Stories of an Old Boy: Matty's Turn

Phillip's POV

This morning I woke up in a place I never thought I'd be. I'm in a tent with a bunch of guys I kinda just met the morning after a birthday party. A pretty…​wild birthday, actually. I'm waking up next to the one kid here that I actually knew before the party: Matty. And really, I’ve only known him for about a week or two. Okay, that's really vague or whatever, but that's kinda how things have been for me.

So, the short version is that I'm kinda the awkward, clumsy kid at my school and that I kinda get picked on for it and that I have pretty bad seizures. Sometimes, I also get weird deja vu feelings…​but, like, different. Like, I'll be doing something and it feels like I've done it before, but that it went differently or something. Oh, and I also get weird dreams that feel like memories, but not, like, specific memories. I mean, maybe some people have dreams like that, I don't know, but I don't think so. Look, I've just always felt like a weirdo or freak. I didn't have a heck of a lot of friends, either, until Matty came around. He's the reason I'm starting to make more friends. That's really the reason I'm here now with these guys--new friends. I ended up at a birthday party with these friends and we ate a lot of food and stuff, but we also went skinny dipping. I've never really done that before. And I've definitely never had a chicken fight while skinny dipping. That would've been enough fun, there, but we also ended up…​exploring some stuff. I mean, just call it what it was, Phillip; there was a lot of sex last night. Does that kinda thing happen at all sleepovers? Maybe the ones that Matty goes to.

Oh yeah, Matty…​where do I start there? Like I said, he's kinda the first real friend I've had in middle school. He's confident. Like, the exact opposite of me, but it kinda rubs off on you, y'know? He's also quick to take charge. I mean, he showed that much last night. Well, not just last night. We've been to each other's houses, played games, and…​well, fooled around.

So yeah, last night wasn’t my first time doing those kinds of things; Matty and I definitely did some stuff before. Totally took me by surprise; there's no way I would've thought we'd go there. I was so panicky about it or about him holding it over my head to bully me later that I almost freaked out and bolted. But he hasn't done anything like that. That already makes him better than most of the guys at school.

In fact, I think it makes him…​I dunno. I do think that Matty is cute and everything — okay, just to make it clear, I'm sure that I'm gay, especially after being around Matty. But no, there’s no way in hell I’d ever admit it in school…​it’s just one more thing to get picked on for. But yeah, I definitely think I’ve got more than "just friends" feelings for him…​but lemme get back to that.

The biggest thing about Matty is that he's, like, got superpowers. No, seriously, he’s a time traveler. I know it sounds crazy, but he can rewind his life back to any moment he wants to and relive it. He's already lived once before he got his powers. He said that when he died, he went back in time to the beginning of his life and started living it again. It seems crazy, I know…​but I believe him. I mean, he showed me how his powers worked and it's like he was reading my mind or something. It was almost like…​like he was just loading a saved game and doing it again, like I used to do way too often on RPGs. It’s nuts, but there’s no way he could know the things he did without some kind of power.

That got me wondering, though. He said he knew someone like me in his past life. Which is weird, because when I first met him, I felt like I might have known him in some weird deja-vu kind of way, but he said he wound up in, like, a parallel universe (which, at this point, I’ll believe just about anything). A lot of things were different for him this time, he said--even the people. I have no clue if that's how things actually work when you go back in time. Are there rules for this sort of thing? I don't know, I've never met any other time travelers before, so I'll just go with it. I mean, my brain's not exactly super reliable, what with the seizures and deja vu.

Speaking of which, there is the fact that my seizures and stuff tend to happen more around him, at least a little bit. It's only been a couple weeks, too, so it might be some weird spike in symptoms. Oh, and my dreams are getting weird these days, not that they weren’t already. But then, I also get more (and stronger) deja vu moments around him. Maybe it's because he's a time traveler and my brain doesn't know what to do with that? It’s like my brain is doing its own weird little time travel things, heh. I don't know, makes about as much sense as anything else does. Matty knows about all this stuff, by the way: the seizures, the deja vu, and the dreams — I actually told Matty one of my weirder dreams, one that my screwed-up brain keeps making me feel is important. I mean, he volunteered to help, so I figured `why not?'. But it turns out he had no idea. Which is cool, I guess. I'm kinda used to my brain not making sense. Anyway, not everybody knows about my, uh, "brain things." I try to keep it that way, but Matty's been cool with it. I mean, granted, he's been through his own problems way worse than mine…​I mean, he's survived cancer and has bladder problems he has to wear a diaper for sometimes. So, it kinda helps me out knowing all that, y'know?

With all this going on, Matty wants to start dating. I mean…​look, I like him. A lot. He likes me. A lot. But, I don't know, boyfriends? I can't even wrap my head around that. I've got all this stuff about him being a time traveler who can just rewind his life, on top of my own brain problems which are usually enough for me without having someone else in the mix. But he makes it seem so natural and easy. I guess that's the confidence of being a magic kid…​but would he even want to be exclusive? I mean, he had sex with four other guys last night, so why would he care about being a couple? Or why would he expect me to just immediately say yes. It's not like a homophobic thing or whatever--I mean, we both really like each other so, duh. I know I'm gay and, yes, last night was pretty cool, but...

Sorry…​my brain is like a jumble puzzle right now and I can't find any matching pieces. I'm sure a lot of that didn't make sense, but that's just how confused I am. I'm just not sure what I want. I want it to be as easy as being with him, but I also want to take my time and figure it all out. Guess there isn't a short version after all.

I sit up as much as I can in the sleeping bag and look around. It looks like everyone else is still asleep. The dim light of twilight shines through the tent. Looks like I'm up a little earlier than usual. I look down next to me and Matty hasn't stirred at all. He's laying there in his diaper. The first time I've really slept next to another boy. Another boy I just sucked off last night, at that.

I stretch over and grab my backpack and fish out my seizure medication. I take two pills from the bottle, pop them in my mouth and swallow. It's usually just one in the morning, but my doctor wants to try upping the dosage a bit since I told him about my more frequent symptoms. Sometimes when I'm at home, but mostly around Matty. Not big stuff anymore, just little absence seizures. Maybe even more of them than I'm noticing. Not that I'm going to mention all of that to the doctor. I'm pretty sure they'll treat me like some kinda medical experiment or something if I do.

Matty stirs for a second, but goes back to sleep. The other guys all start waking up a few minutes later, so I figure now's as good a time as any to get dressed.

Everybody starts to move around and get dressed, talking kinda sleepily. Well, except for Nathan. He seems to be wide awake, talking in what, I'd guess, passes as an inside voice for him to Vik and Kasha about something. I like Nathan, he's cute, but it feels way too early for that.

I finally see Matty start to slowly get up. He looks at me and gives me his usual warm smile. He still looks a little sleepy. He rubs the sleep out of his eyes, looking back at me when he's done. Man, this kid has the bluest eyes, I swear.

"Good morning," I say before I slide on a clean shirt and look back at him.

"G'morning," he says.

There's an awkward pause. The guys are moving around, not really paying attention to us.

"You sleep good?" I ask.

Matty nods, "Yup. Thanks."

I just nod back.

Matty starts dressing as the others start to pack back up anything they brought.

"Do not worry about the sleeping bags," Vik says, "we will roll them up later."

"Much later," Kasha throws in. "I'm too hunger to do work."

Vik looks at Kasha and says, "We are all hungry. I am sure mother has breakfast ready by now, though."

"Good!" Nathan says excitedly. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

Kasha looks a little weirdly at Nathan.

"Why would you eat horse? We don't eat horse. Especially not for breakfast."

Nathan levels at Kasha, "Dude. It's just a thing people say."

Kasha raises an eyebrow, "So many weird sayings you have."

Kyle pipes up, "Well, horse may not be for breakfast, but I'll take anything else y'all got."

