Unfinished

Thirteen

Soren rapped lightly on the doorframe to the kitchen feeling strangely self conscious.

Ella looked up from her French toast and motioned him in.

Josh looked up too and grinned. "Good morning! Plates are in the cuboard to the right of the stove. Have a seat and make yourself at home."

"Thanks," Soren said, getting a plate and sitting down at the counter next to Ella and across from a slim boy with tousled brown hair and laughing brown eyes.

"I'm Quinn," the boy said, reaching across the table to shake his hand.

"Soren."

"Good to meet you Soren."

"And you."

"Here," Ella said, giving him a platter of French toast. "Help yourself."

Josh looked up. "Just so long as you don't eat them all," he warned.

Soren looked at the platter dubiously. "I don't think I could even if I wanted to."

"Ignore him," Ella advised.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes after that as everyone was eating. Then Josh took it upon himself to start a conversation.

"So," he asked. "Do you write, too?"

"No," Soren said, giving Josh an are you kidding? look.

"So how did you start hanging out with Becca and Ella if you don't write?"

"I read. And I sat down at Becca's lunch table one day, and haven't really left it since. She caught my attention. She was intriguing. Ella was more like a friend of a friend. Then once I'd hung out with her enough we became friends. I don't really have that many friends."

"So," Josh said, leaning forward. "You're telling me that most of your friends are girls?"

Soren nodded in affirmation.

Josh looked at Quinn who rolled his eyes in a you're going to make a fool of yourself way. Josh shrugged.

"Are you sure you're not gay?" Josh asked Soren. Ella choked on her pancakes.

Soren smiled. "No. But you aren't the first person who's asked me that."

"Oh? Who was the first?" Josh asked.

"Becca."

"Oh."

"It was a very...interesting conversation."

"Becca was a very interesting person," Quinn said into the quiet that had fallen.

"Yeah."

Soren wondered if this was really what he wanted, then dismissed the question. This was one hundred times better than the silence of his home. He knew his parents were there for him, or his mother was at least. It was just that he felt that he didn't really know them. He didn't know much about their childhoods, or their lives before they'd had him, or their lives now. He knew some things, like that his mother was a good cook but only liked to bake, and that his father could not be trusted to prepare edible meals. His father liked to read the newspaper in the mornings, and his mother listened to NPR. His father read thrillers and crime novels and mysteries, and that his mother read fantasy and YA and science fiction and the Classics. He got most of his reading recommendations from her.

So, yes he knew his parents. He knew them the same way they knew him, he knew what they liked and did, but not why. And you don't really know a person if you don't know the why. So he believed, anyway.

"Soren? Are you okay?" Ella's voice brought him back to the here and now.

"Yeah," he said, mentally shaking himself. "Yeah, I'm fine." But as he said it he wondered if it was really true.

"Why don't we go to the living room and play a getting to know you game?" Quinn suggested, standing up.

"Sounds brilliant," Josh agreed, standing up as well. "Come on."

***

They did not end up playing getting to know you games. What they did do was play Just Dance. Ella and Quinn alternated as champions, but Josh made up in enthusiasm what he lacked in skill. Ella dragged Soren in for a few rounds, in which he displayed that he actually could dance quite well (He refrained from mentioning that he had taken classes and been on his studio's team for a few years. They didn't need more of a reason to think he was gay.) but for the most part he just sat and watched the others.

After about an hour Ella flopped down in one of the chairs and announced, "I am finished."

"Oh, good. I was getting bored of watching you," Josh said from his position on the couch. Quinn went and stood over him, arms crossed. Josh obligingly moved his legs so his boyfriend could sit.

"what should we do now?" Quinn asked, but before anyone could answer Soren's phone began to ring. He swiped it off the table that sat between his chair and the couch and answered.

"Hello?"

"Soren!"

He smiled, then winced. "Hey, Jess."

"Where are you?"

"I'm at a friend's house."

"Address?"

"Why do you want the address?"

"Because I'm coming over there because I'm your older sister and it's my job to care about you when mom forgets and dad can't."

"Aren't you supposed to be in London or something?"

"I finished. And I haven't seen you in a while."

"Whatever. It's twenty two Rose Avenue."

"I'm on my way."

"Am I in trouble?"

"Yes. But since Becca just died, no."

"Well, that's something at least," Soren muttered, feeling suddenly very tired and very old.

"Hey, it'll be alright. Chin up, Ren. Chin up."

Soren sighed and hung up. He looked at the curious faces turned toward him and explained, "My sister arrived from London just now, apparently, and freaked out when I wasn't home. She's coming over here now."

"Well," said Quinn. "The more the merrier, I guess."