Chapter Text
This was dumb. Keith knew it was dumb. But, laying sideways on the living room floor, he really couldn’t give a flying fuck about how cheesy this book was. It was a 1990’s romance novel he had found at the thrift store, something along the lines of a modernized Romeo and Juliet story.
He was surrounded by his family, save for Coran who was making some kind of dish in the kitchen. Shiro and Matt were on the couch watching a random blockbuster on the TV, and Romelle was sitting on an armchair next to them, eyeing Keith profusely.
Keith pretended he didn't feel his sister’s glares in favor of finishing the chapter he was reading.
He sat up with the book still in hand, reaching out to grab popcorn from the bowl in Shiro’s lap, when a pillow was hurled at his head out of the blue.
“Hey!”
The pillow thrower—aka Keith’s sister, Romelle—stuck her tongue out at him. “You promised me an X-Files marathon two hours ago, Keith. This is neglect.”
“I think you’ll live waiting two hours, stop being dramatic.”
“It’s okay, Romelle. We can watch it without Keith.” His brother Shiro, a grandfather in an adult's body, said as he dragged the bowl away from Keith’s reach.
Shiro gave him a smug look and Keith rolled his eyes in return. Succumbing to the pressure, he closed his book and got up to sit next to his older brother. Suddenly they all heard a large crashing sound from the kitchen, followed by a string of barks and a yell of ‘Down, boy!’ from Coran.
“Shiro, I don't know how we’re going to survive without your mediocre cooking. Coran genuinely manages to always make the food he cooks taste like butt, Keith barely knows how to use a toaster, and I'm not trusted enough in the kitchen after last time.” Romelle looked to be turning green at the thought of Coran’s food.
Keith narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me, I'll have you know I've been learning from Hunk so I can provide you with food at the table. So if you don’t want to eat anything until Shiro comes back from college you’re welcome to do so.”
“Starving would be a better option than eating your food.”
Keith was about to defend himself until Shiro interrupted their conversation. “Okay, Romelle, don't be mean to Keith. And I don't know where you got a taste for butt - but regardless - no matter what Coran puts in front of you I want you to take a bite and pretend you like it, okay?” Shiro told the duo, while giving them a stern look.
“Maybe if we didn’t all pretend we loved his attempts at cooking so much we wouldn’t have to eat his food on every special occasion. What’s a girl have to do to get a cheeseburger?” His sister turned to Matt, Shiro’s boyfriend (and Keith’s best friend), “Matt, would you rather have cheeseburgers or Coran’s cooking.” Her tone made Keith feel like he was in the middle of an interrogation room.
“I love Coran's cooking.”
“Your opinion doesn’t count, I once saw you eat a watermelon out of a trash can,” Keith counters.
Shiro swiveled his head, “Is that true?”
“It was from the tray on top of a trash can and it was Keith’s leftovers. Not some stranger’s.”
“Still. It’d crossed into the threshold of trash.” Keith quipped.
“God that’s gross,” Shiro said, before dragging Romelle to help Coran out in the kitchen. They watched the pair walk off as Romelle whined about the X-Files.
“Way to sell me out, Keith.” Matt was abruptly cut off by Kosmo throwing himself on him.
Keith smiled as Kosmo licked Matt’s face, eliciting a look of disgust from him as he muttered, “Ew…dog breath.”
About half an hour later, everyone moved to sit around the dining table. Coran Smythe, their foster dad who's an OB-GYN in his 50s that was trying his best to raise three kids on his own, served an almost charred pork shoulder while sucking on a peppermint.
Keith looked at Coran who was trying his best to cut into the pork, the table moving with every slice. He leaned and whispered to Romelle, “It’s supposed to fall off the bone. That’s a whole fucking geode.”
Shiro gave him a look across the table and shushed him.
Coran turned his attention towards them. “I ran out of time to make miso soup, so that’s store-bought, sorry kids.”
The kids secretly smiled as Coran passed a plate to Shiro.
“I can’t believe this is your last night at home, my boy. We’re going to miss you so much.” Coran fondly said to Shiro.
Matt squeezed Shiro’s hand. “We sure are.”
