A Very Queer Reality

(Chapter 10) Our first party

Kelsey confessed she may be crushing slightly.

(I totally called it, and I told her that). I swore to keep her secret, and internally promised to get more scoop on the matter from both her AND Summer. 

Since Summer was planning to stay with us until her tenant-family got back from their trip thing, Kelsey suggested we have a "party". Now, I've never really been to a party at this point, because I was never extremely popular, and nobody in Texas wanted to invite "that gay kid".

"Who should we invite?" she asked, spreading papers across my living room floor while we waited for Summer's ride to drop her at our place (yes, I called my apartment our place now). 

"I don't know, it was your idea..." I crossed my arms and plopped back into the big chair beside the love-seat couch. I let the pause linger for e moment before adding, "But Casey. Casey definitely."

She rolled her eyes, and gave me a look like "you're so hopeless".

Kelsey began writing on one of the papers, a lined paper pulled from a school journal probably. A list of people. Four people, really.

Kelsey

Kyle

Casey

Summer

She laid back on the carpet, sighing, then shot up. "The other kids from the complex!"

"Yesss!" I drew out my last syllable. Three families had moved into the apartment complex within the past month, making there a population of seven more kids around our age, on top of us two, and the other two...(that's eleven).

That adds:

Brantley Delm, a tall trans-boy with his hair dyed shades of blue.

Brantley's adopted sister Zoe, a short brunette girl with uncontrollable curls and a thing for skulls and flower crowns.

Stephen David, an Irish exchange student staying with his cousins.

Then the cousins themselves

Kaleb Breen

Peony Breen.

Macy Marks, a mute girl in the junior class at our school. She's quite nice and easy to understand even if you don't know sign language (thankfully I learned some ASL in Texas so we communicate easier).

And lastly, Giselle Jaime. She had pitch black hair and shimmering hazel eyes. Her mother and her were among the first to bring food to Kelsey and I after the parade. News spreads quickly, evidently.

Even though my legs were almost completely healed at this time, Kelsey still insisted she go ask all the kids to come. But after she left, I was  left with a dilemma: I had a cast on one arm still, and a still-sore shoulder on the other. I tried my best to unload food from the fridge and get it laid out on the table and counters in the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement.

A knock on the front door nearly startled me into dropping the glass pan of fruit salad. "Come in!" I managed to steady myself and begin walking toward the counter to put it down. I didn't turn around to check who it was.

"Kyle, oh my God," Casey's familiar voice resounded as a rush of footsteps ran to me. He reached over my shoulders and grabbed the platter from me, carrying it to the counter himself. "I got a call from Kelsey that I should come help set up for the party. I'm glad I got here before you tried a task you couldn't manage."

I blushed and looked down, trying to hide the color in my neck and cheeks. 

"I'm gonna help you finish setting up here, then I'm gonna go back down and get my stuff from my car. Is it okay if I spend the weekend with you and Kelsey and Summer? I already kinda told my mum, but if I need to change my plans-"