A Rush

He lifted his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror over the sink. He needed to make sure that the water tumbling down his cheeks was noticeable, but not overbearing. It took a few additional minutes to get it perfect. Then he headed out the door.

He kept his head down and watched his feet until he made it outside. He glanced and saw the boy standing by the sign that loudly displayed the word BUS. He silently walked up to the boy, standing quietly for a while.

After a minute or so, he turned to the boy. “Excuse me,” he timidly began, waiting for the boy to look at him before continuing, “you're waiting for the bus, right?” The boy nodded. “Would you- would you happen to have an extra few pounds for fare?”

The boy looked at him sympathetically for a moment before reaching into the pocket of his jeans. “Yeah, I should have a few somewhere...”

“Thank you. I would have it myself, but I sort of left... well, I left everything at home. I didn't really think at all before I left. I just wanted to get away from my parents.”

“Rough home life, huh?” the boy asked while handing him the money. “Did you get into a fight with them or something?”

He shrugged. “Sort of. Well, it's kinda a long story.”

The boy smiled, which he thought was odd at first. “Hey, the bus won't be here for a bit yet, and even then, the ride is ridiculously lengthy. You've got plenty of time to tell me.” Then the smile quickly disappeared, replaced by an expression mostly resembling regret. “Unless, of course, you just don't want to say. That's fine. It's your business, not mine.”

“I guess I'm sort of obligated to tell you, since you gave me the money and all,” he said in a quiet voice.

“No, you shouldn't feel like you have to,” the boy insisted, shaking his head. “I was just helping out. You're not bound to me for life or anything.”

He looked down at his feet, twisting his mouth up in various shapes. Then he eyed the boy again. “What's your name?”

“Chris,” the boy almost immediately replied, grinning once more. “What's yours?”

He smirked slightly. “I'm Jonny.”

Chris extended his hand, looking expectantly at Jonny. “Nice to meet you, Jonny.” Jonny hesitated at first, but he did shake Chris's hand. Chris examined him a bit. “Now, about that long story.”

Jonny laughed softly and rolled his eyes. “All right,” he said, looking out into the distance. He thought for a few moments of how exactly to start. There were a vast amount of different options. He laughed forcefully again. “I'm not really sure where to begin.”

“Well...” Chris dragged out the word for much longer than necessary, doing some thinking of his own. “Do you not get on with your parents often? Or was this just a one-time sort of thing?”

“We don't ever really agree on anything,” Jonny answered in a deep voice. “They say they want what's best for me, but I don't think they understand that it doesn't mean they shouldn't still take my feelings into consideration.”

“I'm sorry that your parents are like that.” Jonny looked over and smiled slightly at Chris's candor. “Sometimes it seems like my parents are that way, too. But I know they're not. They've given me mostly everything I've ever wanted. More than I've deserved, probably. But I shouldn't be bragging about that, huh? Sorry.”

“No, it's OK. It's good that your parents aren't jerks like mine. It's sort of like... there's still some hope for humanity,” Jonny jokingly said, smiling wider than he had during the entire conversation thus far. Chris smiled back, and Jonny knew that already they had a strong connection.

“OK, but just because I get fed three meals every day doesn't mean I have any right to shove it in the faces of the starving children on the street.” Even through the smile, Jonny could see how apologetic Chris truly was over the situation. He seemed to be a thoroughly genuine boy.

“But the starving children are used to it,” Jonny replied. “Used to the hunger. They know it'll never change for them, no matter what anyone else has. It doesn't make them feel bad to see other people happy. And well-fed.”

“This metaphor is going to start confusing me very soon, I can tell,” Chris said with wide eyes. But his expression changed as quickly as it had the previous times, into something a bit less frightened. “Listen, enough about me, anyway. So, your parents don't get you.”

Jonny looked around again, trying to find the farthest possible point in his field of view. “It's more than that,” he started to explain. “They don't even try to get me. They just assume what it is that I'm like and then go from there. I don't think they actually know anything about me.”

“Do you at least try to let them know about you?”

Jonny gave a halfhearted shrug. “I have tried in the past. A lot. But I sorta gave up after a while. I feel like it's not even worth trying anymore. They're never gonna care.”

“Maybe one day,” Chris said with a bit of hope in his voice. “You never know. I mean, maybe it'll be too late by then- it's probably too late now- but that doesn't mean it won't happen.”

Jonny shifted his eyes again, locking them with Chris's. He noticed just how brightly colored they were, and he figured that it was more of a reflection of his personality than anything else. Chris seemed to be a very upbeat, loving life sort of person. “I appreciate your optimism,” Jonny told him. “I should try to be like that more often.”

Jonny sighed. The bus ride was almost over. He and Chris had spent the entire time talking. Jonny told Chris that he and his parents had an argument that evening over Jonny's plans for college. He said that they wanted him to go to an ivy league school, which would mean that he would have to work harder in school than ever before to make sure he had the right grades to get in, and his parents refused to listen when he told them that all he really wanted to do was study art history.

“So, you're an artist?”

Jonny looked up at Chris and grimaced. “I wish. I don't have nearly enough talent to actually do that sort of thing. But I'd love to learn about it.”

Chris tilted his head, his blue eyes scanning Jonny's visage. “I'm sure you'd be good at it.”

“And I'm sure you don't mean that,” Jonny said. “Thank you for your kindness, though.”

“I do mean it.” Chris shifted slightly in his seat, briefly glancing out of one of the windows on the other side of the bus. “You seem like the kind of person who would put a lot of emotion into their work. That's what matters, you know. If you have enough passion, people won't care that you didn't color in the lines.”

“Is that how you got through kindergarten?”

Chris grinned and nodded vivaciously. “And first... second... third... fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh...” He rolled his eyes upwards quickly, thinking. “Then I learned how to color in the lines, so I toned the passion down a bit. Not too much, of course, just a little,” motioning with his hand just how much 'a little' was.

Jonny laughed and started to reply when the bus came to a stop. “Well, I guess this is it,” he said.

“Yeah,” Chris agreed in a solemn tone. The two stood up and wordlessly walked off the bus. Jonny began to walk down the sidewalk alone, but he was prevented by a hand on his shoulder. “Wait!” Jonny spun around, not in the least surprised to see Chris in front of him. Chris cleared his throat a little, tucking some of his hair behind his ear. “Do you have a place to go?”

