"You know, I never thought I would say this, but Keith please pay attention in Algebra."
Today I have took a total of four naps, and I'm still very tired. I would have gone home and slept even more, but Keith wanted to talk again, so therefore here I am learning that Keith is awful at basic algebra. Since I brought my laptop to school, I decided it would be best to go to Pidge's and just talk to Keith from Pidge's house. So far, neither Pidge or Keith have noticed each others existence. Pidge is too busy working on their next project, and they have headphones in. Keith on the other hand probably thinks this is another side of my room and I'm sitting on the floor just because I can.
Really though, should I introduce Keith to Pidge now?
"Lance, I do pay attention in Algebra, it's just none of it sticks too me and I'm stuck with C average grades."
"Once I'm done with you Keith, you will have such straight A's in Algebra II that you will start to question your sexuality. Now, what's the unit that you are about to work on?"
Keith chuckles at my gay joke, and he takes a moment to look over his papers. He has his hair tied back, and damn it should be illegal to be this fine. I wonder what he would look like with shorter hair...? Or better yet, longer hair?
"Lance, are you okay?"
Keith's voice drags me back from my thoughts, and I must have been staring way too long.
"Yep! Peachy! Um, I was just thinking if I should introduce you to my best friend Pidge. They're in the room with me right now, but I haven't told them that I would be Skyping with you at all."
Keith's expression is terribly hard to read, but from what I could gather he looks scared. I hope that in the future reading his face will come naturally.
"Um, if you want too I guess? I could have you meet Hunk sometime soon as well."
"Ah that would be great! Here, let me get the gremlin out of their work corner. I'll be right back!"
I place my laptop from my lap onto the carpet below me, and I stand up and try to find the right words to get Pidge to not give me a Pidge Punch. Heck, who am I kidding? Keith is such a celebrity in the Holt household that for sure Pidge will be interested in meeting him. I tap on Pidge's shoulder, and immediately they give me a death glare. I stopped them in the middle of screwing something in a small robot. Pidge was nice enough to take out one ear bud.
"Hey Pidgey, want to meet Keith?"
There was a brief second of confusion, then Pidge's face fills with mischief. Oh no, what have I done. Pidge puts down their new project, and stretches out their arms over their head.
"Well, lead me to him lover boy."
Pidge follows me over to where I set down my laptop, and Keith looks as if he is about to meet the president.
"Hey Keith! This is Pidge, Pidge meet Keith!"
I make sure that both Pidge and I show up on the screen, and it's kinda hilarious how short Pidge is compared to me. Keith waves at us, and Pidge is the first to speak.
"So, you're into conspiracies?"
"Um, yes?"
"Then here is the true test of if you know what you're talking about. Is Avril Lavigne actually dead?"
"Of course she is. There is so much evidence to back up that she has been dead for years."
And that's how Keith and Pidge became friends. The three of us decided to take a break from what we were originally doing to talk for a bit. We were mainly focused on Avril Lavigne, but eventually we went into Pidge giving away my personal stories. Why am I friends with this kid again?
"Yep, Lance totally knocked down an entire display at Walmart because he wanted to pose in front of it. I have the picture before all of the bouncy balls erupted all over the next three aisles."
Dammit, Pidge made Keith laugh. Now I have to one up them.
"Yeah, well at least I don't get carded for PG-13 movies."
Pidge gives me a side glare, and we both know this is war.
"Well, I never confused a raccoon for a dog and brought it home to keep."
"I never watched all of Naruto in a month."
"I never memorized the entire Bee Movie by heart."
"I never had a beanie baby collection!"
We went back and forth with terrible stories of ourselves for a while. Keith loved every single one we told, and he even told some stories himself.
"Wait wait wait, Keith, you couldn't ride a bike until you were ten?"
"Shut up, I was too terrified of falling. I was mad that I couldn't ride bikes with Hunk and his siblings so I taught myself. I don't like my mom's tactic where if you are pushed down a hill you 'automatically learn', so it took me two weeks to teach myself, but I did it."
Keith is too adorable. I say that all the time, but it's true.
Pidge decided it would be best to have us do homework again, especially once they found out how terrible Keith is at math.
"Wait Keith, you seriously don't know how to do logarithms?"
