As time passed, I started becoming closer to Mason. We were very much alike. We started hanging out on our own, without the rest of the guys. It was better that way, because then we could talk for hours and hours on end. I never brought up the weird men in the woods though, never again. I realized that it was something personal for Mason. He had a strange connection to these men and I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed better to leave it alone.

“So, what are we going to do today?” Mason asked me, as we walked to school.

“I haven’t really thought about it, what do you want to do?” I asked.

“Why don’t we go get smoothies?”

“Is that really your best suggestion?”

“Yeah, why? Do you not like smoothies?”

“I prefer milkshakes myself. What’s the point without ice cream?”

We got to the school and still hadn’t decided what we wanted to do.

“We’ll continue this conversation after class,” Mason said.

I didn’t have classes with Mason for the first half of the day, so I didn’t see him until lunch.

The bell rang and we all got up from our seats and walked out of the classroom with our things. I walked to the lunch room and headed for our usual table, expecting Mason to already be there as he usually was. Fernando, Jett, Sebastian and Giampi were already sitting at our table, getting out their food.

“Yo, where’s Mason?” Jett asked, looking around.

“Not sure bro. He’s pretty late, isn’t he?” Fernando replied.

I tugged on my hair nervously. After all I'd seen with Mason, it was hard not to worry. Maybe those men somehow got him. What was happening? I looked at my watch. Fifteen minutes had passed and no sign of him.

“I’m going to go look for him,” I announced, getting out of my seat and heading for the exit.

I walked down the long halls, past lockers and classrooms. I came to the office and opened the door. It was a small room with a desk in the middle and two doors that led to two other offices. A woman sat at the desk, drinking her coffee and working on her computer.

“Excuse me?” I said, looking at the lady nervously.

She looked up from her computer.

“Hi, Chris, what can I do for you?” she asked with a smile.

“Do you know if Mason is in one of those two offices?”

She adjusted her rimmed glasses on her face, brushing her curly hair back.

“No, Mason has not been in here all morning,” she said.

“Sorry for disturbing you,” I said, backing away quietly.

Once I reached the outside of the office I broke into a sprint. I checked classroom after classroom, seeing if he was in there. Something terrible must have happened, but what was it and where was he?

Finally, the only place to look was outside in the courtyard. It was a large area, with a basketball court in the middle of it, trees surrounding the school’s fence and a small soccer field in the corner. I sat down on the steps that led down and began to think.

Where could Mason be? I thought to myself. Something clicked. I remember, when I used to be bullied, I was brought to a small area at the back of the school. I walked towards it. There was a fence lining the boundaries of the school. It wasn’t very tall and the barb wire was gone. I hopped the fence and walked around the corner to see Mason, sweating heavily, not wearing a shirt and blinking against a rapidly swelling eye. He was standing in a corner, his fists up. Two kids approached him slowly. It was the kids that popped the balloon in my face the day I met Giampi.

“Mason!” I called out.

He turned to look at me. “Stay out of this, Christopher!!”

I was confused.

“Like he said, stay out of this, Christy! Your little friend here tried ruining a little surprise we had for you,” one of the boys taunted.

At that time I had no idea what was going on. Later, I learned that Mason had been walking down the hall when he overheard those two boys talking about how they couldn’t believe someone like me could actually have friends. They decided I didn’t deserve to be happy. They planned how they were going to blow up a huge balloon and pop it in my face.

Of course, it wouldn’t have bothered me because I had gotten over my fear, but Mason couldn’t stand how they were treating me. He told them to meet him after class so he could “kick their asses”. I learned the names of the two boys. Oscar, had short, dyed-blue hair, blue eyes and a crooked, nasty smile. Will had shockingly white hair, (also dyed) brown eyes and the same wicked smile.

“I don’t know what’s going on here but this isn’t right! It’s two against one, that’s not fair!”

“What you gonna do about it?” Oscar asked.

Oscar had a bloody lip and some bruises on his face.

“He won’t do anything, he’s weak!” Will said.

Will had bruises on his arms and his shirt was ripped at the collar.

“Weak you say?” I said, huffing.

I ran towards Oscar, fist outstretched. I had never been in a fight before so I didn’t know what to do. I immediately found myself on the ground, looking up at the sky.

“Can you believe this kid he-”

Oscar was cut off by a punch hitting him in the face. He fell and landed next to me. I got up and looked in the direction that Mason was in. He and Will were in fighting stances circling around each other. I moved to help him but someone pulled me back. I turned around to see a fist in my face. It was Oscar, he had woken up from his temporary daze.

The punch had sent my glasses flying off my face. I couldn’t see much of anything. I was pretty much blind without my glasses.

I tried getting up from the ground but Oscar sat on my chest and started punching me over and over. He pinned my arms under his legs. I took blow after blow after blow. I was scared that I was about to die. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to drink milkshakes with Mason, hell, I’d drink a smoothie with him!

I heard Mason calling my name in the background. He couldn’t help me, he was fighting with Will.

You know you’re being a burden to Mason, right? A voice said. Everything was getting darker and I could hear the voice more clearly as everything darkened. He might have had a chance to win if he had been alone, but you had to come and ruin this for him.

I’m not a burden! I said, replying to the voice angrily.

Then prove you’re not.

The darkness faded away and I was back into reality. I freed my fist from under Oscar’s legs and hit him with an uppercut. He fell back, out cold. I turned to look at Mason. Will and Mason had each other around the neck, struggling to stand. I ran to Will and with all the force I had, I punched him in his head. He fell back. Mason ran at him and kicked him one more time.

We both were breathing heavily. I bent down and picked up my glasses, surprised but glad that nothing had happened to them. I was lucky. While I was looking on the ground I spotted Mason’s shirt. I picked it up and handed it to him.

“Thanks,” he said.

We stood in silence for a moment until I said, “We should probably leave before they wake up.”

He nodded.

We headed over to the fence and jumped over it. As we walked back into the school, Mason said:

“Thank you, for helping me. I couldn’t have beaten them without you.”

I smiled at him. “Anything for my best friend.”

His eyes widened. “B-Best friend?”

“Yep.”

We arrived at the cafeteria. People stared but said nothing. We sat down at the table like nothing was wrong.

“Dudes, what happened to you two?” Jett asked, eyes wide with shock.

Sebastian let out a little laugh.

“We got into a fight,” I said, smiling.

“Did you win it?” Fernando asked.

“Yeah, we did,” Mason said.

“Well, we can’t let the school staff see you or you’ll get in trouble. Let me drive you guys home,” Giampi said kindly.

“You have a ca-”

I started saying but was interrupted by Mason.

“I’ve never had an unexcused absence! What will I tell my mom?!”

Sebastian laughed. “Hey man, just tell her the truth!” he said.

“You’re right, she’ll understand,” Mason said, relaxing. “Well, I hope so anyway.”

“Well, let’s get you guys home!” Giampi said, getting up.