Leroy Adkins is an underperformer. He barely graduated. He barely got a job, and he hardly socializes in his day-to-day life.
Zachary Turner has been sick for as long as he can remember, and as he grows older the crushing realization that he never...
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When Leroy got the text, he simply hummed to himself and put his phone away before turning in his bed and going to bed.
The text was nice, but Leroy had been planning to head over to Zachary's place regardless—he'd been planning to since the middle of the week. He'd just asked out of the blue because heading over and hanging out on the lawn wasn't the same as visitation rights to go inside the house. He hadn't been inside Zach's place since the last time he was invited in, even though sometimes he would stroll out into the porch so that they could talk or at least exchange looks as Leroy pet whatever cat that had made it a mission to ingest grass that day.
The night went by, and Leroy woke up a little past nine in the morning the following day to the sound of his sister laughing her ass off from the living room. He sat up, frowning a bit before pushing the hair away from his eyes and forehead. He got up, put on his inside slides, and grabbed his phone before making his way to the living room to see what in the world was going on.
On his way, he scrolled through text messages, PlayStation alerts, and a few tags he'd gotten on discord. His pathfinder group wanted to video chat tomorrow for a game, and he noticed a text Zach had sent early in the morning buried under the hip of notifications. The older man had asked him what he wanted to do when he came over, and what time he saw himself getting there. Leroy tilted his head a bit, quickly drafting a text that stated he'd be there at around twelve in the afternoon and they could watch a movie, before tucking his phone into the pocket of his pajama pants. When he strolled into the living room, he noticed his sister was sprawled on the couch with her phone pressed against her ear. She had the widest grin on her face—it almost looked painful.
The television wasn't on like Leroy had been expecting. The noise was coming solely from his sister, and just as he wandered off to the empty one-seater to take a seat, his sister let out another string of giggles that made him roll his eyes. Gosh, she had the ugliest laugh, but whoever was on the other end didn't seem to mind. In fact, they seemed to be actively encouraging it.
"It can't be that funny," he mumbled, and his sister looked up, sticking a tongue at him before going back to giggling at whatever the person on the other end was telling her.
Leroy sat there and scrolled through his phone, occasionally looking at his sister who was all smiles and grins.
A new boyfriend? He wondered, raising a brow at her. Well good for her. He told himself, getting off the couch when he realized he desperately needed something to munch on. His mother wasn't awake yet, which was a relief. Leroy could confidently avoid her most of the time except when she woke up for breakfast or dinner.
He didn't want to see her today.
He didn't want to ruin his mood before he went off to meet Zachary. It wouldn't be fair to the older man. He knew how stressed out and irritable he was after a crappy interaction with his mother.
