April, 2006. This is a different guy from Chapter 1.

---

“They were so wrong about you,” he said softly, looking at me with that special look of his.

Call it a sappy middle school crush—I couldn’t help it.

“Why?” I asked, pretending not to care much.

He smiled broadly, and those beautiful golden brown eyes flashed at me. “’Cause you’re the funnest person ever!” he announced.

He said it so energetically that I couldn’t help but laughing. I cocked an eyebrow.

“Really, sir?” I asked, and he bowed, as he did every time I said “sir”. “And how did I achieve such a great and noble honor?”

He looked at me in mock-sincerity. “It started with the Turkey Ghost. So really it should be him who gets the award…” he waited for me to protest, and I didn’t. He sighed and “pfft”-ed and tilted his head to the side, causing his hair to flop over his eyes, fake glaring at me.

I hummed “My Humps” under my breath, knowing he hated that song.

He screeched and covered his ears. He boldly thumped a fist to his chest. “You dishonor me, milady.”

The teacher started walking towards us, having sent warning glances all class. We immediately pretended to be engrossed in whatever he was teaching—like we had actually been listening.

“So, um,” I cleared my throat, “how’re those protists looking?” I asked in a very solemn voice.

“Well, according to your bacteria report--” the teacher didn’t stay any longer. I knew we disgusted him with my sappy crush.

We both started cracking up at the same time, high-fiving and doing our own little handshake.

We had found each other when we thought everybody had their backs turned on us, so naturally we became friends. I loved that he thought enough of me to share some personal secrets with me; yet, he respected that just because I didn’t want to talk about those things in my life, didn’t mean that I didn’t think he was a great friend too. Instead, I repaid him by giving a laugh and a crack or two.

We had something special, an oasis, where none of our “friends” could venture; a pact made with silent agreements, a bond that gossip could not break. And no one need know how deep we had actually gone.

He treated me like a lady, which was a very surprising first. I provided a listening ear, a comfort from the outside, and smart-ass remarks that made him smile so beautifully.

Because, without consciously knowing it, we had exposed the weakest part of who we were to each other, and been surprised when the other’s had hit close to home.

God, I’ll miss him, I thought as he drew me a caricature of the teacher. He held it out to me, and I added my own flourish, which he let me add to all of his pictures that he drew in Science: a moustache. We both signed it, and he gave it to me.

“Keep it.” He said softly, which made me smile.

It was a farewell offering, and neither of us wanted to admit it. Good byes were too hard. The silence was getting too uncomfortable for my comfort, so I pulled out something I had made weeks ago.

“BUTTSCRATCHER” said the paper in big letters, his all time favorite nickname that I had given him.

He laughed and gave me a hug on impulse, which felt so good.

We never did end up saying good bye.