Second Chance [Four/Tobias]

Twenty Six

ᴀᴠʏᴀɴɴᴀ

I take him back to the house.

Tobias is back in his so I call him to mine.

He looks at me and then at Mike and then back at me.

"Hey," Mike stretches his hand out. "Michael."

"Tobias."

"He...was my best friend," I inform.

"And I'm working on changing that sentence to present tense," Mike grins.

"Best friend?" Tobias asks, looking at me. "That was the word you were looking for?"

"We sorted it in our way back," Mike grins.

His jaw clenches and I know we'll have an argument about this again.

"Eight years gone and you still have that lame hairstyle," Mike laughs.

"Yours used to be shorter, right?" I point out.

"Yeah." He touches his hair briefly but looks at Tobias. "I knew you from..."

"From?" He asks.

"The Bureau," Mike says, as if that's illegal.

"Oh." Tobias doesn't speak of it further.

"Would you guys like something to drink?" I ask.

They shake their heads.

"Avy, I completely forgot! I wanted to show you the photos we took. In the Bureau! I kept them." He fumbles with his phone.

Then, he opens a folder to see hundreds of photos of mostly us.

Us playing board games, our stupid selfies—with tongues out and everything— one photo when he caught me winking, all the other friends, just so many.

I smile at them despite myself and laugh when Mike tells the stories behind them.

"Aw man, I took this photo of you winking because you winked at me a couple times before for a plan or something and someone thought you were winking at him. Remember?"

"I don't remember," I think hard.

"After you got shot! You had to rest but we planned to sneak out, remember?"

"Oooo! Yeah, yeah!" I grin, remembering.

"You...got shot?" Tobias asks.

We lock eyes just for a second before he looks away, a look of hurt in his eyes.

"Yeah, man. She couldn't walk for like two weeks or something. I had to carry her everywhere. You still have the scar?"

"I have the scar but shut up. You didn't carry me everywhere," I laugh.

"I did," He grins.

"Did not. I was on the wheelchair for the first two days and then, I was limping. The only time you carried me was from the truck."

"I did. You just don't remember."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Avy, I did."

"You didn't."

He sighs, "Fine. I didn't."

"Liar," I laugh.

"Tobias, is she like this always?" Mike grins at him.

"Yeah," He says, making us laugh harder.