“Um...” Jonny frowned at the ground. “Well, no. Like I said, I didn't think before I left... I guess I'll just walk around for a while.”

“Or you could come to my house,” Chris suggested, trying to sound as innocent as possible. “I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind if you joined us for dinner.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, come on!” Chris moved forward enough so that he could wrap an arm around Jonny's shoulders, then he began to lead the way down the street. “Even if my parents do mind, then we can just do like you said and walk around. I don't think they will mind, though.”

“Thanks,” Jonny gratefully mumbled. In return, Chris merely smiled at him.

When they walked into the house, Chris dropped his arm and quickly left Jonny's side. “Mum!!” Chris shouted as he stood in front of the nearest doorway, though his mother entered through the door on the adjacent wall.

“Yes, Chris?”

Chris spun around. “Oh- uh, I brought a friend over, is that all right?” Just as he finished speaking, he turned to see that Jonny was still standing by the front door. He beckoned him on with a wave on his hand. “Come in, man.”

Jonny submissively stepped forward, clearly not wanting to emphasize his presence. He slowly gazed around the room.

“I... don't think we've met,” Chris's mother slowly and awkwardly began. Jonny looked to her and flashed a nervous smile.

“This is Jonny, mum,” Chris brightly told her. “I actually only just met him today, while I was waiting for the bus. But I think we've become pretty good friends. Right, Jonny?”

“Yeah.” Jonny slightly shook his head. “Well, I mean, we don't really know that much about each other, but... these things take time.” Jonny absentmindedly rubbed his arm. He was suddenly very aware of the glare he was receiving from Chris's mother.

“So, it's OK if he stays for dinner, yeah? He's not crazy or anything, I promise.”

She slowly turned to her son, and in a calm manner replied, “He can stay.” Chris beamed, grabbed Jonny's arm, and roughly began to drag him into the other room.

“This is our sofa,” he began to explain, pointing to the dark brown piece of furniture in the middle of the room. It was a fairly sophisticated-looking object- perhaps a sign that Chris's family was somewhat wealthy. “It's in the middle of the room because it sort of helps to balance everything else in here out. At least, that's what my mum says. My dad says it's so it's not so far from the telly when the remote goes missing.”

“Well, that's pretty clever.”

Chris smiled at him for a few moments, staring wondrously. Then he quickly switched back to his previous perkiness and grabbed Jonny's arm once more. “Come on, I'll show you the rest of the house!”

For the next half hour, Chris led Jonny on a tour through each and every room, including the bathrooms and coat closet. Chris put far too much detail into his descriptions about the rooms, going so far as to tell Jonny about the disputes the family had when deciding on what color to choose to paint the walls with. He was in the middle of recalling his reasoning for picking a royal purple for his room when his mother called up to them.

“Chris, dinner is ready!” she hollered up the stairs to them. Chris paused, then motioned to Jonny for them to leave the room, taking the lead as they walked towards the dining room.

Jonny was going to take a seat at the table when he realized that Chris, who was standing to his right, had pulled the chair out for him. He made sure to grin his thanks before he sat down. Chris plopped himself down in the next seat over and watched as his mother brought a steaming plate of food to the table.

Nearly finished, the meal had been a quiet one. The four all sat and ate their dinner without so much as one word. But now that the food was disappearing almost entirely, Chris's father decided to become a bit more social.

“Jonny, do you live around here?” Jonny looked up. He quickly held up his hand and tried to swallow the food he was chewing. “Oh, sorry.”

“I live about half an hour away,” he said when his mouth was finally clear.

“So you don't go to the same school as Chris, then?”

Jonny shook his head.

“It's a shame,” Chris interjected, observing the lump of mashed potatoes on his fork. He seemed to be contemplating whether or not to eat them. Ultimately, he did, and he was not as polite as Jonny, speaking with his mouth full, “Maybe we would have been in some of the same classes.”

“You are the same age as Chris, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Jonny slowly answered, though truthfully he had no idea how old Chris was. It was rather easy to guess, though; judging by Chris's face and youthfulness, he was probably sixteen, seventeen at most.

“Well, maybe you two could end up going to the same university, then. Where are you planning to go, Jonny?”

Jonny quickly glanced at Chris, who shot him an apologetic look. “Not sure just yet,” Jonny replied with a shrug. Then he looked at Chris again. “What about you?”

“I'll probably end up at UCL,” Chris said in a slightly dissatisfied tone. “My dad went there.”

“Now, Chris, you know you don't have to go there just because your father did,” his mother said to him. She was giving him an oddly stern look.

“I know, I'm just not sure where else I'd go. I don't even know what I want to do yet.”

“You don't?” Jonny asked with a hint of surprise.

“Maybe something to do with history.”

“Well, you should start to think about it a little more,” Chris's father said. “Whatever you do pick, we'll support it, but you've got to get on it. And soon.”

“I know,” Chris muttered, his head bowed down in shame. His eyes shifted to the left, and he shot another expression of apology in Jonny's direction. Then he perked up a bit. “Jonny, when will you go back home?”

“I-I don't know,” Jonny stuttered. “An hour or two, I guess. My parents should be calmed down by then.”

“How will you get home?”

“I'll have to take another bus, I guess.”

“Nonsense! My mum can drive you home.” Chris beamed excitedly and forced his mother. “Right, mum?”

“I could, yes.”

“Well, that's very kind, but I wouldn't want to make you-” Jonny began before he was interrupted by Chris.

“It's fine, Jonny.” Chris insistently waved his hand in the air. “I need to learn how to drive anyway. This could be good practice.”

“Chris,” his father said jokingly, setting his elbow on the tabletop and leaning forward, “you told him that your mother would be the one to drive him. I'm sure Jonny's parents would like their son back in one piece, not a hundred.”

Chris rolled his eyes, and Jonny grumbled a bit. “I wouldn't be so sure.”

Jonny's statement sucked the happiness out of Chris's appearance. He frowned at the table, eyes darting around everyone's empty plates.

“Jonny, do you want to go for a walk?” Chris kindly inquired.

