the moment you hold me
i missed you, i'm sorry
i've given what i have
i showed you i'm growing
the ashes fall slowly

Mr.Kitty
After Dark

•••••

  Sending in my two weeks notice felt unreal. The surprised look on my boss' face when I gave him the envelope with 'resignation' written over it felt unreal. Packing up my desk felt unreal. It was all the cherry on top of the 'is this really happening?' cake.

The 'is this really happening?,' as in, am I getting a new job really happening? Is this new job at Freddy's really happening? Is me going mentally insane really happening?

Yes, to all of the above, whether they were grammatically correct or not.

I kicked myself every day during those two weeks for accepting the job at the Pizzaplex. Now that I was away from the pretty neon lights, the happy smiles and the intriguing bots, I had a clear head, and my clear head was screaming 'STUPID BITCH' on repeat. Way to doom your own mental health, Y/n.

But it wasn't as if I could back out now, no matter how much I wanted to. I signed a contract. My head was theirs for the next year.

And perhaps I was pushed by a morbid sense of curiosity that had began to take form over the past two weeks; what would it be like, working there, in the centre of everything? Thrown right into the mix with no Michael to keep me on the sidelines. What horrific secrets was this version of the pizzeria hiding? Because it was inevitable, really - Freddy Fazbear would always drag those kid's corpses after them no matter what they did, what they looked like, or where they moved.

Just as the Aftons were inexplicably tied to the franchise, so were the murders.

I even felt myself get excited by the prospect of uncovering more about the murders and the paranormal phenomenon that had the souls stuck to the robots. Unravelling rolls of history, brushing away the cobwebs, falling back into a routine I never thought I'd use again.

Just... with one person this time, instead of four.

It was dangerous, I knew, because it always was whenever Michael pulled an alias and worked the night shifts. No matter how friendly those animatronics were, it was still Fazbear. There was a reason why he begged for me not to go near the robots. And now I had a job there - and not just any job. A job that's constantly around them.

Well. Suck my dick, Mike, I guess.

But the robots didn't seem to be haunted, just very advanced. They didn't have that eerie effect of making my skin prickle when I was around them and, absurdly, I even began to like them and their wide range of personalities. Never mind the fact that I only met them once.

Maybe Michael did release their souls? Maybe all of those kids had finally been put to rest? But even still, I couldn't be too sure. Even if they weren't haunted, I still had questions about the old animatrioncs that were haunted.

What I would give for some answers.

And suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the two weeks were up and I was waiting for Dennis in the packed lobby of the Pizzaplex.

It was a Tuesday that they brought me in on for my first day. Maintenance day Monday was pretty slow and there wouldn't really be anything for me to do, and Dennis insisted that throwing me into the deep end was the best way to learn at the Pizzaplex. I begged to differ but hey, he was the boss now, so I arrived and I waited and tried not to think about how bad of an idea this was.

Something nudged the back of my foot, startling me from people watching. I turned and found one of the cleaner bots staring at me intently with its mop on the floor. Its gaze was intense.

"Oh!" I figured out what it wanted - space - and stepped away from my spot. It immediately began to polish the tile where I was just standing. "Sorry."

It didn't respond and I began to feel a little silly for apologising. I suppose the staff bots didn't need a sharp AI like the Glamrocks but still damn, this place was advanced. How did they get so advanced so fast? I recalled there being a game that got major bank, but this was still insane.

"Y/n!" I turned at the call of my voice and found Elsa striding over with a great smile. "You took the job! Oh, I'm so pleased, Dennis really rated you."

"Hey, Elsa," I greeted with an unsure smile. My bag suddenly felt way too heavy with the supplies I thought I'd needed to bring. I hitched it back over my shoulder. "I'm just waiting for him now."

"He shouldn't be too far away, sweets," Elsa reassured. "He'll just be helping the team double check the atrium before the first show. Why don't you grab a coffee from Faz-Pad? I'll let him know you're waiting."

A coffee sounded heavenly after the restless night of worrying I had. I nodded with a wistful smile.

"That sounds lovely," I agreed. "Thank you."

Elsa grinned with such genuine happiness that had me blinded. There was also a hint of relief in her dark eyes - I could almost see the weight of extra responsibilities lift from her shoulders and balance onto mine.

