The Butterfly Effect

𝖝𝖎𝖎 | 𝔞𝔠𝔱 𝔬𝔫𝔢: 𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔢 𝔱𝔴𝔢𝔩𝔳𝔢

"Home sweet home!" Zaire exclaimed as he climbed off the bus and kissed the floor. "Look at Andrew," Zaire directed Jordan to point the camera at Andrew. "He's cold as hell."

"Piss off, Zaire." Andrew retorted as he straightened his suit.

"Aww, the Cali baby can't handle the Canadian weather?" Nathan teased. "He needs some California sun." He rested his head on Andrew's shoulder.

"Shut up." He pushes them away. "I'm cool."

The five boys looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Not a good choice of words, buddy." Beth snickered.

Andrew dumbfoundedly looked around at them. "I don't get the joke."

"Don't explain it. Let's let him be dumb." Zaire said.

Andrew rolled his eyes and turned toward Javier. "You seem to be the only one who isn't childish today." He glanced at Beth and Zaire. "Is there any way we can get to your neighborhood without an Uber?"

"Why wouldn't we take an Uber?" Javier asked.

"Ubers don't go out this far. Any bus or train we can take from here?"

"We can take the 1 line to Union Station," Javier said. "Admission fee costs three dollars and twenty-five cents."

"Okay, and where is the nearest station?"

"Maybe two or three blocks from here," Zaire answered, watching Beth groan afterward. "Are you deadass?" he joked, slipping into his deep New York accent, making the others chuckle. "It's only two blocks."

"Yeah, but I haven't walked or taken the train in a long time," Beth whined. "And I'm tired."

"Well, look at little Miss Privileged." Zaire poked fun at her. "She can't get an Uber, which makes her oh so sad. How will she ever get through this catastrophe?" He dramatically leaned on her with his hand on his forehead.

"Eat a frank." Beth countered.

"How do we pay for this thing? Do we swipe our credit card or something?"

"No, Andrew, we go to the vending machine and get a Presto card." Zaire slowly explained it to him. "Rich people, man." He mumbled.

Andrew pulled out a crisp hundred-dollar bill as he walked toward the machine.

"Hold on now," Nathan placed his hand on Andrew's chest, "There are only seven people here, and the fare only costs 3.25. You don't need that much money."

Andrew miserably grumbled and paid for the fares. The train came in two minutes, considering it was rush hour, and they walked to their neighborhood within three minutes.

The first person they saw was Nathan's dad, with his head deep inside the hood of a car.

"Papa!" Nathan yelled as he opened up his arms.

Nathan's dad's head spiked up, and his smile grew when he saw Nathan's goofy face. "Idiota!"

They ran towards each other and stopped midway to point finger guns at each other. Then, they were engulfed in a long, warm hug. His dad ended the hug with a noogie to Nathan's head.

"Keester!" He approached Kian and gave him a fist bump. "How are the Mavericks doing this season?" He teased and laughed when Kian jokingly put him in a headlock. "The Clippers are looking nice."

"Not for long. Wait until the playoffs." Kian replied.

"Babyface!" He hugged Javier. "Still looking like a fourteen-year-old." He chuckled when Javier smiled and pushed him away.