chapter twenty - weird

chapter twenty — weird

I COULD HEAR THEIR LAUGHTER IN THE WIND. The temperatures had suddenly dropped, Mum whipping out the heavy blankets and shutting the windows like she was preparing for the end of the world. Mum adored the autumn, but she couldn't handle the cold too well. Sometimes she'd wear double layers of sweaters, her normally thin figure puffing out like a cinnamon-scented Michelin Man. She'd tripped in the driveway once last fall, and though the layers had protected her like a car's airbags they'd let Mum roll until the mailbox. She probably would've kept rolling too had Ms. Keisha not been following behind to drop by for some tea.

I laughed quietly to myself, the sound whispering off my lips. It sounded hollow without the normal background of my friends'.

Weird.

The metal of the fence surrounding the community court was cold and brittle this time of year. My cheek was pressed up against it, my hair plastered against my forehead in alternating sheets of sweat and strands, like a disgusting lasagna. The fence was gonna leave a mark, thick, red indents running geometrically on my face, but I didn't mind.

"Lukas! He's gonna throw up!"

Babies sounded scary when they laughed like all the air was being squeezed out of them and they were simultaneously evolving into banshees. Rooster was no different, a high-pitched, screechy squeal powering through his tiny lungs every time Lukas pushed him in the baby swing. Nadine didn't look like she would be joining the two hyenas anytime soon, her face sour and twisted up as she pulled on Lukas' shirt roughly.

She's what? Fourteen now?

Nadine wasn't big on going outside: that, I remembered. She was usually tucked in a corner with a fat book and a grim line instead of a normal kid's sticky grin. She wasn't a nerd though; Lukas had told me that they were having trouble with Nadine in school. She didn't do homework. She didn't do socializing. She didn't do school.

I would've liked her had she not told Lukas that I was a delinquent. The pot calling the kettle black. I had no idea how he could put up with that many headaches in one day.

The fence creaked slowly as I experimentally pushed more of my weight into it. It bit into my cheek a little harder, the cold starting to burn and fizzle. My basketball rolled at my feet sadly, nudging against my foot. Little bits of gravel were embedded in my knees and I slowly rubbed them off, tiny red indents mirroring the shade of those now on my face. My basketball looked lonely, and a little deflated. I left my air pump at home though, so I was resigned to putting a little more force behind each dribble to get the ball to move how I wanted it to.

I turned back to the playground, easing my cheek off the fence.

"Stop staring at him, it's creepy"

Jesus motherfucking Christ.

I jumped back, wincing as I slid on my elbows. The ground was unforgiving and my skin scraped roughly against the tiny little pebbles decorating the border of the court.

Lukas' other sister leered at me from above, a wide grin on her face. Which one is she?

One of Lukas' old baseball caps was backward in her messy hair and she clutched a basketball close to her hip. It was a girl's basketball, for kids too, small and a weird neon green color.

Hannah?

"Teach me how to do an underhand layup, jerkface"

Yeah, that's Hannah.

Lukas had six sisters and it was hard to keep track of them sometimes. They were all different, sure, but I couldn't be bothered to remember their names. I never forgot a face though.

"Teach me how, now, or Imma tell Lukas you were being creepy and watching him"

I flushed, angrily pushing off the ground. Hannah was somewhere around ten years old and I didn't have a single doubt in my mind that all the calamities that had occurred in the past ten years had been because of her presence on Earth. She had this unnerving luck that let her get her way nearly every time she wanted something, but she rarely ever wanted something nice. If Hannah wanted world peace, it would probably happen, but Hannah didn't want world peace.

Hannah wanted me to teach her an underhand layup.

"Why can't you ask Lukas?" I grumbled, eyeing her basketball with malice. It was fucking ugly, colored like mutant puke, little curls of peeling plastics fraying the edges. Cheap. Flashy. Fucking ugly.

I hid my basketball behind my back. I'm not letting him be corrupted by whatever-the-fuck that is.

"Lukas sucks," Hannah deadpanned, a random strand of her hair flying around and getting caught in her mouth. She coughed, shoving it out of her face before grinning at me. She had a little gap between her teeth, but it wasn't her two front ones but the ones off to the left. It made her smile uneven.

"Besides, he plays power forward, yeah?"

She didn't wait for me to respond, tagging on like a leech as I started to move away from the fence. My legs felt gelatinous and heavy, but I could feel my muscles start to burn and power back on. It was like the sound of the basketball hitting pavement sent my body into overdrive, like some kind of weird stimulant that Marco would probably try to bottle and sell as a drug.

