HOW TO MAKE DIAMONDS

7

It's one thing to do your chores when you want to and just feel like tackling them, but when you're being forced by your parents it just turns into a whole tiring completely undesirable task. The main thing Kyle couldn't understand was why his parents were demanding it now if they were about to go away for their anniversary and spend the entire weekend at their beach house. They could just let the boys do it in their own time.

"Hey, the team was asking if you're gonna see the game tonight. And Eli is having a party after too."

Carter already knew the answer but he thought it was worth the try as he struggled to fold the elastic sheets until completely gave up and threw them to Kyle to do it.

"I'll see you at the party after the game." And there you have. The answer he always gives and the sheets perfectly folded.

"Come on man, you always do that. Just come watch the damn game. Remember how much you loved to play?"

"Yeah but then I got kicked out of the team and none of those guys even bothered to reach out and see how I was doing. Most of them don't even look at me. They pretended I don't exist or are too scared I'll beat them too."

"Alright." Carter couldn't argue with that. Some of the boys did abandon Kyle. They thought he was just lashing out when he broke up with Layla, but sending her brother to the hospital was too much for those who didn't know the whole truth. And none of them did. "Chase will pick me up for the game cause I'll drink at the party. But if you change your mind I'll save you a seat next Ricky." To which Kyle only nodded.

This was supposed to be an evolved neighborhood, where parents support their children and everyone gets involved, everyone participates, so if the basketball team was playing, everyone would show. Including a very cold and antisocial new girl who will be dragged down there by her sister and aunt. But they sometimes confuse getting involved with meddling with other people's businesses and that can be pretty annoying. And let's not get started on the PTA meetings, assemblies, and social events like town carnivals and such.

"Boys!" Kyle's dad showed up at the stairs, dragging their suitcases down. "We're leaving now. Call if you need anything."

"Please behave and be safe." Andrea, Kyle's mom, gave them both a kiss.

"We will, have a nice weekend."
"Happy anniversary."

With a quick hug, they said their goodbyes, and Kyle and Carter threw themselves at the sofa looking for distractions.

"I feel like I've already burnt through everything worthy on Netflix," Kyle mumbled as he changed to another streaming app.

"Oh shit, she has guts!" Carter snickered at something on his phone before showing it to Kyle.

A story Jade posted wearing the rival's colors as she got ready for the game, - they finally stopped pretending and sent her a follow request on Instagram a few days ago - in which she wrote: "School spirit? What's that?" On the next one, she was giving an obnoxiously huge kiss to Maya, who was angry with her niece.

"You're changing before we leave!" Maya demand, receiving a fake pout from Jade in return.

"You're no fun." She whined.

Kyle had an amused smile on. "She shouldn't have to." He referred to her changing. Smiles like that weren't usual when it comes to people he's not close to but they couldn't deny it anymore, Jade was becoming part of their group whether they liked it or not. But not as a friend, just as someone who will probably stay in their lives for a small amount of time, so things were civil between them.

Carter just shook his head as he got up. "I'm gonna shower before Chase gets here."

"K gotta go finish a paper before the party. By the way, I want to get high tonight so we need to find a ride home."

"On it!" Carter yelled before closing his bedroom door.

He took a shower and got ready for the party, quickly throwing a neon green school hoodie with their Knight embroidered on the back and the high school name over his heart. He could understand why Jade picked the colors of their rival, that navy blue, black and white were way better.

Grabbing his keys, wallet, and phone, Carter left to find Chase already parked outside his house waiting inside his car as he texted someone.

"Sup." Chase greeted as he frenetically typed.

"Hey, who are you texting?" Carter got in and put his seat belt on, all ready to leave so they could get good seats.

"Jade. Trying to convince her to drive with us instead of by herself." He frowned at something she sent him.

"Thought she was going with miss Maya. Is she ready?"

"No, and not yet. She's adamant about going alone." He locked his phone with a huff and threw it at the cup holder.

"Then just go there and convince her in person. Unless she has a car too, then let her drive because there's a party later and I want her to give me a ride back."

"Right, so corner her for your own best interest? It won't work. Maya called me, she asked us to keep a close eye on Jade. I don't know what's going on and I'm afraid she'll cut me off if I try too hard." Chase had this distant look as he drove Jade's place.

"I didn't know you two were close enough for her to deliberately have conversations with you." Carter raised his eyebrows curiously. "I've been trying so hard to be friends with her but she won't let me. How did you do it?"

"Well for starters I'm not trying to be her friend. We go to the same gym and it's too cold for her to be riding her bike anywhere so I give her rides. We just started talking about random stuff and kept it like that. We don't have meaningful deep conversations, she has trust issues, and she won't let people in because she's been left way too many times so it's a defense mechanism to keep closed off but she's a very cool and talented girl. Sometimes when I finish early and have to wait for her, I go watch her dance and you know I know nothing about that stuff but it's beautiful! It's like she's spilling everything there. Sometimes she's even crying when she's done. She's... She's a special girl. Stop trying so hard and just let things go by themselves."

Carter stared at his cousin wide-eyed. He wasn't expecting that. And maybe he was even a little jealous.

"How do you know all that?"

"Ricky, Amber, and Maya. They don't give me details but they told me the bigger picture of things when they found out we work out together." And then an idea hit him. " You know, she's been ubering to school when Maya can't pick her up. Why don't you offer to take her instead?"