Everybody chuckles at that and goes back to packing up. I'm pretty much done, so I grab my bag and walk out of the house to the tent. I make it a little ways out of the tent when I hear Matty behind me.

"Hey, wait up. I'll walk with you," he says cheerily.

I turn and look at him smile as he walks up to me.

"Sure," I say.

He catches up and we walk together to the house.

"Sorry about last night," he says after a few seconds. "I feel pretty stupid, actually, like I ran into a sliding glass door or something," he says with a giggle at the end. My heart picks up a couple beats when I hear it.

"No, it's okay," I say. I'm trying my best to make sure I choose the right words, since I'm pretty sure I screwed up my response last night.

"I mean, thanks for apologizing, but really I just…​have a lot to figure out. I still like you a lot, though."

Matty smiles at me, "I know. I just got a little carried away."

"Seemed like you were in control to me," I smirk.

He gives his eyes a big roll, "Ugh, that's not what I mean."

"I know," I say. Then we both laugh.

"Hey," Matty says after a moment, "why don't you come over to my place for the night? I mean, if your parents say yes. We still have the rest of the weekend, so let's enjoy it."

Uh oh. I forgot to mention this earlier.

"Uh, actually, I'm going over to Gareth's house this weekend," I say.

He stares at me for a second, looking a little surprised.

"Oh," he says.

"Yeah, he kinda invited me over yesterday after lunch. I just didn't really think to mention it. Sorry about that," I say.

He just shakes his head, "No, it's fine."

It sure doesn't sound like he's fine. There's a pause between us.

"A-are you sure?" I ask. We just talked about this the other day. I thought he was over it.

He looks at me and smiles, "Yeah, it's cool," he says. He looks ahead as we walk and keeps going, "I guess I was just excited to spend more time with you, but he's your friend, too."

He stops and I look at him a little worried. He looks at me, rolls his eyes a bit and smiles again.

"Honestly, it's fine," he says with a laugh, "I guess when you're an only kid, you take things like this too personally. Anyway, you're allowed to have other friends, right?" he asks with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

I just laugh, a little relieved that he seems to be over it.

"Yeah, I know. I guess I'm just too concerned about screwing up friendships, y'know?"

He nods, "I understand."

I think for a second as we walk up the back porch.

"That was pretty smart," I say.

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

"That thing you said about being an only kid. Kinda…​insightful."

He smirks and puts his hands on his head in that gesture some characters do in anime when they're trying to be cool.

"Oh, y'know, I have my moments. Helps when you've been a kid twice," he says.

"I guess so," I say. I pause again, "Hey, have you ever rewinded…​rewound?" I look at him, "Is that how you say it?"

He just shrugs and laughs.

"Anyway," I continue, "have you ever gone back in a moment to make yourself sound cooler or smarter?"

He just smiles, "Maybe."

"Did you just now?" I ask, raising my eyebrow and smirking.

Another smile, "I'm hungry. You hungry? Let's see if breakfast is ready!"

He opens the door and dashes inside. The smell of cooking food is coming from the open door.

I just smile, shake my head and follow him in.

Looks like Vik and Kasha's mom has been cooking. A lot. It's a spread of what looks like Russian, homemade cooking. I mean, I'm sure it is. I've never had Russian cooking before--even though I do get that weird deja vu feeling when I see it all. But it's a pretty tiny feeling. Besides, I know I've never had it before, but I'm down to try it.

It's kinda weird food. Some of it anyway. There's this drink called kvass that's really kinda bitter, but also kinda like strawberry soda. It's alright and everyone except Matty has a little. The rest of the food is sausage and rye toast and a few other things I can't pronounce. Oh, there is this one food called kasha, which is kinda funny when Mr Fedorov makes a joke about it. Kasha doesn't laugh, though. I guess he's heard that joke way too many times. But kasha (uh, the food) is a lot like oatmeal. I put a bunch of butter and sugar in it and it tastes great. I mean, really, is there anything that doesn't taste better with butter?

Anyway, once we all finish breakfast and the Fedorovs start to clean up the table, my phone rings.

I answer, "Hello?"

"Hi, honey," my mom says.

"Hey, Mom," I reply.

"Just wanted to let you know I'm on my way to come pick you up," she says, "I'm almost there, actually. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Did you remember your medicine? I know it can be hard to remember when your routine changes," she says.

I roll my eyes, "I remembered." Honestly, I'm not sure why she checks on that so much. She worries too much.

"Good. Well, I'll be there in a few minutes, ready to take you to Gareth's house. Oh! Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"Yes, ma'am. We just finished."

"Good. See you soon. I love you."

"Love you, too," I say reflexively.

I put my phone away and look up. Matty looks like he's staring, but quickly goes back to picking up his dishes and putting them in the kitchen.

"Was that your mother?" Mr. Fedorov asks.

"Uh, yes, sir. She said she'd be here in a few minutes to pick me up," I say.

"Oh, man," Kasha says, "You leave so soon?"

I shrug and smile, "Yeah. I actually had another friend invite me over on Friday." I catch myself and realize that sounded pretty rude.

"I-I mean, I had a good time. I'm not trying to be rude or anything," I say.

"It's okay," Vik says with a shrug and a smile, "You came for the camp out. That is what is most important."

"Indeed!" Mr. Fedorov cries out. "Boy should have plenty of friends and things to do at your age," he slaps me on the back, knocking me forward just a bit. The twins giggle at my reaction.

"Yeah," Kyle says, "I'm prob'ly leavin' soon, too. Momma wanted to take me shopping for some school clothes and stuff."

"Viktor, help to get Phillip ready to go," Mr. Fedorov says.

"Yes, papa," Vik replies kinda automatically.

Vik helps me gather up my stuff and I say my goodbyes. I wave quietly over at Matty, who smiles and waves back, and I head out the front door. The Fedorovs tried to get me to wait inside, but Mom usually calls when she's close, so I figure waiting outside won't take very long. .

Sure enough, I'm outside for a minute or two and I see Mom turning on to the street, then pulling into the driveway. I hop in the car, buckle up and hug my bag to my chest as she starts the drive over to Gareth's house.

She asks me the usual round of questions: did you have a good time, did you thank your hosts, blah blah blah.

Things go quiet for a second, until she comes back with another question, "Oh, wasn't your little friend Matty there, too?"

"Uh, yes ma'am," I say.

"I hope you two didn't just hang around each other all night," she says.

"No, ma'am…​well, we were on the same team for a chicken fight, but we didn't just hang out with each other all night."

"Then I guess you boys did have some good fun."

I smile, "Yes, ma'am."

"You're so popular these days, it feels like we never get to see you," she says with a smile and a small laugh.

I roll my eyes, "I'm not that popular, Mom."

She gives me that mom look. That sly smile like she knows something I don't know.

"If you say so," she says, "but you're letting yourself make more friends than you used to."

I think about it for a second, "I guess so."

"Well, you don't have to be a school celebrity to have a few friends. I think anybody would be lucky to know you," she says.

I roll my eyes, "You're supposed to say that. You're my mom."

"I'd say that makes me an authority on the subject, then," she says with a smirk. I can't help but laugh a little and she smiles with satisfaction.

Finally, we pull up to Gareth's house, which is in a cul de sac. It's a one-story house that looks medium-sized, I guess. The outside is nice and all, but it's not exactly the biggest house in the cul de sac, either.

Mom and I get out of the car and walk up on the front porch and ring the doorbell.

"Phillip! Hey!" he says. He's panting a little bit, pushing his black-rimmed glasses back up his nose. I guess he ran from his room or something.

"Hey, Gareth," I say with a smile, "Uh, this is my mom."

Gareth looks up, "Oh! Hi, Mrs. Bontemps." He sticks his hand out kinda awkwardly.

My mom takes it with a smile, "Hello, Gareth. It's nice to finally meet you," she says, giving his hand a shake before letting go. "You share a few classes with Phillip, right?"