"I wanna be a shooting guard, like you," Hannah continued, oblivious when I tried sidestepping her. She blocked my path naturally, annoying grin still plastered on her face, the ugly ball still clutched tightly to her hip.

"Shooting guards are cool, yeah?"

I hummed something in noncommittal agreement, roughly throwing the ball at the hoop's backboard. It bounced against it roughly, ricocheting off it and into the fence with a loud clang. I winced at the noise, pausing in my tracks when Hannah scrambled to get it, almost dropping her ball as she struggled to pick mine up with one hand.

Are all the Schmitts that stupidly nice?

Hannah laughed when she dropped the ball for the hundredth time, dropping into an awkward egg-laying squat so she could scoop them both up. My lips quirked up involuntarily. I glanced at the playground out of the corner of my eye, looking for the familiar gang of blond and waiting for the signature squeal of a happy baby.

Nothing.

I turned towards the playground fully, brows furrowed when I saw the baby swing shifting subtly, empty in the waning wind. Where the fuck did they g—

"Hey, Keke!"

Shit. I jumped again, unreasonably jittery for being in my basketball court. Lukas smiled sheepishly behind me, arms juggling an equally unreasonably jittery baby. Rooster copied Lukas' sound, Keke exploding from his toothless mouth more like a saliva cannon instead of rolling off his tongue the way it did when Lukas said it. Rooster clapped when he saw me, laughing for no reason and accidentally smacking Lukas in the face with a chubby fist.

"Ow," Lukas muttered, rubbing at his jaw as Rooster calmed down a little, settling for shoving his tiny battering-rams into his mouth experimentally.

"Rooster, you hit me"

Rooster cooed, not guilty in the slightest.

Nadine eyed the interaction, unimpressed. She had her phone in her hand, the screen lighting up every few seconds with a notification. She has friends? I'd turned off notifications on my phone a while ago. The sound was annoying and the vibration felt weird. I only left them on for Mum, and occasionally for the group chat the guys had made. Marco liked to spam it when he got high though (and he was always high), so I'd settled for just leaving notifications on for DJ, Roger, and Lukas. Marco could go suck a weed dick.

"You're short"

Nadine stared at me apathetically, eyes freakishly sharp behind the thick lenses of her glasses. Lukas had glasses too, but he'd traded them in for contacts because of basketball. Sports goggles were an option too, but they really only made you a target on the court. A senior last year had sports goggles and the other team had launched a basketball at his face just for fun during scrimmages once. The goggles had cut up the skin around his face and he'd had raccoon-like bruises for two weeks.

"Nadine," Lukas frowned, the expression not fitting his face quite right.

"What?" She challenged him, eyebrow raising before she looked at me too.

Rude bitch. I'm not short. You're fucking short-sighted.

And fourteen.

She's fourteen.

I met her gaze, "I'm not short, but I don't argue with kids so whatever"

Lukas' lips quirked up and I fought back my own smile. It was impossible not to smile when Lukas grinned like his cheeks had little marionette strings attached to the corner of my own mouth.

Nadine didn't retort.

"Keke!"

I winced, stumbling when Hannah threw herself at me. She was only ten, but she was already up to my chest and startlingly heavy. Her basketball fell out of her grip again, hitting the ground with a sad, plastic thump. I sighed, picking it up and taking my basketball from her grasp.

"Thanks—"

"—Teach me an underhand layup"

"—I'm sure Lukas can—" I looked over for Lukas as I threw him under the bus, but he shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"—Lukas sucks though"

Lukas flushed bright red, trying to partially hide his face behind Rooster's flailing body. He failed, adding a tiny red handprint on his forehead to his growing list of war wounds.

"Lukas doesn't suck" I crossed my arm, tucking my ball under my armpit as Hannah looked up at me, genuinely confused as to why I didn't agree with her.

"Um," She paused, hesitant, "Yeah he does"

"No"

"Yes"

"Guys," Lukas interrupted us, beet red, "We can compromise. I'm not good, I'm not bad"

"But you are bad"

Cheeky fucker.

"Lukas is a good power forward"

Hannah's nose crinkled and she tweaked her hat.

Nadine coughed, ready to chime in. I inhaled, ready for whatever bullshit she was ready to fling.

"I thought you didn't argue with kids, Keke?"

Oh fuck.

I decided ignoring her would be beneficial.

"I'll teach you an underhand layup if you agree that Lukas is good"

"That doesn't exactly make me feel better—"

"—Fine," Hannah cut Lukas off with a huff, "Lukas," she turned to him, somehow giant even though Lukas towered over her, "Lukas, your skills rival Shaq himself"

Lukas blushed and swatted the forced compliment away, pulling Rooster off of him as the balding monkey tried climbing his scalp.

