"Yes," Kyle told him, falling into stride beside Adam. "You might be lucky enough to look good naturally. I have to work just that little bit harder at it."
"You looked good before you fixed your hair. And I don't look good naturally. Do I?" Adam reached up to try and smooth his own hair as he walked, assuming it was just sticking up a little like usual. That was just what it did.
"Take the compliment when it's given and don't question it," Kyle told him. "Otherwise you're basically calling me a liar. And generally I look like I'm twelve without help. Nobody likes dating a kid."
Adam gave Kyle a darker look, but didn't say more on the matter. The last thing he wanted was to call Kyle a liar. Just biased maybe. "I don't think you look twelve."
Kyle gave him a smile as they hit the stairs. "Good. I'd had to have to question your taste."
Adam jumped down the first few steps before looking back up at Kyle. "Is there a reason why you would? Or are you worried I'm in to twelve year olds? Because I lived in some shitty foster homes, but nothing like that."
Kyle bit his lip, taking the steps down one at a time, taking his time as he thought whether he was going to ask what was on his mind. As he dropped down level, he realised Adam was a couple of inches taller than him. He tilted his head to look up slightly. "What was it like?" he asked, reaching for Adam's hand.. "Growing up in foster care?"
Adam let Kyle take his hand as he shrugged his shoulders. "Lonely. I was bounced around a lot, never really found a good fit. Foster families that keep kids want their kids to stand out and I mostly got by. Even in school, I wasn't trouble, but I wasn't well adjusted. I didn't socialize." It was all things he'd seen in his paperwork when he aged out finally and moved in with Jeffrey.
"Why not?" Kyle asked. "I'm sorry if that's rude... I just... I want to understand."
Adam ran his hand over the back of his neck, not sure how to word it. "When my parents died I had no one. And I kind of...shut down. By the time I came back...everyone else had moved on. And I'm not the kind to force people into being friends with me." So he'd carried on being alone and not socializing and doing his best just to get by."Plus other foster kids aren't really the easiest to get along with and at school I was the kid in hand-me-downs who came from one of those homes."