"I'm weird. That's what everyone says. I just sit and-fidget. Which is what I call my self-stimulatory behavior. Like this," Kyzion held up his fingers that were currently flicking quickly as he made a bracelet out of multiple mini rubber bands.

"I don't know.. I wanna go to the anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis. It's the quietest place in the world. Did you know that if you had a conversation there, your speech would measure around 60 decibels on a sound-level meter?"

"I'm finished with my answer." He looked down at the blue rubber bands, interlocking them occasionally to create a pattern while his therapist listened attentively to his rant.

The question was the most general 'how are you feeling today' type of question, but he'd ended up going on a ten minute tangent about every subject that entered his brain cloud. Which was a lot.

"Wow, that was a lot, Kazi. I actually didn't know that. How'd you find that out?" She indulged in his rant, watching him fidget.

"I read a lot of books. Google is free, you know? You could've found that out yourself." He told her, unintentionally being satirical. It was just his character.

"Well I don't particularly like quiet places," She chuckled, "but you're right. I could've searched it on google. But why do that when you're here?"

"I won't be here forever. I was given a life expectancy of 30 to 45 years. That's not too far. I'm 22. Which means I'll die soon, so you need to use google next time." He said without looking up, shrugging his shoulders.

"Kazi what did I tell you about the D word?"

"D word? Are you talking about, you know.. like," He grimaced a bit, not wanting to say the actual curse word, and her eyes widened once he pointed to his middle area.

"No! I'm talking about 'die'. Not the other D word." She face palmed herself for not using better vocabulary, and he shrugged again.

"Oh. Well, I'm not afraid of dying. You'll die soon too. You're already half expired. White women are expected to live only 80 years, what are you, 40?" He looked up, and she held a shocked expression.

"I am. Is it that obvious?" She frowned, genuinely questioning her own appearance.

"Yes." He answered, not aware of how harsh he was being as he continued to build a bracelet.

"Wow. I guess I should take some tips from you then, huh? What are you doing to stay young?" She chuckled, not taking his words to heart because she knew he didn't interpret them the same way she did.

"I'm black."

"Nice..guess I can't take too many tips then.." She trailed off, unsure of how to respond as she wrote in her notepad.

Kyzion looked down at his watch, seeing that it had just turned three in the afternoon. It would be 3:01 soon, which meant that he'd only have nine minutes to get to the bus stop if he didn't leave right at this moment.

"Payton, I have to leave now. The bus will be here soon. Bye bye." He grabbed his backpack, and he was out the door before she could even respond.

"The bus. The bus." He had to constantly remind himself so that he wouldn't forget the task he was supposed to be completing.

"Bye, Kazi!" The receptionist waved at him, and he waved back without turning his head, walking out the roundabout revolving doors.

"The bus. Don't forget the bus." He looked down at his watch, skillfully maneuvering out of people's way without paying attention.

It was now 3:03, and he had seven minutes left if he wanted to stick to his schedule. He hated going off of it, even if it was just by a minute because then his entire routine was ruined.

Thankfully, he made it to the bus stop at exactly 3:09, which meant he had an entire minute to spare. So during that minuted, he recited the alphabet backwards in his head.

His hand tapped on his thigh, able to feel his textured phone case due to how deep the pockets of his jeans were.

The loud screeching noises of the bus made him snap his head up, clicking his tongue as his eye twitched a bit, merely familiar with the sound that he heard every Tuesday and Thursday.

"Kazi! How are you dude?" The elder guy reached his fist out, and Kyzion reached in his pocket to give himself some hand sanitizer, and then he gave the bus driver a fist bump.

"I'm fine. That shirt is cool. I like dolphins." He sat directly behind the drivers seat, and put his backpack in his lap.

"So I've heard! I'll have to get you some dolphin merch. How was therapy?" Frank looked out of the skinny double doors, waiting to see if any more riders was get on.

"Ms.Payton is dying soon." He answered, gazing out of the window at the cars that sped by even though it would quickly give him a headache.

"Wow! Really? From what, cancer?"

"No. She's white." He shrugged, and Frank laughed, not even sure on why he'd taken the dying thing seriously.

"I think we can go now. I have to be home to eat lunch soon. You should probably close the doors." Kyzion told him, and Frank shrugged in a so and so manner, doing as told.

"What you plan on eating today?"

"I don't know. It's Thursday, so probably seven layer dip and guacamole chips." He replied, putting his headphones on over his ears.

