"Anyway, let's call Mel. I want to talk to him." Alek didn't want to be called Alektrona anymore. Her name is Alek.
She took out her phone from her pocket and called Melvin on face time. Since they couldn't communicate by calling, he always had Wi-Fi at all costs.
Melvin picked up the call with a few rings. "Hi, Alek!" He signed.
"Hi, Mel. How have you been? I missed you. WE missed you!" She forced Alec to hold the phone while she signed.
"We?" Melvin made a confused face. He only saw Alek and a curtain behind her. The curtains of her room were usually blue, but today, it was soft green like Alex's. But he just thought she replaced the curtain.
"Yes, we. Me and Alex." Alek turned the phone so that he could see his boyfriend. Alex and Melvin greeted.
When Alek turned the phone back to her to keep it on the window frame, Melvin said Happy birthday to her. Alek thanked and asked. "Where are you?"
"At my Gammy's." Melvin sighed gave them a boring and exhausted expression. He was there for a week and, he was getting tired. He didn't like being in places he was not familiar with. "But I'm coming back tomorrow."
"That would be great." Melvin signed. "We miss you here with us. We have a lot to talk about."
"Me too." Melvin made a sad face. "I think after I come back tomorrow, I will be free. Are you guys going to be free?"
"I am." Alex answered.
"How about you, Alek?" Melvin asked his best friend.
"I'm not sure. I have cousins in my house. I'll ask my mum, though." Alek told them with an apologetic smile.
"You have cousins?!" Melvin exclaimed as he had never heard Alek talking about them.
"Yes, I do." Alek told him. "Haven't I told you?"
"No." Melvin shook his head.
"Didn't I tell you the story of an angel I met on group chat a few days ago when I was at my gradma's?" She was sure she talked about Iris.
"The girl who looks like an angel smiles like a fairy and acts like a child-goddess?" Melvin recalled the chat. "Was that about your cousin?"
"Yes." Alek told him with wide eyes.
"I thought you were talking about your sister..."
"My sister is much more of a goddess fierceness." Alek nodded to herself.
"I agree." Melvin told her, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, you know now." Alek shrugged her shoulders.
"Can I talk to my boyfriend?" Melvin asked Alek because he knew this was her phone.
"Of course. Take the phone, lovebirds." Alek removed the phone from the window frame and handed it to Alex, who was smiling brightly.
'Thank you.' Alex mouthed at Alek before getting out of the room to get privacy.
Alek lay on her bed after she was alone in the room. His bed was softer than hers and, it smelled of him and his family. She was used to this scent. It smelled like sweets with roses.
The clock on the wall was saying it was almost five pm. She felt sleepy and didn't want to move from her best friend's bed to her house before seven. There was still time but, she didn't want to go back to see her family. They reminded her of the supernatural world and, she wanted to be alone from them to think and process. She pretended as she could take it, but deep down, she knew it was driving her insane. She needed to get things right in that world but, she also needed to process after every new thing.
"Can I stay here for the night?" Alek asked Alex when he came back to the room after talking with his boyfriends for some time.
"You are always welcome." Alex sensed that something was not alright with her and quickly came over to her. "Do you wanna tell me about it?"
"I wish." Alek told him.
"I see." Alex was a little sad to hear that. He felt helpless not being able to share the thing she is going through, but he knew when she is ready, she would tell him. Until then, he just needs to have patience. "Have you asked your parents?"
"Not yet. I will ask them, now." Alek took the phone from his hand and went out of the room to call her parents.
"Hi, mum." Panacea picked up the call within two seconds.
"Hi, sweetie. Is anything wrong?" Panacea was a little worried about her daughter.
"Uhh, can I stay at Alex's for the night?" She got straight to the point.
"Yes." Panacea wanted to prepare something special for Alek since it was her birthday but, it looked like she needed to give up that. "Do you have your clothes?"
