School went on like normal the next day, although it was hard for Dylan to focus because of yesterday's events. He had told Henry he would be over after school in order to get some math tutoring in before their test in two days. It would be the first time Dylan should appear at Henry's house, making both boys a tad nervous for each other.
A knock came on Henry's door, him immediately jumping off the couch and answering it, anticipating Dylan's arrival.
"Hey, sorry I'm late," Dylan stated as the door opened in front of him, "I wanted to go home and get all my textbooks and notes before coming here."
"You're fine, come on in." Henry stepped out of the doorway, allowing Dylan to enter his home.
"Thank you." Dylan walked into the house, looking around at how it was decorated. "So, where do you want me to set up?" Dylan took off his backpack, holding it in his hands.
"In here is fine." Henry gestured to his living room, Dylan following him. "You can just put everything on the coffee table."
"Okay." Dylan took out a textbook and multiple notebooks, putting them on the table. The two of them sat on the floor, next to each other, everything sprawled out in front of them. "You ready?" Dylan looked over at Henry, who seemed a little taken aback by the load.
"Not really." He mumbled, more to himself than to Dylan.
"What do you need help with?" Dylan started out, wanting to gauge exactly why he was here. "Everything, or just one specific subject?"
"I pretty much know how to do everything except derivatives." Henry pointed to a section of Dylan's open notebook.
"Which part of derivatives?"
"What do you mean?" Henry was shocked now, not realizing there were subsections.
"Like product rule, exponentials, logarithms, chain rule, sine, cosine?" Dylan felt as if he could keep listing things off, but Henry wouldn't respond.
"All of it."
"Okay."
"Is that too much?"
"No, not at all."
"I feel like that's too much." Henry didn't want to overwhelm Dylan on his first time at his house.
"It's not, trust me." Dylan placed one of his hands on Henry's arm. Before Henry could notice it, or even glance down, the hand was gone. "Alright, we're gonna start out with the basics." Dylan moved on, as if nothing happened. "The constant rule."
"Oh, I know this one!" Henry was proud of himself for remembering this bit. "Constants go to zero."
"Exactly!" Dylan smiled at the other boy, Henry's own excitement rubbing off on him.
"That's the only one I'm confident in." Henry looked away from Dylan and back to the papers in front of him.
"That's okay." Dylan reassured, "Let's move onto exponents. The basic rule of exponents is— "
"Henry!" Someone shouted from the top of the stairs.
"Who's that?" Dylan asked Henry, who had his head in his hands.
"My little sister, Piper." Henry's tone is his voice indicated pure disdain. "What, Piper?"
"Mom and Dad just called me and said they're going to be late for dinner tonight." She told her brother as she came down the stairs.
"What? Why?"
"Because they're currently stuck in a huge traffic jam and won't be home for hours." She explained before stopping at the bottom of the staircase. "Who's that?" She looked at Dylan, who was staring back at her.
"This is my friend, Dylan." Henry answered for his guest.
"Hi." Dylan waved to Piper, not really sure what to say.
"I've never seen you here before." Piper was quick to judge.
"Oh, well I've just recently moved into town, so that's probably why..."
"And you thought my brother was the best person to make friends with?" She crossed her arms with the statement.
"Hey!" Henry spoke up, positive he was just insulted.
"I think he's good company." Dylan looked over at Henry and smiled, who reciprocated a smile back.
"Well..." Piper spoke up, moving closer to the front door. "I'm leaving."
"You're leaving?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, I'm going over to Marla's." Piper opened the front door, ready to walk out.
"Wait, no," Henry stood up, "Mom and Dad aren't home, which means I'm in charge, and— " Before Henry could finish, Piper walked out the door, slamming it shut behind her. "She's gone." Henry sat back down, a tad bewildered.
"She seems nice." Dylan told Henry, who's eyes went wide with his statement.
"That's sarcasm, right?" Dylan just laughed at his statement.
"Come on, let's get back to math."
—
"I'm all math-ed out." Henry leaned back, letting himself fall back into the edge of the couch. They had been at it for a couple of hours now, Dylan going over everything he possibly could about derivatives.
"But do you understand it?" Dylan leaned back as well, lining himself up with Henry.
"I do, yeah. I know what I'm doing now."
"Good." Dylan smiled at Henry. "If you want more help before Wednesday, just tell me, I'd be more than happy to come back."