Shiro gave Matt a forced smile before slipping his hand away. Matt looked utterly confused but brushed it off.
“I can’t believe we’re not gonna see you until Thanksgiving!” Romelle groaned.
There’s a pause, then Shiro spoke up. “Christmas, actually. I’m still not sure about how my schedule’s gonna look like.”
Keith looked up from his empty plate, “Wait. Are you kidding? We won’t see you till Christmas?! That’s so long!”
“It’ll fly by! I’ll try to make it for Thanksgiving, but don’t get your hopes up.” Shiro assured him. “Also, with three months to practice, maybe you’ll be a passable driver by the time I get home.”
“Rude. I’m passable now…ish.”
“Yeah, right. I’m gonna start wearing my bike helmet to school now that you’re the one driving me.”
Shiro laughed at Romelle’s comment, making Keith roll his eyes and cross his arms. “Rom, you have a lot of nerve making fun of my driving skills when you failed your test like, thrice.” Romelle flipped him the bird.
He pretended not to hear Matt and Shiro whisper something along the lines of ‘Christmas’ and ‘You should've mentioned it!’ throughout their dinner, instead focusing on Coran and Romelle's conversation about some animal species Keith had never heard of.
Later that night, Keith stared out his bedroom window, spying on Shiro and Matt who were arguing in the space between their two houses.
A little backstory about Matt:
He lived next door, and he and Shiro have been dating for the past two years. But before Shiro even knew or cared that Matt existed, he was Keith’s best friend. Well, he still is. Probably. They used to ride their bikes everywhere and talk about everything, and it's not that they stopped being friends when Matt and Shiro got together. It was just different.
For example, Shiro had his license, which meant that they didn’t need to ride their bikes anymore. And Matt was different too.
They didn’t want Keith to feel left out, so they invited him everywhere, even on dates! They tried to make it as normal as possible, but he still felt like a third wheel. It’s not that he wasn’t happy for them or wanted them to break up or anything, he simply missed having his friend and brother be separate people to hangout with.
Also, Keith may have been harboring a crush on Matt since the 6th grade. It’s been a while since he revisited those feelings for him so he wasn't sure what to feel.
And so, he did this thing, where when he was trying to figure out his feelings for someone, he wrote them a letter. Guess you could call it a love letter. It wasn’t a letter to send, it was just for Keith to understand why he felt the way he did.
Keith shook the thoughts away from his head and walked away from the window, his goal destination being his walk in closet. Climbing on a small stool, he took a large tin box down from the top shelf while making sure to not topple over Kosmo, who followed him in the process.
He sat on the floor of his closet and opened the box, checking the contents to make sure none were missing. He had five letters in total, each to a different person, and he kept them in a tin box his dad gave him before he died. No one knows about them. But sometimes, alone in his room, Keith liked to re-read them. The letters reminded him how powerful his emotions can be. How all-consuming. Romelle would’ve said he was being dramatic. But drama can be fun—just so long as no one else knew about it.
“What are you doing?” The voice of his older brother pierced through his train of thoughts.
Keith jumped and hid the tin box underneath a pile of clothes. Shiro came into his room looking exhausted. “Your closet’s a mess.”
Keith looked around him. It is a mess. But, at least he’s self aware. Exiting his closet, he looked over at Shiro, who was currently laying face down on his bed and walked over to him. “Are you okay?” He asked, sitting down next to his brother's limp body.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. I just broke up with Matt.” Shiro’s voice came out muffled, but nonetheless Keith heard what he said.
“Why?” He tried to say it in the most calm way possible, ignoring the fact that the shock was still thrumming around in his nervous system
“It’s common knowledge that you should never go to college with a long-distance boyfriend.”
His jaw was slack. He watched Kosmo jump on his already overcrowded bed to lay next to him, nuzzling his nose to his waist, as Keith tried gathering words to say. “But you love Matt.”
Shiro turned his face over to look at Keith. “I know.”
“So, do you think you might change your mind?” Keith asked, trying to find a gleam of hope in his brother.
“No. It’s over.”
Shiro got up like he’d decided that’s enough, and they don’t need to talk about him and Matt anymore. “When I was packing for college, I made a pile of stuff I didn't need anymore and asked Coran to take it to Goodwill. You should make a pile too, it's a mess in here.”
