Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

Him

*Ryan's POV*

Morning was lonely. Walk to school was lonely. Lunch was lonely. Biology was slightly less lonely. After school was just plain sad. Brendon's phone call almost made me cry. Walk home was just as lonely as the rest of the day.

"I hate that He has to do this today," Spencer said as we walked through the woods home. Patrick and I nodded in agreement. We all knew who He was. The one who made us stay away from Brendon today.

"I mean, He's always bossing us around telling us to do what He wants. He never thinks of us!"

I nodded in agreement and Patrick spoke.

"Be careful what you say. He may be able to hear us." He stepped carefully over a fallen tree. "You know He has ways."

"Yeah, but I want a life, so maybe He needs to hear me." Spencer stopped in his tracks and yelled, "Do you hear me, you dick?! You're unfair to us and I h-"

Patrick clamped his hand over Spencer's mouth and shushed him.

"Do you want another scar?" Patrick whispered coldly into Spencer's ear. Spencer shook his head and pried Patrick's hand off his face.

"Of course I don't, but I want to have at least one friend outside of the family." He continued to walk to the house and we followed.

"We all do, Spence, but He's a dragon, for fuck's sake," I chimed in.

"You don't think I know that?" Spencer said, pulling up the right side of his shirt to reveal his scar.

I rolled my eyes. "You think you're special with your scar? We all have one." I rubbed my right shoulder where my scar was.

"Can we please stop talking about this?" Patrick said as we neared the house.

"Fine," Spencer huffed. "But I'm still angry."

We walked into the house, being greeted by Pete.

"Alright. I've vacuumed everything twice, I Swiffer'd thrice, I Pine Sol'd a couple times, I found some Orange Glo and used that, I used about five cans of Febreze and cleaned the bathrooms and bedrooms about three times, especially yours, Ryan," he panted.

We all looked at him strangely. Pete was wearing an apron around his waist, a bandana on his head and spray bottles of some kind of liquid on his belt. He was also wearing an old Green Day t-shirt.

"What smells like vanilla in here?" Spencer asked.

"Oh. I ran out of Febreze so I made my own little mix of vanilla and water. Smells nice, right?" Pete sprayed some on us.

"Vanilla, you say?" I said, licking the back of my left hand. It tasted nice, so I continued.

"Ryan, stop that!" Pete grabbed my wrist. "Wait." He started to sniff my hand, then went up the rest of my arm. He stopped at my shoulder and said, "You were around Brendon today and..." He sniffed my face, mostly around my mouth. "...You kissed him."

I looked down and sighed, nodding.

"Go upstairs and brush your teeth and mouthwash and floss and change your clothes and put on some cologne or something," Pete pushed me toward the living room and Swiffer'd after me. I walked to the stairs then up them.

I walked into the bathroom and brushed and washed and flossed twice. I figured I would do it a third after I changed.

I walked out of the bathroom and to my room, kicking off my shoes when I got there, my socks going with them. I began to untie my tie when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. It was Daniel.