Gareth nods a few times, "Yes, ma'am. We've got," he looks up, probably going through his schedule, "English, math, science and uh...history! That's right." He knows his schedule, but his brain always seems really busy, so sometimes things slip out of it.

He laughs a bit, "I mean, I know my schedule, of course, but it's kinda like remembering where you saw someone last. Or like when you see someone so much you can't remember when you last saw them. Not that I've seen too much of Phillip, of course. I mean, duh, why would I invite him over if I were sick of seeing him, right? Besides, it's not like you can have that much fun at school. It's like the teachers there are, like, anti-fun or whatever."

Gareth says all that in his usual fast, continuous stream of thought. He doesn't always realize he's doing it, but he's usually pretty good at catching himself.

I look at my mom, who looks pretty amused as much as she does overwhelmed.

Gareth flushes a bit, adjusting his glasses, "Uh, sorry. I talk a lot when I'm nervous. Well, excited. I guess it's the same thing, but," he pauses and gives that sheepish smile he gives in moments like this, "but, yeah."

"Well, I'm glad you two could finally get together," my mom says with a small laugh. "And you don't have to worry about talking too much around me, dear. Phillip's got two older sisters, so I'm quite used to it." She smiles and winks at Gareth, who chuckles a bit in response.

Mom turns to me, "I'll be by to pick you up around 10am tomorrow. Sound good?"

I nod, "Yes, ma'am."

Mom smiles, "Okay, you two have fun! Make sure you're not up too late."

I roll my eyes, "We won't be."

She's still smiling when she says, "I'll remember that when you fall asleep in the car tomorrow morning after two sleepovers in a row."

Gareth giggles at that and I roll my eyes and smile.

"Bye, Mom."

She leans down and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye, son," she says. "Goodbye, Gareth."

"Bye," he says with a smile.

Mom turns and walks back to the car.

Gareth looks at me all excited.

"C'mon, let's go," he says.

I laugh, "Right." I haven't really seen Gareth this enthusiastic. He's always a little bit enthusiastic at school, but I guess he just kinda reins it in better when he's there. I follow him inside and he closes the door behind me.

I walk almost immediately into a pretty big living room. One of those open plans, I think, because I can see the full kitchen and dining room behind that. The living room has a flat screen up against the wall on the right side. There's a large couch and a comfy looking chair and a coffee table in the split area. The left side of the living room looks like a kind of study area, because I can see Gareth's school stuff laid out on the desk with a computer.

The kitchen looks like it has some nice appliances and stuff; and the dining room is pretty normal, I guess. Beyond the kitchen, it looks like a back porch area with a lot of glass and what looks like another little office area on the left side of the porch.

There's a hallway between the kitchen and the living room, which I'd guess leads to the bedrooms and the garage, since it's in that direction. And, really, how many other rooms could be in a house this size, anyway? There's a door next to the study area, as well; probably to another bedroom.

"Mom! Phillip's here," Gareth calls out. He can really project when he wants to.

A few seconds later, his mom comes in from the back porch area. The sliding glass door was left open, so I guess she could hear him call.

"I thought I heard the doorbell," she says with a friendly smile. His mom is wearing some colorful slacks and some kinda fancy, patterned shirt. Her hair is cut short and she's wearing some glasses, but she takes them off as she walks in, so she probably just uses them for reading. She also seems a little taller than my mom.

"Hello, you must be Phillip," she says, holding out her hand.

"Yes, ma'am," I say, taking her hand and shaking it, "I mean, hello, Mrs..."

"You can call me Ms. Anne," she says quickly.

"Okay, Ms. Anne," I say with a smile.

"Gareth's been talking about you a lot, so it's nice to put a face to the name," she says.

"It's nice to meet you, too," I say, still smiling. Her voice is warm and gentle, but she also seems kinda stern. It doesn’t really make me nervous or anything, though. For some reason, I usually get along better with teachers and other adults.

"Well, I'll let you boys get to it. I've actually got some work I'm doing in my little office, so I won't be in your way," she says. "You can help yourself to some sodas or whatever else, if you like. Gareth can help you with that, right?" She asks looking at Gareth.

"Yes, ma'am," he says reflexively.

"And try not to eat too many snacks. I need to make sure you boys have room for dinner," she says.

"We won't," we say together.

"Alright. Have fun, boys!" she says, turning around and heading back to her porch/office.

Gareth looks at me, "Alright!" he cries with a fist pump. "Time to play some Borderlands until our eyeballs get crispy! Oh! Did you want something to drink? Water…​or a soda? Maybe some juice?" he asks, pointing to the fridge behind him.

I shake my head with a smile, "No, I'm good for now."

Gareth grins, "Cool."

He leads down the hall between the living room and the kitchen. The hall has a door at the far end and two doors right across from each other. Gareth turns and goes through the open door on the right, which leads past a bathroom and closet, right into his bedroom.

It's a normal sized bedroom, I guess. There's a pretty big window on the far wall. Gareth's bed is under it, facing the opposite wall that has pretty good sized tv against it. Not huge or anything, but big enough to where he could probably watch movies or something comfortably from his bed if he wanted. His PS4 and stuff are hooked up to it and there's a beanbag and office chair in front of the tv. There's a computer in the corner near the tv. It looks a bit newer than the computer that has his school stuff at it, so he must use that for gaming or whatever. The rest of the wall is taken up with small bookcases, posters for games and bands I don't recognize. It looks like the whole right side is closet space. I don't think I've ever known a kid to need that much closet space…​well, except for my sisters. Maybe his mom uses it to keep extra boxes or whatever.

Gareth turns to me, "So, this is my room. I mean, obviously. It's not like my mom decorates her room like this."

I just chuckle, "I hope not." Oh, crap! That sounded kind of insulting. "I mean, it's just…​it doesn't look like a Mom bedroom, y'know?" He looks at me with a confused look and a small smile. Nice save, Phillip. Quick, keep going before he realizes you're just an awkward dork.

"Is that her bedroom across the hall?" I ask, pointing outside.

He shakes his head, "Nah, that's the guest bedroom. It's pretty boring in there, though. I mean there's a tv, but that's about it."

"Do you guys get a lot of guests?" I ask.

He shrugs, "Sometimes? Mostly it's just there for when family is in town or whatever. I think my brother uses it most, though."

I raise my eyebrow, "Your brother?"

"Yeah," he says, "my older brother."

"You've never mentioned him before," I say.

"I haven't?" he asks. "Well, I have an older brother," he says with a laugh.

I roll my eyes, "So he doesn't get his own bedroom?"

"Nah, he has an apartment closer to the city that he lives in. He just stays here sometimes when mom goes out of town or works late or whatever," Gareth says.

I guess his dad's not around for some reason. I could ask why, but I just got here and that might be a bit…​awkward.

"Anyway, whaddya think?" he asks, gesturing around the room.

"Pretty cool," I say. Then I look over at the huge closet. "Didn't think you'd have such a big closet, though."

"Oh," he says, walking to the far end of the closet, "I actually only use this side for clothes and stuff." He opens that set of doors and shows me a bunch of clothes hanging up; the floor of the closet is divided with a rack for shoes and a dresser.

"I figured I could give myself more space if kept all my clothes in here, but I didn't need that much room for it either, so," he pauses, moving over to the other set of closet doors, "I decided to keep this in here."

He opens the door, showing off a nice electric guitar and amplifier, tucked away with a few pieces of foam around it and on the wall.

"Nice, dude," I say with a smile and a nod. "I kinda forgot you told me you played guitar."

He shrugs, "I've been playing for about a year or two. Mostly learning from my brother, until he finally gave me one of his guitars for my last birthday…​back in March." His tone changes at the end, trailing off a bit. He takes a moment, breathes, then continues, "Anyway, I keep it in here because Mom didn't want it facing her room and stuff. She said it would be 'too loud' or whatever. My brother gave me the foam to help insulate the sound. I practice a little bit a few times during the week, just kinda learning songs I like, working on stuff my brother's shown me. He says I'm pretty good, but I'd be better if I didn't play video games all the time, but that's just not fair, since I do practice, y'know? You just wanna do something fun like video games to turn your brain off sometimes, especially with school stuff, like what happened in English yesterday..."

