[Luke – 13 years]

"Hey, Seph!" I greet Seph as Tyler and I meet up with him, my voice muffled by my scarf.

Seph is bundled up in what looks like two layers of hoodies, and I don't blame him. October began yesterday and the temperatures are colder than they were even just a week ago. By a few degrees. The forecast is saying we might even receive snow this week or next.

Though that doesn't mean there aren't still caramel apple stands at the parks, though, and we bought from them while hanging out on Saturday. Now, we're on our way to school and Tyler's joining us for the trip there, then heading back to the hotel to meet up with his dad before they leave for another hunt.

Even winter doesn't stop them, only the weather. Some magic beasts are easier to find during winter than not.

"Hey, Luke, Tyler," he greets us. "Is it me, or did it drop another, like, six degrees last night?"

"It did," I tell him. "They think something magic happened and it might warm back up in a few days."

"Just in time for the snow prediction," Tyler says, no scarf covering his mouth.

I get Seph since he apparently can't afford a scarf right now, but I don't understand why Tyler doesn't have one. How's he keeping his neck and mouth cold? I won't complain too much since it would obstruct the view of his face, but he should still try to stay warm.

At least he's wearing a beanie to keep his ears and the rest of his head warm. That looks thicker than mine so it might be keeping his head warmer by itself than my beanie and hood do combined. His hood is up as well, so his head is definitely warm.

But his face! There's no way that's not cold!

"That's just for if the weather stays this cold," I say. "If it warms back up, there might not be snow."

"There might still be," Tyler says. "Temps usually hit forties to fifties during the days in this area this time of year, from what I read, but it can drop enough to snow at night."

"Well, yeah," I say. "But then it'll melt. We won't get any sticking around until at least next month."

Based on the normal weather patterns, at any rate. Those do still allow for one or two snowfalls lasting two or three days around here, but those usually happen towards the end of the month, if they do at all.

"Come on," Seph says. "Let's get to school."

"Yeah!"

We head to school and once we arrive, I pull down my scarf for a few moments so I can kiss Tyler after parking my hoverboard.

"See you this weekend!" I move my scarf back over my mouth.

"See you," he says, then takes off.

As I watch him leave, I realize that of all of the electrical signals I'm feeling here, there's one I haven't felt at school in a month and a half. One which I haven't felt at all in over two months.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Seph asks.

"I dunno," I say. "Something's odd, though. Someone's here who shouldn't be, so something might be up."

Seph locks up his bike, then we head inside and to his locker so he can put his outer hoodie in it, while I put my coat in my locker. We're allowed to wear them to class, but most of us don't since the rooms are usually fine in temperature. At least, enough that my very warm coat would make me sweat in class, and Seph would from wearing both hoodies but not one.

As we make our way to our first-period class, I realize that the signal I'm sensing is in there.

Sure enough, Parker's sitting at a desk toward the back when we enter. There wasn't an empty spot in the classroom for him where his last name would put him, so he must have just been stuck at one of the two empty desks in the back row.

Did he decide he didn't like Dragon Falls Middle School anymore and wanted to come back to Silver Griffin Boys' Middle School? Though he seems to be very subdued for some reason, just leaning over his desk with his head resting on one hand, zoned out a little. He might be doing his best to ignore the other kids, who are looking at him and the way they're whispering, it's probably about how "the poor kid is back", or something like that.

He's dressed in the school uniform, so khakis since it's too cold for shorts and a dark blue polo with a silver griffin crest on his left breast. The uniform isn't fully strict, which is why Seph can still wear his hoodie – the one still on is dark blue, and that's enough for the staff. The one he's wearing is actually an SGBMS one, so our logo is on the left breast.

For pants, as long as they look similar to khakis or are black, they're fine. That's why I can wear black jeans (with an insulating layer underneath) like I am right now. Parker always wears the uniform exactly for some reason, so I'm not surprised he's got it on right now.

What's surprising is his presence.

"Damn," Seph says when he notices where I'm looking. "I'm straight, but I can tell he's cute. How come no one's talking to him? Isn't a new kid usually… interesting?"

