𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬.

Chapter Four| Lucas

The guys come to my house to hang out for a while until we go to the movies tonight. I suggest playing a video game and go upstairs to grab a couple of games. I keep all the other games that I don't play much in my closet and figure to take them too. As soon as I open my closet, a grown man tackles me.

"Ugh, what the fuck," I groan.

"Hey, little bro nice to see you."

My mouth falls in disbelief; I couldn't believe it was my older brother Jake. I haven't seen him in 6 months. On some level, I like Jake slightly better than Ben because he doesn't pressure me into things I don't want to do.

"What are you doing here?" I ask as I hug him.

"Well, since I go to school in the states and it's our spring break, I thought I would stay with you guys over the break."

I catch up a little with him for a few minutes, and he tells me to watch out for a girl named Jamie going to my school. How does he know any from my school? He never went there. St. Philips was an all-girl reformed school until two years ago, and Jake was in his last year of high school and wanted to graduate with his buddies, but I wanted to check out the boarding school and convinced Micah and Cameron to join me in case it sucked we'd have each other. It turned out to be surprisingly better than all the private and public schools I've gone to. Ms. Beyer became the dean, and I heard it was changed because that was her mother's last wish.

I knew a little of Ms. Beyer's mother, Elaine. I met her when she became ill and had to live with her daughter. Elaine would always sit outside in the afternoon while her daughter went to the store, and we have a few talks now and then. She was a delight and so positive—considering she was a dying woman—she was on the board for St. Phillips. She was trying to change it because she never liked the idea of a reform school horrible experience, I assumed. I thank her because it's become one of my favorite places to go.

"You don't know her because she is new to Australia. I met her on the plane." I nodded, letting him know I'll be kind to her.

"Okay, well, I have to go see you later."

"Where are you going?" He's already going somewhere. I barely got to catch up with him. "I'm going to see my girl. Don't worry, little bro I'll be back in a few." I didn't mind plus he hasn't seen his girlfriend in 6 months as well. Soon as he left, the guys started to play on my PlayStation 4.

***

Since my fridge is empty, Cameron orders a pizza because he died in the game already, and we didn't want to lose focus. He steps into the kitchen to use my house phone while Micah covers my back in the game.

"Doesn't Dean Beyer live across the street?" Cameron queries when he gets off the phone.

"Yeah, why?" I didn't know what he was getting at.

"Well a girl is sitting on her porch, she looks our age." Huh? After we get to our checkpoint, we pause the game and see what he's talking about.

I look out the window and spot the girl with brown skin and curly brown hair that passes her shoulders wrapped up in a blanket. She looked familiar, but I can't remember where I saw her before. Ms. Beyer comes out, communicates something to the girl, and leaves. I realized they sort of resemble each other; maybe they're related. They have similar noses and cheekbone structure. However, she doesn't look like she can be Ms. Beyer, daughter. Plus, Ms. Beyer seems too young to have a teenage daughter. Maybe it's her niece.

The guys throw out multiple questions, all at once, so it's hard to follow any of them. After they were shouting over each other, they pressure me to talk to her. I try to convince someone else to go, but they agree to be me since I'm her neighbor. Sighing, I slip into my vans.