"Yo, Tom Sawyer!" Someone called from behind me. I turned to face the offender, and was not shocked in the slightest to see Dennis stood beside his friends. The sharp edges of his face were always softened by the naturally dumb look he seemed to carry like a badge.

"Should I even bother asking if you know who Tom Sawyer is?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

A pound smirk lit Dennis' face. "I have no clue."

At least he was confident in his stupidity.

"Yeah, that's not surprising." I rolled my eyes as I turned to join Millie again, but he seemed to have other ideas for me.

"Wait, Sawyer!" Dennis called again.

I sighed loudly and turned back. "What?"

"We need you over here." Sam cut in, effectively gaining my attention. All they had to do was let Sam do the talking, and I wouldn't have been so opposed to doing as they asked. Not that they knew that, though.

I looked at Millie and shrugged, feigning nonchalance. In reality, I was silently praying that everything was okay. There was no reason as to why I would have to talk to them unless it pertained to Sam's situation.

Millie bore an annoyed expression on her face as she realized what it most likely had to do with. Pouting, I sent her one last apologetic look and walked over to the guys.

"What is it?" I asked, glancing at them all. Caden had a weird look on his face, Brian was silent and unreadable just like he always was, and Dennis was waiting patiently for Sam to talk.

Sam's face was also hard to read as my eyes shifted over it, which both made me nervous and calmed me down. Either something incredibly serious was going on, or everything was fine and the problem was minute.

"Hello?" I pressed, waiting for one of them to talk.

Thankfully, but also not, Caden spoke up. "Are you free tonight?" His voice was soft and remained its usual higher pitch, but there was something underlying.

I frowned, looking at them all with a skeptical expression. "Yeah, why?"

Dennis sighed, clearly unable to take the weird silence that was encapsulating them all. "It has to do with the situation."

That was what I didn't want to hear. I knew what this was about from the start, since they would never want to talk to me otherwise and Sam wouldn't engage with me within school grounds. A small part of me was still hoping that it was about something else.

"Is anyone going to elaborate?" My voice sounded almost exhausted. I was annoyed at them for dragging me into this, but I was even more annoyed with myself.

Finally, Sam spoke up. "Usually I wouldn't want to make you tag along, but if you are left alone, there is the possibility of them using you to their advantage."

"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brow and switched my weight to my other leg.

"They're watching." His voice was low. "If they see that you're alone and unprotected, they will probably kidnap you and find a way to get us to bend. Through torture and the like.

"Oh, fuck." I groaned, throwing my head back. Why did everything have to be so fucked? I heard Dennis snort when I did so, earning himself a glare from me.

"I know." Sam said. "But it's true."

It was then Caden's turn to pipe in. "And tonight we have to go see them. So you have to come."

While he was talking, I couldn't help but take notice of the way he was leaning against Brian's tall form. I had always known that they were really close, but I never bothered to observe it before. They didn't exactly strike me as a couple or anything, but certainly close friends.

"But... why?" I breathed, trying to make sense of everything. What was going on? There was something big that they weren't telling me, and I couldn't take the silence.

"Meet me in my car after school." Sam told me, his hazel eyes looking directly into my dark ones. "I'll fill you in."

Seeing him directly address me like that made me feel a little bit better. At least he wasn't intending to leave me drowning in the dark. I sighed heavily, hoped for the best, and nodded my head briefly.

I glanced back at them one last time, before leaving to search the school for Millie.

•O•O•

"What is it this time?" Millie groaned from beside me.

I lifted the beaker up higher so that I could properly see how much was inside. "What are you on about this time?"

"You know exactly what I'm on about!" She huffed, her head laid down on top of the cold counter with pouted lips, her fingers pickings at the corner of her notebook. Her pink cheeks were squished by the surface, the subtle waves of her dark hair fanning out around her gently.

I rolled my eyes and poured some water into the glass container. "You know I can't tell you. Also, we probably shouldn't talk about this here."

Millie sighed deeply for the eightieth time since we started our science lab a few minutes ago. I glanced at her again, feeling slightly guilty. It would feel so much better to tell her what was going on, but then I would feel even more guilty for bringing her into this and ratting Sam out. I had no choice but to let things continue on the way they were, as much as it tormented me. What hurt even worse, was the fact that I knew I was tormenting her as well.

I weighed the Frito chip on the balance. "You know that I'm sorry, right?" My voice was quiet.

I saw her look at me as though she didn't expect it. Her icy blue eyes trying to read me, searching for some sort of answer to the sick joke. "Are you? I miss you."

After stabbing the chip onto a pin, I set it down and looked her directly in the eyes, trying so hard to convey just how much I missed her too. "Millie, you have always been my best friend, my sister. I would never try to exclude you like this if I didn't have a good reason. I swear on my life."