"Ah, that's different. Last Thursday you had, what, hot dogs?" Frank asked, and he nodded even though Frank couldn't see.

"Do you know there's a brand of weenies called Frank's? Well, most weenies are called franks. Beef franks, jumbo franks, big franks and chicken franks." He said a few seconds later, and he could hear Frank's muffled laughs through his headphones.

"Well I think I'm going to make my own brand of hot dogs, and call them-Kazi's."

"That's dumb. There's already a lot of weenie brands. Maybe you can name a bag of-I don't know, goldfish after me." Kyzion rested his hands in his lap, cracking his knuckles.

"Kazi's goldfish, huh? Not too bad. I don't really like goldfish though." Frank chuckled at the same time that Kyzion looked up at the street sign.

"This is my stop. See you Tuesday." He stood from his seat, giving Frank a quick fist bump before exiting out of the double doors.

"Bye, Kazi!" Frank waved, and Kyzion didn't respond, humming to himself as he began walking down the street.

He counted the amount of houses he passed, 12, as usual, before he finally arrived in front of the thirteenth one-the one he lived in.

He knocked twice on the door, clicking his tongue in his mouth as he waited for his Ama to open up the door for him.

"Ama!" He called, easily becoming irritable because 42 seconds had passed and the door still wasn't opened.

"The door is open, Kazi!" She yelled back, and he huffed, opening the door to walk inside of the house.

"Ama that's not how it goes. You're supposed to open the door at 3:25, remember?" He held his backpack, looking at her with his natural frown.

"I'm sorry honey. I'm busy, I promise to open the door at 3:25 on Tuesday." She chuckled, passing by him with a load of laundry in her hands.

"Well, you don't open the door on Tuesday's. Jon does." He told her, referring to her husband of the last ten years.

"I got you Thursday then!" She yelled from the laundry room, and he nodded, heading upstairs towards his bedroom.

He removed his shoes once he was inside, closing the door behind him.

"Hey Ted. I'm back from therapy." He spoke to his pet turtle who was swimming in the small pond platform of the aquatic tank.

Of course Ted didn't respond, and Kyzion carried on with removing his outside clothes so that he could shower.

He spent exactly 17 minutes in the shower, and he knew that because he counted the seconds to keep his mind busy.

Once he was out, he rubbed his body down in his dove unscented sensitive skin lotion, and then sprayed some Giorgio Armani cologne on his body.

"Bye bye Ted. I'm going to eat lunch." He put on his house slippers, now wearing a pair of sweats with no shirt, rubbing hand sanitizer in on his hands again.

Kyzion exited his room, holding the railing as he counted the amount of steps he went down-17, in case you were wondering.

"Ama?" He called, standing at the kitchen counter, waiting for her to present herself.

"In the fridge!" She yelled from her bedroom, and he nodded, opening the right side of the refrigerator door.

He spotted a clear plastic container with his name taped to it on a white piece of paper, and he pulled it out, walking over towards the pantry.

He grabbed a bag of guacamole chips off the color assorted shelf, and then he headed to the living room so that he could eat while watching TV.

After flipping through the different channels, he decided to watch Naked and Afraid on the Discovery channel.

He leaned back in the couch, moderately spreading his legs to rest his dip in his lap, and then he opened up his bag of chips.

"And bitch, this nigga wanted to tongue me deeeeoownnnn." A voice dramatically dragged out, and he turned his head to watch his god sister and her two best friends walk in.

"Why are you so loud Jay?" His eyebrows furrowed a bit, referring to her boy bestfriend.

"Why you so damn nosy?" He waved him off, and Kyzion's frown remained, watching Jay laugh with Elisa, his god sister.

"What you eating?" She ruffled his hair, and he swatted her hands away, turning his head so that she couldn't touch him.

"I don't know where your hands have been. Don't touch me, go wash them." He put a chip full of dip in his mouth, turning his attention back to the TV.

"Bitch me personally, I wouldn't let him slide with that." Jay made a yikes face, and Elisa waved him off while walking towards the kitchen.

Kyzion put his attention elsewhere, his eyes finding the figure of Nalani, Elisa's girl bestfriend, who was smiling down at her phone. The first thing he looked at was her outfit. He always analyzed people's outfits.

Today, she was wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans with a loose fitting white tee shirt, and she completed the outfit with a pair of white Air Max 97s.

