If Only Being Switched at Birth Was Easy

/2/ Don't Let My Lifestyle Deceive You

"What about her? She's cute," Danny said as we boarded through the mall.

"Eh," Adam said.

"Or her? She's smokin'," Ryan said. "Look at that rack..."

I looked up to whoever he was describing. There was a blonde bombshell who was obviously trying too hard.

"She's a prep," I commented. The guys snorted. "Guys, look at her friends...and then look at where they shop...and then look to the stores that they're going into..." The girls headed into Abercrombie & Fitch.

"AH! Prep! It burns," Ryan exaggerated, totaling off his board for dramatic effect.

"Told you," I muttered.

"Hey," a female said, stopping King from walking, which meant that I ran into him by proximity. I looked up to see a brunette girl and her friend talking to King.

"What?" he spat at her.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she asked. King looked around.

"Do you see a girl here?" he asked in a rude tone. The girls were taken back by the obvious answer—of course thinking that I was a guy with my hair in my face and my hood on.

"Well no..." one of them answered.

"Well then that's your answer," he responded before walking away, rejecting the girls. And that's how it's done, folks. My phone started vibrating and I looked down to see my alarm. I reached out to lightly touch King's arm, but then he was suddenly out of reach when he rounded the corner. It was the one corridor in the mall that was visible to some degree, but had no cameras.

"Get your school shopping done by the end of the month, so we can crash this place already," Danny instructed while shooting a look at Adam.

"We're gonna split," King announced.

"Why?" Ryan asked.

"Nunya," King answered before turning to leave. I gave them all a look before leaving with King in silence. On my way out, I looked down at my phone for a split second because it buzzed as a reminder of the alarm, but then I ran into someone. I looked up and realized I ran into King's back as he had collided into a well-aged lady who was dressed nicely.

"Watch where you're going," King ordered loudly at her as she grabbed the elbow of the young man standing next to her to stabilize herself. I looked up to him and saw his dark hair and bright blue eyes. He looked familiar but any memory was pulled away when he consoled the woman speaking up to him. "F*cking old lady..."

"Stop," I muttered towards King and his foolishness towards the small mistake that was his fault. The boy flashed his eyes to me, got confused, but I had no idea why other than maybe recognizing me too from somewhere. King brushed past the guy's shoulder as he continued to walk. The feeling that the stranger's gaze lingered on me continued as I followed King out.

***

"How do you do that without puking?" I heard King's voice say as I swung around on the uneven bars at the closed gymnasium. Did one more rotation and then did a double twist to a perfect landing. I turned to King who was laying down on the trampoline.

"It's like how you and the guys had that brief fad of parkour," I shrugged.

"Except parkour isn't stupid," he commented. I used to be in gymnastics, but then my foster family had a shortage of money—because of King—and I had to drop the classes. I came here the nights that they close early. But, of course, no matter how much I loved it, no one cared.

I watched King as he got up and went to the punching bag. He was training for his next fight already. He took it more seriously than anything else. I walked over to him as he beat up the bag.