"Gareth," I say with a small smile.

He looks at me. "Huh?"

"You were kinda running away, there," I say with a small laugh.

Gareth blushes a bit, "Oh. Sorry about that," he says, laughing a bit at himself.

"It's cool," I say.

"I'm just so excited, man!" he says with a toothy grin.

"Over me?" I say with a laugh.

"Yeah, man! It's been a while since I've had anybody around for a sleepover and now I've got one of my best friends spending the night with me — how could I not be excited?!" he exclaims, grabbing one of my shoulders in a tight grip and shaking me, making me rock backward and forward a bit.

"Okay, okay, I get it," I say with a laugh, Gareth still shaking my shoulder. "Now quit shaking me before my head falls off," I say.

Gareth lets go of me with an excited giggle, "I'm just glad you're here is all, so," he pauses and calms himself down a bit, "thanks for coming over."

I nod, "Sure."

There's a moment of silence between us.

"So, do you know any songs?" I ask.

"Oh! Umm…​you mean, like, to play? Like right now?" he stammers, adjusting his glasses.

"Yeah, I want to hear you play something," I say with a chuckle.

"Oh…​uh, okay," he says.

It looks like his guitar is already plugged into his amp, so he just lifts it and puts the strap around his shoulder and turns the amp on. He checks his tuning with a little built in tuner on the amp. He finishes his tuning and turns to me with a grin.

"Alright, here goes nothing," he says. "Oh," he pats the guitar he's holding, "this is a Fender Telecaster, if you didn't know."

I didn't know the name, but I've seen a lot of guitar players play them. It's a nice looking guitar. Light yellow, white pickguard, only a few noticeable scratches and scuffs, but in pretty good shape.

"Okay, so, this is a song my brother taught me," he says, turning the volume knob on his guitar up, "I kinda have most of it, but some bits still trip me up. Oh, it's called `Float On' by Modest Mouse. I can kinda sing some of it, but it's kinda low for me in some parts. There's also, like, a second guitar line that's in the song that kinda glues it together, but I can't really play them both at the same time, so it'll probably..."

"Gareth," I say.

He looks at me, his face showing that he realized he was starting to ramble.

"Right. Sorry," he takes a breath, calming down a bit, "here it is."

He bars his fingers across the three top strings halfway down the neck and strums. The chord kinda stays in the same place as he hammers his fingers down or lifts them to finish the riff; he manages to avoid hitting the lower strings, so nothing really sounds out of place. It's also got a bit of a dance beat that he's holding very steady. After playing through the chords twice, he starts singing the song. The singing has a slightly different rhythm from what he's strumming. I'm actually kinda impressed that he can keep them both solid, since I know it's not an easy thing to do--for me, anyway. His voice sounds…​well, it sounds nice. Smooth, but like he puts feeling into it, y'know? A few times, I can hear him dip a little lower than is comfortable to sing the melody, but it still sounds okay. The song sounds, well, like we're floating on something; like, it's dancey, but also feels strangely airy or spacey. Probably because of the effects he's using.

He stops strumming and quickly goes up the neck a bit more, playing what I would guess was the other guitar line he talked about. He taps his foot while he does, keeping the rhythm of the song so the riff has something under it. The riff is an…​I think it's called an arpeggio that kinda changes to match the chord that would be there. He finishes the walk down before going back to the main chords. This time, instead of strumming them like he did before, he plays the arpeggio of the chord as he sings the chorus, his voice standing out a bit against the quieter guitar:

"_And we'll all float on okay

And we'll all float on okay_,"

Honestly, I'd be paying more attention to the lyrics, but I'm a little busy absorbing all this.

Then he goes back to strumming the chords, picking up the rest of the song. He plays it just the same as he did before; solid, no major stops or big screw-ups. For his part, Gareth doesn't even seem to know that I'm here. At times, he closes his eyes while playing and singing. I even do the same, soaking in the crisp tone of the guitar;how the jagged chords play against his singing; the dreamy sounding arpeggio of the chorus with the added reverb. Eventually, I hear the last chord ring out. I open my eyes and Gareth looks back up at me.

"Dude!" I say excitedly. "That was great."

He's already blushing, probably from the nerves, but my compliment seems to turn him an ever brighter shade of red.

"Oh, you're just being nice," he says, nervously running his hand over his guitar, "I was so nervous," he pauses, "You're sure it sounded okay?" he asks, face looking like he's waiting for a hit.

"Yes. Better than okay," I say. "I mean, I don't know the song that well, but it sounded really solid to me. I couldn't even tell you were nervous, honestly."

"Really?" he asks.

"Really," I say. "I mean, I play a little guitar, too, so I know when a chord sounds off and it all sounded good to my ear. Plus, dude, you can play and sing at the same time. I can't do that half as well as you can."

"Uh, thanks," he says with a nervous chuckle. "It's kinda something I only started learning the past few months. I'm glad you like it."

"Now I gotta hear what else you know," I say.

"Uh," he pauses for a moment or two, pushing his glasses back up while he thinks. "Actually…​there's this one song I learned from a game I like. Not a lot of games have guitar in the soundtrack, so I thought it was pretty cool."

"What's the song? What game is it from?" I ask.

"The game is called `Bastion.' I think the name of the song is either `Build A Wall' or `Zia's Theme'…​probably both. Anyway, you play this survivor in the game, right? A survivor from some kinda apocalypse thing--I think they call it `the calamity'--and he's going around looking for survivors and trying to rebuild the city he used to live in. While he's doing that, he meets this girl in a swamp-type level--her name is Zia. And the whole time you're going through, you hear this song she's playing until you find her.

"It was a cool moment and the song sounded really pretty, so I decided to learn it. Took me a little while to figure out, though," he says.

"Wait," I say, "you learned how to play it by ear?"

"Yeah?" he says, a little uncertain.

"That's pretty impressive. I always have to look up stuff," I say.

"Well," he says with an embarrassed grin, "It's not a super hard song. Just has a few chords most people don't write with, so that part took some time to figure out."

"Well, c'mon," I say, "play it. I have to hear how it sounds."

A small laugh, "Okay, sure."

He tweaks a few knobs on his amp.

"I usually leave the reverb effect kinda set so I can play around with some songs, but I have to turn it down for this song…​it'll sound really weird, otherwise," he says. He finishes and gives his guitar a good strum, the sound coming out with less reverb than he used for the last one. He takes a breath and starts playing.

The song opens with separate notes he plucks on the lower strings of his guitar, humming along at the same time at a higher octave. Then he goes to a bar chord, hitting the low note of the chord before strumming out the rest of it a few beats and going back to the opening notes. This time, though, he goes to a lower note (moving to lower strings and moving the chord shape back), playing the bar chord there the same way he did the first one. Then he goes back to the first chord for a couple beats, changing the chord again--keeping the bar where it is, but just moving the other fingers to lower notes--before going back, again, to the first chord.

This time, though, he sings along as he plays the notes and chords. The song is definitely right in his range. I don't know how it usually sounds, but it really suits his voice. The song is very minor key, so it sounds somber and a little bit haunting. Like, the lyrics are kinda hopeful, but sad too. They'd probably make more sense if I played the game, but that doesn't change the fact that Gareth's voice sounds good on this song. It's like a warm, cozy fire burning in the coldness of the song. After he sings the verses, the bar chords move up and sound a little brighter (probably major chords), his voice shifting up to move with it before coming back down to do another verse-chorus. He plays and sings it smoothly; only hitting a few muted notes in the middle that he quickly corrects.

He finally finishes and looks at me.

"Well? What did you think?" He asks with a nervous laugh.

