Troubled Youth

3

Every lyric, every word, every sound of which escaped Fey's mouth, sounded melodious. It has been a while since I've listened to any music so this was euphonious. Her voice was outstanding and it made me wonder how she hadn't signed any contracts. It was breathtaking; I was stunned at her talent that I didn't notice her talking to me. 

"So..." She snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"What?" I asked embarrassingly. 

"What did you think of the song?"

"That was absolutely phenomenal! You definitely should pursue this, you're very talented!" I exclaimed with excitement. 

"Glad you liked it!" Fey chuckled as she sat herself on a polished, wooden desk. "What about you? Do you play anything?"

"No, I have no idea about playing music but I am good at hearing it!" I laughed at my own joke whilst Fey and Manny joined in. I almost forgot that Manuel was here; he could really make himself hide in the background without anyone noticing.

"I could teach you the guitar and in exchange, you could show me some of your favourite books." The red-head suggested. 

"Deal." I grinned. 

"Why didn't I ever get that deal?!" Manny questioned.

"Because you never called my singing 'absolutely phenomenal'." Fey laughed.

One of the boys in the room began playing the drums behind me. I turned around and saw his golden hair bounce in the air every time he'd shake his head around in rhythm with the beat. 

"That's Matt, he's our drummer boy." Fey announced.  

"He's good." I complimented.

"That's an understatement." The boy scoffed as he stopped beating at the drums. "I'm not just good, I'm too good." He approached us and extended his palm for a hand shake. I was too captivated by his eyes to greet him back; one was like a shinny, crystal blue whilst the other a deep shade of green. I managed to break out of my thought as I felt Fey nudge me. I extended my arm for both our palms to connect together. 

"Matt!" The two eyed boy announced.

"Elliot!" I introduced myself. 

"Turn down your ego before you embarrass yourself." Fey chuckled. 

"Of course, you'd know about being an embarrassment." Matt beamed as if he had won the lottery. I thought Fey was going to kill him right there and then for insulting her like that but to my surprise she just punched Matt on the shoulder and called him a...

"Malaka!" 

"Do you ever stop using that word?" The blond boy was rubbing his arm to lessen the pain. 

"Do you ever stop being an idiot?" We all chortled at Fey's question and continued our little shenanigans for a bit longer. 

After a while of chatting and playing around with some of the instruments we all decided to go find Andrew at the sport field. It was huge, there was a basketball area, a tennis court, a volleyball court filled with sand and a football field. I saw Andrew running in the field, kicking a ball into the goal post as another boy tried stop it. Unfortunately for the boy, the ball was too fast as it whooshed past him and into the net. Fey cheered causing Andrew to heed us. 

"What are you doing here!?" He exclaimed. Andrew was genuinely shocked to see us.

"Mastermind, made us come out here to find you." The red-head replied. 

"Wow, you made all three of them leave their nests to come out here in the sun? You must have some sort of special charm to accomplish that, Elliot." Andrew commented.

"Just shut up and kick the ball!" Fey yelled at him. Andrew grinned as he ran to the other side of the  field. Matt followed along, positioning himself at the goal post. I expected Manny to play with us but he walked over to some concrete stairs seats. 

"He's not a sports person" Fey notified. I quickly trailed behind him and sat down with him. We could both see the game play in front of us but he had his head plunged down into his knees.

"Are you okay?" I asked. It took Manny a while before he looked up at me with tears.

"I'm fine." He responded whilst wiping his face.  "You can go play with them, I don't mind."

"I'd rather keep you company. I'm not a big sports fan and I wouldn't want to be in the middle of that." I pointed at Fey and Andrew arguing, ready to murder each other. I managed to get Manny to lighten up and chuckle at my joke. 

"I'm sorry. I don't want to be a downer, it's just...Mateo loved playing football and I haven't been out here since he went missing." Manuel explained.

"What happened?" I asked, hoping I didn't overstep. 

"We were all out of the school grounds. We were supposed to be looking for flower for some stupid activity and...Mateo got lost. We weren't even that far away from the school and we always had a buddy with us. Andrew was with him that day but he said that Mateo just disappeared and he couldn't find him." 

"You don't think Andrew had anything to do with it?" I asked, not even thinking before saying that to him. Manny just looked at me and back at Andrew who was about to score another goal. 

"He wouldn't do anything bad to him. They love each other." Manny mumbled, placing his chin onto his arms. 

"Andrew is gay!?" I almost yelled. 

"What? He doesn't look gay enough for you?" Manny joked.

"N-No that's not what...I'm just...surprised." I quickly faced away from him. Trying hide my flushed face. 

"He is hot, isn't he?!" Manny suddenly announced, surprising me.

"What!?" I yelled causing both Fey and Andrew to look at us.

"Relax" He giggled. "I can clearly see that you like him!" 

"I...I don't know" I shrugged my shoulders. 

Manny just smiled at me and did not push the matter any further. It was interesting talking to someone about someone I like; I've never had the chance of doing so previously. The more time I spend here the more it is starting to feel like home.