It was the Monday of the last week in September. Which meant the last week of detention. Which at this point was fine I guess, since my relationship with Tristan seemed pretty solid now.

As it turns out, Tristan was in our lunch period, he just never ate in the cafeteria. When I saw him in the hallway I had to practically drag him to meet up with the others, and he eventually gave in.

"This is Maylan," I motioned as we sat down, "and you know Leah and my brother Carson."

Carson reached over to do that little handshake that guys always know how to do with each other, "yeah I remember you." he said to Tristan.

"I remember you too. You were the brother that shoved me out of that tree in your backyard."

"Oh shit bro, I forgot about that."

"I didn't, I had a bruised tailbone for a good three weeks."

It's true. It was one of the times he came over to hang out at my house. Me and Tristan were playing out in the backyard when we decided to climb the tree together and Carson came out to join us. So the three of us were sitting up there, talking about why flamingos were pink, when Carson suddenly shouts, "A BEE."

And then the next second I saw Tristan on the ground, flipped on his stomach and holding his butt.

"I saved your life that day though."

"From a bee?" Tristan asked unconvinced.

"So for future reference, you would rather get stung by a bee?"

"I would prefer that over breaking my butt, yes."

I shook my head at them and Leah changed the subject, "Is Tate back in town?" She asked Tristan.

"Yeah he came in last night. Said he wanted to come get me from school today, but I think he just wanted to see you."

Hah, even Tristan knew.

Leah visibly blushed at this, "what makes you say that?"

"He knows I have detention after school. He'd said he'd come anyway and wait for me I guess." He shrugged.

I could almost see Leah silently tucking this information away.

"Hey we should all stay and wait for you two to get out of detention. It could be fun, we could mess around and go to the diner after." Carson suggested.

"I like that idea! We can invite Tate too." Maylan said.

I looked at Tristan to see what if he had any rejections and he didn't, so I agreed too. Leah didn't have to say anything, you could see it in her face that she liked the idea.

I sat myself next to Tristan in detention at the end of the day. It was time for a doodle since we couldn't really talk to each other.

Carson was my inspiration for this one. I drew the three of us at the tree that day. Me and Carson were still up in the branches and of course Tristan was lying on the floor. I had to give him a bubble butt to show the injury which I'm sure he would appreciate immensely. Then I drew a giant bee sitting with me and my brother in the branches and it was laughing.

I'm not gonna lie, I think my drawing skills were improving.

I folded the picture for him and he took it, already knowing what it was.

He took one look at it then dropped his head on the table in disbelief. I tried not laugh at him.

"Is everything okay back there Mr. Presley?"

"Yes sir," he kept his head down but stuck a thumbs up in Mr. Pennded's direction, "just fine."

I rested on the table, laying my head down on my folded arms, and waited for Tristan to poke his head back up. He only peeked his eyes out to look at me and I realized that it was humor that I saw in them.

I guess he liked my picture after all and I smiled to myself as he watched because making him happy made me happy.

——————————

Tristan and I were walking out to the parking lot together to meet up with our friends. Tate had come after all and he had been hanging out with the girls and Carson.

Somehow I just knew that Tate and Carson would be fast friends, and I was right. From a distance I could see them laughing like idiots together, and Leah and Maylan were laughing at them together.

"Tristan man where have you been hiding this fool?" Tate said as we came closer.

"This friendship scares me." Tristan said to me and I nodded my head in agreement.

Some of us drove separately but we had all met up at our local diner, where we never had to look at the menu because we came here so frequently.

My family discovered this place when I was about nine years old and I made my oldest brother Braedon drive me and my friends here a couple of times. And yes, that included Tristan once or twice.

We ordered milkshakes all around and a box of fries for the table.

We were having conversations about everything and nothing when the order came to our table. Tate took a french fry from the box and dipped it in his milkshake before eating it.

"Hey! I do that too." said Leah and Tate winked at her.

"My little brother does that," said Maylan, "He does a lot of weird stuff though, I think he's broken."

"Did you try restarting him?" Carson asked.

"Sadly, those instructions didn't come with his package." She replied.

"I can relate." I said sadly and then Carson socked a fry in my face.

We spent the rest of our time together talking about stupid things, arguing about even more ridiculous topics, but most of all, laughing.

and every time something funny happened I would look over at Tristan to make sure he found it funny too, and he did.

But every time he was already looking at me first.