"Wow, it looks so cool!" Blake jumped up and down as he awed in admiration of the castle when we finished building it. 

"I guess it did come out pretty good didn't it?" I admitted as I took a look at the sandcastle. "Hope I did alright helping ya out."

"No, you did more than alright. You did awesome!" The young one cheered, before he unexpectedly leaped in my arms.

I caught him in the nick of time, caught off guard when the kid hugged me. I just gave him a small pat on the back in return. It just felt weird, especially when I hardly hugged others. It just wasn't my thing.

I put Blake back down on the sandbox.

"Can you take a picture of it so I can show it to Audrey?" He asked.

"Alright." I took my phone out and got on the camera.

I waited for the camera to focus, Blake rushed over for the picture.

"Can we take a selfie with our sandcastle, pleaseeeee?" He begged.

"Fine.." I say with a sigh.

We sit by the sandcastle, with the sandcastle between us. Blake made a silly face for the camera, while I didn't bother smiling, it was just a picture either way. After taking the pic, Blake looked over my shoulder, his smile was gone.

I turned behind me to see where what he was looking at, none other than some kids. I'm guessing some mean ones. "Blake. Remember. Don't take their shit. You tell them to fuck off."

He at first seemed pretty confident in himself, until the boys walked closer. He lost his confidence and sat beside me, trying to hide himself from them. When they passed by us, he looked back at me.

"Can we go home?" He asked quietly.

I nod as I get up and started walking back home with him.

"I'm sorry." Blake whimpered as we walked to his house.

"For what?" I asked him.

"I wasn't brave. I didn't stand up for myself.. I'm never going to be as brave as you." He looked at the ground sadly.

"Listen here," I practically ordered as I stopped walking, and crouched down to be at his height.

"I wasn't born 'brave', or whatever you consider me as. I worked for it. It doesn't just happen overnight. I started off like you, actually worse.. The laughing stalk of the school." I sighed as old memories flooded back,  but I snapped them out of my head and continued.

"But with some friends, I worked on myself. Now I'm here, nobody wants to fuck with any of us now. We'll get there and show those losers who's in charge. But for now, don't work yourself up okay?" I tell him, a hand on his shoulder.

He nods. "Okay uncle."

I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Enough with the 'uncles, Blake. I'm not your uncle. Why the hell do you keep calling me uncle?" I ask, seriously wondering what was up with that.

He shrugged. "I don't know.. I've always wanted to have an uncle. Uncles are fun, they play with you and all that. At least my friend Terry's uncle does." 

"Don't you have a brother or sister or something?" I ask him.

He shook his head.

"An only child, it must get really lonely at times then huh?" I say sympathetically, since I knew the struggles of growing up an only kid.

He nodded, and I let out a soft sigh.

"Alright. Call me whatever you want. Just know that I'm not married to your aunt or any of that."

"Not yet." Blake finished slyly, which caught me off guard.

"Yeah.. Okay, whatever you say..." I responded, snapping out of my shock as we kept walking until we got to the house. I heard something explode in the backyard, so with Blake we headed to the backyard.

"Way to go Josh, you almost got us killed!" I heard Audrey shout before bursting into laughter as they got out of the tree they were hiding behind.

"Sorry." Her friend apologized.

"Hi Josh!" Blake chirped.

Josh greeted him back.

"Nice to see you, how was..the.. park?" He asked, speaking pretty slowly.

"It was so fun! Isaac and I made a sandcastle, and it was the biggest sandcastle in the whole wide world." He rambled on.

Audrey let out a chuckle."Woah, woah there Blakey slow down. Josh can't read your lips when you're speaking so fast."

"What do you mean?" I couldn't help but intervene in confusion.

Both the guy and her turned their heads to look at me at the same time.

"Josh is deaf," She started explaining.
"But he knows how to read people's lips and can speak a little."

I nodded in response to the information, not having much to comment. Except that it now made sense why the two were making all those hand gestures earlier. Sign language, I believe, is what it's called.

I just stared in confusion when Josh started using sign languages (I'm guessing) again, but luckily, Audrey was there to save the day. Either way, I'm wondering how she even knows that crap. It's seems complicated as hell.

"Anyway, we didn't really meet properly back in Audrey's room," Audrey translated, as she looked at Josh as he made his signs. "My name's Joshua, nice to meet you. But you can call me Josh."

He stuck out a hand.

"Nice to meet you too, I guess. Isaac." I responded, giving him my name although I was sure he already knew it.

I had started doing my typical handshake me and my friends usually did, confused at Joshua's confused face and Audrey's sudden burst of laughter. The both soon started laughing their asses off.

"Was I, not supposed to do that or what?" I wondered.

"I think he just wanted to shake hands. I don't know what all that hand motion was all about." Audrey chuckled.

"Whoops, my bad." I shoved my hands in my front pockets.

I watched curiously as Joshua started signing something again. "What's he saying?" I asked Audrey. She looked at him, before looking back at me and translating.

"You know, you're a pretty chill guy. Not as cold as I thought you were when I first saw you. Audrey's been talking non-" she stopped at the last sentence, as if realizing what she was saying. She elbowed him lightly on his rib.

"Oh come on, do I really give such a bad impression?" I scoff.

"Somewhat." I heard Josh say.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Anyway, you guys good? I heard some loud ass explosion going on here."

"Yeah, we were just doing different experiments for our presentation that's due soon." Audrey explained.

"Well.." I looked away when my phone started ringing. I took my phone out and looked at the caller ID.

Jonas.

"I need to answer a call real quick." I told Audrey before walking inside the house.

"What can I help you with now, Park? Want some more weed or what? If you do, you're gonna have to have some money." I joked, since Jonas usually liked calling me to get drugs or drunk.

"Nah dude. What do you think I am, some druggie?" He chuckled through the phone.

"I don't think you are, I know you are." I dictated with a smirk.

"You really gotta bully me like that?" Jonas quipped, pretending to actually sound offended. "Anyway nah, I didn't call for that. I've been wondering where you are. I knocked at your door and you weren't there."

"You what?! Dude, how many times do I have to tell you to not come to my house unless I tell you to!" I put my phone on speaker mode as I spoke loudly through it.

"Sorry for caring about my best friend." He mumbled, sounding hurt.

"But really, where are you? What the hell happened with your dad? You explained some stuff to me a few hours ago but you suddenly stopped talking. Wait nevermind, you're at that one chick's house right? What was her name..... Amanda righht?" He mumbled. "No, no that's not right... Alice? Fuck.. It was something that started with an A."

"Joe, you're high aren't you?" I ask, although it wasn't necessary to ask since it was clear as day.

"Dude, look.. You can't keep living with him." Jonas all of a sudden choked up. Yup, totally high.

"Stop living with that piece of shit. What if.. One day he seriously hurts you?" He sobbed, suddenly changing his sad mood to angry. "Dude, if he ever does something crazy, I swear to god I will fucking kill him-"

"Jonas, relax on the weed.. It's making you-"

"I'm not finished." He interrupted sharply. "Dude, you have all these people that care about you. I love you, you know that right? I don't know what I'd do if I lost my best friend." He went back to sobbing.

Jonas was usually so dumb yet hilarious when high, today I actually felt sorta bad for him right now.

"Alright, Jonas stop. I'll be fine, okay? Just stop crying dude, those drugs are getting to your head." I softened, trying to ease the dude.

"He's right.. You can't go back." I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to look at Audrey.  It looked like she had been overhearing everything.