"I don't know how you think you're not very good, because that was amazing," I say with a smile. "That makes me want to play the game now."

"Thanks, Phillip," he says, with a small blush and smile. "I guess I've only ever just played for myself or my brother. I don't really look for audiences or whatever. I mean…​I probably would just have a meltdown or get booed off stage, y'know? At least you and my brother will be nice to me," he finishes, adjusting his glasses a bit.

"Dude," I say, flatly, "I am not just being nice to you. That was good. You play really well and you've got a really nice singing voice."

He blushes a bit more.

"Um…​wow, thanks," he says, running his hands along the guitar neck.

Wow, Phillip. Gush much? Maybe try to not be awkward, for once. "I mean, yeah," I quickly reply, "I think you'd be pretty good at it…​if you wanted to play, I mean. Y'know." …​Yep. That was smooth. Thanks for the help there, brain. Totally don't sound like an idiot now.

He giggles, "Thanks, I'll think about it."

Then, he quickly runs his hand across the strings before stopping in the same position he was in for the last song. He breaks into a quick riff, going up the scale and going back down in a sort of alternating pattern. He repeats it the first half again, but does a walk down of hammer-ons, letting it ring as it jumps back up to the last note.

He starts to put his guitar back.

"What was that?" I ask.

He looks at me, laughing at what is probably a fairly stunned face.

"Oh, that's another little piece from Bastion. It happened to be right after Zia's Theme on the soundtrack, so I tried to learn that too. Well, really, just that part of it. Don't know the rest yet." He pauses and looks up at his ceiling, "What was it called?" He asks himself, trailing off. "Oh!" He says, snapping his fingers, "`Spike In a Rail.' That's it," he says with a satisfied smile.

"That was going to bug the crap out of me if I couldn't remember it," he says, looking at me with silly look in his eyes.

I do a snerk laugh at his silliness. Gareth does one of those quiet, rapid-fire giggles.

Finally, he starts to recover, "Alright, alright, moving on. Borderlands time! Let's go!" he says, half laughing, playfully pushing me over to his PS4.

"Alright," I say, laughing back, "I'm going, stop pushing me."

He turns on the PS4 and the tv. Then he grabs two controllers and hands one to me.

"Really, the funnest one is Borderlands Two, so that's the one we're going to play," he says, going through the home screen menu and booting up the game.

I nod, "Okay."

"Besides, there's not really, like, a version for the first gamefor PS4. Well, that I have, anyway. The sequel kinda fills in some gaps as you go, though, so it should be okay," he says.

The game loads up and we watch the game's opening. It's got a pretty cool song and the characters are doing some pretty badass stuff the whole time. Gareth actually does a funny dance and sings the song, getting me to laugh.

We pick our characters and Gareth goes through a rapid-fire description of what each character does or specializes in. I decide to go with the stealth/sniper guy and Gareth goes with the one called the "Gunzerker." It's what they call the guy who can use two guns at once; pretty funny name, actually.

We play for a good while, going through the first couple of ice-type areas. Gareth explains some of the characters we meet as we go; friends, enemies and stuff like that. I'm half-listening, though, because I'm still kind of adjusting to the controls and such. Not that the controls are weird or the gameplay's too hard or whatever. It's actually pretty fun, especially when I get more comfortable with my character. It's just not exactly the same as playing Call of Duty with Matty.

I wonder how Matty is doing. My brain goes back to our conversation. He seemed really hurt…​I wonder if I made the right choice? Yes…​I did. I didn't want to say it, but I didn't want to jump the gun on that choice. I just…​I'd hate to lose the closest friend I've had over it.

"Phillip?" Gareth asks.

"Huh?" I say, snapping out of it.

"Did you hear me?" he says with a small smile.

"Uh, no…​sorry," I say, blushing.

"That's okay," he says, "I just wanted to show you how the leveling and skills stuff works."

I nod, "Okay."

Gareth takes me through his little tutorial and my brain mostly goes back to focusing on the game. I try my best to shake off the guilt or worried thoughts about Matty that my brain throws at me.

It's easier to do that when I focus on how Gareth plays the game. He's pretty, uh…​outspoken about it. No surprise there, I guess, but he gets into super trash talk mode. For example, he celebrates any boss or tough enemy kills with a little victory chant and this, like, hip-wiggle dance he does while still sitting. I laugh as I watch, occasionally distracted from the game. I have to be rescued from death more than once. Of course, Gareth can't resist saying something.

"Hey, Buddy," he says in this super smug tone, "do you need some help?"

"Nah," I say, "my dude just wanted to take a nap."

Gareth does his goofy giggle, and we go back to playing the game.

We eventually make it to this place in game called "Sanctuary," which is a pretty spot-on name for a home base if I've ever heard one. We meet all these other friendly characters from the first game that Gareth explains and from there, we travel to a big desert area and get distracted doing a bunch of different side quests. We finish one up, when my stomach starts to rumble.

"Whoa, dude!" Gareth exclaims, pausing the game, "I heard that loud and clear."

I chuckle sheepishly and rub my neck, "Yeah, it does that sometimes."

Gareth hits a button on his controller, going to the PS4 home screen. The clock shows that it's one-thirty.

"Wow! No wonder," he says, "It's way past lunch time."

"Not that late," I say.

"That's not what your stomach just said," he says with a grin. He pokes me in the stomach right as he says it.

I laugh and push his hands away, "Yeah, yeah. Then stop poking me and feed me."

He grins and quickly jumps up to his feet, "Then, c'mon, let's--whoa!" As he gets to his feet, he starts to stumble a little bit before he falls back on his butt.

I can't help but laugh, but I check on him while I am, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he says, shaking his head to clear the dizziness, "I just got up too fast," laughing a bit at himself.

My laughter dies down and I stand up, offering him a hand to help him up before we both go to the kitchen to get some food.

Gareth goes behind the kitchen counter, digging into the fridge. I'm standing over him looking into the fridge. It's pretty well stocked with mostly pre-packed foods and stuff. Mostly stuff I'd imagine Gareth would really like. It's not all junk, though. I can see some fresher stuff like eggs, fruits and veggies.

Gareth turns to me.

"So, what do you want to eat?" He asks.

I shrug, "What do you have?"

"Ummm…​how about PB&J? With some other snacks? That way we can get back to gaming a bit more quickly," he says.

I nod, "Sure, sounds good."

"Cool," Gareth says, turning back to the fridge to fish out the jelly he's got. I go with grape jelly and Gareth chooses apple. He starts to make the sandwich and spreads both the peanut butter and the jelly on pretty evenly. He seems pretty focused on it, which is something I'm not used to seeing from him.

After he puts the finishing touches on, he turns and heads back to the pantry and fishes out a bag of chips. He grabs my plate and stretches a bit over the counter to put it in front of me, setting the bag of chips down next to it.

"Sorry it's not anything more interesting than a sandwich and chips," he says as he stretches to set his plate next to mine. He smiles a little bit, but it's one of his smiles he does when he's picking on himself.

"Looks pretty good to me," I say with a shrug.

I pick up the sandwich and take a bite. "Mmmmm…​it is good," I say.

He rolls his eyes, "C'mon, it's just a sandwich. It's not all that big a deal."

I swallow, "I mean, yeah." I take another bite and chew a few times. "But it's a good sandwich."

"Really?" he asks, a little surprised.

I swallow the food in my mouth, "I said so twice, didn't I?" I ask with a smirk, reaching and grabbing a handful of potato chips.

"Well, thanks," he says with a warmer smile than before, "I'm glad you like it."

He comes around the counter and sits next to me as we eat our sandwiches, Gareth chatting about stuff every once in a while.

I hear a door slide open and turn to see his mom coming in from the porch.

"Oh, good," she says, making her way into the kitchen, "Glad to see you boys managed to make some food for yourselves." She starts to make some coffee for herself.

"Yes, ma'am," I reply, "Gareth fixed up something."