Keith tried to deflect the responsibility, “I don’t think there’s anything I can really part with right now.”
Shiro raised an eyebrow at him, “Not even the plant that's been sun bathing without any water for the past year?”
“Shiro! How dare you. That plant holds emotional significance to both me and Hunk, it’s our lovechild that we grew together.”
“Keith, I think your biology project lovechild is ready to pass on by now.” Shiro sighed before looking at Keith with his ‘i’m so serious and stoic’ expression. “Look, I'm leaving in a week, Keith. That means I won’t be here to remind you what Ohm’s Law is or how to work our outdated heater. That goes for Romelle too, don’t go thinking I won't be talking to her.”
There was a beat of silence. Keith truly sat and contemplated about how different his routine and overall life would be without Shiro. He shook the thoughts away from his head, it’s too soon to be sad.
“Can we go back to when you were face planted on the bed and sad.”
It was the last few days of summer, a few days before Shiro would head to Arizona. It wasn’t that far away from Portland, but Keith knew that losing a constant such as Shiro in his life would most probably suck.
When Romelle found out about the breakup, she vowed to make Shiro’s last few days at home worth every second. Just a few days ago she, Coran, and Kosmo had held some kind of theatrical vampire show in the living room. Keith wasn’t sure how exactly Kosmo had agreed to sit still for his death scene, but Romelle sure was a savvy girl for finding a way.
After that, they went movie hopping together, Shiro forced them to buy tickets for each movie instead of pulling some illegal shit. Keith thought that sucked the fun out of it, but it was still a fun time to spend with his siblings.
For Shiro’s last day at home, they all got together to help Coran cook a meal. Safe to say, nothing was burned in the oven. When Keith got to bed that night, the feeling in his gut that he’d been dreading to feel was starting to appear.
He counted sheep till slumber came to him.
Big piles of goodwill boxes were stacked by the door next to two perfectly packed suitcases labeled SHIRO – COLLEGE. Keith helped Shiro load them along with the suitcases into the trunk of Coran’s Volvo.
Coran tried to help at some point but ended up getting scolded by Shiro about pulling a disc in his back (again).
They all gathered into the car, Keith being the last of them. As he was getting in, he looked up to find Matt staring at them from his front yard, he turned to look at Shiro in the passenger seat. He wasn't staring back.
Keith spent most of the car ride staring out the window.
At the airport, Coran and Romelle both hugged Shiro goodbye. Keith hugged him last, and Coran sensed that they needed a moment. “Come on, Romelle, let’s go antagonize a coffee shop barista.”
Both brothers watched as Coran and Romelle walked away. When they lost track of them, Shiro turned to face him.
“Are you going to be okay with school and driving? I’ll send you all the easy recipes i know.” His older brother started rambling.
Keith smiled a big fake smile. “Don’t worry about me. I got this.”
Shiro sighed while placing a hand on Keith's shoulder, “Do you really have this, or are you doing that thing you do where you pretend you’re okay when you’re not?”
“You know about that?”
“You can lie to Coran, and you can lie to your friends. But you can’t—“
“—lie to your brother. I know. It’s super annoying.”
Shiro looked at Keith. He hasn’t answered his question.
“I’ll be okay.” Keith’s voice softened.
Shiro studied his face for a second, as if he was doubting Keith’s words which he honestly couldn’t blame him for.
“Do me a favor. Try and hang out with someone other than just Pidge this year, okay? If you need me, I’m only a Skype call away.” Keith had gotten used to Shiro’s reassurances, but thinking about how these are probably the last he'll hear face to face in a while made him.. Anxious? Sad?
Keith forced a smile and nod. Coran and Romelle came back with nothing in their hands. “No coffee?” Shiro asked, raising an eyebrow
“They didn’t have authentic Kenyan coffee beans, so I had to drag Coran away from another cafe fight.”
Both brothers turned their heads from Romelle to Coran, who was still deathstaring the poor barista.
Shiro let out a laugh before dragging Romelle and Coran into one last hug. He dragged Romelle into her own pep talk before they watched as he walked to go through security.
