Oh Boy! (BL)

7 - A Piece Of Me (1/3)

"Aaaaaargh! It's hopeless!"

An impatient growl left Kenner's mouth when he got up from our table and started pacing back and forth in front of the bookshelves. We were the only students studying in the library on that afternoon; which left only the old librarian to be disturbed by his cursing.

"Hushhhh!"

Kenner rolled his eyes and fell back on his chair.

I blinked with wide eyes. "For an athlete, you sure do give up fast."

He stabbed me with a death stare from his dark eyes.

Oops.

But honestly, it wasn't as hopeless as he thought. I gestured towards the poem. "Tell me where you start to struggle."

He snarled at the paper. "It's poetry."

I lifted my brow. Poetry was the current topic. Well, war poetry of the 20th century, to be more precise; but it seemed we needed to start with something else. "Everything?"

He shrugged. Understanding Kenner was much harder than understanding Evans who blabbered out everything that was running through his mind.

"Okay," I sighed. "Let's start with the basics. Tell me what you know."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

Little surprising, Kenner began with structure. And we found the first issue. "There's not the one fixed structure for a poem, Kenner. Some poets prefer short stanzas, others like to create a poem with one long stanza. There are short poems that sometimes consist of only one or two lines or long ones that go on for more than ten pages."

"Ten pages?!"

I chuckled. "Yeah, but we won't get one of those in the exam."

He sighed in relief.

In the following hour, we managed to cover some basics about structure and rhythm but we still had a long way to go until next week. Which was not the librarian's problem, since he was adamant when kicking us out of the library at seven sharp.

"Okay, so...are we gonna start early tomorrow?" Kenner asked full of hope on our way out.

I shook my head. "I gotta work from eight till two pm. But afterward, I'm good."

"You're working?"

"You sound surprised."

He rubbed the back of his thick neck. "Well...your grades are pretty good, so I thought you'd be studying like 24/7."

Charming. "No, I do other things," I mumbled.

"Where do you work?" When I told him, he chuckled - a low, comforting sound. "No wonder you're so good at English!"

I grinned. "Working at a bookstore has its perks."

We left the school building side by side. As soon as we got closer to the parking lot, my eyes began wandering over the grounds which wasn't left unnoticed.

Immediately, Kenner's posture got taller. "Don't worry, if they show up, I'm right here beside you."

"Um...thanks..." I said though it wasn't Drake and co. I was looking for. To my own confusion, I was looking for...Clay. He usually was the one who took me home every day...

...but today, it was Kenner who pulled a black key fob from his pants and unlocked the doors to a shiny Mercedes SUV. I stopped and stared. "Um...see you tomorrow?"

Kenner shot me an amused look. "Jump in, I'll drive you."

I hesitated.

"Cap told me not to let you leave on your own."

Gulp. "O...okay," I said but turned to stone as soon as my ragged jeans touched the expensive leather seats. Whenever the leather creaked below my butt, I winced - afraid I'd somehow damage it while Kenner was taking me to the hospital. No way in hell would I risk that he parked this luxurious monster anywhere close to my apartment building.

We had just left a few blocks behind us when Kenner's cell phone began to ring in the rhythm of the low music coming from the radio. Fascinated, I watched him take the call on his steering wheel. "Nicki! What's up, big boy?"

"Shaneeeee..." I lifted one eyebrow when a small child's voice answered. The display on the dashboard showed the name Nicholas Kenner. Maybe his little brother? "Can we get burgers for dinneeeeer?"

Kenner growled. "What day is today, Nicki?"

Silence. Then... "Friday?"

"And what do we not eat on Fridays?"

"But..."

"What do we not eat on Fridays?"

"Fast-food," pouted the boy.

The two of them kept arguing for a couple more minutes before Nicki eventually gave in and hung up. Kenner shot me an apologetic look. "Sorry."

I smiled. "Your brother?"

"Yeah...he's in his fast-food phase." He chuckled. "We're working on it."

Was he the one who raised his brother? I stared at him, too afraid to ask.

He shrugged when he noticed my questioning look. "Mom and dad are busy traveling for work."

"And you're okay with this?"

"It's not like they left me completely alone with them. They did offer to hire a full-time nanny, y'know?" He glanced at me. "But I think they should grow up with their family, not with an army of nannies."

"And when you're at school?"

"There's a housekeeper who picks them up from school. She watches over them until I get home."

"Um...like a nanny?" I asked before I could stop myself.

He rubbed his broad nape and sighed an exhausted sigh. Then he wordlessly turned up the radio.

Good job, Kenji! Now you made him feel bad!

The remaining drive to the hospital was filled with awkward silence and murmured goodbyes. And if that wasn't strange enough, the moment I opened the door to mom's room, a slim boy almost bumped into me. "Hey," I called after him, but he didn't stop and didn't look back.

It wouldn't be our last encounter.