I wandered down the alley where the boys were playing football. Tadwick and Charlie were getting in each other’s faces in a rather aggressive manner in the centre of their makeshift pitch.

  Tadwick: “You’re only winning because you have more players. It’s not fair!”

  Charlie: “Oh please. Oscar is more of a mascot than anything. You know full well that he’s bloody useless!”

  Oscar: “Hey!”

  Olmo: “Bit harsh.”

  Tadwick: “He’s still an extra player!”

  Charlie: “And we have Grant. He’s done nothing other than hit on the ref the whole game.”

  Grant: “No I haven’t!”

  Charlie: “Grant… you are literally stood there, holding his bloody hand, right now!”

  Grant: “Shut up!”

  This is the first time that they have tried to play football since Isaac died. I should have known this would happen. This is what they were like when they first started playing football a couple of years ago. It was ages before they settled on teams that seemed to be even.

  Dwynfel: “Boys… calm down.”

  Tadwick: “But the teams aren’t fair, Dad!”

  Charlie: “They are as fair as they can be! Ask Alexi, he made them!”

  Dwynfel: “Stop shouting… it isn’t helping. Everybody… go to the fountain… have a drink… and we’ll talk about this sensibly.”

  They all walked out of the alley and into the main square towards the fountain. Most of them did so sensibly… but Tadwick and Charlie kept barging into each other and generally being ridiculous.

  Grant continues to hold Alexi’s hand. Ever since his dad died, he has become very… clingy. He is always holding onto somebody… normally his mum, his sister, or Alexi. I mean… it makes sense… he lost somebody very close to him… he’s now scared to lose others that he cares about. He was always pretty attached to Alexi to begin with… but now… it’s like he won’t let go… literally.

  Which reminds me… I still need to find out what the hell happened between them at the baths. I asked Alexi a while ago and he said that “nothing of note happened.”

  I did ask him to give me a blow-by-blow account of the day in question…. which he did. But as he said… there was nothing of note… just sounded like a bunch of boys playing about in some baths. So, whatever it is that happened is something that Alexi didn’t even register. But given his complete obliviousness to various things, that still leaves the possibilities incredibly open.

  Anyway… the boys all stopped at the centre of the square to have a drink from the fountain and talk things through calmly.

  Dwynfel: “You said before that Alexi organised the teams…”

  Charlie: “He did.”

  Alexi: “I previously performed a skills assessment on each player, which enabled me to split the teams as evenly as possible. This worked effectively. However, in the absence of Isaac, I have no way to split the teams evenly, as I did before. The current formation is the closest that I have been able to formulate.”

  He did a skills assessment… fucking hell. No wonder they put him in charge of such things.

  Tadwick: “But they still have more players.”

  Charlie: “Two of which are basically useless.”

  Tadwick: “Grant’s good.”

  Charlie: “Not when he’s just holding hands with Alexi the whole game. It is basically Me and Olmo against you, Johnny and Xion.”

  Zayan: “You guys really aren’t counting the goalies at all, are you.”

  Charlie: “Because you guys haven’t changed.”

  Tadwick: “You guys are pretty much even anyway.”

  Zayan: “Still, it would be nice to be included.”

  Dwynfel: “Boys… why don’t you just ask somebody else to play with you? Look… there’s a kid over there, why not ask him?”

  I gestured over to a fruit stall where a boy was buying some apples. Charlie and Tadwick looked at each other, shrugged, then walked over to him. I decided to listen in on what was being said without getting actively involved. Don’t want to mess up their street cred or anything.

  Charlie: “Excuse me.”

  The boy turned round and smiled. He was older than the other boys. He smelled about thirteen. Still… he was roughly the same size as Charlie and Tadwick. He had a very slight frame, a light brown bob, and a rather effeminate stance.

  Boy: “Oh, hello.”

  Tadwick: “We need an extra player. Would you like to play?”

  Tadwick lifted the ball up in front of himself to demonstrate what game he was talking about. The boy looked quite surprised. He placed his hand on his chest and responded in an overly nice tone.

  Boy: “It is so unbelievably sweet of you to ask. But I’m afraid that my feet really aren’t made for such things. I’d just fall over myself constantly.”

  The boys voice kept cracking, it hadn’t dropped yet, but it was clearly on the way. He didn’t entirely sound like a child, but he didn’t sound like a man either. He didn’t have a typical boy’s way of speaking, nor was he incredibly softly spoken like Kiyui. Kiyui could easily be mistaken for a woman with his voice. This boy sounded… well… I’m not sure how to describe it. The last time I heard anybody speak in this manner, Agaroth described the guy as… “camper than a row of tents.”

  Charlie and Tadwick glanced at each other. Then Charlie leaned in and spoke into Tadwick’s ear.

  Charlie: “He’s even gayer than your dads.”

  Tadwick: “I know, right?”

