Home for the Summer (BOYXBOY)

Jackie's windows were still lit up every time I came back from Nico's, even if it wasn't until midnight. Her family never locked the door.

When I stepped inside, I was met with voices carrying from the kitchen, like someone was haunting the foyer.

I heard her father say, "well, Socrates would disagree," and I grinned to myself.

"Socrates doesn't understand the modern lifestyle, then," came another voice.

I stepped inside the dining room expecting to find Jackie, but found the remainder of her family seated instead.

"Oh, Apollo," her mother said, "please, sit. I can fix you a plate."

"Thanks," I smiled, peeling my coat off, "But, I ate at Nicolas's already, so..."

Jackie's father folded his hands and eyed me, lips curling into something like a grin.

"Feel free to stay anyway. We were just discussing... God, I can't remember. Hugo?"

The teenage boy who was sitting beside him tilted his head. "At first, we were talking about social media. Somehow we got to Socrates."

"Somehow we always do," his mom said, grabbing her husband's shoulder teasingly.

The boy looked strikingly like Jackie, with pale skin and blushed cheeks. He was wearing a thick sweater and jeans and, if I looked closely enough, I could make out a skin toned hearing aid on his left ear. He glanced at me briefly before looking away again.

"Have you two met?" his dad asked.

I was expecting him to speak, but he didn't, so I answered a beat too late. "Um, no. I'm Apollo."

"I'm Hugo," he replied, quietly. "Jackie's brother."

"Nice to meet you."

"Apollo," Jackie's father said, dividing up the syllables of my name like he was practicing pronouncing it. "Your parents must be fond of the Greeks. Do you consider yourself a 'God of music and poetry'?"

I smiled. Just from the way he talked, I could guess he was a teacher. "Maybe not music."

"But, poetry?"

I shuffled on my feet. Since the summer, I'd probably written a poem a day. Nobody back home knew about that. "I'm a writer. That's what I'm planning on studying at college."

"Hugo, too!" Mrs. Aude said. "Though, he isn't venturing all the way to California."

I laughed a bit, but I'm not sure why. "No, probably not." I remembered why I was there then and glanced at the empty chair beside Hugo. "Um, is Jackie home?"

Her father let out a long breath. "Yes, just upstairs. She doesn't particularly like to stay past the eating part of dinner." He traded smiles with his wife before saying, "strange girl."

I felt, suddenly, like I was in the wrong place. Jackie's dad kept smiling at me like he wanted something in return. I glanced at Hugo. He shrunk in his seat.

"I'm going to, um... go see her. Thanks," I spluttered out, turning around and climbing up the stairs.

I knocked before entering Jackie's bedroom, where she was smoking a cigarette through a slim opening in the window.