"Not a prob," she replied. "I gotta dash, but I'll see you around, 'kay? I'm just a call away - once you get your watch."

Elsa departed after letting me through the ticket gates (she reassured me that the first thing I'd get from Dennis was my staff ID) and I was left staring at the gargantuan golden statue of Freddy. He towered above me like a damn god, holding his mic stand out as if it were a weapon. I felt both unworthy and slighted standing in his shadow.

This is a good thing. This will be good for me. I was sure of it. Maybe.

Faz-Pad was modestly packed. Stepping inside the little cafe gave me whiplash, however, as the soft ochre lighting and the sunburn orange walls was a far cry from the harsh neon lighting that covered the rest of the complex. I was grateful for the rest for my eyes - the bright lighting was starting to strain my vision.

I ordered my coffee (to-go, just in case) and found a seat that overlooked the lobby. I people-watched while I waited, seeing them mingle and chat and enter and leave Glamrock Gifts or the help centre.

I didn't hear the door to Faz-Pad open over the murmurings of the other patrons, but I certainly noticed when the chatter died away. I looked up just in time to see Chica making a beeline across the floor towards me, occasionally bumping into a table and making it screech on the linoleum. The ground shook beneath the robot.

I could only watch with wide eyes as Chica stopped before me and planted her hands on the table. Her beak was pulled into a wide smile - or what looked to be a smile. It was pretty ambiguous. She towered over me. My throat ran dry.

"There you are, chickpea!" Chica chirped happily. Her green triangle earrings swayed as she talked, unable to keep still. Did she have some kind of robot hyperactivity? "Dennis told me that you were here and I just had to pop by to say hello! Hello!"

I shook myself out of my stunned state and pulled a hopefully convincing smile. The patrons around us resumed talking. I could only assume that a Glamrock entering Faz-Pad to talk with someone was a regular occurrence given the nonchalance.

"Hello," I replied with a lift of my hand. Drake appeared not one second after, panting from running after the bot.

"Chica!" Drake chided between huffs. "What did I tell you about running off?"

"Oops!" Chica gasped before turning to her handler and clasping her hands before her chest in apology. "I'm sorry, Drakey! I just got so excited about saying hi to Y/n that I forgot our deal!"

I poked my head around Chica to send the two a confused look.

"Deal?" I echoed.

"Oh, yes!" Chica gushed as she jumped back towards me. "Drake lets me have a slice of pizza at the end of the day if I stay beside him at all times!"

Drake sent me a shameless grin. "I know she shouldn't really be having it, but it's the only way to get her to behave. Otherwise she'd be off in every direction at once, which goes against-"

"Policy number one," Chica interrupted with what was clearly a pre-recoded voice. "Animatronics must stay within twenty feet of their handler at all times."

"Straight from the horse's mouth," Drake chuckled. Chica shook her head to rid the programming and sent her handler a confused look. The feathers atop her head bounced.

"I'm not a horse," she said.

"Ah, no, Cheeks-" Drake began to try to explain before smiling in exasperated amusement when Chica got distracted by a server bot bringing over my coffee. He sighed and caught her wrist to keep her from following it back to the serving table. "Never mind. How you doin,' Y/n? Nervous?"

"Oh, big time," I grimaced as I cradled the hot cardboard of the takeaway cup. "I haven't even memorised the layout of the place, let alone what I'll be doing."

"Don't fret, chickpea!" Chica rushed to reassure. She patted the top of my head like I was a kid and I had to force myself not to tense up. "You don't have to be nervous! There's a lot of people around that you can ask assistance from. Drake and I can help you out with whatever you need the best we can, too!"

Even though I was shitting myself with Chica's hand on my head (I'd seen how strong the robots were and knew all too well that even just a little slip up could have my spine crushed like an accordion), I couldn't help but relax a little at her words.

I never thought I'd be getting my worries soothed by an animatronic, but there I was, and honestly... it was kind of nice.

"Are we having a little welcoming party?" Dennis asked as he approached the table that was quickly becoming a gathering place. "Thanks for saying hi to our newbie, Chica! You're a sweetheart."

"Aw, shucks!" Chica grabbed her cheeks bashfully. "Thanks, Dennis!"

Dennis smiled before saying something about a pre-show check, which made Chica and Drake hurry away. Dennis turned to me with a smile.

"First day! Got any jitters?"