The ride back home was silent. Keith spent it in the passenger seat staring out the window, music echoing through the silent car from his headphones. Romelle tugged the headphones off his ears and made fun of him for listening to ‘angsty teen music’, but he knows she’d probably be blasting A Thousand Miles right now if she got the chance.
Even though Shiro wasn’t a loud person, their house felt quiet. Empty, somehow.
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Keith was rudely awakened from his sleep by his phone ringing nonstop. He forced his eyes open to see the caller ID.
‘Pidge’
Groggily, Keith answered the phone with a simple, yet rude ‘What.’.
“Keith! Meet me outside your house in a few minutes. We can bike to Sal’s. My treat.”
Keith stayed silent for a while, letting his barely awake brain process what his best friend had just said. “By your treat you mean money you stole from Sam’s wallet?”
Pidge let out a wistful sigh, “You know me so well.”
Keith looked over to the clock on his nightside that read ‘6:39PM’. He let out a sigh.
“Alright you little shit. I’ll change and be there.” Keith heard a jumbled ‘You’re the awesomest thank you!’ then shut his phone. He looked out his window.
He had slept almost the whole day and the sun was about to set soon. Running a hand through his hair he got up and started browsing his room for a clean pair of everything before heading to the bathroom.
Biking to Sal’s diner was a breeze. He and Pidge had been going there since they were kids, often tagging along with their siblings too.
Although Keith befriended Matt first, he had grown accustomed to spending more time with his sister, Pidge. Considering the fact that they both went to the same schools and were in the same grades, it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Saying Pidge was a gifted student was an understatement, his best friend had managed to skip 2 grades at the age of 9, making her the youngest person in Keith’s class. Basically, she got the short end of the stick, being a smart ass made her a victim to bullies and people who never experienced parental love.
Thankfully for her, Keith knew what it was like to be different. Shunned out. So they stuck together like two peas in a pod, so different yet so scarily alike.
The bike ride was suspiciously quiet, unlike the often comfortable quiet he and Pidge were used to together.
“So..” And there it was, “There’s a slight chance it might not be just us at the diner today.”
“Katie.”
“Okay, okay! Before you get all broody on me, it’s just Hunk and Lance.”
Keith still scoffed and ‘brooded’.
At some point in the 7th grade, Pidge befriended Hunk, who was already friends with Lance. Keith befriended Hunk and Lance mutually through Pidge.
Hunk was a sweet guy, he understood Keith’s boundaries and even though they didn't have a lot in common they enjoyed each other's company. So, yeah, he could manage hanging with Hunk, but Lance? That was a different story.
Keith didn’t inherently hate him, at least not until their freshman year of highschool, but they never really got along. Keith considered them to be like oil and water, they wouldn’t mix unless an outside force (Pidge and Hunk) forced them to do so. “Fuck you.”
“Fuck you too, Keith! Is it so bad to socialize every once in a while? God, you're making me sound like Shiro.” Keith muttered an "I hate you” in reply, then it went back to silence.
A moment later, Pidge spoke up again. “Speaking of Shiro…did he and Matt really break up?”
Keith’s eyes widened, “....Yeah, Shiro decided it was best for them to break up while he’s at college.”
The furrow of her eyebrows showed how hurt she felt for her brother, she hummed in acknowledgment and they spent their rest of the ride to the diner in silence. And to Keith’s satisfaction, when they slid into the booth Hunk was in, he mentioned to them that Lance couldn’t make it.
The next morning was a Monday, and dreadfully Keith’s first day of junior year. Forcing himself to get out of bed that morning was hell. He got ready, grabbed his bag, and headed out of his room.
While walking down the stairs, Keith smelled the aroma of coffee and lo and behold, he saw a fresh pot next to Coran, who was drinking his own coffee out of his “Best Farter (Father)” mug that Keith and Romelle got him for his birthday a while back.
Coran greeted him but Keith’s entire focus was on that pot, so he grabbed a mug and poured himself a fair amount before downing it all in three chugs. He placed the mug back on the counter and looked to his right, where Coran stared at him in judgment. “Where’s Romelle?” He asked.