"Because they don't like him," I tell him. "That's Parker… guess he decided to come back here after a month and a half. Our education is better than public school, so he probably felt bored there. I wanna see what's up."

Even if we aren't friends anymore, I want to make sure he's okay. Two months without any contact has probably been enough that it's okay for me to at least do that.

"Alright," Seph starts heading to his seat.

"No, no," I beckon. "Come on, I wanna introduce you. You're my friend, you know."

Seph looks uncertain, but follows me over to Parker, who looks up once we arrive.

"Oh."

That's a very dull reaction, but I can tell it's actual surprise even with that. Just what is up with him right now?

"Hey, Parker."

"Hey."

"Didn't like DMFS anymore?"

"Huh?" He seems genuinely confused there and shows it more than he did he surprise.

"DFMS," I say. "You went back, right? Guess you didn't like it much and came back?"

"I didn't go back to DFMS," he says. "I was… away. Not in the area. It's… why do you care?"

He doesn't sound angry, just sad.

"We're not friends anymore," I say. "But that doesn't mean I can't make small talk, right?"

Parker sighs.

"Sorry."

Sorry for what? I guess this is just me being oblivious due to lack of experience. I'll ask Seph after school what I did.

"No worries!" I say. "So you just went on a big vacation for as long as possible without getting into trouble for missing school, huh? Was it fun?"

"No," he answers.

This is definitely unlike Parker. Did something bad happen, then? I don't want to pry into that since we aren't friends anymore, but at the same time, I do still care for him and want to try and make him feel better.

"This is Seph," I tell him. "He's new to the area, moved here over the summer and is a pretty smart dude. He's going for the same program as me!"

"Hi," Parker says.

"Hi," Seph seems awkward.

"Come on," I tell Seph. "Let's get in our seats before the bell rings."

Parker continues to act weird in all of the classes we share. More like he's got no real energy, and he definitely shows that he's bothered by comments from some of the other boys. For our swim class, he does the bare minimum, but strangely, Coach doesn't call him out like he would other boys.

In other classes, a tic works in Parker's jaw when some of the classmates makes comments loud enough for him to hear, and I really want to tell them all to shut up. Parker isn't saying anything, though, so it feels like I'd be in the wrong to do so.

Then our final period of the day happens. Parker has magic class with me and Seph, and we're all working on shaping practice with the orbs, but are permitted to do some minor spellcasting practice on our own if we wish.

Seph and I train while facing each other, and I sit so that I can see Parker just in case something happens. He seems to be doing pretty good with the orb, so he was definitely practicing with one while he was on his vacation.

"I don't get why he even bothers," one of the other boys says. "I mean, he comes from normal blood, so it's not as if he'd have any talent in magic."

Are we seriously doing this again? Why are people such jerks just because they think someone is poor?

"Him coming back was stupid," another says. "This isn't a school for his kind."

A scowl forms on Parker's face, then he sighs and sets the orb on the ground before pulling off his shirt and setting it to the side. Seems he kept up his training while on vacation, at least. It looks like he's even gotten another layer of muscle.

I noticed that during our swim class earlier, but it really is noticeable. He hasn't bulked up, but I think the part of puberty where a guy starts developing muscle properly is underway for him.

Damn, does he look good.

Parker then lies down on the ground and pulls his feet up to his rear, so that his knees are up and legs are in an upside-down V shape. I realize what he's getting ready to do just as he puts his hands over his torso.

Lava begins to form between his hands in a rough orb. Some of the molten rock drips onto his stomach, but he ignores it as he concentrates on trying to reshape the orb so that its surface is smooth and nothing drips off of him.

Though he's doing this with some effort clear on his face, it's causing a lot of people to look over at him. Not just the boys nearest to him but a decent portion of the class. Those who were practicing magics on their own even cancel their spells to look at his display.

Soon, everyone here watches Parker as he plays with lava, even the instructors.