"Not anymore." I held up my coffee. He laughed and clapped my shoulder, which almost made me drop my precious coffee.

"That's what I like t'hear!" he boomed with contagious joy. I could feel my anticipation and excitement building. His energy was infectious. "Let's get you to your office then, shall we?"

Dennis lead the way through the crowd to Rockstar Row. The green rooms were absent of the stars, which Dennis told me was because of the morning show about to begin.

"We always do a maintenance check before each show," Dennis explained as we threaded our way through the crowd. I was baffled by the amount of people there on a Tuesday morning. "It's mostly just superficial stuff that you'll be overseeing. Their full-sweep maintenance are on Mondays and there are more thorough checks each month, but you already knew that."

Dennis stopped outside a inconspicuous door hidden in the corner of the museum-esque hall. To the left was a window and when I took a peek, I found a tidy little office waiting there.

"Here's your home base," Dennis said as he swiped his card and opened the door for me to step inside and get familiar. "The bots don't have clearance to enter your office, so if you ever need a mental break from them - and don't be ashamed, we all need mental breaks - then you can hide away in here."

It was way better than my old office. It had already been decorated with Pizzaplex memorabilia, from posters to plushies and there was even a Roxanne Wolf throw blanket folded on the couch that had been pushed against the back wall. My old office felt beige. This one was eccentric and cozy.

"Here's your ID," Dennis said, picking up a card on a lanyard and passing it over. The cord, true to the complex's aesthetic, had the 80s arcade themed pattern of squiggles and triangles. The card itself was a boring egg white with nothing but my name and 'Talent Manager' on it. "You have up to level eight clearance, it'll get you where you need to go. You can also purchase lunches on your card - staff members get free access to food and drink while on the clock."

Free food? I knew taking this job was a good idea.

"This magnificent thing here is a Faz-Watch," Dennis said with a wide smile. He let me take the fancy-looking Freddy shaped watch from his hand and look over it curiously. "It will let you access a private server for the Pizzaplex. It's where you schedule maintenance, call members of staff and keep track of each star's schedule. Of course if the screen's too small for you, we also have the Faz-Tablet."

  Dennis gestured to a tablet waiting on the desk. It had the same orange ears as the watch did.

"Let me guess," I said with a faint smile as I looked at the computer. "That's the Faz-Computer."

Dennis frowned. "No, that's just... that's just a computer. Good joke, though."

My faint smile faded as embarrassment warmed my cheeks. "Oh." It didn't feel like a good joke.

Dennis continued after a small falter, politely grabbing the Faz-Watch from my grasp to demonstrate.

"The Faz-Watch also lets you open up communication with the bots directly, since they won't be carrying watched on them." He pushed a button on the screen and five little profiles showed up, each an animal that represented the Glamrocks. "You can open a private line or do a mass call." He then pushed a separate button and a little audio meter popped up, catching each peak of his voice. "Hey, guys! Just testing Y/n's Faz-Watch. Can you reply to me so we know if it's all working?"

A chorus of voices came at once, each profile lighting up to show who's talking. Freddy's remained silent.

"Freddy?" Dennis called with a strained smile. "Big guy? Can you hear me?"

After a short, awkward silence of us standing in the office doing nothing but waiting, the bear image for Freddy's profile lit up.

"... yes, I can hear you, manager Dennis."

"Oh, good," Dennis sighed. He ended the call and handed the watch back to me so I could strap it on to my wrist.

"Has Freddy been okay since he collapsed?" I asked as I adjusted the watch to fit comfortably. Dennis gave a so/so gesture.

"We're still trying to figure out what happened there," he confessed. "All his systems are working perfectly normal, but he's been kind of... distant lately. Mandy's been worrying her head off, poor thing. Keeps thinking that she somehow broke or upset him."

I frowned in sympathy. She did seem prone to panicking from that first time I met her.

"I think that's everything," Dennis said with an exuberant clap of his hands. "Any questions? Need me to go over anything again?"

Actually, there had been something on my mind for a while. I fiddled with the lanyard around my neck.

"I never got to ask this before and I know that Foxy's never been part of the main band, but where is he?" I asked. "Is he here?"

"Oh..." Dennis frowned. "I don't think they ever rebuilt him, actually. Honestly, I don't think management wanted to after what happened in '87. He got bit of a bad rep."