“She’s still in her room getting ready-” Before Coran could finish his sentence, Keith sprinted to the base of the stairs and yelled out Romelle’s name, telling her to get her ass down.
A few moments later, Romelle stampeded down the stairs and gave Keith a look. “What crawled up your ass this morning?” She judged.
“Do you want me to drive you to school or would you rather take the bus?” He responded.
Romelle rolled her eyes and headed to the kitchen while muttering, “As if your driving’s so well.”
Keith, in favor of his sanity, pretended he didn’t hear that.
After grabbing their lunches out of the fridge, he and Romelle waited by the foyer for Coran, already expecting him to take a first day of school photo of them.
Coran exited the kitchen and the sight of them plastered a smile on his face. All those years of profusely begging them to stay still for a photo finally paid off.
He then proceeded to pull out his phone from his fanny pack. “Junior year! I can’t believe it. Smile!” The kids humored Coran and smiled.
“Alright, I'm heading out now. I'll be home late today, but I promise we’ll be having our first day of school dinner tomorrow. Have fun, be safe, and don’t forget to lock the door!”
Both Keith and Romelle waved Coran a goodbye, then Keith turned to his sister.
“You ready to go?” He asked.
“One sec.” Romelle ran to her room, making Keith groan internally, and a few moments later returned wearing her bike helmet. “All set.”
Keith replied with a blank stare. “Very funny.”
“Very necessary too.”
Walking through school was a very lonely experience. Romelle had made a beeline to her friends as soon as she stepped out of the car, leaving Keith alone.
After middle school, he and Romelle had a mutual agreement to experience high school differently, well it was mostly Romelle’s decision but Keith went along with it anyway. They had their separate friend groups and separate classes and it was comfortable for them both.
He walked down the center of the hallway alone while on either side of him, students were hugging, asking each other about their summers, and comparing course schedules.
Across the hall, Keith saw Matt shoving his books in his locker. He waved, and Matt waved back. He was still unsure on what their relationship was supposed to look like now that Shiro was gone.
Flustered but not sure why, Keith turned and, not looking where he’s going, walked directly into a wall of box-dyed blonde hair. “Ow! Watch where you’re going much?”
Nyma.
Someone who treated Keith like an old shirt and recycled their friendship as soon as they left middle school. When Keith apparently became too lame to be associated with her kind. As if she weren’t ‘lame’ in middle school too. Keith was sure her Dan and Phil phase haunted her everyday.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention…”
“Obviously.” Her snarky voice already started giving Keith a headache.
Her eyes wandered to his red leather jacket, “Cute jacket! Were you going for a Carrie meets John Travolta vibe?”
Keith couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. “You have no place to be talking about my jacket when yours looks like it’s sucking the life out of you.” His gaze wandered to her cinched jacket.
“This is Lulu! You just don’t understand what good style looks like. I guess it shows in your ridiculous outfit.” She giggled into her hand.
Just as he was about to bite back, he felt a presence beside him. Pidge.
Nyma looked over to her, “And who exactly invited you to the conversation, Bobble?”
Pidge raised an eyebrow at Nyma, and so they continued their tradition of yelling insults at each other at 7 in the morning every other day of school. Keith gave Pidge an exhausted look as she called Nyma a CVS carpet for the second time in a row before something caught his eye.
Someone.
A tall figure rounded up the corner, breaking the tension and capturing Nyma into a hug; blue sleeves wrapped around her waist.
“Hey babe!”
Lance McClain, the fifth, and last, non recipient of one of Keith’s love letters. Nyma’s Lance.
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Lance, Keith, Nyma, and some other eighth graders sat in a circle playing spin the bottle. Everyone knew that Lance and Nyma, who at this time was still Keith’s friend, only wanted to kiss each other.
Eighth Grade. Keith’s first real party. He picked up the bottle to spin it.
It landed on Lance.
He turned to Nyma, “I can spin it again.”
“Can’t cheat the bottle,” Lance had said.
The tan skinned boy got up and kissed Keith. Nyma glared at them while Keith blushed uncontrollably. He stared into Lance’s eyes noticing how beautifully they shined under the yellow lights of whoever’s basement they were in. He thinks he spotted golden specs dancing around in Lance’s irises.