Whenever he saw her-which was frequently-she was always dressed up as if she had somewhere to go. He'd barely saw her in lounge clothes, which was weird because to him, she had too many outfits.

"Damn nigga you all up in Nene face." Jay said from the other couch, and figuring that he was referring to him staring, Kyzion felt his cheeks grow warm as Nalani looked up from her phone at him.

"Shut up Jay. Hey Kazi, you alright?" She asked after throwing a random pillow at Jay.

"Yes. I wasn't staring at you. I was counting the iron streaks on your jeans. They're stretching because your thighs are really big, maybe you should get more. Levi's has really good jeans, a-and Macy's too." He nervously rambled, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh wowwwww. This nigga violating." Jay laughed, getting up to go find Elisa in the kitchen, knowing that she was in there eating.

"No, I'm not. I didn't violate you. I was just saying, I don't want your jeans to rip. Um, I think you have nice thighs, so I wasn't being mean or anything. I was just trying to be informative." He muttered, now pulling at his locs, wishing he could just disappear.

"That's okay. I'm not offended. I've had these for a little while now, maybe it is time for me to get some more." She chuckled, hiding the fact that he did actually offend her. She knew he meant no harm though.

"Well, not if you don't want to. According to the US census bureau, the amount of jeans imported has declined by 3.9 percent, and tights grew by 25.7 percent. Maybe you can buy some tights-I mean, if you want to, then you should." He rubbed his sweaty palms down his pants, reciting facts he'd read at the library.

"I'll have to find some that fits me. I'm tall, so a lot of tights flood around my ankles. That's why I don't wear them a lot." She told him, and he nodded in response.

"Okay. That's okay." He shrugged, eating some more of his chips, and he could feel her still looking at him out of his peripheral.

"Can I help you?" He genuinely asked as he looked up from his food, and she smiled, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Just looking, my bad." Nalani chuckled, standing up from the couch to go find her friends.

"Wait, I didn't mean that you had to leave. Are you upset?" He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, unable to understand her facial expressions.

"No, I'm just going to go find Lele and Jay. I'm not upset."

"Oh, okay. Because I didn't mean to upset you if you were. Sometimes I don't realize if I'm being mean, so I'm sorry." He spoke, the whole time pulling at the band around his wrist so that it snapped against his skin.

"That's okay. Would you like me to stay?" She asked, and he nodded his head, scooting over to make room for her on the couch.

He could feel his own body tense up out of nervousness, hoping he wouldn't do or say anything that would be considered embarrassing.

He really didn't understand what embarrassment was, but there were times when Elisa told him that that's what he was being. So he tried not to do those things that she-and society-deemed embarrassing.

"Nalani, what do you consider embarrassing?" He asked, wanting to make sure he didn't do whatever it was that she said.

"Um, I don't know. Why?"

"Well, Elisa said that when I pulled my hair that it was embarrassing, and when I hum, and snap my fingers. So if you think that what I do is embarrassing then I won't do it." He shrugged, gesturing with his hands.

"I don't think you're embarrassing. Don't you do those things to calm yourself down?" She questioned, and he nodded his head.

"So don't listen to her. We don't understand what goes on in your head, so whatever you do to control that, isn't her business. Do what works for you." She told him, and he nodded again, still pulling at the band on his wrist.

"Why do you hang around them? Elisa, and Jay." He curiously asked, because they were totally different than her, so he didn't understand how they got along.

"They're my only friends. Who else would I hang with?" She chuckled, and he frowned, still a bit confused.

"Oh. Well, I could be your friend, if you want. I go to this center on Saturday's, it's for people like me. This weekend is the talent show. So maybe if you wanted someone else to hang out with, you could come with me." His tongue steadily clicked in his mouth, shrugging his shoulders.

"Um, well, I don't k-,"

"It wouldn't be a date. Because I know you have a boyfriend. I just don't want you to be lonely, that's all." He said before she could decline his invitation. He wasn't sure if he was comfortable with rejection.

"Okay. Do you have your phone on you?" She asked, and he pulled it from his pocket, unsure of how that mattered.

"Text me the details, and I'll let you know if I can go, okay?" She gave him the phone back after saving her number, and he looked at her contact that was saved under 'Nene'.

"Okay. It's a really fun place, by the way. But don't tell Elisa, because she's loud and I don't want her to come, if that's okay." He pulled at his dread, and she chuckled, able to tell that he was nervous.

"Yeah, that's okay Kazi."

Why is he so cute 🥲