Chapter Text
i. the first summer
the feeling i got
Enid has just turned seven when Tyler brings Ajax home the first time.
Ajax was new in town, Tyler tells her when he brings him through the front door. His family had just moved them from New York. Enid isn’t sure why they’d pick Jericho of all places to settle, the small town has so little going for it.
Tyler tells her Ajax lives a few blocks over, and Tyler is still eight and technically isn’t supposed to go so far from home. He’d been practicing with his new skateboard and he got lost and ended up in Ajax’s front yard with a scraped knee.
It explained the Spider-Man Band-Aid. Mom and Dad bought the boring, plain kind. Ajax all-too-excitedly explains Tyler’s heartbreak when he found out that Batman Band-Aids didn’t come in the same box.
Enid mimes zipping her lips, promising not to tell Mom and Dad. Ajax smiles at her, tells Tyler he thinks she’s “cool” and then they head up to his room to play video games.
Enid runs to her room, jumping into the pile of stuffies, and grabs the very worn, plush, pink wolf. The pink color came from a dye, and it was fading from so many years of loving, but she was Enid’s first and favorite. She cuddles Ms. Pink to her chest and squeals into her fur.
Ajax’s hair had been covered by a horrible beanie, but his face was cute, and his eyes were beautiful, and his smile had her toes curling and her heart beating fast.
She realizes she likes him far too quickly and realizes almost as fast that neither he nor Tyler could ever know.
It was a secret for her and her plushies alone.
Ajax comes over almost every day that summer.
Whether it’s to ride around the neighborhood with Tyler, or to play video games in his room, sometimes they’ll both sit and watch TV with her. Ajax is almost always over, and most weekends, he sleeps over the whole time.
“They work a lot,” he says one afternoon. Enid assumes he means his parents, but he’s never detailed anything about his family besides the fact he has one. Tyler is sitting in his room fixing the wheels on his board and Ajax is sitting next to her on the couch, watching Hannah Montana reruns.
Enid pulls her eyes away from Hannah and Mikayla’s on-screen squabbling and meets his dark brown eyes.
She’d never noticed how deep the color was before, like the melted chocolate part of a s’mores.
She frowns at him, unhappy with how busy his parents are, but understanding completely. Dad was always working, so busy at the station. And Mom, always out on one creative adventure or another. This week Enid was pretty sure she was focusing on throwing clay and pottery. She always came back before dinner, hands covered in dried clay or glaze.
“Do they even notice?” She asks. She doesn’t even think it could be mean to say, could come out wrong. She doesn’t know if her parents would notice, if she even had friends’ houses to go to.
Ajax shrugs, “I leave notes, like they do when they’re gone before I wake up. They haven’t been home to tell me off for it.”
Enid bites her lower lip, eyes watering. “That’s so sad.” Mom was always home in the mornings, humming, sometimes full-out singing on her best days, while she makes her and Tyler’s breakfast. Dad was always home before bedtime. Even if he left again later, he always made sure to be home to say good night. “I’m sorry,” she reaches a hand out and places it on Ajax’s shoulder, fighting off the heat creeping into her cheeks.
Is she seeing things or are his cheeks turning red, too?
Ajax shrugs again, gently dislodging her hand. She pulls it back to her lap. “That’s okay. Your house is more fun anyway. Mine’s all quiet and empty.”
Sometimes their house feels quiet and empty, too, and Enid tells him as much.
“You always have Tyler, though, if you get bored. I don’t have anyone.”
The mention of Tyler makes Enid snap back to watching the TV. Tyler , her big brother, just as much a social outcast as she is, thanks to their dad’s job. Everyone thinks you’re a tattletale when your dad has a title in his name. It’s one of the few reasons they both get along with Lucas Walker.
“He’s my brother.” It’s the only response she can think of. Tyler is her brother, and one of her favorite people, and he has as hard of a time making friends as she does. And here she is, basically trying to steal Ajax as her friend. What kind of sister is she?! A terrible one!
Tyler lets out a long string of near-curses and Enid hops up from the couch immediately. “Sounds like he hurt himself. I’ll get the first aid kit.”
She leaves Ajax on the couch and hears when he flips the channel to Spongebob Squarepants. Her little legs take the stairs two at a time in their bid to get to Tyler with the kit from the downstairs bathroom.
The last night of summer, Mom and Dad have their yearly cook-out in the backyard, and of course they let Tyler bring Ajax.
Enid spends most of the time avoiding them, choosing to play Adventurers with Lucas instead. They’re on the hunt for some ancient artifact he got out of an old movie his dad made him watch. Enid has to be the damsel in distress for a little bit, but otherwise, it’s fun!
Until she catches Ajax looking at her from across the yard, by the fire pit. Tyler is focused on burning his s’mores marshmallow to a crisp black, but Ajax’s dark eyes are on hers.
She tilts her head at him, confused, and quickly turns back to Lucas, demanding he play Sleeping Beauty and dance with her.
Lucas grumbles but spins her around their backyard, making her dizzy and giggling with her when they fall over. They help each other up, swipe the loose grass off their clothes and start spinning around again, turning it into a competition to see who can spin faster.
Tyler and Ajax join them when they’re full on s’mores and Tyler spins till he pukes.
The party breaks down pretty quickly after that, and Lucas leaves with his parents, fist bumping Tyler and Ajax and kissing the back of Enid’s hand like she’s a real princess.
Enid doesn’t notice the confused look on Ajax’s face, or, if she does, she pretends she doesn’t.