She presses a button on the coffee maker and goes to the fridge.

"Good," she says, sounding a little distracted as she busies herself getting her coffee ready.

I look at Gareth, who kinda sits up a little bit.

"Gareth, sweetie, I have to go into the office," she says. She turns around and pours her coffee into a travel cup. "It turns out that one of the cases we're working on is closing on a settlement. And it's a big case, so it's all hands on deck."

Gareth nods, "I understand," he says, looking attentive and speaking clearly.

She gets her wallet out of her purse on the counter and takes out a couple of twenties.

"You guys can order a pizza or something. There's also plenty of food in the fridge, if you don't mind making it," she says.

"Okay," he replies, another nod. I've heard Gareth talk with this tone when he's answering a teacher or something. I mean, it kinda sounds like that, but I could be wrong

His mom picks up her purse and coffee and starts to leave the kitchen. Halfway out, she looks at Gareth and says, "You know my work number just in case, right?"

Gareth rolls his eyes, "Yes, mom," he says, slumping just a bit.

She gives a small smirk and heads over to her bedroom.

"If you need anything just call me or Owen," she says.

"Okay," he calls out as she walks into her bedroom.

I look at him and ask, "Who's Owen?"

"My brother," he replies.

She comes out a few minutes later in a more plain work outfit adults wear; light tan slacks and jacket over a white blouse.

"Alright, I'm off," she says as she walks over to the door, high-heels clacking on the hardwood floors.

"You boys have fun," she says.

"Bye, Mom," Gareth says.

She turns for a second and smiles warmly, "Goodbye, son," she says, "and, Phillip, it was nice meeting you. Sorry I have to dash off like this."

"It's okay," I say, "It was nice to meet you, too."

With that, she turns around and walks out the door, locking it behind her.

"Mom's, like, the director of a law firm, or something," Gareth says, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Keeps her pretty busy."

"Oh," I say. There's a brief pause and then I ask, "Does she do this a lot?"

Gareth shrugs, "A few times a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Either that or she's working late." He points to the bedroom hallway, "That's why Owen stays here sometimes…​when he can, I mean."

"You spend that much time by yourself?" I ask.

He shrugs again, "Yeah, it's no big deal."

I nod, not saying anything.

He smiles, some of the light coming back to his eyes.

"Anyway," he says, "I'm all refueled and ready for some more Borderlands!" he exclaims, throwing his fist in the air. Then he composes himself and says, "I mean, if you are."

I give a short giggle, "Sure."

"Woot!" he cries.

After cleaning up our lunch, we go back to his room. He practically drags me there in his excitement.

We play some more Borderlands 2 for a good, long while. I get to see more of the game and more of what my character can do. He's got this cool special ability where he makes a copy of himself to distract an enemy so he can get the kill. Pretty fun to use. We make it through a big chunk of story and a lot of side quests. Gareth charges through most of the missions, knowing exactly where to go. He definitely runs ahead of me a few times, since I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate and stuff. He does remember to wait around a few times before completely taking off, though.

"I keep forgetting that the EXP isn't shared equally," he says with a small laugh.

"No wonder you're two levels ahead of me," I smirk.

He gives a nervous chuckle, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Nah, we'll be fine. All that sidequesting we did helped," I say.

"Oh yeah," he says with a confident grin, "these guys don't stand a chance."

I chuckle at him and we keep going.

We actually manage to go as far as this really cool train robbery mission and fight this big robot kinda boss in the game called Wilhelm. Gareth says he's actually more like a cyborg, but is also one of the enforcers for Handsome Jack--oh, that's the final boss, I guess.

I look over at Gareth, who takes a few hard blinks.

"Okay, I think that's far enough for now. We've been playing so long that I think my eyeballs are actually crispy," he says, blinking a few more times.

"How long have we been going?" I ask with a small laugh.

Gareth hits a button on the controller to check the time on the home screen like he did before.

Once again we've played right up to a good time to have a meal break. It's even more obvious when our stomachs start grumbling again, almost on cue. So we decided now's a good time to make some plans.

Gareth hops up to his feet, just like he did earlier. He looks like he's about to fall down again, but he manages to catch himself this time. Well, he has to lean on me a bit so he doesn't fall down.

"Much better that time!" he exclaims. Then he looks at me with his silly grin, "You make a pretty good balance beam."

I shrug, "It's just a little thing I do."

He makes a stifled giggle at my response.

"So," he says, "Is pizza okay with you?"

"Sure," I reply.

"Okay. What do you want on it?" he asks.

"Uhh…​pepperoni?" I say.

"Hmm…​alright," he says as he takes out his phone and starts to go through and type in something.

He looks up at me, "Online order," he says.

I nod.

He goes back to typing on his phone.

"I mean, duh, right? Not like you didn't know that you could order pizza online or whatever else. I guess I just didn't want you to think I had, like, started doing something else or whatever, since--" he says, starting on his usual stream of thought.

"It's cool," I say interrupting him with a smile.

He peers up from his phone, eyes looking over his glasses. He chuckles nervously, "Right…​anyway, I put in the order. It says it's gonna take about 30 minutes or so. We can get a snack before then, if you want."

"I'm okay," I say.

"Are you sure?" he asks, "I'm not being too pushy or whatever, right? You haven't said that much, so I--"

"Nah, you're fine," I say, waving him off. "I'm honestly glad that you've got a lot of suggestions. I don't really like being the decider, y'know?"

He nods, "I totally get it. I can be the same way when I hang out with my brother sometimes."

We wait in the living room for the pizza to come, sitting down on the couch. Gareth turns on the tv and finds some cartoons. He flips back and forth between different channels on the commercials, though. He stretches out on the couch, resting his head on the armrest, pointing his feet in my direction.

It's pretty quiet as we watch tv, but after a little while I feel a poke in my side. I look over and see Gareth moving his foot back with a grin, wiggling his toes at me. I just smirk at him and turn back to the tv.

A few seconds later, I feel him poke me again. I look at him again and he's starting to giggle quietly, lips pressed together.

"Do that again and you'll be sorry," I say with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

He just gets this devilish grin and looks away, trying to look all innocent. I turn away again, waiting to see what he does.

And, of course, just a few seconds later I feel his toes poking me in my side again.

I turn around in a flash and grab his bare foot. He lets out a shrieking giggle as I start tickling. His giggle turns into a loud, fuller laugh as he thrashes back and forth on the couch. He squirms so much that it's actually kinda tough to keep holding him.

"O-o-okay," he stammers out before he laughs again, tears in his eyes, "I'm sorry! Stop!"

I just shrug, still tickling the bottom of his foot, "I did warn you," I say with a smirk.

He laughs even louder.

"Please!" he exclaims, starting to sound a little out of breath. "Please stop! I can't breathe!" he squeals out. "I'm gonna pee myself!"

I chuckle and stop tickling his foot. His laughter starts to die down as he tries to catch his breath.

"Told you you'd be sorry," I say with a smirk, letting go of his foot.

He wipes the tears from his eyes, still trying to catch his breath, tiredly laughing a bit as he does.

"You gonna be alright?" I ask with a small laugh.

He nods and gives a breathless laugh, not saying anything.

"Man, you're really ticklish," I say, laughing again.

He composes himself more, "Yeah…​pretty bad all over," he says sitting up and moving his feet off the couch.

"Oh, really?" I ask in an exaggerated voice.

He jerks his head toward me, narrowing his eyes.

"Don't. You. Dare," he says.

I hold up my hands, "I promise: no more tickle warfare."

"And I promise no more pokey-pokey," he says, sticking out his hand for a handshake.

I shake my head and chuckle as I reach out to shake his hand.

"Deal," I say.

It feels like forever until the pizza finally arrives, but that's probably because I'm pretty hungry.

Gareth pays and tips the delivery guy, then brings the pizza into the kitchen, setting it on the counter.

He takes a big whiff of the unopened box.

