"Thank you, Carly. What's the half-drawn heart mean, though?" I asked. Carly smiled, pointed at me, then pointed at her eyes. "Are you trying to say 'you'll see'?" I asked. She nodded. I assumed she was working on a second drawing of a T. Rex. I pulled out my phone to ask Jackson where he was when the doorbell rang. I quickly went to open the door. 

Jackson was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. His blonde hair was soaked. "You're late," I sighed. "Why is your hair soaking wet? It's freezing outside."

"Well, I was at the gym, then I noticed that it was 5:15. I didn't want to come here straight from the gym, because I would smell bad and be all sweaty and gross. I drove home to shower, and by the time I got out of the shower, it was already 6," Jackson explained, following me to my room while he explained himself. 

When we got to my room, I set the T. rex drawing on my dresser. Jackson picked it up. "Oh, that makes so much sense now," Jackson commented. I looked at him, confused about what he was talking about. He rummaged through his backpack before pulling out a sticky note the same color as the one that Carly had just given me.

"What does?" I asked. Jackson handed me the sticky note. It had a drawing of a Velociraptor with the other half of the heart. "Why a velociraptor?" I asked. 

"The first night I was here, I told her my favorite dinosaur was a Velociraptor. Yesterday, when I was running out the door, she handed me this sticky note. I was more confused about why there was only half of a heart. To be honest, I'm still a little confused, even with both of the sticky notes," Jackson shrugged, sitting on my bed. He seemed more comfortable moving around my room now. I think the half-heart is because my mom thought we were dating, so Carly thought we were dating when she gave him his sticky note, but I didn't want to tell him that. 

"No idea," I shrugged, handing him his sticky note. He took his clear phone case off, stuck the sticky note on the back of his phone, then popped his case back on. I stared at him. "What? Velociraptors are epic. Have you seen any movie with a dinosaur?"

"T. rexes are cooler," I responded, putting my sticky note in my phone case as well. 

"Well, now it looks like we have matching phone cases," Jackson commented. 

"Well, we sort of do. Besides, nobody will notice or care. Are you ready to finish Monsters of the Valley?" I asked. 

"Absolutely, but there is one more thing I need to say before we finish the game," Jackson responded. He suddenly looked nervous. "Um, it's about Lara's question. If someone asks you a question about yourself, how do you know what the answer is?" 

"Well, the question is about yourself. The answer should be easy," I responded. Jackson fidgeted with one of the blankets on my bed. 

"What if the question isn't as easy as it should be?" He asked. I sighed. 

"Look, I can't exactly help without knowing more about what the question was. You can always talk to Lara about her question, but I can't help unless I know more," I responded, trying to remain patient. 

"Never mind, just forget about it. It really isn't that important. As you said, the answer should be easy. Can we play the game now?" Jackson asked. I handed him a controller and booted up the game. If he didn't want to talk about the question, I wasn't going to make him. 

The game's main menu had loaded, and I was about to load our save. "I hate this," Jackson muttered. I set my controller down and turned to face Jackson. 

"Hate what?" I asked. 

"How Lara's question has me questioning everything I thought I knew about myself. God, her question should be easy. Why is it not easy for me to answer?" Jackson ranted. "I- Let's just play the game. I don't want to think about it right now." 

"Okay," I responded, hitting the start button. We were back to trying to defeat the personification of the fear of being alone. We had to work together. Somehow, this seemed like a harder challenge than it did last night. I was wrong. We beat it on our first try of the night. Jackson would occasionally tell me when to hit, and I quickly responded. 

Jackson paused the game, and I turned to look at him. "Can you grab me a water?" He asked. I nodded, slipping out of the room. I could tell he needed space. I grabbed us a few water bottles and heated up leftover pasta from last night, bringing them back upstairs. I made sure to take extra time to give Jackson some time alone. 

When I went back into the room, Jackson took a water from me, then looked back at the TV. "Ready to resume?" He asked, as if nothing had happened. "I was thinking we could take out the harder monsters now that we have a lot of XP points, and hopefully beat the game." 

"Yeah, let's do it," I responded. We beat several more monsters before we had only two monsters left. One was the personification of abuse, and the other was the personification of depression. We chose to face the personification of abuse first. Jackson set his controller down, and I turned to face him. 

"I'm going to run to the restroom. You can defeat this monster by yourself. I've seen the cut scene before," Jackson explained, slipping into the restroom. I resumed the game and beat the monster by myself. It was a little difficult to beat it by myself on a multiplayer save file, but I already knew all the monster's weak points. Jackson returned as soon as the boss battle was over. 

We went on to face the final monster. "I heard that the end scene has a small difference if you play multiplayer," Jackson commented, as we fought the final boss. 

"I've heard that too. I heard it's a small change, but I'm still interested to see what it is," I responded. After a few more minutes, we finally beat the boss battle. The end scene came on. It end scene usually portrays the main character living a happy life in a small house with a cute dog. The end scene this time was almost the same, except the main character was holding hands with a guy. "Aw, that's cute. The main character is in a relationship if you beat the game with more than one person," I commented. Jackson stared at the TV. 

"Are you ready to get started on our presentation now?" I asked, powering off my game console. Jackson checked something on his phone.

"I have to go. We can work on it tomorrow. See you later," Jackson mumbled, grabbing his bag and sprinting out of my room. I noticed his keys were sitting on my bed. I sighed, grabbed the keys, and went outside to find Jackson. He was standing next to his truck, rummaging through his bag. 

"Looking for these?" I asked, holding up his keys. he quickly took them, unlocking his truck. He then paused and turned to face me. 

"Hey, do you want to go somewhere with me?" Jackson asked, suddenly. 

"Where? I thought you had to go, and I would rather not get kidnapped. Also, it's freezing out here," I whined. Jackson climbed into the driver's seat. 

"Get in. It'll be a quick trip," Jackson responded, answering none of my questions. Despite my better judgment, I was curious. I climbed into the passenger seat. Jackson reached into the backseat, grabbed a sweater, and pulled it on. He turned his car on, turned on the heat, and then started to drive. "What do you know about stars?"

"Quite a bit," I responded. Jackson didn't say anything else. He continued to drive. Eventually, after a few minutes of driving, we ended up leaving the town. A few minutes later, Jackson went off on a gravel road. "Jackson, where are we going?" I asked nervously. 

"You'll see," He responded. We were in the middle of nowhere. 

"Are you planning on hurting me?" I asked nervously. I should have never trusted him. Why did I do this? I still had my phone in my pocket. I could call someone. 

"What? No!" Jackson explained, finally parking his truck. There was nothing around. "Come on," Jackson whispered, climbing out of the truck. I followed behind. He grabbed blankets out of the back seat, opened the bed of his truck, then climbed in. I did the same. He lay down, and I did the same. He took a blanket, so I also took a blanket. 

"Tell me about the stars," He whispered. I realized that we could see the stars perfectly. This was insane. We were in the middle of nowhere, staring at the stars. 

"Um, okay. Well, that's Orion right there. You see where I'm pointing?" I asked. He nodded. I continued, pointing at different stars and constellations, and telling him about each one. He never once interrupted me. We stayed out there for about thirty minutes before it became too cold. 

He drove me home and dropped me off in silence. It was a comfortable silence. He seemed calm. I walked in the front door, and my mom was immediately there. 

"Where did you go?" She asked. I shrugged. "Marco, you're an adult, and you are free to make your own decisions. I was just curious. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," She added. I told her where I went, she listened, then she said nothing in response.