We spent the night with everyone, watching a movie none of us really cared about. Cara, Wyatt, and Evan returned to their dorms so we wouldn't risk anymore detentions.

"Hey," Hal said, grabbing my shoulder as I headed for bed.

"What?" I asked.

"It's...It's going to be okay," he said. "It is. I promise."

"Don't do that," I said softly. "Don't promise that, Hal. We don't know if we can keep that promise."

"I damn well will," he said, eyes fierce. "Fucking watch me."

There was a knock on our door and we stared at each other in confusion. I went over to the door and cautiously pulled it open, dreading I'd see Caroline on the other side.

"Jordan?" I said in surprise. Well. Hadn't been expecting that.

"Can I, uh, come in?" he asked. He'd ditched his uniform for shorts and a hoodie.

I stepped aside and he came in, shutting the door. The Blues probably wouldn't give him trouble for being here so late, but it was still probably best if he said what he needed to and left. If they were willing to give Evan detention, none of us were safe.

Jordan eyed me. "Tell me what happened. Please. I want to help."

I wanted to be mad at him. But I couldn't be.

How could I? We'd had a fight. We'd gone our separate ways.

But when he saw me in a bad spot, he came to help.

So I told him everything, and watched genuine grief hit his face as I spoke. Hal leaned against his bed, eyeing Jordan warily.

"And that's the run of it," I finished.

"Christ," Jordan said, running a hand through his hair. "God, Griffin, I'm sorry. Would talking to your grandpa help? Maybe he could convince your dad."

I shook my head. "No chance of that. Grandpa's mentioned I should move with my dad a few times before. I'm sure he'd be all over this idea."

"We'll figure something out," Jordan said, reaching out to put a hand on my shoulder. His expression was troubled. "I know we had that fight. I know we've been...weird, around each other. But I want to fix things. You're my friend. And I'll help you, whatever you need."

I was tired of fighting all the time, so I reached out and pulled Jordan into a hug. He was surprised, not much of a hugger, but put his arms around me. You had to be a hugger if you were going to be my friend.

"We're good," I said quietly.

"Yea, I see that," he said, smiling a little and pulling away from me. "See you at lunch tomorrow?"

"You know where we sit," I said, returning the smile. "Thanks, Jordan."

He looked to Hal. "Hal? We good?"

Hal shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "I guess we were only bad because I didn't want to hear the truth. For fuck's sake, yea, we're good, Jordan. But piss off if you think I'm hugging you."

"No arguments on that," Jordan said. "Goodnight, guys. I'll see you tomorrow."

He left our room, and Hal and I got ourselves to bed. I laid in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling, trying not to think of what my life would be like without them.

I didn't have a lot of friends. I wasn't very good at making them.

But when I did make friends, I didn't do it lightly. My friends weren't there to kill time when I was bored. They became part of my life. Part of me. I didn't have a lot of family interaction, so my friends became integral to me.

"Hal?" I said, knowing he was still up. I could hear him tossing and turning.

"If you're going to say something sappy about our friendship, shove it. We're not getting separated," Hal said.

"Alright. Then I'll just tell you to keep it down over there," I said.

"Fuck you," he said. He paused and started to laugh. "Remember that sleepover when we were eight? We'd gone to my Uncle's house, and he let us watch that scary movie. My parents had no clue. And you slept over our place that night, and we thought there was a serial killer in the room and started screaming our heads off."

I laughed at the memory. "And it was just your dad coming to bring us extra blankets because it was cold. Him and your mom set up blankets on the floor and slept in front of the door to make sure no one could come into the room and hurt us."

"Thought my dad was going to beat my Uncle's ass for that one. He monitored what we watched like a freaking hawk after that," Hal said.

"But we still snuck that episode of that show your mom liked. The one that had the sex scene in it, and your parents had to sit us down and have the sex talk with us," I said, laughing harder. "God, how mortifying was that."

"I don't even want to think about it. Go to bed," he said, muffling his laughter in his pillow. "Night, Griff."

"Yea, night," I said, smiling fondly at the memories of our childhood.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up curiously. Anika's name flashed on the screen and I pulled the covers over my head.

"Hey," I answered, voice low so I wouldn't bother Hal.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't sleep well," she said. "I just finished a really good book."

"Tell me about it," I said.

So she did, and I listened to her voice and her enthusiasm. Her love for people who weren't even real, and her theories on the metaphors in the book and what everything was supposed to mean.

I closed my eyes as I listened to her, knowing she was doing this to help me keep my mind off everything else. It brought a smile to my face and an ache to my heart.

She was willing to wait for me to find myself. How could my dad take me away before I did?

"Anika," I said softly as she searched for a quote she wanted to read to me. "Thank you. For calling."

"You don't have to thank me for caring about you," she said.

"Guess I'm just stupid like that," I said.

She laughed quietly. "Have you met my brother? He's stupid, and I still love him. You're good."

She read quotes to me and I fell asleep to the sound of her voice.

***

We behaved the next day. Kept our heads down and our mouths shut, even Hal.

By the time we got to lunch, I was back to being on edge and ready to jump out of my own skin. But seeing Jordan waiting at our usual table, and the smile lighting up Wyatt's face at the unexpected addition, eased me a bit.

"Hey," I greeted as I sat with them.

Cara and Evan joined us not long after, and the easy routine of arguing over food and shit-talking the teachers helped even more. It felt almost normal.

Except for Evan.

Evan was trying to keep up his usual easy conversation and smile, but I could see how strained he was to do. The smile didn't reach his eyes, and he was quieter than usual.