Or more accurately, as he plays with a magic more advanced than half of the people here can manage, even with their own magic bloodlines. There's a difference between training up one's bloodline which has two different aspects to it and merging two different magics into one.

I'm talented by nature of having an ancient and powerful bloodline as well as a crapton of mana to practice with. Parker is simply talented, even if his parents' bloodlines did mix together to make him have a lava aspect to his own.

A bloodline only goes so far, especially when you're born with ordinary levels of mana.

Not only is his ability to manipulate lava drawing attention from our classmates, but some of them quickly notice that the lava dripping onto him isn't burning him at all. He doesn't even flinch. That's told them that he's just straight-up immune to at least that level of heat.

The more casual position he's taken, the particular magic he's using, and how he's not even flinching when molten stone drips onto his stomach is definitely shocking to most of those in here.

It seems Parker does know how to shut people up if he wants to. Me not saying anything when I heard them before was definitely not a wrong choice, then. Parker would have done something if it bothered him last year.

"Did you know he could do that?" Seph quietly asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "Found out over the summer that even though one parent's a first-gen and the other's second-gen, they somehow managed to make a magic bloodline which merged both together rather than taking after one. He showed me that then, and even that he's got an insanely high heat tolerance."

"That's cool."

"Yup."

The class period finishes and I don't hear another comment putting Parker down. Seph and I retrieve his outer hoodie from his locker, then go to mine to grab my coat. When we arrive, Parker's waiting beside it with jacket, scarf, gloves, and beanie already on. He seems deep in thought at the moment and jumps when I say his name.

"L-Luke," he looks at Seph. "I was wondering if we could talk. In private. Not here. Too many ears."

As much as I'd like to hang out with him again, there's just too much about him that's too much. He was a great guy until he started letting his jealousy make him not and I really don't want to be alone with him.

Especially since the last time we spoke, he was definitely still attracted to me and I don't know if he still is or not. If he is, he could always try something.

"Seph and I were going to head to my place to do homework," I tell him as I open my locker to retrieve my coat. "You live next door, so you can tell me on the way. I'm sure Seph won't mind hanging back a little for it, as long as it doesn't take too long."

I glance and Seph, who nods.

Parker would ride his bike with me here when we were still friends, if we weren't being driven by one of our parents or Xavier. Now that he has a hoverboard – something I regret buying for him as it probably only made him worse – he probably rode it here.

Though I don't remember seeing it when I arrived… but it could just be that I wasn't paying attention then.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Um… my parents hired a driver to take me places," Parker tells me. "He's driving me home."

"Oh," I say. "Then wait at the gate for me and we can talk there. You don't mind waiting for us for a few minutes, do you, Seph?"

"No," Seph answers.

"Alright," I look at Parker. "Let's do that."

Parker seems uncomfortable but agrees to it, so we all make our way out of the building. He heads over to where students getting picked up go, while Seph grabs his bike and I grab my hoverboard.

"That's not at all how I imagined him," Seph tells me on the way home.

"He's different than the last time I saw him," I say. "More subdued."

"You're gonna have to talk louder than that!" He laughs. "Your scarf's muffling you!"

"I'll muffle you!" I retort. "And I said that he's different than the last time I saw him! More subdued! Something's weird!"

I only care a little, but it's enough that I want to find out what he wants to talk about. If he tries pulling any crap, though, I'll make sure he knows not to talk to me ever again.

When we arrive at my place, there's an unfamiliar car out front, but Parker exits it from the back as we draw near. Seph stays back a little to give us a respectful distance.

"Yes?" I ask Parker, putting one foot on the ground while remaining on my hoverboard.

"Is he your new boyfriend?" He looks at Seph.

"What?" I ask. "No, he's straight. I'm still with Tyler, he was even here this morning, though he left town earlier for another hunt with his father. We need to get inside so we can do our homework, so please just get to the point, alright?"

"Sorry," he looks down. "About… what I did this summer. It was wrong of me."

He seems to be genuinely feeling guilty over it. I'm not empathic like Xander is, but I know Parker well enough to know when he's faking something. Or at least, when he's faking something like this.