“Sure.” Jonny grabbed his cup and finished off the rest of his drink. “Thanks for the dinner. It was really good.”

“No, thank you for eating up the food so we won't have leftovers that will sit in the fridge untouched until they go bad,” Chris's mother laughed. Jonny smiled back at her, then he felt a sudden tug on his left arm.

Chris had already stood up from the table and was trying to yank Jonny up as well. Jonny looked at him blankly, and deliberately took as long as possible to stand. Chris, though seemingly frantic, watched and waited with a great amount of patience. When Jonny was finally on his feet, Chris linked their arms together and began to walk out of the room.

“Don’t be out for too long, Chris,” his mother called after them, “it’s going to get dark very soon.”

“Yes, mum,” Chris droned as he and Jonny rounded the corner. He released Jonny’s arm and ran forward to open the door. He held it for Jonny and waited until the other boy had gone through first before he left.

The sun was already going down, painting the boys in a pinkish orange light as they trudged down the sidewalk. Jonny said nothing and stared at his feet, while Chris hummed some random tune to himself. After a short time, he even started drumming his hands on his legs. Jonny discreetly looked at him.

It was like Chris never ceased to be a giant ball of energy. In the mere hour or two that Jonny had known him, he had seen Chris go through several abrupt mood changes, but each time he returned to his original animated state. It was almost difficult to keep up with.

Eventually, Chris’s spirit got the better of him, and he began to sing into the darkening sky. It was quiet singing at first, but as with every other aspect of Chris, it quickly grew louder and more extravagant. Jonny wasn’t entirely sure that Chris remembered he was still there, and he wondered if Chris would have behaved like this if he had been aware that Jonny was staring at him.

“Maybe you should do that instead,” Jonny said to him. “Be a musician.”

Chris stopped his serenade and turned his head to Jonny. He didn’t appear to mind that Jonny had been intently observing him. Or maybe he still hadn’t noticed. “Yeah, maybe,” he shrugged, and while his tone was not rude it suggested that he thought the idea was preposterous.

“I mean, it might be difficult, but you could probably do it.” Chris considered the idea more carefully, thinking for an extremely long and silent minute.

“We should probably go back to my house soon,” Chris said, his eyes glancing over the deep blue sky. Then he looked over at Jonny. “But you don’t have to go back home yet, if you don’t want to. You can stay.”

“I should probably go back home soon.”

Chris was silent again, and as they reached the corner of the street he slowed and turned around. He took a deep breath, then grinned at Jonny. “Race you back!”

Jonny threw him a skeptical look, but he didn’t have time to give an actual reply before Chris bolted away towards where they had just come.

“Am I doing this right?” Chris asked as he turned the steering wheel to the left as far as it would go. Jonny was sitting in the back seat of the car, laughing to himself at Chris’s constant anxiety. Chris’s mother was in the passenger seat, trying to deal with her own anxiety; Chris was more or less a dangerously inexperienced driver.

“You might want to keep to the correct side of the road, Chris,” she answered in a shrill voice. “If there was another car coming, we’d hit them head on.”

“Oh, man,” Chris breathed. He spun the wheel dramatically to correct his mistake, but the action drove the car into the other lane at a much faster pace than it should have. Chris hit the brakes to slow down, causing everyone to lurch forward. He made some disappointed and frustrated noises, while Jonny tried to muffle his laughter (though he realized that it was actually quite a serious situation).

“It’s all right, Chris, just keep going.” Chris mumbled various things about how it wasn’t all right, and that he would imminently crash the car and kill the three of them. Jonny still found his paranoia amusing, and Chris’s mother was clutching the seatbelt by her abdomen so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. “You’re only going to crash if you have no control over the vehicle. As long as you’re not speeding down the road and you keep to this lane, you should be fine.”

“Jonny, where do you live?”

Jonny took a break from chuckling and cleared his throat. “Uh, you can just drop me off at the bus stop if that’s easier for you.”

“Are you sure?”

Jonny nodded, though it wasn’t as if Chris would be able to see him. “Yeah, it’s fine. I live a few minutes away from there. I can walk.”

“Are you sure you’re sure?” Chris quickly turned his head to see Jonny, until he realized that it was a terrible idea. He twitched back into position facing the road, tightly gripping the steering wheel.

“Chris, just drop him off at the bus stop,” his mother ordered. “Then you and I can switch seats and I’ll drive home.”

Chris kept his eyes on the road, but he frowned and drew his eyebrows together. “It’s because I’m a horrible driver, isn’t it?”

“No,” she replied, though Jonny thought it was obvious that she was at least partially lying, “it’s because I don’t want you driving for so long in the dark when you’re not experienced. Maybe once you’ve had more practice on these roads during the day, then you can make the entire trip.”

Chris had been able to tell as well as Jonny had that his mother was not being completely truthful. “It’s because I’m a horrible driver,” he resolutely muttered.

His mother refrained from acknowledging the comment directly, instead settling on a deep sigh. Jonny smirked and looked out the window for a lack of anything better to do. After a long silence, Chris’s mother turned in her seat.

“Jonny, I apologize for the hecticness,” she said. “Chris has only ever driven once before, and he unfortunately has a great lack of confidence in himself.” She looked up to Chris and blinked at him pointedly, though he was not distracted by it in the least.

“Hey, well, I think I’m doing a little better,” Chris quietly stated. “I’m on the right side of the road, right?”

“Well, you could be over a bit more, but I think that if another car comes along, you’ll be fine.”

“And the bus stop is not that far away,” he added in a stronger voice. “I really don’t think we’ll crash or die.”

Jonny looked over to where Chris was, narrowing his eyes. He thought it was interesting just how quickly Chris bounced from one emotion to the next. Quite often he had run into people who were either constantly depressed or constantly happy, but he had never met anyone quite like Chris before. He wondered how much of this dynamic disposition Chris was even aware of.

“It's all right,” Jonny slowly said, his eyelids still partially closed. “I'm used to people who drive a lot more recklessly than you. At least you're trying.”

“Jonny, the fact that I'm trying probably makes it worse,” Chris told him. “Since I'm trying really hard and I'm not so good at it. But I bet the people you know could do it if they tried.”

