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"Hey Langa~" Reki dropped into his seat next to his friend.
"Hi Reki." Langa had been leaned over his desk with his arms supporting his head. He had study session this morning so he had gotten to school first. Reki seemed to be in a particularly good mood. And despite trying to hide it, Langa was not. Reki picked up on it pretty quick.
"Oh, hey are you okay?" The look of concern sent a pang of guilt to Langa's heart.
"Yeah, just tired you know…" Langa didn't want him to worry. Reki wasn't convinced.
"You sure somethings not up? Was study session hard?"
Langa shook his head. "I'm fine. Really, I just didn't sleep well last night." Reki listened while he talked, something Langa was still getting used to. "My mom got called for another shift, it's just hard to sleep when she isn't home." It was mostly the truth. Langa couldn't bring himself to openly say that it wasn't because he was scared or anything like that. But the fact he couldn't sleep was the horrible empty feeling of being alone. It kept him awake and made him feel hollow. That feeling always eased when he was around people. It almost vanished completely when he was around Reki. "I'll be okay."
Reki smiled, believing him now. "Alright. Well if you doze off, I'll wake you just before the teacher notices today. Oh, here maybe this will help." He looked into his bag and pulled out a little foil ball. "I got this yesterday and it made me think of you."
Langa took it when he handed it to him. "Chocolate?" The foil was a shiny blue with snowflakes glittering around the little orb.
"You like dark chocolate right? And the paper just reminded me of you."
"Thank you Reki." Langa carefully unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth. He slipped the paper into his pocket as Reki started to tell him about a weird dream he had last night.
….
"Oh um, hello, I might have the wrong apartment," Reki pulled out his phone to check the address.
"Are you Kyan Reki?" The woman who opened the door when he had knocked smiled as she asked. As soon as she smiled Reki realized without any doubt, this was Langa's mom.
He bowed and gave a more formal greeting, which she gave too before inviting him in. "Langa isn't back just yet. I asked him to pick up a few things on his way home. Come in while you wait for him."
Reki excused himself as he entered and kicked his shoes off in the little entryway. He set his skateboard down too. The apartment was neat and smelled good. His mother was gathering her things off the little table in the middle of the main room.
"I'm sorry to leave you but I got called in to work. Langa will be back any minute. His room is right back there. Please make yourself at home." She paused on her way past him and gave him a look Reki didn't understand but made him blush. "Thank you for taking care of Langa and being such a good friend to him."
"Oh yeah, of course. Um, it was nice to meet you."
"Come back for dinner sometime so we can actually meet." She waved as she left, leaving Reki alone in the apartment.
Reki stood awkwardly by the dining table and looked around. The whole apartment was open, the kitchen was small and modern, the sofa and TV divided the main space and everything followed a simple white and gray color scheme. There were pictures scattered sparingly around that Reki couldn't help but peek at. By the kitchen an old school photo of a young Langa happily smiling. Along the TV stand there was a variety of photos of Langa during different holidays. His age and the gaps in his teeth indicated the changing years. Reki came back to the table. A shelf of snowboarding awards were neatly displayed. And a family photo.
Reki leaned in to see it. Langa was very young in the picture. His mother looked almost the same. And his father looked nothing how Reki had pictured. Seeing Langa in between them it was amazing to see the features that had been so clearly transferred to their son. His parents were good looking people and Langa had gotten all their best features. His mother's smile, eye shape and slender chin. His father's eye color, nose and now that he was older, his build.
"Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Reki." He quietly greeted the little picture. Despite being Japanese herself it was clear that Langa's mother held on to more western traditions. The picture was the closest thing to a memorial he could see and there was even a small silver cross with a beaded chain tucked carefully at the side of the frame. Reki brought together his hands and said the only small prayer he knew to give his respects.
Moving on he decided to wait in Langa's room, after all that was where he was told to wait. He didn't want to disrespect what he'd been told. He was very curious to know what Langa's room looked like. The guy's appearance made Reki think it would be very neat just like the rest of the house, but knowing how oblivious Langa could be Reki wondered if his personal space would look like a war zone. He opened the door and peered inside. He was instantly disappointed.
There was hardly anything in there. Bed with half done up dark blue sheets. Dresser with clothes lumped at its bottom, and a desk with a light and 2 magazines Reki had let him borrow, and a few other things. Had it not been for the months they'd spent together already, Reki would have guessed that Langa hadn't even unpacked, the room was that bare. He flicked on the light and left the door open as he went inside.