"Lance, Pidge, I know you guys are amazingly smart and that it's hard to understand that average person has no idea what a logarithm is, so please understand that it's amazing that I even know what they are."
Pidge left after that, muttering about how they were doing logarithms since diapers.
Keith and I somehow got through all of his math homework, and by the end of it he was doing logs like a pro. We still have about an hour left before Pidge's mom get's home, so Keith decided that I should start on my essay.
"Lance, your prompt is incredibly easy. Just write about a special moment? Come on I wish I could have prompts like that. All I get is 'write about how much of an emo Holden Caulfield is'."
"Who is Holden Caulfield?"
"Oh my God."
I have learned how to write out a general essay from Keith. Apparently, whatever my 'thesis' is should be my main focus of my essay, and that it should be at least five paragraphs unless the instructions say otherwise. I try to write out my first paragraph, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a 'special moment'.
"Keith, I really don't have any ideas. I can figure it out later once an idea comes to me."
It's five minutes until Mrs. Holt comes through the door, so Keith reluctantly let's me out of this one.
"Fine, just you better have an idea by tomorrow. We're... still on for tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah of course! Hopefully I won't be the only one wearing ridiculous pajamas."
"Just you wait Lance. Your mind will be blown."
I hear the front door shut from Pidge's room, so I'll have to cut this shorter than I thought.
"Oh man my ride is here. Feel free to text me! I can't wait for our date tomorrow!"
Keith waves at me before I hear his last words for the day.
"I can't wait either. See you later Lance."
Keith ends the call before I do, and I feel instantly sad. I want to hit that call button again, but I have to go home and eat something. Pidge tags along per usual, and there wasn't much chatter within the car. Mrs. Holt was tired, and Pidge was angry because their coding hasn't been working all day. Then there is me, a dude who can't get a certain mullet out of his head.
Pidge and Mrs. Holt say goodbye, and I head inside to find that my mamá was watching one of her telenovelas. Diego is on the floor, and he is reading one of his dinosaur books. There are no other signs of the family anywhere. Instead of bothering my mamá, I head to the kitchen to heat up the leftovers. Today it was tamales, and I had a special plate with my name on it. I love that my mamá is supportive of all my decisions between me being bisexual to me being a vegetarian. I know most families would flip and force their ideals upon me. Not my mamá, and certainly not my family.
I wonder if Keith's family is the same way?
My other lesser known friend, the microwave, pops open to let me heat up my food. While the food heats up I decide to scroll through Tumblr. There is the usual memes of course, then my favorite posts show up too so I can reblog them again. Then, I stumble across a new post from Keith. This is longer than his usual posts...
Red_Red_Red: Laying awake in the dead of night is dangerous. Most of us stay awake and strive for a distraction, because we don't want to face what might lurk under the bed of our minds. We are all victims of this monster we call ourselves, but don't fret. The more we focus on what that monster is under our bed, the more we lose ourselves in the fear of the unknown. This challenge that we face isn't a matter of how strong you are, and how much you can tolerate the constant presence that your monster latches onto you night after night. The real testament is the power to say that you need help, the power to scream for someone to barge into your room and scare away your monster. Find your perfect distraction, and sleep will become meaningless instead of wanted.
My heart skips a couple beats with each hidden meaning. There is so much heart put into this piece that I'm sure Keith spent a lot of time on this small paragraph. But what does this all mean exactly? Is he personally feeling like this, or is this a random idea that came to mind?
The microwave beeped a long time ago, but I was too engrossed into Keith's new post to notice. As I eat at the barren kitchen table, I read it over again and again. Maybe he found his perfect distraction, and wanted to share how you get rid of the 'monster'? What exactly is Keith's 'monster'? Would it be weird or rude to ask him about it?
I finish my food, and I still don't know the answer. I need some fresh air, so maybe Rex is out working on his bike? I haven't talked to him one on one in forever, so that's what I'll do. I quickly clean up the table, and rinse my plates to make it easier for Diego. He just started learning how to do the dishes, which is a relief on everyone else in the family.
As I start leaving the house, my phone buzzed. It must be Keith!... Nope it was my data plan running out. Now I can't go on the internet without WiFi... Oh shit... how am I supposed to contact Keith now? Is it okay to ask for his phone number? It will have to be, or else I won't be able to contact him in public until Saturday when my phone bill is paid.
