July|16th
"Bye sweetie, be good okay?" Kathrine said during an uncomfortable side hug. Things have been a little strange lately with his adoptive mother. She was spending time with him and trying to communicate with him. It was..honestly quite terrifying.
He could tell the feeling must be rather new to her, acting like a mother. Her newfound affection always managed to make things awkward. Especially around Conner. But she'd spend time with him and Xavier, started treating his parents nicer and made an effort to know them. She took him and his friend rollerskating just last week.
It wasn't bad. Weird but..not bad.
Kyle ran out to the RV Xavier's Grandparents had rented for the trip. When he had asked where it was they were going, all they said was Wild life safari with some church friends.
The love that's passed onto him from Xavier's family extended all the way up the family tree, Alena and Thomas being no exception. He had never known grandparents before, even back home. So he was very appreciative of any time he got to spend with them.
When he thought about it, he didn't really have a lot to complain about. Sure Kyle had a screwed up childhood and all but he had a rich foster family who took care of him and a best friend who loved him and a great family he didn't ask for but got anyways.
He had absolutely nothing to complain about. Except himself. Who still, after everything he'd gotten, took it all for granted.
It took about 15 minutes until they were parked outside of a modern, expensive looking house. The neighborhood was filled with huge houses, fancy cars lining the streets. Kyle had no clue they would be so wealthy. Well..there he went assuming.
Although it didn't seem it, Xavier's grandmother was actually from Venezuela. It was nice to hear him speak Spanish but Kyle didn't know any beyond the basics. Was always too busy trying to understand English.
Kyle heard Thomas call out to him and he jumped out of the add on to be met with a face he wasn't at all expecting.
Max gave a nice smile and Kyle looked away.
"Hola, nice to meet you, you must be Kyle?" The older lady questioned.
She had dark graying hair and slight wrinkles under her eyes but seemed to be in great shape for her age. Her husband as well.
"My name is Rose and this the love of my life Julio." She beamed as she wrapped around her husbands arm.
"Hola." The bass in his voice could make mountains tremble. He glared at Xavier who was trying to keep in laughter.
They finished their greetings quickly and all went their separate ways. The adults heading to the van and the kids in the add on.
This couldn't be possible right? First JJ, now this-
"So, you guys excited?" Xavier asked from one of the small couches.
Max looked to Kyle, smile easy on his face. It was met with a neutral stare.
"Well I'm gonna go use the restroom, take a quick nap," He looked to his best friend, sighing, before turning to Max. "Good luck with this one man." They fist bumped and Kyle glared as he walked away.
This is the worst.
They'd been on the road for over an hour now and have stopped to use the restroom at least twice already. Kyle and Max sat opposite of each other.
Every time he looked up, Max would be staring curiously.
He had on a muscle tank for the warm weather, his big arms easily filling the loose shirt, not a lot left to the imagination. This wasn't of much interest to Kyle but he would imagine Xavier bothering the guy later about how he bulked up so well.
He opted to focus on his book or go and check if Xavier had woken up. Anything to get away.
Kyle was half way through reading The secret common wealth and was practically asleep. Phillip Pullman was one of his favorite authors but the first book was way better than the sequel and most of it was them in the middle of the fucking ocean.
His groggy eyes popped open as the end cushion dipped, a leg brushing his feet briefly.
Max was sitting there with a huge ass box of trail mix, digging loudly through the container.
"What are you doing?"
"Shit did I wake you?" He watched innocently but Kyle could see the tic of a smile in his lips.
"I tried to be quiet. Want some trail mix? Don't know why they put in so many raisins though. Nobody eats them cause their fucking disgusting."
Max made a show of throwing the grapes back in the container.
Kyle rolled his eyes. "I like them." He sat up, hands dropped in his lap.
"Hey."
"Here."
"Come ooon guey. You know you wanna.."
The box nudged into his thigh for the third time. Kyle snapped, ripping it from the guys hand. Max broke out in a grin.
"You always this annoying?"
"Only to interesting people." Kyle glanced over briefly, sucking on a raisin.
"So why are you here? I mean, you don't really seem..related. To anyone."
"Quite the observation." Kyle mumbled. The guy nodded in agreement which only annoyed him more.
He didn't know Max. And based on his role in the Westmont high school hierarchy, he wasn't even sure he wanted to. Kyle couldn't say if he was a good guy or not because he'd never even had a class with him or talked to him. How in the hell could he trust him?
"He's my best friend. They treat me like part of the family." he mumbled. Kyle turned to him after a moment. "What about you? Why are you here?"
"Well my grandparents are close friends with your hombre there's abuelos." He gestured to the little bedroom in the back of the trailer. "Figured it was better than staying home."
The two collapsed back into silence and Kyle didn't know how to fix it. Should he try and broach the family subject or..then again nothing good has ever come out of broaching the family subject. They continued with their trail mix.
About half an hour later, Xavier had come back and being the amazing social butterfly he was, he got them all talking again. On something that wasn't as personal as family.
"So man, you seeing anyone? Who is she? Seen you around school obviously, I bet it's Emily again right?"
"W-"
"Come on dude, don't leave me guessing. Payton would probably kill me for saying this but; between us, it was.." Xavier put a hand to his mouth as if to say 'chefs kiss' which had them both shaking their heads.
"Yeah well, Em and I are off right now. Just..getting busy with school and stuff. Its hard to make time, you feel?"
The smile dulled on the mans face. Of course he felt. Too much seeing as that was the exact problem he was going through with Payton. Kyle gave him a pat on the leg.
"What about you Kyle? You get laid yet? Oh, tell me you took Xaiv's cherry." Kyle glared but the two boys cackled away.
"No, he did not pop my pocket." Xaiver tsked. "I'm saving it till marriage."
"For real though, Kyle." Xavier looked over at him. It was probably clear he wasn't sure what to say. He had yet to experience any of those feelings. Desiring people. He wasn't all that sure if he could.
He'd tried to explain it to Xavier in the past and it only confused the man but he seemed to understand and had been respectful of it ever since.
"Kyle's uh..more of a romantic. He doesn't play the field like that."
"No shit." Max muttered, looking him over as if in a new light. He couldn't help the smile that came on his face as he took Kyle in. "I like that."
The conversation quickly ended as the cars pulled to a stop and the Grandparents came barging in. Kyle could't have been more thankful because watching the guys smile was quickly becoming a distraction.
They ate lunch at a little pizza diner and it wasn't as awkward as Kyle was expecting it to be. It was mostly Max and Xavier starting the conversations, the grandparents drifting off into their own little ones.
"So what about you Kyle, what's going on with you?" Ms. Rose said from the other side of the table.
He hesitated. He never liked talking about myself and he really only did it with people he trusted. So that amounted to a total of 1. His mouth went dry and he tried to drown it out with iced tea which didn't really help.
"Not much, miss." He shrugged.
Kyle looked up to see Max grinning at him and after a second, Xavier as well. What the fuck is their problem??
"One thing you should know about my abuelita is that she is relentless. She'll just keep going on and on until you give her something good." The table was laughing now and Kyle tried to stop the blood from creeping on his cheeks.
"Fine..I-" let's be smart about this."-am in a band with Xavier! Yeah, I sing and play guitar, he plays drums. He's really good."He made a big show of his hands to really emphasize on all the amazingness and Ms. Rose's eyes sparkled at the beauty.
"Oh really?" She gasped.
Xavier and her continued back and forth and it was the first time Kyle had ever seen him so bashful from all the attention. Max was grinning at his Grandparents and their obliviousness to how adorable they were. And he grinned at Kyle. He returned it for the first time all day.