It smelled like Langa. The faint scent of whatever he wore and just how he normally smelled. A few steps in and he realized there was something by the door. Two huge snowboards leaned up against the wall. "Whoa," Reki's eyes drifted over the mess of stickers that were plastered over the shiny plastic. By far the most colorful things in the whole room there was plenty to take in. The boards were almost as tall as Reki too, Langa said they were bigger than skateboards and he'd seen pictures but it was different standing next to them.
He ran his finger along the edge of the larger one. How many hours had Langa spent riding it he wondered. After he'd inspected the sticker collection he decided to sit and wait at Langa's desk.
Once he was sat he took a closer look. He saw a small cork board propped against the wall behind the light. Pinned to it was a paper calendar, three photos and a little piece of blue paper pinned and his S sticker.
One photo was of Langa and his dad outside. Langa looked almost as he does now but he was barely smiling. His dad looked thinner and pale but smiled with his arm around Langa's shoulder. The second photo was of Langa and a girl, they stood shoulder to shoulder. She was Langa's friend from Canada. He had only mentioned the girl a few times but Reki remembered him saying he grew up with her. The last was a younger picture of Langa sitting on his mother's lap, bundled in snow gear. The photos were all of people Langa missed.
Reki stared at the little piece of paper. It looked familiar. He obviously recognized the S sticker but was surprised he kept it. Once he won the pin that was his entry card. The sticker didn't mean anything now. And the paper…he knew he recognize it! It was the foil that had been around the chocolate Reki gave to him. For someone who barely held on to material things it was confusing why he had either of these.
The S sticker maybe made more sense. Reki knew how important S was to Langa and he seemed to like stickers. Reki stared at the foil. It was pretty and all but enough to keep? Langa had been kind of down that day he had given him the chocolate. Reki wondered if maybe it had meant a little more to Langa than he realized that day. He sat quietly thinking about it and looking around the room again. The longer he thought about it the more the room really felt like Langa.
A plain and normal looking teenage boy's room at first glance. But hidden away and only when you really looked or got close could the things that made Langa, who he was, cloud be seen. Reki laughed a little. Like ice on a frozen lake. Pretty and opaque on the surface but below the surface was depth and dark water.
Pretty proud of his poetic thought he let it sink in that there was only a handful of people who saw Langa for who he really is. Reki looked at the photos of his father and the girl again. He had his mom of course but Langa often mentioned how she was barely home despite her best efforts to be.
Langa was lonely.
The thought stung more than Reki anticipated as it popped into his mind. The little piece of paper meant that Reki had been there for him. He had reached out and done something to let Langa know he was there. It was important because it came from him. The sticker too.
The sound of Langa coming home startled Reki out of his thoughts and he suddenly felt a little nervous.
"Mom I'm back they didn-" Langa called out for her in English first but stopped. "Reki?"
He had left his shoes and board at the door. "Welcome back! I'm in here." Reki called back to him.
He heard Langa set stuff down and quickly make his way to his room. Reki smiled at him when he came around the door. "Hi ya."
"Hey! I totally lost track of time. Sorry to make you wait." Langa looked flustered.
"No worries. Haven't been here long. Your mom said to hang out in here."
"She left already?" The slight look of disappointment was almost hidden but Reki knew him better than that.
"Yeah, she said she got called in."
Langa's eyes kept drifting from Reki to just over his shoulder. He stood in the doorway looking a little out of place in his own room. Reki could see the tip of Langa's nose was pink and his face seemed to have more color than normal. "Do…um, do you want anything to drink or a snack?"
"Sure! I wouldn't mind hanging out for a bit. Want help?"
One more glance at the wall and he turned and left the room, "no, I'll be right back." Reki sat in the desk chair. He glanced at the board. Which item was Langa looking at? Reki's face felt hot. Seeing Langa flustered made him feel flustered. He had never seen Langa act that way.
Langa came back to the room after just a few minutes. He had two bottled drinks, some cut fruit and a box of cookies. He dragged a chair from the dining table. "Thanks man." Reki opened one of the juices. "What are these?" He picked up the cookies, as Langa sat down next to him.
"My grandma sent snacks from Canada. I like these but haven't seen them here. Chocolate and raspberry."
Reki took a cookie and so did Langa. "She sent maple ones too if you want to try but I like these more."
"That's very un-Canadian of you."
Langa laughed. He seemed a little less flustered now, which made Reki happy. It still felt like he wasn't quite sure what to do, like he was still a little nervous. Reki made sure he didn't look at the little board since Langa had worried about it before. He was actually really happy to be there.
It was pretty obvious Reki was the first friend Langa had over. He felt kind of special actually. To be in his room sharing a snack Langa liked from his home country. He wanted to let Langa know somehow that he was enjoying being here.
"Hey, are those your snowboards?"
Langa looked over his shoulder to the corner. "Yeah…I wasn't sure where else to store them. I knew I wouldn't need them here but I couldn't get rid of them."
