Chapter Text
The only thing that Kel’s heard in the last five minutes is Aubrey’s boisterous laughter.
He furrows his eyebrows, his lips tipped downward. “It’s not funny Aubrey!” Kel scolds through gritted teeth.
“Oh it absolutely is,” she says in between bursts of laughter. “You went woop! Then woosh! And then you were in his lap!” She clutches her stomach as she gasps for air.
His cheeks turn pink. “Shut up!”
Aubrey stops laughing to clap him on the shoulder, “It’s okay, we all look like an idiot in front of others from time to time. Some,” she glances him up and down. “More than others.”
Though he’s frustrated with the verbal jab that Aubrey just threw at him, it holds a semblance of truth. When Kel felt the aches and pains in his legs as he grew, he couldn’t deny how much harder life got. The one thing about having long, lanky limbs is that you sacrifice balance for height.
“What’s the deal with you anyways?” she asks as she pokes his warming cheeks.
“It’s nothing!” Kel stammers. He looks in between his clumsy feet that landed him in this mess to begin with. A beat. “Okay well, I may-or-may-not have a crush on the guy I landed on?”
Aubrey’s jaw hangs open. She points at him. “You? A crush?”
“Oh what now, am I not allowed to have crushes on people?!”
“I mean you are!” she says. “But since this is the first crush I’m hearing of. I genuinely thought that you would end up with a basketball. Aren’t you the one who always says,” she makes a motion in the air. “‘Ball is life’?”
Kel groans. Aubrey snickers
“Well it doesn’t matter either way anymore. I made the worst first impression ever. Who knows if I’ll see him again?!”
“I mean…” Aubrey crosses her arms. “If you’ve seen him two times already, don’t you think that’s enough of a sign from the universe?” She lightly punches him in the shoulder. “Make something happen!”
“Oh yeah, well tell that to me when you’ve finally made a move on Kim after all these years! What’re you waiting for? At least I’ve made a move, literally! Ouch!” He rubs his shoulder. He hopes it doesn’t leave a bruise. “Okay fine!” he relents. “What should I do?”
“I don’t know, sit beside him and strike up a conversation?” she suggests. “Do you think anything’s going to come out of it if you don’t try?”
Kel pauses, mulling over her words. He stops as their path home turns from a white walking sign to a red hand. “No, I don’t think anything will.”
“No shit nothing’ll happen!” She says. “You can’t wait for things to happen, you need to make them happen yourself.” She grabs him by the shoulders and gives him a little shake. “You need to try. Do you want to miss the opportunity? You miss one-hundred percent of the shots that you don’t take. That’s a basketball reference if you didn’t know.”
“Actually, I think that was Wayne Gretzky.* But,” he takes a deep breath. “I’ll give it a shot.”
-
Just in time. Kel is hunched over in a familiar position, his hands on his knees as he gasps for air. He’s skipped way too many cardio days.
The train prepares for its departure from the station, sliding its doors shut. This time, Kel plants his feet onto the floor to steady himself. He won’t let the train’s momentum throw him off balance again. When he feels the train’s wheels glide smoothly enough along the tracks, he scans for an open seat in the morning rush hour commute. He walks the same way the train is travelling, until his eyes land on an empty red seat, and a black haired individual turning the page of his leather bound book beside it.
His stomach churns itself into knots. It was as if the universe was giving him a golden opportunity. What should he do? Should he look for another spot? Or take his chances?
He closes his eyes, heartbeat steadily picking up the pace in his ears. Aubrey’s words that she took from Wayne Gretzky echoes in his ears, “You miss one-hundred percent of the shots that you don’t take”.
He takes a deep breath to steady his nerves enough for him to make a spur-of-the-moment decision. He took a step towards his fate.
Sunny looks up from his book as Kel plops beside him, dropping his school bag and gym bag on the floor between his legs. And for a second, Kel thinks he could see a soft smile.
He pulls the case to his bluetooth earbuds out of his pocket only for it to slip from his moist fingers and land against the dirty floor. He clicks his tongue. He’s off to a good first (but technically second) impression.
Kel stares at the shoe shaped case on the floor, then turns away to look at the window. He pretends as if he never tried to take it out of his pocket in the first place. He would rather leave his earbuds on the dirty, crusty floor than somehow manage to mess up and embarrass himself in front of him again. Perhaps next time he chooses a case, he’ll choose something sleeker and less tacky that requires less of a struggle.
Instead of blasting away this awkward situation with the tunes he usually plays, Kel begins to pick at the skin around his fingernails. It isn’t until they announce the next station stop when he feels a tap so slight on his shoulder, he almost thought it was that of a ghost.
“Did you drop this?” He hears over the inconsistent noise of the train car as it scrapes across the metal tracks and jolts him in his seat.
Kel’s heart beats so wildly he’s afraid his heart will leap out of his chest. He freezes like a statue, running through all the scenarios in his head. How could he handle this situation so it doesn’t end with him embarrassing himself again?
Whichever one his brain lands on in the moment is the one he’ll go with. He’s leaving it entirely up to his impulsiveness, something he’s learned he probably shouldn’t rely on one too many times in the past. Like when he thought it would be funny to jump out at Aubrey when she was coming back from the bathroom and she slipped and hurt her tailbone. Or that time when he thought he could dunk from the free throw line and sprained his ankle. Hero scolded him big time for those. After all, actions still have repercussions regardless of the impulses that fuel them.
But if Kel knew one thing about the way his mind worked, it was that his impulsiveness was the only thing that led him to action. He liked to think that his life up until this point were just dumb choices he decided to abruptly make and now he was seeing where they would take him.
As he thinks to himself, “Sunny” blinks at him, waiting for a response.
“Yeah,” his voice cracks and he mentally winces. He clears his throat. “Thanks.”
Just like that, the conversation ends there. Sunny gives him a nod, then goes back to reading. Kel opens the case of his returned earbuds and stares. If he put them in his ears now, he’d be throwing this chance away forever.
Kel licks his dry lips, then shuts the case. He turns to ‘Sunny’, “Hey, so about that book you’re reading…”
And for a second, he thinks sees the boy smile.