León72Azul to Red_Red_Red: Aye yo can I have your phone number? My data ran out so I can't message you through Tumblr in public ;-;
I was hoping to ask for his phone number more romantically, but hey what can you do when you use all of your data on a cute boy? I'm sorta standing awkwardly in the living room for Keith's response, so instead of waiting around I should spend some time with Diego. Once Diego seen that I was going to talk to him, he pushes the book he was reading into my face. This is his way of asking me to read out loud to him. My mamá gave me the go ahead, so I went ahead and got into my story telling voice.
"BOOM BOOM BOOM. The earth shook under the young Triceratops. There must be a BIG dinosaur coming through the forest!"
Yep, I'm a pro at this. The book was short, and Diego has read this over a thousand times already, so when I end it he applauds me for another successful retelling. Mamá smiles at both Diego and I, and I ruffle Diego's hair before I check my phone for Keith's response.
Red_Red_Red to León72Azul: Yeah of course. My number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Ah yes, I have obtained Keith's phone number. I'm going to give him a nickname is my phone! I start to leave the house finally, as I input the number and conjure up a cute nickname. I'm standing outside the garage when it came to me the perfect nickname.
Lance to Special K: Ayyyyeee I'm back baby. Btw I gave you the nickname Special K in my phone, so come up with one for me!
I'm nervous of what Keith will come up with, but he's amazing with words, so I'm sure it will be perfect.
It turns out Rex was in the garage, and what surprises me is that he was working on a car instead of his bike.
"Where did the car come from?"
Rex was in the hood, and he jumps when I spoke.
"Lance! I thought we talked about this?"
"Oops sorry, I forgot. You do get easily scared."
Rex glares at me, but he continues to clean up the crap on his hands.
"So, what brings you to my humble abode?"
There is a kinda broken chair by the work desk that I take to sit on, and I honestly don't know what to talk about? So I pick the topic that has been my life for the past couple of days.
"Well, I've been seeing a guy."
I see Rex tense up a little bit as he puts down the hood. Oh god he is just gonna focus on me now.
"Really? Like no messing around?"
"Nope, no messing around. I genuinely like this guy."
Rex continues to walk towards me and pick up the stool that's next to me, and he brings it closer to where I'm sitting. We're about a foot away from each other, and I can smell the 'garage' smell coming off of Rex.
"Tell me about him."
"Um, what about him?"
"You know, the basics. Name, how you guys met, all that junk."
Okay, so I guess I am finally telling a family member about all of this and the Holt family doesn't have to suffer as much anymore.
"Well, his name is Keith and we met... online."
Rex gives me the old eyebrow raise.
"Online?"
"Um, yeah? If you think I'm getting catfished, I'm not. I've been Skyping with him recently, he's legit."
Rex only raises his eyebrow higher, if that was even possible?
"So you, Lance Rivera, have developed an actual crush on someone and they just so happen to not live around here? That's rough buddy. Where does he live?"
"Somewhere in Texas?"
"Holy crap Texas? I mean, at least it isn't Australia?"
I would probably cry if Keith lived in Australia. I really don't like Vegemite.
"Yeah, that would suck... But I really want this to somehow work out, you know? I feel like I can do a long distance relationship, cause man I've never met someone like Keith before. I've known him for almost a week, and he just brightens my day no matter what. I want to feel what I have with him every day, you know?"
Rex beams a smile at me. There are no words exchanged as he pats me on the back and gives me a side hug.
"Yeah, I understand. When I found Circe my entire world was changed. I think it's just in the Rivera blood that we're flirts, but once we find 'the one' the world becomes clearer. Introduce me to Keith sometime, yeah?"
'The one'? Is Keith really 'the one'? I can't have my hopes up just like that, but Rex for sure gave me more confidence than what I had before. Now no matter I want Keith and I to work.
"Oh but Rex, you never answered my question."
"You asked a question?"
"Yeah, what's the car for?"
Rex looks over at the car previously mentioned, and he starts to rub his neck. That means Rex is hiding something and is about to lie.
"Oh I'm fixing up a friends car for money. Why do you like it?"
Why would he lie to me about the car? I guess he will tell me when the time is right.
"Yeah it's a pretty cool car. Hopefully the transmission isn't giving you too much trouble?"