“All right, Chris, we get it. You don't think you can drive well. Just stop talking and keep your focus on the road,” his mother said. Jonny found himself laughing once more at the brashness in Chris's mother's tone.

The car stopped quite abruptly, though there was not as much of a jolt as before. Chris put the car in park and undid his seatbelt. Jonny had unbuckled his own seatbelt and was on his way to opening the door when it opened, seemingly by itself.

Jonny stood up and stared at Chris. “Jonny, we should hang out sometime,” Chris softly said. “Like tomorrow. After school. If that’s all right.”

“Um, sure.”

Chris looked around for a bit, leaning his arm on the open car door. “We could meet… at that park we passed a few minutes ago. It’s close enough to both of our houses, I think.” Jonny nodded. “OK. So… we could meet at four or something.”

“Four sounds good.” Chris gave a tiny smile before he moved and shut the car door. He walked around to the seat his mother had been sitting in before.

“Goodnight, Jonny!” he happily called. He waved quickly, then slid into the car. Jonny waved back and watched as they pulled away.

“Goodnight, Chris.”

Once they were out of sight, Jonny turned and began to walk down the road, smiling slyly.

Jonny scanned his immediate area. It was hard to see all of the park with the abundance of trees scattered about. He wasn't sure where in the park Chris was going to be. A glance at his watch revealed that it was five after four, so he figured that Chris was already around somewhere. He just had to find where that was.

He was looking at the benches first, thinking that maybe Chris had arrived early and was sitting while he waited. Then Jonny thought that since Chris was such an energetic boy, he might instead be running around the park or even fooling around on the playground. But there was still no trace of Chris.

Perhaps Chris was running late, then. Jonny sighed and took a seat on the nearest bench. His impatience manifested in the tapping of his fingers on the bench's armrest. He watched a group of teenagers run by. They looked like they might have been part of a cross-country club, judging by their roomy tank-tops and skintight spandex shorts. Jonny started tapping his foot as well.

A new sound began to make its way into Jonny's ears. It was quiet, so he had difficulty identifying it, let alone discovering its origins. It sounded a little airy, like whatever was making the noise had been trying to hold its breath. Then it turned into a hissing sort of sound. Jonny looked at the ground, then shook his head. Thinking that it could have been a snake was probably a ridiculous thing to do.

Steadily, the noise grew louder. It- whatever it was- didn't sound like it was getting closer, though, only louder. And Jonny now realized that the sound was coming from above. He cautiously looked up, slightly wary of what he might find.

There was nothing. The sky was empty, save for a few clouds that were floating nearer to the sun. Jonny stared at the ground again, deciding that whatever it was had little importance to him. He needed to keep an eye out for Chris.

For a minute the noise ceased. Jonny continued to watch the park's inhabitants in search of Chris. Then the hissing started freshly, but there was a hint of laughter in there as well. Jonny found himself involuntarily becoming perplexed again. He still saw nothing in the sky, though.

It was as if this mysterious source was taunting him now. The hissing gradually morphed into a persistent giggle. Jonny looked up for one last time. If he didn't see anything, he would move to another bench and wait for Chris.

He was just about to stand when a voice spoke to him. “You're really blind, Jonny, aren't you?” followed by another laugh.

Jonny stood and alertly spun around, wide eyes darting everywhere. He was convinced the voice had belonged to Chris, because who else could it have been? But he was struggling to see where Chris spoke from. All that was in front of him was emptiness.

In the space between Jonny and a close large oak tree, a thud emanated as Chris landed on the ground. His eyes lit up as he watched Jonny jump, completely startled, and he laughed again.

“I've been waiting for you for, like, fifteen minutes,” he brightly told Jonny.

Jonny took a deep breath in his ongoing attempt to calm himself down. “You have?”

“Well, I got here early,” Chris explained with a shrug. Then he motioned behind him. “It took me five minutes just to climb that tree.”

Jonny, too dumbfounded to speak, simply blinked at Chris for a while. In return, Chris obliviously beamed at him. A few times Chris looked around, moving his head in a quick, almost bird-like fashion. Jonny could tell he was loosing his patience. Maybe he was even eying those runners in a longing way. Jonny started to smile himself.

“Chris, do you want to do something other than stand here and stare at each other?” Jonny knowingly asked.

Chris enlarged his eyes and nodded with a very serious expression. “Yes,” he replied with a hint of exasperation. Jonny laughed and started to walk away past Chris. Chris turned and followed. “So tell me, Jonny, how long do you think it would have been before you found me?”

“I probably would have gone home first,” Jonny muttered, triggering a laugh from Chris.

“But I would have stopped you before you left,” Chris told him. He tilted his head to the side. “I guess that's what I did do.”

“I was only going to move to another bench.”

“Oh, sure, but then I'd have been still in that tree for nothing.” Chris took a massive step forward, then he swung around and proceeded to walk backwards, looking directly at Jonny. “What should we do today, Jonny?”

“I don't know, you're the one who said we should hang out.” Jonny gave him a plain look, but Chris lifted his eyebrows as if to tell Jonny to go on. Jonny didn't really know what else to say, but he gave it a go anyway. “So you should have a plan.”

Without warning Chris stopped, so abruptly that Jonny came within an inch of bumping into him. Chris was paying no mind to Jonny, though; he was pensively looking up at the sky, eyebrows tightly knitted. Jonny could see Chris's jaw tense several times before Chris finally glared at him again. Chris locked eyes with Jonny, something appearing to be concern shooting through as he quietly breath, lips pressed tightly together. Jonny felt slightly concerned himself, since this was the calmest Chris had ever been in Jonny's presence.

The runners pounded the pavement next to them again, finally breaking Chris's concentration. He watched as they went past, and his eyes lit up. “Let's go to the other side of the park,” he softly said, then immediately moved his feet along the ground, momentarily leaving Jonny behind.

Jonny watched Chris as they walked through the fields. He was all right with letting Chris lead him around. It was best this way, since it was obvious that Chris had that natural leadership quality in him. If Jonny had tried to take over, it wouldn't have worked out so well. He was also constantly being kept on his toes, because Chris was far from linear. But Jonny sort of liked that.

