:October 4th, XX46; Friday.

:NEW FRIENDS.

•~~~~•

"Maybe I should just start packing a lunch from home," Joe sighed out as he sat at his usual lunch table with his friends, dabbing his pizza slice with a paper towel. "The pizza is always so greasy and all the other food is just rock solid."

"I've thought about that too, but I really just don't feel like it," Sage pushed his tray away from him after he had taken a few bites of the food sitting on it. "I usually just eat a bunch for dinner to make up for my hunger now, anyways."

"I can never even eat the pizza because I don't like tomato sauce," Oliver frowned.

"Which is why I just let you have my dessert on these days," Joe smiled at him. Oliver smiled back, and whilst Joe was busy simping over his friend, Sage groaned.

"Ugh- so, the seniors in the drama club are all deciding what the fall play is gonna be now," he crossed his arms and leaned forward a bit. "And I can't sit in on the meetings because I'm a junior. I hate it so much. All the senior girls wanna do Legally Blonde, I heard, and there's pretty much no male leads in that."

"Well, I'll still be doing tech either way," Joe said, also crossing his arms. "As always."

"Maybe I should audition this year, I've been wanting to try that out," Oliver commented. Sage sat up straight.

"Oh my god, really? You totally should, it's so fun. Everyone is so nice and if anyone isn't I'll kick them in the throat so their vocal chords aren't healed by the time opening night comes around. If you do audition I'll put in a good word for you with the director."

Oliver laughed a bit. "Thanks, Sage. Oh, hey... Noah's in the drama club, isn't he?"

Joe blinked a few times. Noah... who was Noah? Eh, Joe probably had a class with the kid somewhere. There were too many people in their school to keep track of.

"Noah? Noah Garcia? Oh yeah, he is," Sage answered.

Wait, why was Oliver asking about some other kid?

Oliver smiled. "Oh, good! Well then it would be really fun with him and you guys combined."

Was Noah on the same level of friendship as him and Sage suddenly?

...Woah there. No. He didn't have a crush on him, did he? That's weird. No thank you. Oliver shouldn't be crushing on other people. Why did other people exist? Ew.

"Uh, how do you know Noah?" Joe asked, scratching the back of his neck.

"He's in my Spanish class, I don't know, he's just pretty nice."

"Oh... huh."

Well, Joe didn't like Noah now. For pretty much no reason. Well, there was a reason, but... whatever. Oh well.

•~~~~•

"Bye, Oliver!"

"Bye, Joe! Bye, Sage!"

Oliver ran up to his car and got into the passenger's seat, closing the door as he got in and throwing his backpack into the backseat from where he was sitting. Joe and Sage stood and watched his car drive off, before the two began on their usual walk home from school.

"I'm so glad it's Friday," Sage grunted. "But I still don't have a clue what that one thing was supposed to mean."

"What one thing?" Joe asked.

"The one I told you about earlier this week, one of my friends was supposed to tell me something I didn't know about them yet."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that."

"I don't know, still technically have tomorrow but not everything is meant to happen with people in this stuff. I don't really care, though. It's not a big deal."

"What's he talking about, then?"

Joe blinked and looked to his right, where suddenly, his Uncle Remy and Uncle Emile were walking right next to him. They startled Joe a bit, but at this point he was always half-expecting them to jump into his conversations out of no where.

"Oh, hey, you guys."

"...Hi, Joe?"

Joe's eyes widened when he remembered Sage was standing right next to him. Remy snorted.

"Uh... huh? Hi? I didn't say anything," Joe lied. Sage looked at him, half-smiling but obviously confused.

"I think you did, my guy."

"I didn't?"

"Is there anyone here with us or something?"

"No..? I mean, not that I know of, I guess."

"Okay, fine, fine."

Joe sighed, glancing to his right as Remy laughed again.

"Jeez, kid, you should know better than to just talk to us like that shit."

"Maybe he should just tell Sage we're here," Emile commented.

"You think the kid would believe him?"

"I'm sure they've been friends for a while, he might."

Joe blinked a few times. Yeah, he wasn't sure if he wanted to do that. Sure, Sage would probably believe him, but it was such a weird concept that he could literally talk to ghosts. Or... maybe just specific ones? Joe had seen his Uncle Janus at this point too, was there anyone else he could see at this point? He didn't think there was anyone he was really interested in seeing, so...

"Oh my god, is that a baby squirrel?!"

Joe glanced over at his best friend and then over to where he was looking, somewhere in the grass behind Remy and Emile. Joe noticed a small, baby squirrel sitting in the grass next to it's mother. Sage began rocking up and down on his toes excitedly.