"No way could you get rid of them. Besides, we could always make an adventure out of finding an indoor place."
"You'd want to try snowboarding?" Langa sounded surprised.
"Dude of course! After hearing you talk about it I really want to try. You know…whenever you want to." Reki remembered Langa saying he lost his passion for it at the same time he talked about losing his dad.
"I would…really like that." Langa was still looking at the boards.
"The stickers are really cool. You know we can decorate your skateboard with stickers too."
"Most of them are from brands or events. But these ones…" He got up and Reki followed. He pointed to a small cluster of very colorful stickers, different from the word graphics ones that decorated most of the board. "These ones my friend and I made. Each event we did for a whole year we made a sticker for."
"That is awesome." Reki knelt down so he could see the art better. "Does your friend still make stickers?"
"Sometimes, she likes to draw. So sometimes she will turn her stuff into pins and stickers."
"We should totally do a sticker swap. Think she'd be into it?"
Langa smiled, the smile Reki loved, where it made the sides of his eyes crease. "She would totally be into it. I think…I think you might like some of her stuff."
"Show me, I bet I would." They moved back to the desk and Langa searched on his phone. "Is this the same friend?" Reki couldn't help it. He pointed at the picture of Langa and the girl.
It was silly to deny he hadn't looked at the board and he was genuinely curious to know. Langa's eyes shifted back to the little blue paper. "Um, yeah. That's her. Mona, well Monique but she goes by Mona."
"You are missing teeth in every photo, even this one."
Langa gave a short laugh, "Yeah well, between snowboarding and hockey my teeth had no chance."
"That seems very Canadian of you."
"Have I redeemed my right to be Canadian after not liking the maple cookies?"
"I guess so," Reki teased. "Is she missing a tooth too?"
"Totally, she is way tougher than I am. Here, this is maybe a better photo." He showed Reki a picture of the girl. Her dark hair was curled and she had simple makeup done and wore a blue satin dress. She looked very pretty. He had a few more he scrolled through. "She sent me these last week from her cousin's wedding. That one on the wall is a little older. It was the end of the last companion we did together."
"She's pretty. You miss her?"
"Of course. We still talk all the time though. Actually she has been asking for a picture of you. I obviously don't have one," Langa motioned to the pictures on the board and then the little piece of paper.
Reki was surprised he acknowledged it. He couldn't hold back his smile. "Let's take one!" He lopped his arm around Langa's shoulders and leaned in close. "A selfie, let's take a selfie."
"Right now?"
"Why not? We will start with this one and the next time we see the other guys we will get pictures with all of them. My sister has a little printer that prints photos from your phone. I'll bring it so you can print all the photos you want."
Even though Reki was close to his face, Langa was watching him. He leaned in too against Reki. "I would like that…Reki…" Langa shifted just enough that he could get his arm around Reki's middle. He hugged him. He held Reki tight, almost too tight but only for a second. "Thanks Reki." As quick as he had hugged him, he let go. But it was enough to let Reki know how much it meant to him. It was these little gestures that made Reki feel like he meant the world.
Langa took the selfie and they agreed it looked good enough to send. Langa typed out a short message in English that Reki couldn't read before messaging Mona. He went back to showing Reki some of her artwork, which Reki instantly loved. He started getting more and more excited about making stickers too. They were looking at one of her pieces when the notification popped up at the top of the screen that Mona had replied.
"Did she reply? Wait, what time is it in Canada?"
Langa opened the message, but it was also in English. "It's like 11, but it's the weekend still."
"What'd she say?" Reki started at the screen but he couldn't read it.
Langa took a second to answer, "she said, um…"
"Oh, hey if it's personal between you two, you don't have to tell me."
"No its not that, she said, 'I am happy you found someone who reminded you how to smile like that. Thanks for the picture.'" There were tears in Langa's eyes.
Reki's heart felt like it was melting. He reach out and hugged Langa again, proper this time. "I'm happy too, Langa. I'm happy we are friends." He felt Langa struggle to keep his breath calm as he squeezed Reki back. When they parted Langa quickly wiped at his eyes.
"Sorry."
"Don't be. Seriously. I'm glad you smile when you're with me, especially now that you have all your teeth." Langa laughed and sniffled.
Langa's phone lit up again with another message. Reki recognized Mona's name in English now. "What'd she say?"
Langa opened the message and scoffed. "Send more, he's cute." Langa showed him the message that had the kissey-winky emoji. Reki's eyes went wide and he instantly blushed.
They ended up not skating and instead drew sticker designs until it was way late. Reki stayed over allowing Langa to have a good night's rest, knowing he wouldn't be alone.