𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

ii. BE HONEST

DURING SUPPER Icarus sat across from his parents, the seat where Riley usually sat was empty as the one next to him was taken by Chris. "So, you're Icarus' new friend?" Matthew asked as he points towards Chris who looks up. "Ah, yeah, I am. Um, I'm also new. I just moved here with my mother, step-father, step-brother and younger sister. I'm from California." He says.

"Ah, do you miss it?" Mary asked with a kind smile at him as Icarus glances between his new friend and his parents. "Totally.. Plus, my dad's back there.. So I miss him too." He says and Matthew and Mary share a look. "I'm sorry." Icarus says as he looks at Chris who looks back at him right away. "Not your fault." He says with a forced smile then looked away as Icarus looks down.

"Are you in the same grade as our Icarus?" Mary asked and Icarus blushed at how his mom referred to him as. "Yeah, different classes though." Chris says, glancing at Icarus. "What are you interested then, Christopher? Like, what do you wanna do when you're older?" Matthew asked as Icarus sets down his fork, finishing eating.

"I always wanted to become a journalist but, well, my mom wants me to become a businessman.." He says and Mary looks at him. "But.. what do you want?" She asked and he shrugs. "I always thought I'd be a rockstar growing up, you know, like Freddie Mercury or something." He says with a smile making Icarus look at him right away.

Icarus smiles as he looks away, looking down at his lap. After the supper, Icarus and Chris both put away their plates and then head upstairs. "This right here is my bedroom." Icarus said, pointing before walking in and Chris follows behind.

"Cool." Chris said as he looks around, Icarus' room wasn't small or big, it was an average sized room for most teenagers their age and it had the usual stuff. A bed, a desk and a horizontal bookshelf, it had a turn table on top of it and speakers on each side of it. Chris' mouth gaped at the massive collection of records, he crouched down. "Got any Queen?" He said with a grin up at Icarus.

"Of course, I do," Icarus said then sat down on his knees, he leans over, close to Chris who looks at him. Their faces were close and Icarus nearly leaned in more, but then he looked away. He grabs his favourite album, A Night at the Opera. Chris smiled right away, "nice choice," he says and Icarus stood, putting the record onto the turntable.

He plays the album, looking at Chris who was flipping through the other records. "Which is your favourite off that album?" Chris asked as Icarus lowered the volume so it wasn't too loud and they can hear one another. "Borhap for sure.. Or Love of My Life.." Icarus says as he smiled.

He stares at the turntable, then looked at Chris who glanced over his shoulder. "You like taking photos too?" Chris said as he noticed the Polaroid camera on the desk. "Yeah, definitely." Icarus says as Chris stood up, grabbing the camera. "May I?" He asked and Icarus grimaced. "I don't like getting my photo taken.." He sighs. "Please?" Chris said with a desperate look on his face. Icarus sighs, looking the other way, "fine.. But I'm not smiling." He says but then he looked at Chris.

He saw the big smile on the boy's face as he raised the camera to his eye, he smiled then the camera went off, the flash going on. "Nice." Chris said, setting down the camera and taking the polaroid to shake it. He sits beside Icarus onto the bed, glancing at him. "You know, you're really cool, Icarus." He says and the brunette smiled at that.

"You too," Icarus says, bumping shoulders with Chris causing the boy to chuckle. Once Chris left, Icarus checked the time and realized he had half an hour until he had to meet Steve at his place, so he puts a notebook and his pencil case into his backpack, also grabbing his glasses case. He sets them into the pocket of his backpack before he zips up the bag and headed out of his bedroom. "Mama, I'm heading out. I'll be home early." He says as he grabs his jacket from the coat hanger.