A soft smile played on her rosy-glossed lips. "I'm just scared that you'll end up leaving me behind, Sawyer."

I leaned forward on the counter, giving her a smile in return. "You're not luggage to be forgotten."

She started laughing, and so did I. Even if she could be a little explosive at times and hard to convince, I still truly loved her. No one deserved to be happy as much as Millie Reynolds did. I wished that there was a way to express how much I cared about someone that would actually leave an everlasting impression, but alas, those sorts of things were not my forte.

"By the way, do you think we'll ever get to have a movie night again?" She mumbled, keeping her eyes focused on what my hands were doing.

I reached for a match. "Of course! It's just going to be a little while. I don't know how long, but it won't be that long."

That made the smile return to her pretty face. I always found Millie to be very pretty, with clear skin and bright blue eyes. Her hair was always shiny and wavy, and her cheekbones could rival Maleficent herself. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. No one could rival the Queen of Cheekbones.

My parents always thought that we would end up together, even when we were little. My dad was convinced that we were either dating in secret or that I was just too much of a pussy to ask her out.

In the famous words of our God, Micheal Scott: how the turn tables.

I wondered what my parents would say if they found out that I had kissed a boy on more than one occasion. Nor did I plan to stop. I didn't think that Mom would care that much, she was too sensitive to care. But Dad? It would either go down just fine and he wouldn't really care, or it would end horribly and bloody. Just thinking about the possible outcomes made me dizzy.

It wasn't that I thought that I would be with Sam forever. We weren't even technically together right then. However, he was still a boy, and so was I. Which meant something about my sexuality. I never even looked at another boy like that before, but who was to say that I wouldn't do it again?

"Earth to Soybean." Millie said, waving her hand in front of my face. I jumped a bit, trying to fish myself out of my sea of thoughts. "Did you hear a word I said?"

I blinked, racking my brain for even remotely knowing the answer. Why was I so dumb? Actually, please don't answer that.

"I asked if you're ever going to light that match, we need to get a move on." I quickly jumped into action, striking the match and lighting the Frito on fire.

We watched in silence as the thermometer steadily increased. I was very lucky to have Millie as my lab partner, even though she hardly ever put in any work. It seemed that I always ended up being the one doing everything, yet I didn't really mind. In fact, it was probably a good thing that she did that to me, because I was known for slacking off. It was nice to have a change in scenery for once.

Across the room, I could hear Sam laughing with Brian. I wondered which one said something funny. My mind automatically assumed it was Sam, but I was sure that Brian could have also done it. What was Brian even like? He was so secluded and quiet it was hard to make any predictions about his actual personality. All I knew was that he was incredibly tall, with olive skin and wavy brown hair. Maybe I could ask Sam about him sometime.

What was I thinking? I couldn't start relying on Sam out of no where like that.

Our whatever-you-call-it was so new and fragile, that I didn't really know how to go about it. We kissed, and we agreed to not tell anyone, but that didn't mean we were going to stop. So what did it mean?

Oh God, all of this thinking was really starting to make my head hurt.

Then there was the question of what was happening after school. It couldn't be good, which I knew, it didn't take an Einstein to figure that one out but still. Was it something serious? Like when they viciously attacked Sam and I on Monday? Or was it actually just going to be a mostly civil conversation?

Oh, who was I fooling!

Of course it was going to be messy, and of course it was going to fucking suck. I guess I was just going to have to suck it up and be a man.

"What's the temperature now?" Millie asked me.

I leaned down and read it out to her, once again taking note of Sam's laugh. How could someone be so carefree in school, and then return home to have the weight of his possible impending doom on his broad shoulders.

Wow, broad was kind of just thrown in there.

I didn't know how to feel about that.

Even my brain was against me.

Once Millie and I wrote down the number set and started making our calculations, she got up to get a calculator from the front of the room. I took the opportunity to steal a glance in Sam's direction. I simply couldn't help it.

When I did, our eyes instantly met halfway. Did he catch me looking at him, or did I catch him? Was it both? Did that make us both creeps?

However, after we had already been looking at each other for a few seconds, he took the opportunity to both freak me out and cause me to get all flustered.

He winked at me.

I whipped my head back to my paper, my heart doing a weird thing that succeeded in making me physically groan. Why did he do that to me? I prayed that my face wasn't red.

Then it occurred to me that someone could have seen it, so I braced myself for possible bystanders. But when I cautiously checked for any, everyone was fortunately focused on their own work. Why did I have to be such a drama queen?

Millie returned with a weird look. Did she see it? But when she spoke, I relaxed. "What's that look on your face?"

I rolled my eyes, shrugging. "Nothing."

But oh, my sweet Millie, it was so very far from nothing.

•O•O•