A part of me wants to reject the apology just because of how he was acting, but if he's really sorry over his past behavior, then I can at least give him a chance to prove it.

I miss my former best friend.

"Hold on," I tell him, then walk over to Seph. "Hey, would you be alright with Parker joining us for homework?"

"Thought you said you two weren't friends anymore?" He asks.

"We aren't," I shrug. "But he's apologizing for how he acted and seems to mean so I kind of want to give him another chance."

"Alright," Seph says, then shrugs. "Sure. Doesn't bother me."

I walk back over to Parker.

"We were gonna do our homework," I tell him. "Wanna join us?"

Parker looks uncertain.

"Lemme ask my parents."

He walks over to the car and pulls out his phone to make a call. Calling his parents to ask rather than texting? Why? This is something which is quick and easy over text and he always just texts them unless it's something which isn't simple.

It takes a couple of minutes before Parker ends the call and says something to his driver, who pulls away from the curb as Parker walks over to me.

"Okay," he says. "They said I can go, I just have to be home by six-thirty."

"That was a lot of talking for just that."

"Yeah," he mumbles, looking at the ground.

Guess he won't say what they spoke about. He used to tell me more if I said something like that, but I guess even that's different now. I can't really blame him, though, as I'm definitely not going to be telling him all of the same things I used to.

This is us seeing about rebuilding our friendship, not us resuming it.

"Alright!" I beckon to Seph. "Come on, let's head inside. It's freezing out here!"

We head into the house, and Mom doesn't seem surprised to see Parker here at all. Did whichever parent he talk with already let her know? They used to not and just accept that we might end up hanging out at any given point in time.

That said, why is she home?

"You're home?" I ask Mom.

"Just picking something up before heading back to the office," she tells me. "Forgot some paperwork when I went in and I need it before I finish for the day."

"Ah," I say. "Alright! See you later! Oh, and Seph said he's gonna stay for dinner, but Parker's parents want him home for it."

"I didn't say I was gonna stay for dinner," Seph says.

"Yes, you did," I say. "I knew you were gonna forget, so I texted your mom and asked and she said it was fine, as long as you were back before eight!"

"I didn't forget!" Seph exclaims. "Don't text my mom for permission for me!"

He doesn't look upset, he seems more like he's trying not to laugh. That's expected, though, since I have an easier time getting his mom to agree than if he asks. She gets hesitant if he does, but is willing to allow it if I do, for some reason.

So I make a point of asking at least once or twice a week if he can stay for dinner after we do our homework, on the days we come here for it rather than head to his place. Seph is fine with me doing this, which I know because I've directly asked him and he told me it's fine.

"We're making homemade pizza!" I tell him. "And after, we'll do fruit pizza! Well, we're making the sugar cookie dough for that before we make the pizza, but I already have the dough ready and everything!"

"Is that why you made dough this morning?" Mom asks.

"Yup!" I answer. "It should be done rising by now."

"Did you ask if we had plans for dinner?"

"You mean did I check your schedule and see that you and Dad have a meeting before the end of the day?" I ask. "And if I did, if I saw that it was with representatives from the Namrialk Enchanting Group, and those meetings always end up going several extra hours because they don't know how to get to the point about whatever energy issue they're having?"

Mom raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything because she knows I'm right. Those meetings are supposed to last only an hour and a half at the most, but it usually takes two or three before we can find out what they're actually wanting. I've sat in on those before and have zero intention of ever doing so again if it's on a school night.

"There's also the possibility," I say. "That I got asked if I wanted to sit in on that meeting and said 'no' because it's a school day and I need to get my homework done, my stomach filled, and to bed at a reasonable hour so that I'm rested for tomorrow's classes. There's no way I'd manage all of that if I went to the meeting."

Mom snorts a little.

"There's no chance you and Dad are getting out before dinner's over," I tell her. "So it was going to be up to me to figure something out for dinner, anyway.

"Make sure you get your homework done before playing games," Mom tells me.