"I might take you up on that." Henry let out a small chuckle with his words. "You're a really good math teacher."
"I do have a lot of experience."
There was a moment of silence between the two before Henry spoke. "Hey do you want to stay for dinner?" There was shakiness in his voice, a clear sign of nervousness. "I mean, it's just you and I in the house because my parents are stuck in traffic, and Piper left, so..."
"Yeah, I can stay if you want." Dylan tried to sound as nonchalant as possible while he was internally screaming.
"Well it's not really a want," Henry started to ramble, "I don't want, well no, I do want. I wouldn't be opposed, but it's entirely up to you, and, um." He stopped himself before the hole he dug became any worse.
"I'll stay for dinner."
"Cool, cool." It was Henry's turn to sound calm while screaming on the inside. "I don't really cook a lot." He admitted, not really knowing what they were going to do.
"Oh, I love cooking!" Henry could see the way Dylan's eyes lit up with his words.
"Really?"
"Yeah! Cooking, baking, I do it all."
"What do you like to cook?" Henry was interested in learning more about him.
"I love making pasta," Dylan admitted, the shine in his eyes never leaving, "I have so many recipes, it's insane."
"Well if you'd like you can rummage around my kitchen." Henry offered.
"You'll let me cook whatever I want?" There was a hint of mischief in Dylan's voice.
"I trust you."
"Okay," Dylan said in a sing-sing voice, "but I wouldn't be too sure."
"You gonna poison me?"
"Nah, you're too cute to poison." Dylan poked one of Henry's arms, messing with him.
"You think I'm cute?" Henry asked, excitedly.
"Someone might." Dylan stated, still messing with him. "Alright," Dylan got up from the floor and started walking towards Henry's kitchen, "Show me where everything's at."
"Okay." Henry got up from the floor himself, walking over to Dylan and leading him into the kitchen.
Henry showed Dylan every aspect of his kitchen. Where the dishes were, how his stove worked, where to find different kitchen gadgets, the pantry, and even gave a tour of the fridge. After being shown around, Dylan opened up several cabinets, taking out various items and placing them on the counter. He had found enough ingredients to make his sun dried tomato pasta recipe, something he had perfected not too long ago. Henry enjoyed watching Dylan cook in his kitchen, occasionally helping if needed.
After everything was ready, Henry set the table, setting down silverware and brining plates over to Dylan so he could load them up with pasta. The two sat down across from each other, talking the entire time they ate about anything they could come up with. It was something both of them would remember for a very long time.
"You can come over and cook anytime." Henry stated, as he leaned back in his chair, plate empty.
"Yeah?" Dylan took his words as a complement.
"That was amazing. Did you come up with it?" Henry asked, referring to the recipe.
"About a year ago." Dylan supplied as his confirmation to the question. "I've been slowly improving it over time. I think it's one of my best."
"It's so good."
"I'm glad you like it. I like cooking for people."
"Good, because I'm being dead serious about you just coming over and cooking." Both he and Dylan laughed at his words as the front door to Henry's house opened.
"We're home!" Henry's mother called into the house, spotting her son at the kitchen table.
"Do not go on the roads tonight." Henry's father said as he entered the home.
"Sorry we're late, the traffic was horrible." Henry's mother walked towards the kitchen, her husband following behind her. The two of them took notice of the guest in their home. "Oh," She directed her attention towards Henry, "I didn't know you had company. Who's this?"
"Mom, this is Dylan. Dylan these are my parents." Henry supplied.
"Hello." Dylan waved at the two adults, who smiled back at him.
"Henry, you cooked?" His mother took notice of the pasta on the stove.
"No, Dylan did." Henry wanted to make sure his parents knew how good of a cook Dylan was so he could come back and make dinner again.
"You can have some if you'd like, there's a lot leftover." Dylan offered, knowing he and Henry were done eating for the night.
"Well don't mind if we do." Henry's father went over and got two plates for him and his wife.
"So Dylan, are you new in the neighborhood? Henry has never had you over before." Henry's mother asked, putting some pasta on her plate.
"Yeah, I moved here not too long ago." Dylan responded, happy more people were enjoying his food.
"Where'd you move from?"
"Jonsville."
"Oh I love that place!" Henry's father commented.
