Midnight sun
The weekend ended quickly, Ashton slept through the rest of Saturday and no one seemed to suspect anything.
He hated Mondays. When he was at the orphanage he would spend some Mondays in bed without getting up. But now he no longer had that privilege, because his brothers would notice when they returned home. He debated for a while if it wasn't worth going to classes, but he thought about Liam, his friend, thanks to him the school wasn't so bad. So he got up and he dressed up for school.
—
Andrew entered his old room slamming the door. Kevin got so scared that he dropped the book he was reading.
-Do not do that! You don't even live here!
-You don't complain when you show up at my house with a laundry bag.
Kevin climbed down from his bunk to pick up the book. He wasn't wearing a shirt, just his gray sweatpants.
- It's the first time you've arrived so early. There’s one hour left until training starts.
- What's up Day, don't you miss me?- While Kevin got up from picking up the object, Andrew approached him. He ended up cornering the tall one against the bunk and leaning his hand on it, leaving only a few centimetres of distance between them.
- If it was Neil who had left, would you miss him?
- What?- Kevin blushed, he looked very confused.
Andrew snorted and moved closer brushing his nose with Kevin's.
"I've seen how you look at my boyfriend," he whispered. Obviously he also saw how Kevin looked at him, but he wanted to know how far he could go until Kevin started talking.
-Andrew... I...- Kevin tried to speak.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Aaron was leaning against the door.
-Nothing- said Kevin and he separated himself from Andrew, he grabbed a shirt and ran to the bathroom.
Aaron walked into the room, visually upset.
- You don't have enough with Josten or what?
-He's the one who looks at my boyfriend when he shouldn't.- Andrew said annoyed at being interrupted.
- Oh so you're just being a possessive piece of shit like always. At least you admit that he is your boyfriend now.
- I'm just having a little fun. If it's not okay with you I'm sure the cheerleader can take you to the gym.
- Her name is Katelyn and you know it. Stop bullshiting! I want her to meet Ashton this week so she'll come over for dinner on Saturday and you're going to act like a normal person.
- No one has given her an invitation inside our house.
- I have, Josten is always there. You won’t die from her being there a couple hours.
- I do not promise anything.
—
When Ash arrived at school, Liam was surrounded by his friends, the jocks. Ash preferred to avoid social contact with these people so he walked past him to go to his classroom. It sucked that Liam got along with everyone, Ash always had to wait for him to finish talking to people to spend time with him.
"Hey, wait for me," Liam yelled, running up to him. "Why didn't you wait for me?"
- You were talking to your friends.
- Yeah, but you should have stayed. You know you can join the conversation. You're my friend.
- I’d rather not. - Liam looked disappointed but accepted the answer.
Behind him Emily appeared, startling Liam.
- Are you going to skip class or what?
- No.- Ash answered.
"Why not?" Emily said, she looked tired.
- Yes, why not?- Liam smiled.- Let's go. We can go for a walk, go shopping...- he lower his voice- smoke weed...
"Yeah, come on Ash," Emily encouraged.
-Since when do you get along? I thought you wanted to kill each other.
"Weed unites people," Emily replied.
Ashton had already made up his mind that he had to be in class today, but he preferred to have a good time with his friends.
-Fine.
—
-Eww, I'm not going to one of those abandoned places, I'm sure I'll catch some disease there. -Emily said, when Liam suggested going to a hospital he and Ash had been planning to explore for weeks.
- Why not? Ash and I go to places like this all the time, nothing happens.- In reality they had only visited two places together.
- I said no. Also this is my car and I'm driving.
- Fine, where do you want to go then?- Ash interrupting the discussion that was lasting too long.
-Let's go to my house, my parents are not here and it is quite big.
—
The monsters were sitting in the cafeteria. Kevin was trying to avoid Andrew and Neil so he was sitting as far away from the couple as possible.
Nicky was talking even though no one was paying attention.
Andrew's phone rang, catching everyone's attention.
- Good afternoon, are you the legal guardian of Ashton Isaac Minyard?
- Yeah.
- Is there a reason why Ashton hasn't come to class today?
- He has a medical appointment, tomorrow he will bring you a receipt.
- Okay, but next time you need to inform us in advance.
- OKAY.- He hanged up.
"Who has a doctor's appointment?" Aaron asked.
- Ashton is not in class.
-What?
Andrew tried to call Ash on the phone but his brother didn't pick up.
"You shouldn't have lied to the school." Kevin spoke to him, but when he saw Andrew's look he fell silent and returned to his attitude from before.
-Andrew what if he got into trouble? What if something happened to him?- Aaron was getting paranoid.
-Agg, Aaron, don't worry so much. You two skipped class all the time when you were his age.
- He doesn't pick up the phone. We need to find him.
-Don't be hypocrites, I am sure he's at home or out with friends. You can't skip your classes for him. We'll all look for him later.- Nicky seemed unconcerned. It was true that the twins had done the same, but with Ashton it was different.
Andrew tried to relax but couldn't.
- I don't have class right now. I can go home to see if he is there. - Neil offered.
- Fine.- Andrew ended up accepting.
—
Emily's house was large, the typical house that an upper-middle-class family has. It was in a beautiful neighbourhood, almost out of a magazine.
"My parents travel a lot for their work, so make yourselves comfortable," Emily said, getting out of the car.
- Nice.- Liam said entering the house.
Ash had lived in houses like this with his foster families but he had never really felt at ease. The first family hadn't been bad, they just didn’t care about him. He barely talked to them, spending most of my time outside with people he had met at the skatepark.
The second family had been a disaster and the reason he ended up in the orphanage.
He pushed those horrible memories away and plopped down on the couch next to Liam, who was rolling some joints.