"You don't even know the half of it."
Rex briefly explains his car troubles, but we both notice that it's completely pitch black outside and we should probably go back to the house. Rex starts cleaning up the garage, and I go back into the house by myself. I should really shower and get that garage smell off of me, but honestly I kinda really like that smell.
I try to get upstairs to the shower, but my mamá stops me before I even touched the first step.
"Mijo, I have news on Kaltenecker."
Oh no... Please, please let Kaltenecker be okay.
"So... Will Kaltenecker be alright?"
"She will be absolutely fine Lance. Kaltenecker had Mastitis, which is easily curable. Her udder was just too irritated and was very painful for her, but she is fine now. She will be back in the barn by tomorrow."
"Oh thank you mamá!"
I hug the shorter woman with all my might. She is honestly the most amazing woman I know. She let's me go with a stronger hug back, and a kiss on my cheek.
"Now, go wash up. You smell like Rex."
I knew that I smelt the garage on me! Hastily. I grab a quick shower before I turn in for the night. I deserve to go to bed early tonight, since tomorrow is the big day! I wonder what Keith has in store for me? I wonder if I can one up him and make the date after this one even better? I wonder if Keith has responded?
Special K to Baby Blue: Baby Blue, I have decided.
Holy shit? That's actually cuter than anything I could have came up with and I'm dying?
Baby Blue to Special K: Have I ever told you that you're my definition of perfect? Bc holy shiiittt
I didn't think it was possible to like Keith even more, but I was oh so wrong. He keeps surprising me with little gems like this, and that heart emoji from earlier today? Fucking priceless.
Tonight I'll be sleeping in sweatpants with no shirt, for tomorrow I'm breaking out my Stitch onesie that I got for my birthday last year from Pidge. I was about to get cozy in bed, but my phone started to buzz like crazy.
Wait, Keith is calling me?
I start to panic, but then I realized it's not a Skype call and he can't see me, so I answer it.
"Hello?"
"Oh god um, hi... Sorry I'll just-"
"No wait! Don't go! I'm glad that I can hear your voice before I go to sleep. What's on your mind?"
There was a brief two or three second silence before Keith started to speak again.
"Okay well um, this is going to be insanely awkward for me to say, but I'm going to say it anyways."
I hear Keith trying to clear his throat on the other end. Is he really that nervous?
"I know you didn't have a good day yesterday, and you don't have to tell me the reasoning behind that... But I wanted to let you know that I'm extremely happy that I've met you, and that to me you're also my definition of perfect."
I feel a singular tear start to roll down my face, and for once it's because I was happy.
"Um, oh wow... I wasn't expecting that. You've left me speechless again, you should be proud of yourself!"
"Shit, I did make it awkward, didn't I?
"No no no, you made everything perfect! I think my only concern with us is that there is a possibility that we are rushing whatever 'this' is, and in all honesty I don't give a shit if we are! I like you, and you like me, so I'm giving my all to make this work out, okay?"
More silence ensues, but only for a second or two before Keith chokes out a response.
"I-I agree. I am more of the action type versus the thinking type."
"So am I Special K. I hope you sleep well tonight, and that your plans for our date tomorrow go according to your plan! Goodnight!"
"Um, yeah I hope so too. Goodnight Baby Blue."
Keith hangs up before he could hear my muffled screeching. He verbally called me Baby Blue!
I think I understand now. Keith is my perfect distraction.
Aye yo my dudes! So I did end up updating before my graduation! Enjoy all the tooth rotting fluff this time around~
magicmady- OMG THANKS SO MUCH. YES LET LITTLE ELI READ FANFICTION!
Mikihiko Tada- I have written more! And for sure there will be A LOT more for the future! I plan to have this reach 100,000 words! Also ff is dumb and doesn't let you do the greater/lesser than signs on here ;-; poop
The Best Guesst- OH NO. THERE IS MORE FLUFF I HOPE YOU'RE NOT DEAD FRIEND. Also Mr. Rotten is love, Mr. Rotten is life.
Gay Legs- BOI I WOULD MARRY THEM ON THE SPOT AS WELL IF THEY BROUGHT UP THE MOON LANDING. OR AVRIL LAVIGNE BEING DEAD LIKE? and like damn I fuckin love waffle cones man ;-;