  I really want to scold them for that. But… I mean… they aren’t wrong. Putting the voice aside, the kid definitely has a feminine way about him. Then again… I wouldn’t say any more so than Kiyui… in fact, I think Kiyui very much has the edge in that regard.

  Girl: “I’ll play with ya!”

  A girl swooped in from the other side of the stall and stood next to the boy. They looked very similar… probably siblings. She was very slightly smaller than him, so probably younger. They had the same eyes. They also had matching hairdos… although the girl’s hair was blonde as supposed to brown. They also had similar tunics on… although hers was quite loose and dark, whereas his seemed much more fitted and had a floral pattern stitched into it.

  Boy: “Hey Toria. You get the onions that mum was after?”

  Toria: “Yup.”

  She placed a few onions in the boy’s shopping basket and turned back to face Charlie and Tadwick.

  Toria: “Well?”

  Charlie: “But… you’re a girl.”

  Toria: “So?”

  Charlie: “Won’t it be weird?”

  Tadwick: “Why would it be weird? You’re the one who keeps wanting to spend time with girls? Besides… Alexi’s half girl.”

  Charlie placed his thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose and sighed… as though he was tired of having the same conversation.

  Charlie: “Alexi’s different, he’s a friend. And I want to spend time with girls… not play football with them.”

  Tadwick: “What’s the point in spending time with them, if you aren’t gonna play with them?”

  Charlie: “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t play with them… just not football. Although I’m not ruling out all ball related pass times.”

  Tadwick: “Stop saying weird stuff that I don’t get… what ball games would you play with ’em?”

  This is the problem with age gap friendships. Charlie has interests that Tadwick is just too young to grasp.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Charlie: “Unimportant.”

  Tadwick: “I bet you would jump at this if it was Lydia.”

  Charlie: “Shut up.”

  Toria: “What? The stuck-up bitch who always wears those ridiculous dresses?”

  Tadwick: “That’s her.”

  Charie: “She isn’t stuck-up, she’s classy.”

  Toria: “She’s a twat, that’s what she is. I doubt she’d ever even consider dating you.”

  Charlie: “Yeah, she would. I got sex appeal.”

  Toria: “No, you don’t.”

  Charlie: “Yeah, I do. I got my hand bitten off by a crocodile…”

  Charlie started waving his stump in the air.

  Charlie: “Scars are sexy.”

  Tadwick: “You aren’t the only one who has scars from that.”

  Tadwick lifted up his shirt to show the full extent of the bite marks across his chest.

  Tadwick: “I got scars too. And if we’re talking scars… Alexi has us all beat.”

  He pointed at the fountain where Alexi stood and stuck his tongue out at Charlie.

  Charlie: “Alexi’s scars don’t count; they don’t come with a cool story. And losing a hand is way cooler than a few tooth marks on your chest.”

  Toria: “No offense. Cute as your little croc story is, she’s still not even gonna glance in your direction.”

  Boy: “I think she might…”

  Toria: “Shut up, Isha. Don’t agree with him.”

  Charlie: “I think we’re done here…”

  Tadwick: “No we aren’t. I want her on my team!”

  Tadwick and Charlie started staring at each other aggressively. Toria stood herself in between them and placed her hand on Charlie’s shoulder.

  Toria: “Let’s all just calm down a bit, okay. Sorry that I insulted your girlfriend. Why don’t we just play some football and if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work.”

  Tadwick: “Yeah, let’s do that.”

  Charlie: “Firstly, she’s not my girlfriend… and are you actually any good at football?”

  Toria: “Bet I can beat you.”

  Charlie: “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  Toria: “Oh, I’m not being ridiculous. You just look like you suck.”

  I like this girl. She’s not backing down at all. To be fair… I really want there to be a girl in the group. For Alexi more than anything. He’s surrounded by boys… and once puberty starts, I think having somebody around who is going through the same stuff will be hugely beneficial to him.

  Actually… thinking about Alexi… I wonder why he always goes by masculine terms. He never refers to himself as a girl… I mean… he has the equipment of both… did he just pick one and roll with it? Actually… given his background, it was probably chosen for him and he has just never thought to question it. I should ask Kiyui at some point… I bet he’ll have a good idea.

  Charlie: “Look… fine… you can join his team… but we are swapping Grant for Johnny.”

  Tadwick: “But Johnny’s my second-best player.”

  Charlie: “Well, she claims to be better than me, so you should still have an advantage.”

  Tadwick: “Urgh… fine.”

  Charlie: “I bet we kick your arses.”

  Toria: “Wanna make it interesting?”

  Charlie: “What do you mean?”

  Toria: “Well, you seem so confident that you’ll beat us… so, if we win… you go on a date with my brother.”

  Tadwick: “Huh?”

  Charlie: “What?”

  Isha: “I object to that.”

  Toria: “What? You keep saying how hard it is to get a boyfriend.”