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“Hey to you too.” She turned her head in favor of kissing his cheek. “Wait, do you smell something? It’s rancid!”
“No. I don’t smell anything,” Lance, bless his oblivious soul, replied, sniffing the air around him.
“You do. It’s like an old person clothes smell. It’s making me wanna puke.” As she says this, her eyes start to wander to Keith’s jacket. “Come on, I see someone we need to say hi to.” With that, Nyma walked off.
“Excuse her, she’s just dealing with some shit so…” Lance justified.
Keith smiled, “Are you sure she isn't just experiencing some sort of chemical imbalance?”
Lance stared at him with furrowed brows, seemingly disappointed. Nodding, he walked away with an offended expression.
As he watched Lance disappear into the sea of high schoolers, Pidge turned to look at him. “Ignore her. If anything smelled, it was her Champagne Toast body spray mixing together with Lance's Axe deodorant.” Keith gave Pidge a lopsided grin.
“By the way, I'm still trying to convince Colleen to agree on you driving me to school instead of Matt! I swear if I have to sit through the Game of Thrones soundtrack every morning I might just kill myself.”
They were both walking to Physics, Keith still wondered if he could ever hire an etsy witch to curse Zarkon’s sadistic ass for giving them Physics as a first class for 3 out of the 5 days of the week.
“I honestly don’t blame your mother, I don’t even trust myself behind the wheel. Also, I’m pretty sure I almost ran her over while she was walking Bae Bae once.”
Pidge gave him a blank stare. “See, this isn’t helping my case.”
After an excruciating four hours of making it seem like he gave a fuck during his classes, it was finally lunch period. So he walked into the cafeteria and looked around. He spotted Romelle sitting around with her usual artsy crowd, and his eyes couldn’t help but drift over to Lance McClain. No amount of annoyance in his body could deny the way he lights up every room he’s in. He and Nyma were holding court at their table, which made him feel all the more out of place. Last year, he would have been sitting with Matt and Shiro.
Brushing those thoughts away, he texted Pidge.
Me: Where r u??
Pidge: fixing rover with hunk, come over if you want!
Keith pocketed his phone and made his way to the old storage room next to the men’s bathroom in the second building. Hunk and Pidge had basically made it their second home ever since they bribed the janitor freshman year.
He opened the door and saw the usually lit fairy lights adorning the walls, apparently a decorative suggestion by Lance. He noticed how every crevice on the four walls was decked with post-it notes by Pidge.
He looked to his right where Pidge and Hunk were tinkering with Rover. Hunk looked up and gave him a simple greeting and smile, while his supposed best friend didn’t seem to know he had entered.
Keith didn’t pay that any mind as she seemed busy, so he turned around to sit on the only chairs in the room which to his surprise were occupied.
Occupied by Matt.
He was munching on baby carrots while mashing buttons on his nintendo. Keith looked back at Pidge and Hunk, who seemed more alarmed than ever as Rover started flashing red.
Taking a deep breath, he timidly walked up to Matt. “Is this seat taken?” He pointed to the empty chair next to Matt.
“Yep. By you.”
Keith sat down. “I didn’t know seniors had their lunch period with us.”
“We don’t. I’m just skipping.”
Keith hummed in acknowledgment. “Iverson?”
Matt huffed a laugh, “Yeah.”
It was silent for a bit, with only the noise of Hunk’s humming and Pidge’s tinkering filling the room. Neither were really sure what they were supposed to talk about.
“We’re still cool, right?” Matt asked him.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
Matt went back to devoting his full attention to his nintendo, so Keith pulled out his phone and started playing candy crush with his headphones on until the bell rang.
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Keith was walking to his car, Romelle beside him chatting away about her first day back at school. “So during lunch, Luca wanted to sit next to me, but so did Merla and Swirn, so I ended up rotating so everyone had time to sit next to me, you know?”
“Yeah. Totally know what that’s like.”
They gathered into the car. He put on his seatbelt, and in unison Romelle, who was sitting in the passenger seat, wore her helmet. He gripped the wheel like an eighty-year-old woman, and turned his head to his sister. “I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
Keith started the ignition and reversed the car, not paying any mind to the rear view mirror.