He opens the box, steam rising up in a burst from the pizza. It looks like he did a half-pepperoni, half-something-else kinda thing.

"I'm not a big fan of pepperoni," he says, "so I split it up for us."

"Cool," I nod, "what'd you get? Is that…​mushrooms?" I ask, a little surprised.

"Yup," he says, "And green peppers. My favorite."

"That's surprising," I say.

"Why's that?" He asks, delicately grabbing and plating two slices of pepperoni.

"I dunno," I shrug, "just don't know many kids that like mushrooms on their pizza."

He looks up, thinking about it for a second, then shrugs, "I dunno…​I just like it."

He grabs a couple of slices from his side of the pizza, "I think it's because it's what Owen usually gets when he orders pizza. He doesn't really eat meat or whatever, so I guess I just got used to eating pizzas that way."

We make our way to the couch. Gareth forgets to get us some drinks, quickly going back to the kitchen and pouring a couple of sodas for us, then we start our dinner.

For a few minutes, we're just munching on our pizza, quietly watching whatever Gareth put on tv. I'm kinda half paying attention to the TV, though. I'm not really sure why, exactly…​maybe it's because I'm kinda taking things in with Gareth. He's totally the same kid I know at school and everything…​but little things are kinda surprising me. And I guess seeing how different families can be is usually a bit of a surprise.

Gareth finishes his slices, then hops up and jogs to the kitchen counter, but without his plate. I start to wonder if he forgot, but then I see him grab the box and carefully bring it to the living room table. He clears off a little space for it, then sits back down and looks at me, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Much easier this way," he says.

I just nod and smile, reaching for another slice of pizza.

I dunno, I don't really have a good reason to be so stuck on trying to figure Gareth out…​but I just feel more comfortable, I guess. I mean, duh, we spend enough time together, so that should be a no-brainer. But, y'know…​it's kinda similar to how I feel when I'm around Matty…​but different. They both make me laugh, they're both cute…​not that it really matters if Gareth is cute or not. I'm pretty sure he doesn't feel that way about me (or even if I do, honestly).

But if he were curious or something, maybe…​.man, I must still be horny after last night. Get it together, Phillip. I should stop trying to analyze this so much and enjoy the night; get to know him better.

After a few more slices, we're both kinda full on pizza.

Gareth leans back and pats his stomach.

"Man," he says, "I'm stuffed."

"Yeah, me too," I say, leaning back on the couch with him.

Gareth points his eyes down to the pizza box. There's only a couple slices of pepperoni left and one slice of the mushroom pizza.

"Just. One. Slice," he groans.

I just laugh, "You better not. You already look like you're about to pop." I poke his stomach lightly with one finger.

He groans even louder, batting my hand away.

"Keep that up and I will pop all over you," he says, a small smile on his face. He sighs and settles in to the couch a bit. "Definitely need to take a minute or two before I move or even think about moving," he says.

"I'm impressed that you basically just put away half a large pizza," I say.

He grins and turns his head a bit, "If there's one thing I can do well, it's eat."

I just chuckle, "You don't look like you eat that much."

"Yeah, I guess I'm just one of those guys that can eat a whole bunch of food and not get fatter or whatever," he says. "My dad, uh," he pauses a second suddenly, "Uh, he says that I've got a hollow leg or something," he finishes trailing off a bit.

I resist the urge to ask him if something is bothering him and just reply, "Yeah, my dad says the same thing when I eat cheeseburgers," I smile.

Gareth lightens up a bit and laughs.

Another few minutes pass. We're sitting and quietly watching tv. After a little while, Gareth finally starts to move a little bit.

"Okay," he says, "I think I can move back to the bedroom, now."

"I thought you were just going to live on the couch," I smirk.

"No way, man," he says. "I'd never be able to play Borderlands again."

I laugh, "Someone could've moved your PS4 in here."

"Nah, mom would be glad I'm not playing games all day long. So would Owen, actually," he says.

"That's a lot of gaming," I say with a smirk.

"But there are so many good games to play, Phillip!" he exclaims, kinda hamming it up a bit.

I giggle, "You're such a dork."

He mocks looking hurt, but then sticks his tongue out at me, "Takes one to know one."

We both just laugh. Y'know, it's been a while since I've had a friend I could joke around like this with.

We head back into his bedroom. Gareth picks up his PS4 controller, just kinda randomly moving around some of the menu options.

"Okay, so, your choice," he says, looking at me seriously. "We can play some more games--like, Borderlands or really anything else I've got--or we can just pull up Netflix or something and watch a movie."

"Hmm…​what else do you have to play?" I ask.

"Well, I don't have a lot of multiplayer games or whatever…​mostly a bunch of single player games…​oh, but you can totally try one if you want," he says.

I shrug, "Sure. You still have to tell me what you've got," I say with a smirk.

"Oh, right!" He says, pulling up the library on his PS4. "Ummm…​Oh! How about this one? It's called Hollow Knight," he says, looking at me with excitement.

"I think I've heard about that one," I say, "never played it, though."

"It's really good," he says, "It, like, looks like a cartoon, but can be pretty difficult."

"Sounds like fun," I say.

He grins, "Cool, you can start a new game and try it out."

"Are you sure?" I ask. "I don't want to delete any progress you've made or whatever."

"Actually, it has multiple save slots," he says, "so no worries there."

"Then, I guess I'll give it a try," I say.

"Cool, cool," he says, booting up the game and handing me the controller.

The game actually turns out to be pretty fun. You have to sort of fill out an area map by exploring this underground city and fighting your way through some tough enemies as you go. I die a lot as I try to figure out how to take out some of the tougher enemies or take a wrong turn while exploring. But, I do manage to beat one of the first big bosses after a while and even add a cool magic blast to my arsenal.

"Man, this game is tough," I say, "but it makes me want to keep going."

Gareth giggles, "Yeah, it can definitely kick your butt, but it's fun. I showed it to Owen and he said it was a…​what did he call it? Oh! A `metroidvania' game. He said the name comes from the Castlevania and Metroid games that were like this and that they were just as fun. Haven't played any of those games, though. I mean, I've played some older games that Owen's got, like old JRPGs and stuff, but those take so much time that I haven't been able to play Castlevania yet. And I don't really have a Nintendo console of any kind, so playing Metroid is…​oh, wait, go down there," he says, sticking out his hand to screen and pointing down.

"Uh…​this way?" I ask.

He nods, "Yeah, now go through this tunnel on your left."

I do and walk my little bug knight (the game is set in a bug-like world) to the end of the path where there is a sign that says, `toll' and a little dock-type area.

"Okay, now go and talk to the sign. You can use some of the game money to get something cool," he says.

I pay the toll as he says. A gate opens on the left side of the screen and a giant beetle-kinda-thing runs up through the tunnel and stops at the little dock.

"This guy is basically a bus that can take you back to the top or to other areas without having to backtrack," Gareth says.

"Oh, so it's like a fast travel," I say.

"Right," he nods, "you have to pay to get them open, but they stay that way once you do. So now, you can go back up to the city and buy a compass for your map. Remember that guy that sold you the map?"

I nod.

"His wife is back in the shop and will sell you a compass, so you can keep track of where you are," he says.

"Cool," I say, "thanks for the tip."

"No problem," he says with a smile.

I take the bus back up to the little town I found in the beginning, buying the compass and equipping myself for another run down in the tunnels.

I go for a little while longer, finding and unlocking new areas and getting them filled in on my map. Eventually, I find my way to a new save point and decide to stop there.

"That's enough for now," I say, "I'll probably just keep going if I don't stop."

He giggles again, "Glad you like it."

"I definitely do. It's tough, but it also looks really cool," I say, "like a really good looking cartoon or something."

"Totally," Gareth says. "Owen says it reminds him of an old Tim Burton movie or something."

"The guy who made `The Nightmare Before Christmas'?" I ask.