  Isha: “Well yeah, but I’m not gonna go on a date with somebody because they lost a bet. I wanna go on a date with somebody who actually likes me.”

  Toria turned to Charlie and gave him an unexpected pleading gesture.

  Toria: “Well? Do you like him?”

  Charlie: “I am so confused, what the hell is going on?”

  Toria: “Do you like him… yes or no?”

  Charlie: “I don’t even know him.”

  Tadwick: “You don’t know Lydia either. You’ve still been trying to get her attention for months.”

  Isha: “This is entirely unnecessary.”

  Toria: “Look… would you date him or not?”

  Charlie looked bewildered… then it was like everything clicked in his head. He walked towards Isha and placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders.

  Charlie: “I just need to check something.”

  Isha: “Umm… okay.”

  Charlie started to kiss Isha. And not a light gentle one either. He fully went for it. Isha looked surprised at first… then he closed his eyes and very much began to kiss back.

  Tadwick: “Oh… that’s what you meant by kissing with tongues.”

  The kiss finished and Charlie stepped back. Isha looked vaguely stunned. Charlie reached his hand down into his own pants… gripped for a second… then removed his hand.

  Charlie: “Sorry, no reaction at all… shame. Can we play football now?”

  Tadwick: “You said that was for girlfriends and boyfriends only.”

  Charlie: “He wanted to be my boyfriend. I was just testing if it could work.”

  I mean… I admire his commitment to finding out. Thing is… I knew that he wasn’t attracted to Isha… because when Charlie is attracted to somebody, he gets painfully nervous… like he did with Farrow back at the cave. I’ve seen him try to speak to this Lydia a couple of times over the last two months… and he basically becomes a gibbering wreck. He has boundless confidence with people he isn’t attracted to… which I think this little display proves… but he just cannot speak to people he fancies.

  Incidentally… Charlie’s smell has changed. Don’t get me wrong, the offal smell is still there. But it is being overpowered by this sandalwood cologne. Where is he getting that from? That shit is expensive. He definitely isn’t stealing it from his dad… his dad still stinks of raw meat. He’s probably trying to impress that Lydia girl… not that smelling reasonable is going to get him anywhere if he can barely talk whenever she is near him.

  Tadwick: “And why put your hand down your pants?”

  Charlie: “You’ll know when you’re older. Can we just play some football now?”

  Yup… the age gap thing again. This is definitely an issue with their friendship group having a six-year age range. The older ones know too much about some things that the younger ones are oblivious to.

  Toria: “Sure. Before we go, are there any rules?”

  Charlie: “Definitely. One: If you want to eat something, don’t leave it anywhere near Freddy. Two: if we go somewhere where there is food, make sure that Oscar eats first. Three: Alexi…”

  Tadwick: “That’s my brother.”

  Charlie: “…will do literally anything that anybody asks him to do, don’t let people take the piss. Four: don’t ask Johnny to chill your drinks. And five: don’t pull Zayan’s finger.”

  Toria: “I meant for the football.”

  Charlie: “Oh… just standard five a side rules. Don’t worry, Alexi’s the ref, he’ll keep you in check.”

  Toria: “Didn’t he just say that Alexi’s his brother? Doesn’t that make things a bit unfair?”

  Charlie: “Don’t worry, Alexi has a thing with rules. Nobody I trust more to be the ref.”

  Toria: “In that case, lead on.”

  They went to leave and Toria turned back to Isha.

  Toria: “You coming to watch?”

  Isha placed his basket on the ground and sat down.

  Isha: “I’m just gonna sit here with my legs crossed for a bit.”

  Charlie turned around… looking incredibly proud of himself.

  Charlie: “When things calm down, do come and hang with us. There’s ten of us, so statistically, at least one of us is heading in that direction. My money’s on Olmo, although you may have to wait a bit. Don’t think he’s sure himself yet… which reminds me… rule six, Alexi is romantically off limits.”

  They turned back round and started walking back towards the fountain.

  Toria: “Why is Alexi off limits?”

  Charlie: “Grant has a thing for him.”

  Tadwick: “He does not!”

  Not this fucking argument again. I mean… at this point I do think Charlie is correct that Grant has some kind of attachment to Alexi… but I think they are a little young to be imposing romantic implications onto the situation.

  They continued to argue about this during the walk back when suddenly a loud rumbling noise could be heard.

  Man: “LOOK OUT!”

  Holy shit! A supply cart came careening down the street at the other end of the square. Something must have spooked the horse as it was running at full speed. It ran through the square and people dived out of the way left and right. It reached the boys by the fountain. Most of them jumped in the fountain to avoid it. Grant pushed Alexi out of the way and managed to dodge the horse but the cart hit him in the side, sending him crashing to the ground and smashing his head off the fountain.

  One of the stall owners managed to jump onto the cart, grab the reins, and slow the horse down. But Grant… fuck… he does not look good at all.