"Your free throw skills" She muttered, turning away.

Shaq's free throw skills are notoriously nonexistent.

I opened my mouth to retort but shut it quickly. Lukas looked like he was ready to combust, eyes begging for me to drop it. I sighed, kicking my ball over to the sideline. I didn't like it when people picked on him, even if the people were his sisters. It didn't sit right. Lukas was big enough to intimidate most people and smart enough to put the remaining in their place, but he didn't. He let people taunt him. Let them hurt him.

My fingers curled into fists.

"C'mon jerkface," Hannah screamed, awkwardly dribbling the ball a little too high, "Teach me—"

"—Calm your fu-face," I breathed, glancing over to where Lukas rocked Rooster in his hands gently. He shot me a sloppy smile and my stomach twisted weirdly.

Calm your face.

Δ     Δ     Δ     Δ     Δ     Δ     Δ

Rooster didn't have much hair, just a thin little patch of blond at the very top of his head. If he hadn't been very obviously a baby, his hair could've passed as that of a balding dude going through his midlife crisis. All three of his strands were pressed flat to his head like someone had combed them carefully though and I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I guessed who.

Lukas, you weird motherfucker.

He'd probably spent a full five minutes of his life trying to plaster those three hairs down. Full concentration, no doubt.

Rooster smacked the smile off my face with his own happy grin and flailing fists.

"The frick," I murmured, trying to pin his chubby arms down, "Ezekial was never this violent, you're too violent"

Rooster just cooed, saliva dribbling down his chin. I groaned, mopping it up the best I could with the bottom of my shirt. I was waiting on Lukas to come back and he was out by the sidewalk with Nadine and Hannah trying to get their Mom to figure out where the park was. She was picking them up, all of them except Lukas, but she couldn't figure out how to drive to the park since it was usually Mr. Schmitt who picked them up and dropped them off everywhere.

"For a violent, screechy, balding, poop-machine, you're not half-bad"

I held Rooster a little closer, pleasantly surprised when he calmed down and cuddled back into my chest. He made one of those weird chirping baby noises, busily tucking his head under my chin. I let my hand fall on top of his head, pushing the three strands into a tiny mohawk. Cute.

"Woah," I looked up, pulling Rooster farther away as Lukas smiled down at us, "You got him to calm down?"

"I—" I hastily shoved Rooster into Lukas' arms, pretending not to miss the comfortable weight of the tiny monster, "—I dunno. I don't get babies, they suck. They're weird."

Rooster babbled incomprehensibly, unoffended by my renouncement of him.

Lukas looked at me strange and I tried to decipher whatever was in his head. Usually, it was easy. Lukas didn't have secrets: he was an open book. What are you thinking, Schmitt?

"Well," His gaze eased and he smiled, "Even if you don't like them, they like you"

My stomach did that violent twisting thing again and I swayed, leaning against the fence. I let my fingers wrap around the metal wiring, distrustfully eyeing his smile. What is—what?

My head felt foggy. It always annoyed me when I tried wiping at a muggy window, but the condensation was on the other side.

"I'm gonna go drop this potato off with Mom," Lukas hefted Rooster up into his arms, looking every bit as comfortable as I felt uncomfortable.

"Nadine told me to tell you you're a delinquent and Hannah says thanks"

I nodded mutely, letting my hand trace over my stomach through my shirt. What? What.

I didn't like how this felt.

Maybe I'm dehydrated.

I slid against the fence, fishing my water bottle out of my bag as Lukas disappeared past the fence. It wasn't fair how easily he moved through the atmosphere, it was like he didn't feel the residual heat from the ground and the way the wind whipped up the dust. He cut through all of it.

Annoying. Annoying.

My phone buzzed by my foot, one of the few notifications I allowed vibrating through my shoe. I grimaced, drawing my shoe back and poking at the cracked screen.

DildoJuice has left the group.

MarcHoe has added DildoJuice back to the group.

DildoJuice has left the group.

The notification popped up in rapid succession, the vibration melding into one big buzz that traveled through my bone. I frowned, hand hovering over the screen before it buzzed again.

DildoJuice: hey, u free?

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2559 words

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I brought us back to the basketball court this chapter :) I didn't feel like writing too much this week, but I decided I wanted to introduce the rest of Lukas' siblings (aside from Elisabeth and the triplets).

What do you think?

I use Grammarly to check for typos and stuff occasionally, and it told me this chapter was boring, so I apologize for that haha. Hopefully, next chapter will be a little more interesting since I think I'm ready to start delving into Kieran's past.

Have a lovely week and thank you for reading! <3