"No, but I was planning to borrow from Alex." Alek told her mother. Alex liked clothes for unisex and, he is big now but, he kept his small clothes for donation and for Alek when she came over.
"No, Alek. You are going to wear your pyjamas. Come and take it. You can go back when you have it." Panacea wanted to see her daughter again for the night.
Alek didn't want to go but, she agreed. She felt she was just selfish and a kid to not go because she didn't want to be reminded about the other world she has to face.
She went back to the room where her best friend waited and told him she is going back to get clothes. "I'll come with you. It will take like thirty minutes to go and come back. And by that time, it would be dark. I can't let you go alone. Also, your father is going to scold me for making you go alone." The last sentence made Alek chuckle and, they left his house soon.
They talked the whole time and, when they reached the house, Alek became quiet. "Hey, what's wrong?" Alec immediately noticed that something was bothering her.
"Nothing." Alek answered with a fake smile that she used on teachers she didn't like.
"I know that's fake." Alex has been with her for half of her life. "Now tell me. What's going on? Are you in a fight with your family?"
"No. It is just my problem." Alek told the worried friend and took a deep breath before she opened the door.
"Hi there. You are back early." Lake greeted her from the living room with his wife sitting next to him. "Hi." Astraea also greeted her niece.
"Hey. This is my friend Alex." Alek introduced Alex next to her. She didn't know he had entered the house with her until she saw her uncle and aunt staring behind her.
"Hi, I'm Alec." Alex introduced to the curious people but, when he said his name, they both frowned. "My name is Alexander. Alek calls me Alek while everyone else calls me Alec." He made an explanation that earned oohs and nodding.
"Well, nice to meet you, Alec. I am Lake and, she is my wife, Astraea. We are Alek's uncle and aunt." They were somehow having fun calling the boy 'Alec'.
"Mum, where did you keep our toothbrush?" The three children of Lake and Astraea came into the room at the moment. "Hi, Alek. Who is that?" Castor asked Alek about the boy standing next to her.
"He is my frie-."
"His name is Alec and, he is Alek's friend." Astraea cut off Alek and told her children.
"Oh, nice to meet you, Alec?" He thought his mother was making a lame joke. "I am Castor and, this is my brother, Pollux. And she is our sister, Iris." Jin pointed to each one of his siblings. "But I think it would be easier for you to call me Jin and him, Rin."
"Nice to meet you too, Jin, Rin and Iris." Alex looked at each one their eyes. " My name is Alec. Or you can call me Alex, like Alek."
"That would be easier to differentiate." Rin said to himself before they all walked away from the room.
"Anyway, I just came to pick up my clothes." Alek went past her aunt and uncle on the sofa.
"Why?" Astarea asked.
"I am sleeping over at his house." Alek half-shouted from the corridor. They snapped their heads towards Alex and stared at him dangerously.
"I am gay." Alex told them with an awkward smile. Lake and Astraea quickly vanished the death stare in the air and smiled sweetly at Alek's guy friend.
Alex still gave them an awkward smile and did not move until Alek came back with a bag that contained her clothes. She left the bag with him and went to the kitchen to kiss her mother on the cheek. She had already done that to her father before she came to the living room. Bia and Kai came out of Kai's room for no reason and found Alek's best friend at the door.
"Hey, Alec." Bia greeted him and, Kai only made and eye contact with him. However, Alec didn't feel offended by Kai's action. He knew Kai was like that.
"Hey." Alex just gave a smile before they both disappeared like the three cousins of Alek.
"Nee, tell Iris that she can use my bed if she wants to. I would be at Alex's." Alek told her sister when she met her going back to their room.
"Gotcha." Bia just told her before going to their room and closing it. Alek was glad her sister didn't say anything.
"Good night." Alek said to the closed door. A few seconds later, she heard a muffled, faint good night from her sister.
Alek smiled at that and quickly went to her best friend, waiting for her at the entrance. "Anyway, good night, uncle Lake and aunt Astraea." She said the words and left the house with a bag in her hands.