Butterfly Effect (Kyle's Lost Twin)

Rich

I want to pry further but he's already on his phone typing away, I huff and lay back on my bean bag, watching the show on the TV in front of us.

My room is large and it's decorated in my style. It is essentially my ideal safe space. It's exactly how I want it to be. As I'm looking around, appreciating the space, Leo snaps me out of my thoughts, "Is it okay if Eric, Stan, Kenny and Kyle come over? They asked what I was doing and wanted to know if they could join" Leo asks, looking at me with hopeful eyes.

I'm enjoying our time together but I know how much my getting along with his friends means to him so I agree to letting them come over. He fist pumps the air in excitement and lets the guys know they're good to come over. "I should probably grab more food from downstairs huh?" I ask, getting up and stretching my arms.

"Yeah, I've eaten all the chips..."Leo replies, passing me the empty packet with shame. I laugh at his behaviour and take the packet from him before heading downstairs to grab more food and drinks.

By the time I've gotten upstairs and placed all the shit on my desk, I hear knocking on the door, "It's for me!" I yell to my family members so they don't have to get up only for me to answer the door.

Leo and I head downstairs and open the door for the guys, "Hey guys! Please come in, you'll need to take off your shoes if you don't want my Mum to roast you." I step to the side letting the guys in. They take a seat on the bench by the door and remove their shoes, they've seen my parents roast Lily on our first day here so they know I'm not kidding.

They leave their shoes under the bench and follow me upstairs to my room, looking around the place as they do. "Wow, your house is really nicely decorated!" Kyle compliments, taking his time to admire the space around him, "My Mums going to love having you over, she's into interior design and spent a lot of time decorating the house."

Kyle hums at my response, smiling as he continues to admire the space. We get to my room and I step aside after opening the door to let them all in.

"Food and drink are on the desk, the bathroom is the door next to it," I state as I sit down on my bed, grabbing my butterfly knife from the bedside table. People I don't really know being in my safe space makes me anxious so having my knife to fiddle with will help with my anxiousness.

I look at the guys and see they're sorta just standing in the middle of the room looking around at everything. They weren't saying anything which was making my anxiousness worse but I just continue to fiddle with the knife in hopes they'll eventually start talking.

"There's like extra blankets and pillows under my bed, feel free to grab those if you want. The beanbag chair is up for grabs, so's the desk chair if you don't want to sit on the floor. You can also chill on the bed too, I don't mind." I start rambling slightly, hoping that'll get them to sit down and make themselves comfortable.

"How does a fifteen-year-old get a room like this?!" Kenny exclaims as he flops down onto the beanbag below him, his hood is off of his head revealing his scruffy blonde hair, but he still has it zipped up all the way so his words are slightly muffled.

"It was not easy..." I trail off not really wanting to talk about myself. Kenny leans his head back to look up at me, waiting for me to continue. I sigh knowing they're probably all curious. Guess I will talk about myself.

"I've been boxing since I was five. I was one of five white kids in my community, I was the palest of all of them, the only one with freckles and none of the kids there had seen someone with red hair before. The kids would make fun of me, I'd get angry and throw punches. When my parents realised how big of a problem it had become they put me into Muay Thai in hopes I'd get my anger out there instead of at school. Ever since then, I spent hours everyday training, and my trainer fought tooth and nail to get me into the championship last season. They didn't think a female let alone a fifteen-year-old female could fight against sixteen-eighteen-year-old males. When I started to win every fight I fought, sponsors came begging for me to sign with them. If I didn't work my ass off, I wouldn't be here." My explanation becomes a bit of a ramble but I manage to say the basics.

"Damn, who knew being an angry trans kid could have such benefits!" Kenny exclaims now fully nestled in the beanbag chair. "What a way to describe my success," I laugh which helped me to relax.

The others had found a space to sit, Eric sitting on my desk chair as it's the closest seat to the food. Stan is sitting on the floor leaning against the side of my bed, Leo is sitting next to me on my bed and Kyle is sitting on my bed just above Stan.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Kyle asks pointing at my butterfly knife which was still being twirled in my hand, "Hm? Oh, from YouTube. I was so stressed out about my matches last season I couldn't focus on my schoolwork and started to fail. Having something to fiddle with helped take my mind off my anxiety and I was able to pass."

"Damn, maybe I should get one of those," Kyle replies which earns a confused look from Stan, "What are you talking about dude? You get top grades in everything."

Kyle rolls his eyes, "Yeah but I get really stressed out during exam week. The amount of times I've cut it close and almost dropped a grade is too many for my liking. You know what my Mum is like! I can't not get perfect marks!" As Kyle talks he starts to bite his nails, if just thinking about it is enough to make him anxious he probably needs more than a fidget toy.

"Just make sure to get a blunt one to use while you're starting out and when you're at school. Sharp ones are actually illegal in most  countries as their 'only purpose is to cause harm'." I explain, still flipping the knife between my fingers.

We spend the evening discussing random shit. The majority was about our interests. Eric, who is more often than not called by his last name Cartman, is a gamer who enjoys his food and will do whatever he can to get a raise from Kyle.

Stan is a metalhead who taught himself how to play the bass guitar and is currently trying to learn how to sing screamo. Kyle is an activist who studies hard and does what he can for his school in his free time, we get along really well.

And lastly, there's Kenny. He didn't talk much about himself but I know he can play the drums and Cartman keeps making fun of him for being in poverty.

Overall it was a great evening, I'll definitely be hanging out with them again.