I slowly nodded. Made sense, but still, I found myself feeling a little down. I used to have a soft spot for Foxy.

Y'know, before I realised that he was trying to kill Michael every night.

Dennis then ran me through the general new-worker things, such as health and safety protocols, what behaviour was expected (swearing while on the floor was a big no-no! But Dennis reassured me that if I need to scream in frustration, the rehearsal room was a good place to go) and the general daily schedule that was always privy to change except for the show times.

By the time we finished, it was bordering on lunch. Dennis showed me his favourite place to eat (El Chips) and I got a chance to digest all this new information while digesting a beanless burrito that I'd been craving since the first time I took a tour of the Pizzaplex.

After lunch, Dennis showed me how to organise birthday parties according to the bot's daily schedules and how to book them in for emergency maintenance. My head was swimming with information.

"If you have everything else up to date, then what you do when you're not bookkeeping is just wander with the bots and their handlers," Dennis explained as we strolled through Monty Golf. The gator himself was helping teach a young group of kids how to correctly swing a putter and every so often, a chorus of laughter would erupt from the kids. I smiled at the sight. "Check on them in their own attractions and make sure that everyone's happy."

Dennis stopped at the bridge and leant on the railing as he watched Monty entertain the kids. Arty was chatting with a parent nearby.

"After closing, the bots like to decompress," he said. "They have very high-energy days, so even just chucking on a movie in the theatre where they can sit and do nothing will keep them happy. But if you really wanna make them happy, then they'd love to take you through their own attractions. Their handlers usually do it, but y'know, they always like fresh faces."

  Dennis' voice lowered to a dramatic whisper while staring at the gator. I leant in.

"He'll never admit it, but Monty gets real excited whenever someone wants to play golf with him. It's the best way to bring his mood up, especially if he's had a bad day."

I grinned and nodded seriously. "Noted."

After that, it was time for the second and last show of the day. Dennis took me through the maintenance tunnels that spanned the complex like a labyrinth and showed me one of the many ways that the team got to the stage. We arrived at a small section that spread out into a well-lit room. The platform that rose the animatronics to the stage was at the far end, waiting for its passengers.

"This is when we do our pre-show maintenance checks," Dennis said. "The handlers will be doing it, so you just need to hover and help when needed. There's some extra equipment and emergency spare parts in the room behind us, like claws or guitar strings. You'll also have the final say if somebody needs to be pulled from the performance."

The thudding of robot feet behind us alerted to the approaching band.

"You and Gabby have a little more experience in robotics than the others, so it'll be up to you two to do a double check on the band," Dennis said. "Can't be too thorough with these guys."

I nodded in understanding, trying my best to catalog and save all this information. Dennis must've noticed my overwhelmed expression, because he patted my back and sent a reassuring smile.

"Don't stress, take it easy," he said with an upbeat colour to his voice. "I'll be hanging around for the first two weeks until you're settled in and confident. You'll do great here, kid. I've got a good feeling about you."

A surge of appreciative warmth blossomed within my chest at his conviction. At least one of us believed in me.

"Thanks," I said quietly, genuinely.

"Champ!" Bonnie was the first of the Glamrocks to arrive and he waved a big, metal arm at me as he approached. Joey walked beside him and gave a nod in greeting. "Hey, pardner! You're here, welcome to the rodeo! Ready 'ta ride your first bronc?"

What? I sent Joey a confused look. He wiped a hand down his face with a tired groan.

"The band watched a Western the night before," he explained and he almost sounded in pain. "He's been like this ever since."

Huh. Wow, okay. Now I had an image of Glamrock Bonnie riding a horse at a rodeo with a cowboy hat perched between his long ears. A small, sly grin pulled at my lips as my eyes jumped to the bot.

"Does that make you a buckle bunny?" I asked.

  Bonnie paused before doubling over with a loud laugh. He grabbed Joey's shoulder to stabilise himself, who almost crumpled under the hand's weight.

"Please don't encourage him," Joey begged as he staggered under Bonnie's grasp. "I'm going insane."

"Oh, she's good, Joey!" Bonnie cried. "You should do a set with her!"

I shrugged. "Yeehaw, I guess." It only succeeded in pulling more high-pitched giggling from Bonnie and a groan from poor Joey. My grin grew.