I kicked him under the table and he looked at me. He looked exhausted, and I felt horrible. Anika knew I was upset, so she'd called to take my mind off things. No one had done that for Evan.

I should've. I should've been a better friend.

He thought I was a good person, and I just kept proving him wrong.

My phone buzzed and I looked down at the text from Anika. She'd invited me to bring all my friends into town for dinner tonight.

"Hey, dinner date tonight," I said, showing my friends the text.

"Not at Denny's?" Wyatt said hopefully.

"Nah, that sandwich place," I said.

Wyatt whooped triumphantly at that news. I glanced at Jordan, expecting him to say no since we'd be sneaking off campus and meeting with the twins.

But he surprised me by nodding. "Sure. We can all meet up at the hill and walk together."

"Fine, but if Thevan is there and he tries to talk to me, I will promptly rip his mouth off and he can occupy himself sucking his own dick," Hal grunted.

"You're so pleasant," Evan said. "But I can't risk missing that. I'm in."

"I'm not eating dinner alone here like some loser newbie," Cara said. "Count me in."

When lunch was over, I caught Evan's arm and pulled him to the back of our group. "You okay?"

"Hanging in there," he said. "You?"

"Hanging in there," I echoed.

He slung an arm over my shoulders. "We'll get through it. You know that, right?"

"I know it," I said. My friends were rallying around me. I would be okay. Somehow. I had to be. "Thanks, Evan. For everything. I'm almost glad you decided to bug me."

He grinned a little. "Almost?"

"Don't get too full of yourself," I said.

He laughed and let his arm drop from my shoulders. "You've got some really great friends, Griffin. No matter how this plays out, I hope you always remember that."

"I will," I said. "Man, we're all getting so sappy. I miss the days of the stupid clan."

"The easier times," Evan said.

We went our separate ways for class. When class ended, Cara followed Hal and I back to our dorm to do homework until it was time to meet the others.

And when we went to the hill, Jordan, Evan, and Wyatt were waiting for us. We helped each other down the hill, and I couldn't help but feel like this was going to be it. Our last big night out together.

         "Hal," I said, moving closer to him as we walked. "Do you feel it?"

"Shut up," he said. "All I feel is a burning in my thighs that tells me I should hit leg day with Cara next time."

"I mean, yea, that too," I said.

         He lightly punched my arm. "It'll be okay. No one is taking you from us."

"You can't stop him," I said quietly.

"Stop," he practically begged. "Stop. I know I can't. I know that, Griffin. I feel it, okay, I do. Like this is it. And if this is it, I don't want to spend the night thinking about losing my brother. So please, can we just...can we just pretend for tonight that everything is going to be okay?"

I forced a smile, because I hated to see him upset. "I know, right? Who else is going to steal from your snack stash."

"You...You fucker! You're the one who took my Kit Kats!" he said, glaring.

"Guilty as charged," I said, and dashed away to hide behind Evan and Cara. "Save me."

"Out of my way so I can kill him," Hal demanded.

"Nah, not until after dinner," Evan said.

"After dinner, I'm murdering you, and no one is stopping me," Hal informed me. "I will pry my Kit Kats from your intestines in front of everyone."

"Just leave my sandwich in there," I said. "I don't want to lose my final meal too."

"Fuck you!" he said.

We made it to the restaurant with no murder, and Anika and Thevan were waiting for us at a table. We claimed seats, Wyatt fighting not to be pushed to the end of the table this time.

It felt like a final meal together. It hurt inside. But if this was it, then I wasn't going to waste a second of it.

"So he's officially part of the group?" Thevan asked, nodding to Evan.

"Yep. Here to stay," Evan said.

"He bothered his way in," I said. "Nothing to be done about it now but endure it."

"That's his way of saying he's fond," Wyatt said.

"Sorry, did I ask for a translator?" I said, balling up my straw wrapper and throwing it at Wyatt's face. It bounced off his nose and he flinched back in surprise.

"Hey! Don't be a jerk," he said, pouting.

"I'm sorry, did you notice who you were talking to?" Jordan said.

              "Yea, a jerk," Wyatt grumbled.

I stared at him for a moment, realizing that after this year, he'd be by himself regardless of what happened. We'd all graduate, and he'd only be moving into the ninth grade.

"Hey," I said to him. "I was thinking about next year. If you're in Mrs. Krammer's rotation, name drop me. She loved me, and once gave me a 100 on a quiz I never even took because I'm 'a smart boy and probably would've gotten the 100 anyways'."

"I remember that!" Jordan said, scowling. "She also once excused my late homework because you lied and told her you'd been upset and asked me to come over and keep you company. I didn't even see you that night."

"But it helped you," I said. "You're welcome!"

               "Griffin totally pimped out his privilege," Thevan said. "One time I forgot to write an essay so Griffin told my teacher that I'd asked him to proofread it for me and he'd lost it, and I got an extension on the due date."

               "Yea, one time I bombed a quiz and Griffin convinced my teacher it was because I was so upset about my cat being hit by a car the night before. I've never even had a cat. Thevan and my dad are allergic," Anika said.

         "He's a good guy," Evan said, giving me a smile that reached his eyes this time. "Looks out for his friends."

"He showed me all the best places in the library!" Wyatt said.

They were all smiling at me now, and I felt...good. I felt a smile coming to my face, beaming at my friends.

Maybe I wasn't a good man. But they all thought I'd been good to them, and that was all I needed to know. As long as they knew how important they were to me.

So we ate and talked and reminisced. Even Evan eased into a good mood as the night carried on.

It was a good night. It was a night of memories and laughter. A night of honesty and smiles.

And if it was the last night I got with all of them, it wasn't one I'd ever regret.