A small building- probably housing the restrooms- left a long shadow on the newly cut grass as the afternoon sun struck its side. Chris led Jonny around to the back of the building where the shade dwelt. He stopped in the middle of the shadow's premises, waiting for Jonny stop in front of him. As Jonny ceased to move forward, Chris smiled a little.

“I like to come here sometimes- by myself, because I don't think anyone else knows- well, no,” Chris cut himself off a second time, shaking his head, “I guess it's not really a hidden place, is it? Just out of the way. No one bothers to come here. No one bothers me here.”

“Does anyone bother you not here?” Jonny simply asked.

Chris oddly threw an apologetic look at Jonny, sheepishly slumping his shoulders a bit and turning his eyes to the ground. “Well, I think not a lot of kids at school like me that much. They probably think I'm overbearing.”

Jonny stared at Chris with nothing in particular on his mind. The silence worried Chris, though, and out of paranoia he eventually looked up at Jonny. “It's not exactly a bad thing,” Jonny quietly told him.

Chris's eyes softened and he turned to the building. “We can sit down,” he kindly suggested. He waited for Jonny to move first, though.

Jonny sat down with his back against the wall of brick and brought his knees up to his chest. Chris sat to his right, leaving his legs stretched out in front of him, his hands clasped in his lap.

“What do you do here, usually?” Jonny asked.

“I sit,” Chris paused, “and I pretend.”

“Pretend what?”

“Pretend that there's someone with me who is my friend and doesn't resent my... caring nature.” Chris inhaled deeply, and there was such a long span of time before he exhaled again that Jonny started to worry just a little. “I do mean well, I really do. But the fact is- I'm just a nosy person.”

“I don't resent you,” Jonny said, causing Chris to look up at him. “Not yet, anyway.”

Chris slowly grinned. Infectious, the smile spread onto Jonny's face without his permission. They remained that way for several moments. “Well, I'll do my best not to pry into your affairs. Then you won't have to resent me.”

“And I'll try not to resent you, even if you do pry into my affairs,” Jonny laughed. Chris nodded his head excitedly.

“Sounds like a plan, Jonnyboy.” Chris bit his lip and stared off into space in a dreamy sort of way. Jonny watched him, a bit thrown off by Chris's invention of a nickname. No one had ever given him a nickname before. He liked it. “What would you pretend?”

Chris turned his luminescent eyes towards Jonny once more. Jonny stared back at him, thinking. He wasn't exactly sure how to answer. While he was preparing his reply, though, Chris seemed to have realized something.

“Oh! Well, I mean, you don't have to say if you don't want,” Chris quickly said, waving his hand about, “because, you know, I don't want to be nosy. You can tell me, but you don't have to.”

“I'm not sure what I would pretend,” Jonny politely told him, trying his hardest to indicate that he was not bothered by Chris's question.

“You could pretend that you are a famous artist,” Chris proposed with an obvious shrug. Jonny halfheartedly smiled at him.

“I told you, I don't have the talent for that.”

Chris shook his head. “I think you do.”

“And how would you know? We've known each other for all of twenty-four hours and you've never seen any of the things I've drawn or painted or anything.”

“I would love to see them,” Chris beamed. “I can tell just by-”

Chris abruptly stopped, closing his mouth and swallowing the rest of the sentence. “By what?” Jonny asked. Chris's cheeks grew a faint reddish tint.

“I know it sounds ridiculous,” he cautiously began, “but I can tell by your eyes. You have those artsy sort of eyes, you know? Some people say eyes are like windows to the soul. So you must have an artsy soul, too.” Chris shrugged a shoulder, then turned his gaze away from Jonny. “I'm sure the things you've done and could do are or would be great.”

“Maybe you're right,” Jonny quietly said. Chris didn't look back at him, but he smiled a little.

For the next two weeks Jonny and Chris met at the park every single day at four. They sat in the shade behind the building and talked for hours. They laughed at each other's jokes, even the ones that weren't funny, and they told each other little stories about their lives outside of the park.

They grew undoubtedly close over the fourteen days, despite only being around each other for those brief times. Chris said that his life was far too boring, and so he most often asked Jonny to tell him stories. Jonny told Chris every little detail he could think of, until there was really nothing else to say. Chris absorbed all of this information like a sponge and probably could have recounted the stories even better than Jonny could have.

One day, rather than meeting Chris at the park, Jonny showed up at Chris's doorstep. The mere fact that it was only three o'clock when Chris heard the knocking was troubling enough; Chris was absolutely astonished to see several dark blotches and deep scratches on Jonny's face. He had difficulty saying anything at all for a few moments, gaping as Jonny just stared back at him.

Chris seemed to regain some consciousness as he stepped forward and closed the door behind him. He wrapped an arm around Jonny's shoulder and they began to walk towards the road.

“Are you all right?” Chris gently asked. He didn't wait for an answer, but swallowed back some of his fear as he guessed what the answer to his following question might have been. “Did- did something happen at school, or...?”

Chris bit his lip as Jonny turned his head. “I didn't go to school today,” he said in a hoarse voice, and Chris knew then that his prediction had unfortunately been accurate. He let out a deep sigh and the rest of the walk was spent in silence.

Chris stared at Jonny. He sighed to break the silence, then spoke. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Jonny looked up at him and shook his head. “All right.”

Chris sighed again, staring off into the distance. The faint sounds of other people happily existing could be heard around them. He plucked a few blades of grass from the ground and started playing with them.

In the following wordless minutes, Jonny realized exactly what the silence meant. It was unusual for Chris to sit still for long periods of time, let alone keep his mouth shut for more than ten seconds. Now, though, Chris was abdicating his leadership; he was letting Jonny take control instead. Why he was doing so was still unclear, but Jonny had a feeling he knew the reason.

So Jonny took advantage of the opportunity before him, grabbing Chris's wrist and turning his hand so his palm faced the sky. Chris let go of the grass in his fingers and threw a bewildered look at Jonny.

“What are you doing?” Chris asked, but despite his expression there was not even a hint of outrage in his tone. He sounded more curious and he didn't seem to actually mind that his hand was pinned to Jonny's leg, which Jonny was relieved for. He was certain that he was deciphering Chris properly, but there was always that tiny bit of paranoia in the back of his mind.