"Hey, hey, Roxy, hey!" Bonnie called as he scooted away from Joey and towards the wolf, who just arrived. She raised her brows at the bouncing bunny. "Check out this joke newbie just made!"

While Bonnie assaulted the rest of the band with cowboy jokes as they arrived, Joey rubbed his shoulder with a wince.

"Dang, he's heavy," he grumbled. "Thanks alot, Y/n, now he's gonna be making cowboy jokes for another week."

I recognised the teasing edge to his tone and snickered, knowing that Joey wasn't being serious. Ah, the look on Bonnie's face was worth it, even if it was synthetic.

"Sorry," I said with a smile. Joey sighed in dramatic torment - he was just like his bot.

"You've made a great impression on him," Joey commented as we watched Chica giggle hysterically with Bonnie. "He really likes you."

I just shrugged. "He's only a robot."

"All the newbies think that at first." Joey shook his head in amused disagreement. I turned to him as he watched Bonnie. "I know you're still new here and're more familiar with the older bots, but these guys - they're nothing like the old animatronics. You'll notice it soon. They've got more sentience in them than you think."

I felt something in my stomach twist. Were they sentient from their AI? Or was it because of something a little more sinister? Something more on brand for Freddy Fazbear's?

"Do you know if these guys were built using parts from the old animatronics?" I asked. Joey pulled a face and shook his head.

"Beats me," he said. "You should ask Elsa or Jenkins, they've been here the longest."

I mentally noted that down. Because if the Glamrocks were built using parts of the old, possessed animatronics, then maybe it wasn't superior coding that made them act so alive.

"Ah." Joey pulled me from my thoughts. "There's Freddy. I hope he does better this show. He's been kinda low these past few weeks, poor guy."

I glanced over to the entrance to see Mandy and Freddy arrive. The young woman was anxiously biting her lip as she hurried over to Dennis and they both started Freddy's maintenance check together. The general manager would occasionally pat the her shoulder in reassurance.

"Poor girl," Joey sighed as Bonnie ambled his way back towards us with a satisfied smile from telling all his friends about the joke. "She's been losing sleep because of this. Nothing we can really do except wait it out, unfortunately. Anyway-" Joey sent me a smile and changed the subject. "Wanna have a go at doing our maintenance checklist?"

  "Sure."

Joey ran me through and reminded me what it was that we looked for before the performance while Bonnie played the perfect test subject. I noticed that he kept glancing Freddy's way, but when I looked over at the bear, he was simply staring straight ahead at a wall.

"Are you worried about Freddy?" I asked as I checked the connections to his wrists. Bonnie's eyes dropped down to me and when I caught his stare, I was momentarily astounded by the sorrow in his pink gaze.

"A little," he admitted. "But he'll be okay. He's a big bot."

I smiled a little at his confidence and turned to his fingers, which he moved smoothly. Joey was doing the other hand and listening in.

"Yeah," I agreed. "He'll be fine."

"Open chest cavity, please," Joey requested once his arms were all checked. Bonnie's chest opened with a hiss of a piston and a mechanical click. Before I could get stuck in on the internal checks, Dennis called me over.

"Come double check Freddy for us, please!" he requested. I gave a nod and thanked Joey and Bonnie for helping me out.

"Good luck for the show, Bonnie."

"Oh, little champ," he snickered slyly. "I don't need luck."

Joey muttered something about a 'smug bastard' while being halfway inside the chest cavity.

Freddy was still staring at the same spot on the wall when I wandered over, acting far more reminiscent of the old animatronics than the others. Mandy's eyes were flittering between Freddy's passive face and her fidgeting hands. I felt for her.

Dennis stepped back as I took his place in front of the bot. "Just double check the same things Joey showed you."

What a funny twist of events - suddenly, it was Freddy's stillness that was making me uncomfortable instead of the liveliness of the rest of the Glamrocks. I shook my head and took a step closer. Freddy towered over me by at least three feet and I felt tiny as I stood before him. He stared over me as if I wasn't even there.

"Alright, buddy," I began. "Raise your left arm, please."

Freddy raised it. The movement was fluid enough to be satisfactory, but it was done in a way that felt less natural than how Bonnie had. Still, I moved on. "Fingers."

Each finger moved without a hitch. I smiled and asked him to do the same with the other arm.

