can pass by the pharmacy when you're done»
Why was that, alongside every other thing on this world, Snake's responsibility?
«And help your mother with the records, she's doing this for you»
She was doing that completely on her own. He couldn't remember when it was the last time he actually used the record player in the living room. The last time he choose to buy a vinyl, he wasn't even in junior high. He didn't need to bring any to university.
Still, until it was time for him to leave, he sat next to his mother, piling record after record on the "to leave here" stack, all of which were from bands or people whose name might as well have been "clearly bought by a suburban couple in their forties".
His shift was good. Weird, but good
He walked his way towards the lifeguard tower, at first making sure to be far enough from the danger zone of right next to the pool. What kind of first impression as a lifeguard would it give slipping and falling on the tiled ground, maybe even getting injured.
At first, but then he got distracted. Using the ladder, a guy—he must have been around Snake's age— got out of the water. He seemed cool and, importantly, handsome.
He was directed towards where Snake was coming from, passing in front of him. He gave a smile and Snake could do nothing but a small nod with his head and turning around to keep watching him. Without stopping to walk.
He kept going, straight into the water. Luckily, being so tall, his head got nowhere near underwater, but his hat was definitely drenched and his slippers floating in a corner. And everyone, including the other currently working lifeguard noted.
Ladder Guy walked back there, facing the right direction. He offered his hand, even though it was also soaked. «Need help?»
«I'm… I don't sorry… Thanks anyway» Snake stammered trying to grab the left slipper.
«No problem»
He got out of the pool and actually started his shift. After a good hour of the other lifeguard trying to teach him everything he needed to know, like that there was this little girl of around five with a perpetual bloody nose, he was left to on his own.
It wasn't really an action job, definitely not at this pool. It was relaxing. The kind of job you'd take just to have something to do. He already worked late, but he could spend the whole day and night there and he probably wouldn't complain.
Especially if the alternative was browsing every record known to human trying to make sure his mother was never stressed or bothered at all.
At some point in the afternoon, Snake couldn't tell exactly when, Ladder Guy came by him again.
«Sorry I didn't help when you fell» he said, a bit awkwardly, like he wasn't sure of what he was saying.
«Don't worry»
«I'm Andy»
«Archie… Snake… Archibald»
Great now he was definitely sure Snake had a stutter of some kind.
He laughed. «Archie Archibald are you aware you name and surname are the same?»
«No!» He sighed deeply looking for the words. He sure was a mess around people he… liked? Was that the right word?
«Sorry to break it to you then»
«I'm not Archie Archibald, it's Archibald Simpson. Archie for short. But most people call me Snake»
«Clearly a water one»
They both laughed. Snake noted Andy smiled putting his tongue slightly under his incisor teeth. It was cute.
«But really, sorry»
«Don't worry»
Andy looked away for a moment, opening his mouth, about to say something. He then looked back towards Snake.
«I should buy you ice cream to fully apologise. When do you… When does your shift end?»
Snake's stomach tried digesting itself, like during a school test of some kind.
«At eight»
«You basically live here! But, also, eight pm is the best time to eat» Andy's words weren't whispered, but almost, to keep it private and hidden.
«I don't see why not. Wait, I do… I need to pass by something after my shift, pretty urgently»
«I'm sorry then»
«If you can wait outside we can still have that ice cream» Snake replied, as little too fast, a little too nervous.
«Sure, but I won't spend the next couple of hours here staring… at the water»
«I really can't disappear halfway through my first day»
«It's your first day?»
Snake's stomach turned tighter as Andy smiled. «Yeah»
«Generally speaking, on earth or working here?»
«I have pretty definitive proof I'm not an alien»
«Really? Because you seem to have trouble with the direction of your walking»
«I wasn't really focused»
«Not on the walking» Andy added this time whispering, more to himself than anything else, clearly amused.
That was scary. He hadn't been thinking, for sure, but shouldn't had been that obvious. Something bad could have happened. Really terribly bad. It didn't, but it became all Snake could think about in that moment.
«Anyway, I'll go get actual clothes and I'll pass by at eight?» Andy broke that second of silence.
Snake nodded, absent minded.
He managed to distract himself during the rest of his shift though. And when closing came, he was in a mostly relaxed state again.
Andy owned a car. Or at least he drove one. Slightly better shape than Joey's. It worked, and that was enough.
Snake asked him to stop at the pharmacy on Degrassi St. He started to overthink about what he could possibly think he was buying there. Even cough syrup was weird this time of the year.
At the counter, Judy Kaye was waiting for something to happen probably. Snake kind of knew the daughter back in junior high, more because she was popular that any meaningful personal connection.
Still, Judy trusted him a lot. Or at least enough to actually sell him him mothers medication since he was a teen. He wasn't sure what the exact laws were, but at this particular pharmacy, Snake could buy whatever he felt like it without any problems.
Except maybe condoms, Ms Kaye still knew his parents by name.
This meant a lot of small talk, but in decent enough time Snake could get back to his… time with Andy. That's what he was going to call it.
It went well, they kept talking about things. He wasn't really able to remember any topic after they switched to the next, but talking and listening and the ice cream felt relaxing, a bit like sleeping. Definitely nice.
After an hour though, precisely an hour his terrible beeping watch made sure of that, he realised it was probably better he came back home. There's only so much time you can spend buying pills.
His mother didn't even know he was doing that.
«You're late» she stated as he came back home.
«This morning I noticed you were running low, so I stopped by the store.»
«Everything okay?»
«Yeah, I had a headache, nothing weird»
His mother waved a record around. One he hadn't seen that morning. How many could there be in the house? «If you're feeling well now then we should listen to this. You probably don't remember the name I can tell you you like it.»
Snake sat next to her on the couch and they started listening to whatever that was going to be.