“Reading your palm.” In truth, Jonny didn't actually have any idea what he was doing. He was basically making it up as he went.

“You're gonna read my palm?” Chris skeptically laughed. Jonny gave him a look that said he meant serious business, and he nodded firmly. “Really.”

“I know what I'm doing, trust me. I took a class on this once.” Chris stared blankly at Jonny and blinked disbelievingly for a few moments. Jonny stared back diligently, until he gave up and rolled his eyes. “Fine. I looked it up online.”

Chris chuckled and grinned, then looked down at his captive hand. Jonny too moved his gaze, and with his index finger he began to trace a line through Chris's palm. He was trying to remember any bit of the subject that he had for some reason picked up over his years on Earth, but he was not very successful.

He picked a line at random and decided to run with it. “All right, so... your life line... Well, it's kinda...” Jonny absentmindedly licked his lips while he thought of what to say. “It's pretty long. You won't be kicking it anytime soon, anyway.”

“Good to know.”

“And then there's the health line...” Jonny traversed his finger to another line. “And... it looks like maybe you could have problems sometime in the future, but maybe not. Well, but who knows? Maybe you'll over-enthuse yourself into a heart attack.”

“That actually wouldn't surprise me,” Chris mumbled with a slight smile.

“And the love line...” Jonny slowly trailed down the middle of Chris's palm with his finger. The tension was building in the air, he could feel it. He said nothing for an exceptionally lengthy period of time, and then, “Yeah. 'S all right.”

Jonny pulled his hand back a bit. It seemed like Chris was frozen for a few seconds, until he made a quick move and did exactly as Jonny had done to him before. “OK, then, now I'll read yours!” Chris exclaimed in such a bright way that would have had Jonny doubtful that his plan was working had he not already been convinced that he was absolutely right.

“Yeah, good luck being as skilled at it as I am,” Jonny quipped. Chris made a challenging sort of face and began to study Jonny's hand.

“Uh huh.... Your life line,” Chris began with a trace of faux bitterness, “is not so long. But, I mean, you're not going to die young or anything. It's just that while I will live to be ninety-four- and yes, I do have that planned out- you'll only get to... eighty or so.” Chris quickly shrugged his shoulders. “That's not so bad. What the hell do you need to live until ninety-four for anyway?”

“Eighty, huh?” Jonny inhaled deeply, slowly nodding his head. “I think I can be finished with all my living by then.”

“Well, you're gonna have to be. Your health line looks a lot better than mine does, though, so at least you won't be suffering any over-enthused heart attacks.”

“I would certainly hope not.”

“And the love line,” Chris made sure to put an emphasis on the word 'love', “well...” Chris stared down in deep concentration. As his fingers slid up the surface of Jonny's hand, Jonny's own fingers began to curl, until they met in the middle and intertwined. Chris took a deep breath and slowly looked up at Jonny.

Jonny leaned forward and quickly caught Chris's lips with his own. Chris kissed him back with just as much swiftness, then as he pulled away he brought his right hand up and ran his thumb over Jonny's bottom lip.

“Jonny, you have a cut on your lip,” Chris quietly observed. “Doesn't it hurt?” Chris's eyes danced between Jonny's, briefly flickering over the dark circle growing under Jonny's left eye. He winced a little.

Jonny stared at him intensely. “Nothing hurts,” he breathed. Both boys leaned in again, this time with opened mouths. Jonny could feel Chris's thumb grazing over his stubbled jaw; it felt nice, but he tried not to focus too hard on it. He slid his free hand halfway between he and Chris before he decided that their positions were not as comfortable as they could be. He let go of Chris's left hand and let his arm fall until his fingers brushed against the little bit of skin exposed at the hem of Chris's shirt.

“This is a little weird, isn't it?” Chris asked, swinging his left leg over his right and inching his hand down the seat of the bench. He laughed shortly and nervously as he examined Jonny's expression. It had been four days since Jonny had shown up at his house, covered in bruises and scratches; four days since they had gone past the normal boundaries of friendship.

It seemed that Jonny was staring at Chris with bafflement. “What's weird?” He slid his own hand closer to Chris's.

“Um... us,” Chris replied, biting his lip with a tiny smile. His fingertips brushed against the skin on Jonny's hand. It had been four days, but they hadn't actually spoken about what had happened, what was happening, or what was to happen.

“I guess so.” Jonny picked up Chris's hand and laced their fingers together. He looked down as he ran his thumb over Chris's, hesitant to continue. “Is- Is weird bad?”

Chris took his hand back, raising it as he scooted closer to Jonny, and he ran his fingers through the hair around Jonny's ear. In a very soft, very reassuring voice he said, “No, it's not bad at all.” Jonny looked up at him. The bruise under his left eye was still visible, though just barely. Chris leaned forward and pressed his closed lips against Jonny's cheek. His hand rested at the nape of Jonny's neck.

“I never thought that something like this would happen,” Jonny said in a quiet voice. His eyes danced between Chris's, so vivid and so close to his own. His touch alone confirmed, but Jonny could see in Chris's eyes that Chris was going to agree with whatever he said. “No one else has ever made me feel this way.”

“What way?” Chris was somehow even closer now, though Jonny couldn't tell if he had actually moved or if it was just an illusion projected by his interest. The tone he had used suggested that Chris needed to hear Jonny say it. Jonny smiled.

“Happy.”

Chris beamed, slipping his arm around Jonny's shoulder and turning so their sides touched. “You make me happy, too,” he said, sincere though it was obvious that he was slightly embarrassed by his own honesty. Having been right in his prediction, Jonny smiled in a smug sort of manner.

Then, with nothing better to do, he brought his hand over to Chris's thigh and let it rest. He waited for some sort of reaction from Chris, but there didn't seem to be an obvious one. He tentatively slide his gaze over, and he saw that Chris was staring at Jonny's hand, his face a bit pale.

“Jonny,” he started with clear concern, “I'm not really what you would call... experienced.” He brought his free hand up to his lips, fearfully biting his fingernails. Jonny laughed; it was by no means a consoling reaction, proved by Chris's increase in eye size.

“It's all right, Chris. There's no rush with any of this. And... I wouldn't say that I'm proud of it, but I think I have enough experience for the both of us.”