I felt a stare burning a hole in my back and glanced over at Joey and Bonnie. The rabbit was watching Freddy's still face with a look of concern. When he noticed I was staring at him, Bonnie quickly turned away.

Poor guy. He must really be worried.

"He's just not talking," I heard Mandy hiss in fear behind me, prompting me to return to my job.

"Look left," I instructed. Freddy mechanically turned his head. "Right." He looked to the right. I noticed then the little red ear piercing that wobbled with his ears and felt myself grin. Cute touch.

As I continued down the list of checks, I grew more and more concerned. With how Dennis, Mandy and Bonnie were behaving, this still robot act that Freddy was pulling was totally out of character. I thought of the same list of checks they did every time before a show and hummed to myself. Wouldn't that get repetitive?

  My gaze flickered up to his unresponsive face. I pursed my lips in thought.

"Do the Macarena."

Freddy's voice box spluttered and he finally looked down at me. "What?"

  That electric feeling shot through me, then. That magmatic explosion that I felt when I first saw the job listing. My breath shortened when his eyes landed on me for the first proper time.

  I almost had to take a step back. Whoa. What the fuck was that? Vertigo? My sleepless nights must've been catching up on me.

  I snapped my gaze from his with a blink and smiled over my shoulder at Mandy and Dennis. "He's speaking." 

Mandy and Dennis' worried conversation halted at my words and looked at Freddy, who was now staring at me instead of the wall. I patted the lightning bolt over his chest and he opened it, not needing an audial prompt.

"What day is it?" I asked as I stuck my head inside the chest cavity and checked the wires Joey quickly reminded me about before I had to leave.

"T- Tuesday." Freddy's voice boomed around my head, the enclosed space acting as an echo chamber. I ignored the stutter. At least he was talking, right?

"Favourite colour?" My fingers danced over the voice box and pulled a piece of confetti from where it was trapped there.

"... purple."

"Purple's a nice colour," I commented. My breathing quickened as I checked the familiarly built endoskeleton, muscle memory returning like a thwack of a whip - I could almost hear Michael's hushed instructions whispering in my ear. "Do you know Indiana Jones?"

"... I do not," Freddy finally replied.

"Well, now that's gotta change." My joking voice was stressed thin while Michael's grew louder. I could feel him suffocating my chest. Check the capacitors' integrity, make sure the pistons aren't clogged. You're doing so well, sweetheart.

I couldn't take it anymore. I yanked myself out of Freddy's chest cavity but miscalculated how low the lip of the opening was. The back of my head collided hard against the metal of his shell. I felt him flinch at my yelp.

"Oh, gosh!" Mandy exclaimed as she quickly rushed forth and gently guided me out while I swam in the murky throes of 'FUCK, THAT HURT.' "That sounded painful!"

My vision dizzily swam as the back of my head throbbed like Bonnie's drum pedal. But even worse, I felt totally embarrassed. I really did just do that on my first day, huh? Great impression, Y/n, stellar job.

"Are you okay?" Freddy's voice pulled Mandy and I to look up at him. He was looking at me again, face twisted taut with worry as his chest folded shut. "Do you require ice?"

"No!" I burst, not wanting to make it look like I was incompetent. I held back a grimace as my head ached in waves. "No, I'll be fine. Thank you, Freddy."

"I think-"

The lights lowered before Freddy could finish his sentence. The other animatronics passed by, headed towards the platform that would raise them to the stage. Freddy faltered with an unsure frown, one step forward but the other foot refusing to budge.

It was only when Bonnie slung an arm around Freddy's shoulders and pulled him away did the bear begin to move. I held my head with blazing cheeks.

When he stepped onto the platform with the rest of the band, he found my gaze again. That struck feeling from before returned. Electric. Magmatic.

"Alright," Dennis said as the stage's flooring opened and the screaming of fans and the backing track for the performance came flooding through. He patted my shoulder as we watched the platform begin to rise with Freddy still staring. "While I admire the tough guy act, let's get you some ice."

"Yeah," I distantly agreed as I tore my eyes away from Freddy. The stage swallowed him from sight. "Okay."

"Good initiative with getting him to talk," Dennis complimented as he steered me back down the maintenance halls. "Knew you were special."

I cracked a grin. "Thanks."

•••••

••• nineteen years ago •••

"Look at him. He's a delinquent."