"Of course," I tell her. "Good luck with the meeting! And good luck getting them to get to the point!"

"See you tonight," she says. "You boys have fun, alright?"

"We will!" We tell her, then she leaves.

"Come on!" I say. "Homework time!"

Seph and Parker head to the dining room to do our homework and I fetch us snacks from the kitchen. Seph doesn't hesitate to eat any of them, which makes me happy. The first few times he came over to do homework here, he seemed afraid to eat even one bite.

Also to touch the chairs. That was weird and I asked him I told him so, and that just seemed to make him nervous so I plopped down, started snacking, and worked on my homework.

We finish up our homework and as we're putting everything away, I get a text from the security guard at the gate that Xander's on his way here. Isn't he normally hanging out with his friends right now?

"Hold on, guys," I tell them. "Before we can start the dough for the crust, I need to see what Xander wants. He might want to hang out!"

Parker starts to say something, then stops. It was probably a poke at the fact that Xander doesn't like me, but he hasn't been around for two months and he doesn't really get to make that kind of comment anymore.

"Or find out when you're moving," Seph, on the other, has no issues with doing so. "He can probably feel your energy from his place."

"Probably not," I roll my eyes. "I can only even sense his electricity from here if there's something like a lightning storm going on and I've lightning-charged myself. Well, I can probably do if it I've lightning-charged myself and am focusing, I can't remember. Anyway, he's almost to the door!"

I hurry to the front door and answer it to find Xander wearing a dark green MountainStorm Gear hoodie, dark green MountainStorm Gear sweatpants, and his usual sneakers. Also a pair of black gloves.

He's as cute as always, though seems a little bit sleepy for some reason. He doesn't look cold in the slightest, but jeez is it cold without warmer clothes on!

"Hi, Xander!" I say. "Aren't you normally with your friends right now? Wanna hang out?"

"I'm going over to them after this," Xander tells me. "But there's a harvest from my greenhouse ready and we planted more stuff than was actually necessary when combined with the magic fertilizer we used, so I wanted to give you some of it if you wanted."

He thought about giving some to me? Awesome! That means we're one step closer to becoming friends!

"Sure!" I say. "What is it?"

Xander holds out his hands and a big, brown paper bag appears in his hands. That's the kind of paper bag I see at stores, for when someone forgot to bring their own bags. And it looks kind of full, even if the top is folded over.

"They're all in here," he tells me. "And the bag's enchanted so they won't get cold, but the enchantment won't last very long. Just a few days rather than a normal enchantment like that. It's just a paper bag and I enchanted it so that they wouldn't risk freezing while I was handing it off to you."

"I don't think that was an issue…" I accept the bag. "Thanks! Have fun with your friends."

"I'll try," he says. "Oh. Parker's back."

The two of them approached, probably to see Xander.

"Yeah!" I nod. "Wait. You knew Parker was gone?"

"Yeah," Xander nods. "Bye."

"How'd you know Parker was gone?"

"I don't want to say," Xander answers. "Hi Parker, hi Seph. Sig loved the necklace, by the way."

"Necklace?" I ask.

"I can tell," Seph says. "I've seen snippets of his streams when browsing and he's always wearing it."

"Yeah," Xander nods. "He doesn't take it off very much, I think. Anyway, I'm gonna get going now. Have good rest of your days. Bye."

We all tell him bye, then he leaves. I close the door and look at the three of them.

"Let's go to the kitchen and find out what Xander brought over!"

The insulation enchantment he placed on the bag would normally cost at least one or two hundred dollars for something this big and he did it just to protect everything for a few seconds.

If it were possible, I'd strive to be in that sort of league when it came to making stuff and mana control. Xander is really his own league, though, so I need to stay realistic about that. My parents have to keep reminding me that Xander is truly something different and it'll be impossible to be as good at magitech as he is.

Being able to actually see magic and mana and how they work and interact really gives him an edge in anything magic-related.

"What necklace?" I ask Seph as we walk to the kitchen.