Chris took a deep breath and halfheartedly smiled. But he seemed to be finished with that topic. “Jonny, are you going to tell your parents about us?” he asked, ending with an eyebrow raise.

Jonny thought for a few seconds, then slowly shook his head. “I don't think that's such a good idea.”

“Me neither,” Chris sadly agreed. “Do you mind if I tell my parents?”

“No, not if you think they'll be fine with it. If you want to tell them, go ahead.”

“Good, because I kinda already did.” Chris grinned with hope that Jonny wouldn't be angry at him. Judging by the lack of aggression in Jonny's expression, it was safe to assume that he wasn't angry at all.

“You did? How did that go?”

Chris quickly breathed a sigh of relief, then began to tell Jonny almost every single detail about the discussion that had taken place between he and his mother. Jonny listened intently with his eyes on Chris's as Chris rambled on for several minutes, telling Jonny that overall his mother was completely fine, though she had expressed some concern in regards to Chris's father.

“But I think that if she tells him, he will be totally fine with it, too,” Chris said, shrugging his shoulders a little. “I don't think there's any reason for him not to be.”

Silence quickly fell as Chris ran out of words to spew. For a long time they just stared at each other. Then Jonny sighed and frowned.

“You're lucky,” he hoarsely said. “I never even told my parents that I met you. I thought they'd try to keep me away from you. And I didn't want that at all.” Slowly, the corners of Jonny's mouth turned upwards. “Chris, you're, like, my best friend. I couldn't stand not being allowed to see you.”

Chris sympathetically shook his head. “I couldn't stand not seeing you, too. This,” he waved his hand around to incorporate as much of that point in time as he could in his meaning, “is always the highlight of my day. Spending time with you.”

Jonny stared at Chris for a few seconds, then gently placed a kiss by Chris's ear. “Thank you for being so understanding,” he practically whispered. “You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“Of course, Jonny.” Chris brought his arm back and once again ran his hand through Jonny's hair. “I would love it if you could tell them, but I just want you to be... safe. If that means being really, really careful, to the point of being silent, then so be it. As long as nothing comes between us.”

He pressed his forehead to Jonny's, then briefly brought their lips together. He brushed his fingers around the edge of Jonny's ear, then shifted his position and laid his head on Jonny's shoulder. Jonny looked down at Chris and he smiled, because everything was working exactly as he wanted it to. It was almost too perfect.

Jonny tapped his foot on the ground. He was waiting for Chris at the park as he usually did, but Chris had to have been at least fifteen minutes late. He didn't doubt that Chris would eventually show, but he was becoming so impatient that he almost decided to just walk to Chris's house and see what was taking him so long.

A few yellowing leaves fell around Jonny. He shivered involuntarily; the breeze that had brought the leaves down crawled against his arm, and he had forgotten to bring a jacket. Of course, he hadn't expected for it to be so cool outside. It was no big deal, though. As soon as Chris arrived, he would just suggest that they go somewhere warmer. Whenever that was going to be.

He eyed the bench beside the spot he stood on, deeply considering sitting down while he waited. Another breeze rolled by and he finally came to the conclusion that it was no longer worth it to wait for Chris, who was obviously too busy to show up on time.

He waited until the wind had settled before he pulled his arms away from his abdomen and started to trudge down the path to the road.

“Jonny!!” Chris's voice called from behind him. He spun around to see Chris rushing towards him, carrying a decent-sized white envelope in his hands. Chris sounded almost out of breath as he stopped in front of Jonny. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jonny repeated, his eyes stuck on the envelope.

“Sorry I was late.” Chris stepped forward and quickly embraced Jonny, leaving a sloppy kiss on the side of his mouth.

Jonny shrugged. “It's all right. But what took you so long?”

Chris looked stunned for a second, then he beamed and held up the white envelope. “I did something... huge today,” he began, “and it took a lot longer than I expected it to. I mean, I went as soon as school ended, and that was two hours ago. But, you know... huge things like this take time.”

“What did you do?” Jonny asked, skeptically narrowing his eyes at Chris. He knew that Chris was always exaggerating the greatness of his actions, but he had a sneaking suspicion that this time it was not an overstatement.

Chris stared at Jonny for a few moments. “Come on,” he said, grabbing Jonny's hand and leading him to the building behind which they so often met. When they were away from the public he let go and turned to face Jonny. He took a deep breath, though it seemed he was about to say something then abruptly changed his mind and asked, “Jonny, how was your day?”

“It was fine,” Jonny quickly answered. “Will you please explain to me what's-”

“I will, I just want to make sure that you're doing well. That you don't have anymore,” Chris winced slightly,“bruises or anything.”

Jonny smiled briefly at Chris's concern. “I'm fine.”

“Good.” Chris looked down at his hands and messed with a corner of the envelope. “So, last night I was trying to go to sleep, but I just kept thinking about how I really wish there was something I could do for you- in regards to your parents and such. Because I just feel so useless.” Chris frowned and lifted his sad eyes once more.

“I wish there was something, too,” Jonny quietly said. “But you don't have to feel like that, Chris. You're very useful.”

“Well, yeah.” Chris nodded, beginning to smile. “I found a way to help.”

Jonny's wary look returned again. “How?”

Chris returned his attention to the envelope's now slightly bent corner. “Ever since I was little- like, ten or something- my parents tried to get me to save up as much money as I could. For, like, university or whatever. So, I've been saving for quite a while and I have quite a lot saved. Well, I had quite a lot saved...”

“Chris, I'm not sure I follow,” Jonny slowly said, though in truth he was almost positive he knew where Chris was going with this. Still, he thought it best to act cautiously.

With a most innocent look on his face, Chris handed the envelope to Jonny. Jonny took it, but held it in his hands without even attempting to discover its contents. He merely stared at Chris, waiting for more of an explanation.

“There's about four or five thousand pounds in there,” Chris told him. “I figured that you could use it to get away from your parents. Maybe you could find a place of your own or whatever. Then you don't have to worry so much. And I don't have to worry so much, either,” he added with a chuckle.

Jonny took a deep breath. “That's... very generous of you.”