  My eyes slid over the edge of my book at the giggling the group of girls before me were making. I surveyed them - the fast-friends, the ones everybody knew was going to be popular, and dropped my attention back to the words before me. 

It was the end of my first day at high school and I was sat outside on the rolling bank to the entrance of the school. A handful of students sat with me as we each waited for somebody to pick us up. The sky was an intense blue. The desert heat was all but stifling.

The girls giggled again and, irritated for being distracted, I followed their pointed fingers to a boy in a grey tank who sat slumped against a tree. He was distinctively and decidedly alone. Nobody for company, aside the unlit cigarette that he probably stole hanging from the side of his mouth.

My irritation faded. He looked familiar. Annoyingly so, because I couldn't think of where I'd seen him before. It was like a sneeze that wouldn't come, or an itch you couldn't scratch. A resolution just out of reach.

The messy brown hair styled in a mullet, tousled and probably self-cut, shuffled in the breeze. The line of his nose came into sight. I was almost kicking myself - who was he?

And then when he turned to send the giggling girls a vicious, frightening glare, I saw his face, and it hit me.

It was the boy from the hospital the night my father died.

Deciding that since I didn't have any friends and he looked just as alone as I felt, I packed up my bag and carefully walked my way down the bank towards the tree he'd claimed. It wasn't like I was going to be able to focus on my book, anyway.

  His teeth was chewing the cigarette to something unusable. I stared for a second, feeling a confusing twist of wariness and curiosity swell in my chest. He was the kind of boy my brother didn't want me to associate with.

"Hi."

The boy glanced up at me before wrangling his surprised look into something sour.

"What d'you want?" he muttered, before folding tighter in on himself. He chewed on his cigarette faster.

  I stuttered for a second, totally taken aback by the accent that came from his mouth. I remembered the scary face his father made, because it haunted my nightmares for the next few months. What I didn't remember was him being British.

"It's... Mike, right?" I asked after controlling my flounder. The book in my hand landed in front of my thighs as I stood awkwardly under the shade of the tree. "Michael?"

His eyes glared up at me again, suspicious. I didn't say anything else, too awkward to think of something, and he took the time to rove his gaze over my face.

  He had sour, hazel eyes - circles of deep blue and outlined by brown, stroked through with green amber. A dapple of sunlight touched one of his prismatic irises and it seemed to almost glow like a precious stone.

"Oh." The bitterness on his face softened for a second. "You're that girl. Y/n."

Pleasantly surprised that he even remembered me, let alone my name, I gestured to the spot beside him.

"Can I sit?"

He shrugged, uncaring. He rolled the cigarette over his teeth with his tongue as I settled beside him.

"I started reading the book we got assigned," I said, because I faintly remembered a boy with brown hair and a grey tank sitting the row in front of me in English class. I held up the novel. He gave it a disinterested peek.

"Well, aren't you just the class superstar?" he said dryly. Discouraged, I slowly lowered the book to my lap and turned my eyes down to the blades of grass sticking against my school skirt.

Wow. This was smart, Y/n. Talk to the loner boy. Best idea ever.

Michael side-eyed me and sighed. "Is it good?"

"What?"

"The book." He nodded at the novel in my lap. "Is it any good?"

"Oh." I looked down at the book - Of Mice and Men. A bookmark was already a bit of the way through from the hour lunch period I had spent alone. "I think it's been pretty good so far." I noticed his lack of school bag. "Do you not have a copy?"

"Nah."

"Why not?"

Michael shrugged. "Didn't want one."

I tried to wrap my head around Michael's way of thinking. He didn't want to, so he didn't take his copy? But it was school, we had to do the work. I was flabbergasted.

"Um... I only just started," I said as I brushed my thumb over the faded, smooth edges of the old pages. "I don't mind reading the first chapter again if you want to read it with me."

I felt silly as soon as the suggestion left my mouth. I leant my stomach more over my knees and expected his sharp retort of a denial, but once again, I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of grass shuffling as he scooted closer to me. Our shoulders brushed.

"Okay."

I didn't need Michael to tell me twice and risk annoying him when I was finally making a friend. I quickly flipped the book to the first page and held it up for both of us to read.

Michael's parents never did pick him up. We read in the backseat of the car while my brother drove to the Afton's home, engrossed together in the tale of two unlikely friends.