"Some necklaces I made," he gives Parker a hesitant look. "I make goods from some of the stuff I hunt and sell them. Xander saw me doing that and bought some necklaces. And no, I don't have any more. That necklace you've seen me wear a few times? It's the only one I kept for myself from those, the rest were all sold."

I remember the necklace, it looks pretty nice.

"You made that?" I ask.

"Yeah," Seph nods. "It helps with… having something to do."

It helps with money, he just doesn't want to mention that with Parker around, does he? I've at least developed enough social skills since becoming friends with him and Tyler to realize that much.

"Alright!" I say. "Let's look at what Xander brought over!"

The bag turns out to have some sort of enchantment on the top of it to keep it stuck closed, though it only takes a little bit of effort for me to open it up. Inside of it, everything is sorted into square baskets which sit on top of each other, the products inside not reaching the tops of their containers, probably to avoid squishing. Each basket seems to be made out of reeds or something similar, and very nicely crafted, too.

"This is a lot of fruit," Seph says.

"It's a lot of fruit," I agree. "But I guess that's just Xander. He seems to like fruit, based on the snacks he makes during his Tuesday baking streams."

Or at least, the ones he eats after he finishes his lesson with Katie. She's just accepted that after they finish the decorative baked item, Xander is going to pull out some sort of mega treat and eat it.

In the bag are kiwis, bananas, peaches, apples, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries (thanks, Seph, for letting me know what those are), a cantaloupe, and oranges, for the more mundane ones. There are even a few which are pretty obviously magical, like the grey berries whose container has a mesh over top of it because they float a little.

There's not a massive amount of each, but there's still plenty of them.

"What are those?" Parker asks about the floating berries as I lightning-charge myself so I can quickly capture them and stick them back under the mesh before they all escape.

"Dunno," I answer. "Never even knew there were plants which could float on their own. It's just like him to want some really odd foods, though! We can use some of this stuff on the pizza, and it's even fresher than what I got at the store yesterday! Come on!"

The three of us work together to make the crust for the fruit pizza, though we make three of them. We're all mages who did magic training not long ago, even if two of us are normal. Snacking as we worked on homework helped, but we're also thirteen. Nothing beats a good snack like junk food and it having fruit on it doesn't negate all of the sugar in the crust and sauce – it just adds to it!

Once the dough is prepared, it's put into the fridge to chill and we quickly take care of the dishes, then try the floating berries because we all want to give them a try.

They're surprisingly sweet but have a sort of tangy kick to them.

"Thank goodness they don't make us float," Seph says after we try them.

"I wouldn't put it past Xander to like fruit which makes you float," I say. "He'd definitely figure out how to ignore the effects of it while enjoying the taste."

We put the fruit away, then begin working on the pizza. Parker tosses the dough rather than letting me plop them down and roll them out and when he finishes, we have three round pizza crusts ready to bake, roughly the same size as each other.

The sauce I pull out may be in a jar, but it's not some cheap one from the store, it was made by a proper professional and purchased by myself directly from them. Once the sauce is spread on, we shred cheese and cover the sauce with that, then add in the toppings. One pizza has sausage, pepperoni, and beef on it, one has pineapple and ham, and one is a supreme pizza.

Along with the pizza, we make cheesy breadsticks and wings. Parker insists on making the sauces for the wings rather than letting us use the bottled stuff we have here. Fortunately, we have all of the ingredients for him to make wings in honey-barbecue, hot, and lemon-pepper. We can only do that last one because of the lemons Xander brought over, but they're going to taste fantastic.

A salad is prepared once the pizza is out and cooling a little, then it's time for us to eat!

"Man, that was good!" I say once we're all done.

"Yeah," Parker says. "I missed it."

"Missed it?" I ask. "Don't you get to make your own food all the time?"

"Um…" he averts his gaze while fidgeting. "I wasn't able to until this weekend. It wasn't…" he shakes his head. "It's almost time for me to head back home. Let's get everything cleaned up."

There he goes, being weird about the past two months again. I really want to press, but I don't think he'll be happy if I do.