"Uh huh," Gareth nods, "I didn't think about it until he said something about it, but I can see it. I've seen it a couple of times with Owen, but I wouldn't have thought about it right away or whatever."

"You do a lot with your brother, huh?" I ask.

He shrugs, "Sure, why wouldn't I?"

I rub my neck a bit, "Oh, I don't know. I just guessed him being out of the house might make that…​harder, I guess?"

He thinks about it, "I guess so. There are times we don't always get to hang out, sure. But he's usually pretty cool about making time to hang out or have me over often enough. Those nights are always pretty fun."

"So, if he lives in his own place...?" I start to ask.

Gareth cocks his head a bit.

"Well, how old is he?"

"He's," he pauses to think for a second, "Twenty-four."

"Oh," I say, pausing for a moment. "I, uh, didn't think he'd be, like, twice your age."

"Well, he's actually my half brother," Gareth says, "Dad's first kid before he and mom got married."

"Oh. Okay," I say.

"But he's been around a lot since I was a baby, so he's just, like, a regular brother," Gareth says.

I shake my head, "I have no idea what it's like to have a sibling you get along that well with."

"Oh yeah," he says, eyes going wide as he remembers, "you've got two sisters."

"Yeah, and they're still in the house," I say wearily, "Their idea of quality time used to be using me as a practice makeup doll."

He guffaws out a laugh, and I can't help but laugh, even though it's at my expense.

"Sorry," he says as his laughter starts to let up a bit. I just wave him off.

"But, yeah, that's way different from me," he says.

"It honestly sounded like you were speaking a different language," I say with a smile.

He giggles again.

"And that's why I was surprised you two were so close, or did so much together," I continue. "I don't even want to see my sisters half the time I'm at home."

He just chuckles lightly, "It probably helps that he's so much older than me. If I had a big brother living here that was your sisters' age, we'd probably just fight all the time," he says.

I roll my eyes, "Trust me, you would."

There's a brief pause and it feels just a little awkward, so I continue, "But I'm glad you've got a brother like him."

There's another pause.

"So," I say, "just you, your mom and half-brother?"

"Uh, yeah. Dad…​Dad's not around anymore," he replies. He's staring off a bit and sounds a little hollow.

I'm not really sure what to do here. I feel like I totally messed up by mentioning it. Why did I have to ask? There's probably some kinda messy divorce or something that he doesn't like to talk about and I just had to mention it. Okay, calm down. You didn't mention his Dad; and he's been strange about certain stuff when it's been mentioned. Just…​don't push, okay? Let him say something, if he wants to.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out. He kinda sounds like he's been holding that breath for a while.

"H-he died…​about six months ago," he says sadly.

There's a tense silence. I just look at him, feeling sad for him and a little shocked, but I don't say anything.

"It really sucks, not having him around anymore. He used to pick me up from school everyday. Sometimes, he'd take me to get a milkshake…​y'know, if I got good grades or if it was a Friday after a hard week or whatever. He didn't have to work as much as mom, so I got to spend a lot of time with him. We would talk about whatever; silly stuff, games, or what life was like where he used to live. He'd make special breakfasts and stuff…​he even taught me how to cook," he says. "He used to help me figure things out and talk to me if I felt lost about stuff. There are so many things I wish he could help talk me through now." There's another long pause.

"I-I'm sorry," I say, "that really sucks."

He makes a tiny nod, but says nothing.

Then I stop and think about it. He said his dad died about six months ago…​and that his birthday was in March. It's September now, so...

"It must've been horrible to have that happen about the same time as your birthday," I say.

He sighs, "Actually, he died on my birthday, so it'll be six months in a few days. It was a car accident. He…​he got hit by another car and sent off the road into a tree. It was raining, so he couldn't stop the car from going off the road."

"God, I…​I'm sorry," I say.

"Thanks," he says flatly. "I don't talk about it too much, because…​well, people worry about you, y'know? I don't want to make people any more sad or worried than they are, so I just keep it to myself. They even announced it at school last year, but it seemed like people kinda forgot about it after a few weeks. I was kinda grateful, actually. I didn't want people to look at me and think, `oh, that's the kid whose dad died, we should feel sorry for him,' or whatever. I didn't need to be reminded at school all the time, so I was glad when it seemed that everyone moved on. Even Mom and Owen have moved on and gone, like, totally back to normal, so I don’t really wanna talk to them about it, either. I just let them know that I'm fine so they don't worry. I'd rather deal with this kinda thing on my own--not let people know how bad it hurts. But, y'know what?" he asks.

"What?" I ask.

He looks up at me, tears in the corners of his eyes.

"For me, it still really hurts," he says, voice wavering.

I can see him try to fight it back, but it doesn't take long for him to start crying. His shoulders jerk as he tries to hold in his sobs, face screwed up to try and stop the tears.

I'm a little freaked out, not immediately sure what I should do. I know I want to comfort him, though, so I move my left arm to his shoulder. I squeeze and rub the muscle there. I feel a little bit better for trying to help, but it barely feels like I'm really doing anything. So instead, I quickly turn and take Gareth in a tight hug.

He's a little shorter than me, so his head ends up in my chest, just peeking over my shoulder. I do what I know my parents did to make me feel better when my uncle died: try to gently squeeze out the tears and rub his back. His body is super warm from the emotional outburst.

I can feel Gareth's tears start to soak my shirt, sobs resonating in my chest as I sit there, hoping I'm helping even a little bit. His crying continues for a minute or two. I don't say anything. I just let him have some time.

Eventually, his crying starts go softer and quieter. He sniffles quietly and moves back as I let him go.

"I'm sorry," he says, wiping his eyes, "I don't usually lose control like that."

"You don't have to apologize for that," I say. "I think that it's okay for you to still be sad."

He sniffles a bit, "Maybe. I just don't want anybody to think that I can't hold it together. I mean, Mom got over it, so I don't want her to think she needs to worry about me."

"Yeah, I know," I say. I can't believe he has this much of a weight on him. It's not like I can even understand what he's going through, though. I've lost an uncle, but I don't know how I'd deal with losing my dad or mom.

"Sometimes, losing a family member takes some time to get over," I say. "I know that I was sad for a long time when my uncle died a couple of years ago."

"Even after half a year?" he asks flatly.

I shrug, "Sure. There was a lot he'd usually be around for that he wasn't there for anymore. Birthdays, Christmas…​my mom says that going through the holidays isn't the same when someone you love isn't there."

"Yeah," he says, still staring blankly.

"I guess what I'm saying is, don't feel like you've got to deal with this by yourself or that you should feel guilty about being sad. I'm here for you, okay?"

He looks up, stares at me for a second or two, then gives me a small smile.

"Thanks," he says. "And thanks…​y'know, for the hug."

"I'm just glad it helped," I say with a smile.

There's a moment of silence between us before Gareth starts to get up off the floor.

"Well, I'm ready to move on if you are. Let's try and get back to some fun," he says with a smile, wiping at his eyes.

I smile back, "Cool." It's nice to see him come back a bit to normal.

"How about a movie?" he asks.

I shrug, "Why not?"

He grabs his controller and opens up Netflix. He hops on his bed and wiggles to get comfortable as he scrolls through the options. He scoots over a bit and I hop in next to him, scooting back enough to rest against the headboard on the wall.

So far, today has been more than I was expecting. Gareth's thrown me one surprise after another--nice surprises, sad ones…​I just wonder if there'll be any more surprises tonight.

To Be Continued

Man oh man, what a long time it's been! Just too busy these days, it seems. And I need an occasional break so I can make the most of this story when I've got the energy to. So, thanks for sticking around so patiently for this chapter! I promise the next one will come out soon (within the next month). With that in mind, you finally get to know a bit more about Phillip's new friend, Gareth. I wonder what happens next…​.. ;)

As always, send me an email to let me know how you like it. I like hearing from you guys and have loved all the kind words so far. I'm glad you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Until next time,

-Tidus