“Hey!”
He brought the car to a halt. After a brief moment, Keith finally realized what had happened. “Shit, no way.”
He glanced up at the rear view mirror and saw a figure standing by the trunk of his car.
Holy shit. He almost ran over Lance McClain.
Instead of sympathizing or worrying, Romelle was laughing at him. Bowing his head and hoping Lance goes away didn’t help because he had soon heard a knock on the window.
Rolling said window down, Keith exhaled, hoping for the best. He ignored the mantra of ‘why him?’ going through his head.
“You know people usually check behind them before they reverse, to avoid killing others. It's a thing we do.” At that point, Keith wanted to melt into a puddle of his own misery and embarrassment.
“Yeah well i still haven’t got the hang of driving, so-”
“Yeah, clearly.” Lance pointed out, “Think you're gonna be able to make it out of this parking lot?
“Yeah! We're fine. Um, so you should just…. go. Seriously.”
Romelle started muttering under her breath. “Be cool, dude.”
“Sure, whatever you say, Kogane.” Looking over at Romelle, Lance started speaking again. “Try to make it back home safely.” Romelle saluted to him, and Lance finally un-graced them with his presence.
“Keith, you almost ran over Lance McClain.”
He shushed her and checked his rear view mirror before reversing his car again.
“You were totally blushing,”
“I will throw you out of this moving car.”
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“So. What else is going on? Who have you been eating lunch with?” Shiro asked, his voice grainy because of Keith’s ancient laptop.
Keith’s eyes wandered around his room as he mumbled, “Pidge.”
“Keith! We talked about this, you need to make new friends.”
“I know, I know. I mean, Hunk was there! Matt as well." Keith realized bringing up the topic of Matt, a.k.a Shiro’s ex-boyfriend, wasn’t a good idea, but it was too late.
There was a lingering hurt in Shiro’s eyes. “He’s fine.” Keith said, not mentioning the permanent frown on Matt’s face these past few days.
A moment of silence was shared between them before Romelle let out a guttural shriek of his name, disturbing the quiet. “Keith! I’m starting it without you!”
“Gotta go Shiro. I miss you.”
“Miss you too Keith. Tell Rom I said hi, and call me later!”
Keith agreed then ended the call and closed his laptop. He reflected on the look that Shiro wore on his face. Regretful with a linger of a smile. Shrugging his worries off he climbed down the stairs.
He was ready to get shit faced and high on raw cookie dough and ice cream.
He and Romelle were laying on the couch having a Breaking Bad marathon, for the seventh time. Keith was on his back with his head turned to the tv and a 50 pound dog on his stomach when Romelle started a conversation. “Keith, have you ever been in love?”
Keith was taken aback. Chewing on a spoonful of cookie dough, he was raising an eyebrow in confusion. “Where’d that come from?”
Romelle sighed, “I was just thinking that since Shiro’s gone and Matt isn’t coming over as much and you’re such a shitty driver…if you had a boyfriend, we’d still have someone to take us places. Like, Lance for example?”
Keith blinked once then turned his head to Romelle. “Are you crazy?”
“Don't call me that.”
“He’s already with Nyma, I'm afraid that this is common knowledge.”
Romelle let out a long sigh, why does Keith have to be such a dunce. “Don’t you think it’s kind of depressing that it’s a Friday night and you're spending it having a Breaking Bad marathon with your sister?”
“No,” Keith shot back, “I love Breaking bad. And I love hanging out with you.”
Rolling her eyes, Romelle took another jab at it. “I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad but Keith, I cancelled plans to be here tonight. And, well, I don’t think you had anything else going on… am I right?”
She was met with brief silence.
“That was way too harsh Rom.”
“The truth hurts, Keith.”
A few hours later, Keith was snoring on the couch, cuddling Kosmo like he was a teddy bear. Romelle pinched his cheek to make sure he was really asleep. He swatted her hand away while mumbling something incoherent. Convinced he’s out, she sneaked away.
She walked up the stairs then took a right to Keith’s bedroom, her destination being his closet. Romelle scanned her surroundings before finding what she was looking for, right underneath a pile of strewn clothes.