"We can't forget about the fruit pizza!" I say. "I'm sure your parents'll be fine if you're a little bit late for that!"

"I have to be home on time," Parker says. "No exceptions. That's the rule."

His parents have never been strict about this sort of thing before. Just what exactly happened over the past couple of months?

"You better not have started drinking and doing drugs!"

"What?" Parker gives me a baffled look. "No! I'm never going to touch drugs! And I only drink when my parents are letting me, same as you!"

"Your parents have never let me drink."

"No, I mean-argh!" Parker gives me a playful push, causing me to laugh. "You know what I mean!"

I laugh even more at that, then pull out my phone and send his dad a quick text to ask if it's okay for Parker to stay long enough for us to finish assembling the fruit pizza. Judging by how long it'll take to bake and finish, he'd be leaving probably no more than five or ten minutes after the time he's supposed to be back home that he'll leave.

"Your dad says it's okay," I tell him. "Probably 'cause I promised we'd send some back."

Parker wants to see the texts to confirm it, then asks for a minute so he can call his dad. This is really weird. He actually seems concerned. But if he's not doing drugs or drinking, why would his parents have suddenly gotten really strict with him?

Fortunately, I wasn't lying when I told him what his dad said to me, so Parker stays long enough to help us make the fruit pizzas, then we see him off to the gate with a box with half of one in it. Once he's gone, Seph and I return inside to enjoy our dessert.

"Is he always like that?" Seph asks as I cut into the other half of the one we split with Parker.

"No," I answer. "Something's really weird. I'll ask my parents when they get home, they'll definitely know what's going on, I'm sure of it. Especially if Xander knew Parker was gone. They'd for sure know a lot more."

We enjoy our fruit pizza, then move to the training room and change so we can wrestle. I'm teaching Seph some grappling moves beyond just what's getting taught in the classes at school, and he's enjoying learning extra.

Though we don't always stay focused on the lesson and end up just wrestling each other a bunch. Today is one of those days, probably because of all of the sugar we had not long ago.

"Why am I not surprised?" Mom asks when she enters the training room while I have Seph in a headlock and he's refusing to yield. "Seph, it's getting a little late and the temperature's dropped some more. If you'd like, I can take you home. We can put your bike in the back."

It's not that late, but after we shower off our workout sweat, he'd definitely be getting home close to his curfew for tonight. Mom is probably worried about him riding his bike with it being darker out right now.

"I'll ride with!" I say.

After we clean up, I box up some of the fruit pizza, then we leave with Mom, Seph's bike fixed onto an attachment put onto the back of the SUV. The attachment wasn't bought because of Seph – Parker and I both ride bikes as well. My parents bought it years ago so they could transport our bikes as needed.

"See you tomorrow!" I tell Seph once we get to his house.

"See ya tomorrow!" He responds

Seph exits the car and grabs his bags, then his bike. We wait until he's gone around back, then another minute just to make sure he's not stuck outside. If he is, he'd probably come back around and let us know.

"Hey, Mom?" I ask as she pulls away.

"Yes?"

"Do you know why Parker was gone the past couple of months?"

"Don't worry about it."

"So you do know?" I ask.

"Don't worry about it, Luke."

"But he was acting weird," I say. "And not just from me cutting off our friendship back in July. Something else is up, and his parents are apparently being really strict with him, and he said he's not started drinking and doing drugs, so something happened. And you know so-"

"Lucas," Mom's tone is very stern. "Don't worry about it. It's not something you need to know or concern yourself about. If Parker wants you to know, then he'll tell you. Until then, drop it and don't bring it back up. Understand?"

I've never been shut down like this before. Just what in the world happened to Parker over the past two months? It seems I won't be able to find out, but I really want to know. How can I be there for him as a friend if I don't?

Oh. I guess even after two months, some of my feelings for him as a friend remain. Well, then let's hope he's really changed and not a jealous jerk anymore.

I do miss hanging out with him, after all. Today was nice, even with the distance between us now.

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