The Lies That We Tell

𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥

He was finally back home. After six years of living abroad, Theodore was back in New York where he had lived up the age of eleven. When they stepped out of the airplane, his mother asked if he already missed home, meaning Canada which never felt like home to him.

There was nothing wrong with Vancouver, really not. It just didn't have what made a home feel like home, whatever it was. He started high school there and made friends and had girlfriends but all along, he couldn't help but compare everything to New York.

He wasn't sure if his parents always knew how he felt about being there. If they did, it meant they rudely ignored his feelings and didn't bother to ask if he wanted to come back to his childhood home. He knew that the only reason they moved back was because his father said so, not because Theo wanted to.

It was easy to move back to New York where they bought a new, bigger house for their family. Even some of their relatives lived there, one being his cousin Isaac. He would help Theo at school today and it was nice to know there was at least one familiar face even though they weren't exactly close.

When they were younger they did pretty much everything together, only two of them. After his family moved to Canada, their families kept in touch but soon things changed. Communication between two cousins had been near non-existing for more than a year but he believed that it wouldn't be awkward.

Now it was time to start his first day and Isaac had promised to be there before his first class started. Unfortunately, it would start in five minutes and Theo had no idea where he was.

They had agreed to meet at the office where he informed to be a new student and got his schedule. He gave up and started to walk away, hoping to find his class even though he didn't really care if he didn't make it in time.

On that very second, Theo heard laughing behind him and turned around only to see Isaac with another boy. Immediately he felt a strange recognition while staring at the boy with messy hair, freckles all around the nose and cheeks and what looked like blue eyes.

It was impossible not to notice make-up that he used. Theo also saw dimples that were on both cheeks as he laughed at something Isaac had said. As he did so, he lifted his left hand up to fix his red hair away from his eyes and that's when Theo saw blue nail polish.

It was the guy from the coffee shop. His father had woken him up on Saturday before 7am. He ended up falling asleep again and dealing with his angry father who had wanted him to unpack boxes so early in the morning. Before he could do that, he needed to get coffee that they still didn't have at home.

Theo had gone to the first coffee shop he saw which was almost empty except one customer and an employee behind the desk. He remembered seeing that same blue nail polish and thinking that he was definitely gay.

Dislike had started to grow inside him because, for him, gays were too different and not in a good way. A boy his age wearing make-up and nail polish! That was something he would never be truly comfortable with.

Before he could say anything, his cousin started to introduce them to each other, looking quite uncomfortable for some reason. "Queenie, this is my cousin Theodore and Theodore, this is my best friend Queenie."

"Call me Theo."

"Quentin," they both at the same time and that's when this Quentin started to talk again.

"Hold on, since when do you have a cousin and when did you come here? Why haven't I heard of you if you're really his cousin? When is his birthday and what is his second name?"

"Are you wearing make-up?" instead of answering any of his silly questions, he accidentally blurted out this without thinking. He saw the boy giving him a look that told him that he didn't like his question.