“I'm not going to take it back, Jonny. Even if you try to force it into my hands. I'm not taking it back. So don't even think about it.”

Jonny opened his mouth to further protest, but he decided against it. “Thank you,” he quietly said, and Chris smiled at him.

“You should probably go now, then, and try to, I don't know, get a flat somewhere. I'm sure there's something out there for you. But, uh, before you do leave, Jonny, there's something else I want you to know...” Nervously, Chris wrapped his arms around Jonny as tightly as he could, his hands trembling just a little. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Jonny placed his hands on Chris's back, and for a minute they stayed like that. Then Chris began to pull away and Jonny let his arms drop to his sides.

“So... call me when everything's set. There's a paper in there with my number on it,” Chris said, pointing to the envelope. Jonny shortly nodded. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” He took another deep breath and smiled at Chris before turning and walking away. He glanced back once to see Chris wave at him, then kept going with his eyes forward and his heart racing.
Chris sighed. He was sat at the kitchen table, mindlessly staring at the napkin holder placed in the center. He was so out of it that he had not even seen his mother walking into the room, let alone sitting down beside him. In fact, she watched him for several long minutes and the only reason he ever noticed her was because she spoke to him.

“What's wrong, Chris?” she asked, startling him by placing her hand on his arm.

Chris alertly looked up at her, then sighed once more. “I'm just worried about Jonny.” He returned his gaze to the napkins on the table. “I haven't heard from him in, like, two weeks.”

“Two weeks?”

Chris slowly nodded. “I gave him my number, but he hasn't called yet. And I don't have his.”

“And you two haven't been meeting after school.” Chris frowned as his mother swirled a paper that was under her hands. He glanced at it, but couldn't quite tell what it was. “Was everything all right between you both?”

“Everything was fine with us. But I don't know if- if his parents...” Chris bit his lip and lifted his eyes towards his mother. She was staring intently at him.

“Chris, I wanted to ask you about something,” she began. Her hand dragged the paper closer to the edge of the table, where she flipped it over so he could see it properly. “The other day I went in your room to get your laundry, and this was lying on the floor.”

As he observed the paper more closely, he realized that it was a bank statement regarding his savings account. “Yeah.”

“You took out all that money?”

“Yeah,” he repeated, ineffectively. After a few moments of awkward silence, he came to the conclusion that he should explain further. “I gave it to Jonny.”

Chris's mother blinked pointedly at him several times. “May I ask why?”

Chris shrugged and said, “Because I wanted to help him get away from his parents. They're not good people, mum. They hurt him. I gave him the money so he could get out of there, and I told him to call me when things were set.”

“But you haven't heard from him since.” Chris sadly shook his head. His mother took an incredibly deep breath. “Chris... I don't know how to say this. I don't think you will ever hear from him again.”

Chris's eyes widened and his expression morphed from upset to terrified. “Y-You don't think something happened, do you? Because if something serious had happened, we would have heard about it, right? If something serious had happened, it would have been in, like, the newspaper or something. You don't think anything bad happened to him, do you?”

“Oh, I'm sure he's just fine, wherever he is,” she calmly told him. Chris stared at her, eyebrows scrunched together.

“Then what are you talking about? Why wouldn't I hear from him again?” Chris asked, with more fear in his voice than confusion. Perhaps somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew.

“I don't think that he is who he told you he was.”

“I don't understand.”

“The boy you knew as Jonny,” she slowly explained, “does not actually exist. His name probably isn't even close to Jonny.” Chris stared at her with a blank expression, not from a lack of understanding but from a lack of wanting to understand. His hands began to shake. “Chris, he's a con artist.”

Chris felt like his head had been smashed in by a pillowcase full of bricks. Momentarily his breathing ceased, but he had just enough air left in him to croak out, “No...”

His mother warmly placed a hand on his shoulder. “Chris-”

“No!” he said again, this time with a stronger voice and eyes clouded by tears. “No. Jonny... he...”

“He lied to you.”

“No, he said... he said that he l-loves me,” Chris cried, and his mother brought him into her arms, burying his head in her shoulder. “How could he have been lying?”

“That's what he does for a living, Chris. Clearly he's very good at it.” A new burst of sobs emerged from Chris, matched by his mother rubbing her hand over his back like she used to when he was a baby. “I'm so sorry, honey.”

Chris inhaled sharply; he was trying very hard to find a way to argue that his mother was wrong, and therefore he would be able to calm himself and not feel like his heart had shattered into a million tiny pieces and lodged into every nerve of his body. Unfortunately, he had no luck whatsoever.

“How could I be so stupid?” he quietly voiced. His mother pulled back and looked at him sternly, holding his face in between her hands.

“Chris, you are not stupid.”

“Then how come I believed him?”

“I'll admit he was very convincing. We all believed him.” Chris stared at her unblinkingly, clearly in disbelief. “You're not stupid. But you're young, and very trusting, because nothing bad has ever happened to you before. That's the sort of thing people like that target.”

“I'm sorry... about the money,” Chris told her. “I... I shouldn't have...”

Chris cut his statement short, as he didn't want to start bawling again, and his mother shook her head and embraced him again. “Don't worry about that, Chris. It's not like your father and I don't have enough money to help you out. I'm more worried about you right now.”

They sat in silence for several minutes. Chris was thinking everything over, every second he had spent with Jonny and everything he had been told by Jonny and every feeling he had ever felt for Jonny. It was almost as if his own feelings had been a lie in light of this revelation. “He told me he loved me... I loved him.” Despite his best efforts, Chris felt another teardrop roll down his cheek.

“Oh, Chris, you barely even knew him anyway,” his mother said. “If he had been telling you the truth, a few weeks is not enough to decide something that big. Especially not at your age.”

“But I felt it...”

“I'm sure you thought you felt it.” Chris frowned into her should as she ran a hand over his hair. “Listen, Chris, you have your whole life ahead of you, all right? You should learn from this experience, but don't keep yourself stuck on it. There are plenty of other people in the world out there who will actually love you. Don't fuss over the ones who didn't.”

He knew she was right, but a tiny part of him wished she wasn't. Even when he was busy fretting over Jonny's well-being he was much happier. He would have given anything to go back to that. “Thanks, mum.”