"You've been?" Dylan asked the two.
"Honey, we've never been to Jonsville." Henry's mother turned to his father, a confused look on her face.
"No, but we did drive through it once, and the buildings were amazing." His father answered.
"The buildings?" Henry entered the small conversation.
"Jonsville has this requirement that if you want to build something it has to be in the style of colonial buildings." Dylan explain to Henry. "There's a lot of tourism that occurs because of that."
"It's got great buildings." Henry's father announced as he and Henry's mom stood at the counter, eating the pasta Dylan made.
"Interesting." Henry didn't know much about Jonsville, or any other town for that matter.
Before their conversation could continue, Dylan's phone rang. His eyes went wide with the caller I.D. that displayed on the screen. "I'm sorry, I have to take this." Dylan got up from the kitchen table, walking into the living room in order to answer the call.
Henry immediately took notice of Dylan's demeanor, waiting until he was done with his call before approaching him. "Is everything okay?" Dylan whipped his head around to look at Henry, his face pale and his stature rigid. It was clear he was afraid.
"I'm being watched." Dylan whispered, not wanting to speak too loud.
"What?" Henry reciprocated Dylan's whisper.
"Michael called, he said someone's been following me, he knows I'm here." Dylan looked around the room, trying to figure out were all the windows were. "He doesn't like that I'm here."
"What do you mean?"
"He doesn't like that I'm here with you." Dylan grabbed his things from where he left them in the living room, turning towards the front door. "I need to leave."
"What? No." Henry quickly put himself in front of Dylan, stopping him from walking out. "Let's just call Ray."
"What, so he can show up in his uniform and let Michael know that I'm potentially in contact with Captain Man?" Dylan snapped, angry with fear. "No thank you."
"What do we do?"
"We don't do anything." Dylan rapidly moved his pointer finger between himself and Henry. "This is strictly my problem now. God, I knew bringing you along wouldn't be a good idea." Dylan's last sentence was said to himself, as he didn't really want Henry to hear it as he tried to get past the other boy.
"You can't be serious." Henry moved, stopping Dylan from trying to leave, again.
"Henry, I'm being followed, they know who you are. They know where you live!"
"I don't care."
"I do!" Dylan practically shouted, but still trying to keep a hushed tone. "I do, and I'm not putting you in danger."
"Don't you think I should be the judge of that? It's my life."
"And he's my ex-boyfriend. You can't be involved in this anymore." Dylan let out a sigh before continuing. "You can't be involved with me anymore."
"Don't say that." Henry was genuinely hurt by Dylan's words.
"I will not let anything happen to you. For all I know, you've already become a target."
"I can get out of situations myself. I am Kid Danger after all."
"They don't know that! Henry Hart cannot be injured because of me."
"I think you're overreacting."
"I think you're under-reacting." Dylan moved to leave, but Henry followed, still not letting him get through. "Look, I'll call you, maybe, I don't know."
"Will I see you at school tomorrow?" Henry couldn't help the tone of sadness that came with his words.
"I don't know." Dylan answered honestly.
"At least let me know when you get home so I know you're safe."
"I don't know if I can."
"Why not!" Henry's sadness turned to anger.
"I can't contact you anymore!" Dylan reciprocated the energy Henry was giving him.
"What kind of power does he have over you?" Henry let the words come out, not realizing the depth of Dylan's past relationship with Michael.
"I am terrified of him!" Dylan let himself say. He had hinted at his bad relationship with Michael in the past, but no real specifics were ever told. "Being in a relationship with him was one of the worst things that has ever happened to me because of how I was treated. I can't..."
"Hey," Henry's voice was now soft compared to before, "I told you that I was going to help you, and I am determined to keep that."
"Being seen with you puts you in danger."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. It's my life and I can make my own decisions, and this is my decision."
"If something happens to you, I'll never forgive myself." Dylan could barely speak at this point, his voice extremely quiet.
"Then I won't let anything happen to me." Henry extended out his arms. "Come here." He brought Dylan into a hug, but it didn't last long. Dylan pulled away after a couple seconds, an apologetic look on his face.
"I have to go." Dylan pushed back Henry, and this time Henry let him.
"Text me when you get home, I'm serious." Henry turned to the other boy who was halfway out the front door.
"I don't know." That was the last thing Dylan said before closing the door behind him.