"I'm gonna go get a picture of it," he beamed as he started to walk forward, right through Remy who shuttered at the feeling.

"Oh my- Sage, you're gonna scare it off!"

"No I won't, I'll be still!"

"Since when are you able to be still for more than three seconds?"

"Right now!"

"The mom's gonna attack you."

"I'll be fine!"

Joe decided not to say anything else because at that point it would be yelling, and that would just terrorize the squirrel family even more. Joe watched as Sage knelt in the grass and tried to inch forwards, slowly.

"Your friend is very determined," Emile commented, smiling.

"Yeah, he really is," Joe responded, deciding Sage probably wouldn't be able to hear him from where he was.

"Ya know, going back to what Em said earlier, I think you should tell him we're here," Remy said.

"Why?"

"I dunno... he'll probably find out eventually if you don't tell him right now."

Joe sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Will he believe you? That's the most important factor," Emile asked.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. Probably. It's just a weird thing to say. But I guess he's been looking at his astrology stuff lately and is expecting one of his friends to tell him something new around now, so maybe this is supposed to be it."

Sage began running back to Joe at that point, so he shut up and just watched him run back to him.

"I couldn't get the picture, they ran off," Sage sighed, frowning. "They were so cute, too."

"Awh. Maybe they just weren't meant to be photographed."

"What is that supposed to mean?" The two kept walking.

"I don't know."

They were silent for a moment. Remy got Joe's attention and pointed at Sage to signify he should tell him about the thing, and so Joe sighed.

"Hey, so, uh... remember that thing you were talking about?"

"I talk about a lot of stuff, you're gonna have to be more specific."

"Hah- I meant the one where one of your friends was supposed to tell you something new around now."

Sage looked at him and smiled. "What, got something to tell me?"

Joe smiled back awkwardly. "...Don't laugh."

"Can't promise that."

"Well at least try to believe me because it's, like, really weird."

"Alright, that I can do."

"Like, really weird."

"Okay."

"Extremely... weird. Seriously."

"Then get on with it, dude," Sage laughed a bit.

Joe took a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah. So... remember my birthday when I walked into a wall at school?"

Sage laughed again. "Hell yeah I do, that's the funniest shit I've seen all year."

"Hey!- ugh, anyways. So I got a skateboard for my birthday, as you know, and I took it out for a ride that night."

"As one might do."

"And, so... I'm just riding it, right? And then I... well, I bumped into these two people."

"Interesting."

"...But I actually phased right through their bodies."

Sage slowed down his walking a bit at that point to stare at Joe.

"...Phased through them?"

"Yeah... uh, they were ghosts. And I could see them."

"Oh, wow."

"And one thing lead to another and now we're, like, sorta friends, I guess?"

"Is... is that who you were saying hi to, earlier?"

"Yeah."

"Huh."

They were silent for another moment.

"Well, you're right, that's pretty fucking weird, but I don't know why you'd lie about something like that so I'll believe you."

Joe sighed. "Okay, but you see, it doesn't really end there."

Sage smirked, a bit confused. "I can't imagine how it can be weirder."

"Right... so, remember when I found out the Remy guy was my uncle?"

Sage stopped dead in his tracks and slapped a hand over his mouth. Joe stopped walking too, and couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"Oh my god... don't tell me it's him," Sage laughed out.

"It, uh, it might be."

"And he's- Remy? Right now? Is he standing next to me?"

"...He might be."

"Tell him I said hi," Remy commented with a smirk. "Don't forget to tell him about Emile."

"He says hi."

"Uh... wow?" Sage was grinning in a slightly confused yet shocked way, hand back down at his side by now. "Wait, but you said it was two people, who was the other one?"

"His husband."

"...His husband?"

"Yeah, uh, his name's Emile. He's technically my uncle, too. They knew each other when they were kids and got married after Remy died."

"Damn, Joe, you're really a main-character type, aren't you?"

"He sure is," Emile commented. Remy nodded.

"I guess I am, yeah." Joe smiled.

"And-" Sage's eyes went wide. "-oh my god, wait. You said he was here now, yeah? Where is he?"

"He's standing at your right, why?"

"Uh, okay, so-" Sage turned to look in the direction Joe had told him, obviously trying to look Remy in the eyes but failing a bit because he was an inch taller than Remy but assumed Remy would be taller than him instead. "Can you tell me what time you were born?"

"...Excuse me?" Remy mumbled.

"You're looking above him, he's maybe an inch shorter than you," Joe laughed.

"You really didn't have to tell him that, you know."

"Uh- oh. Well- I just need to know exactly what time you were born."

"Why..?" Remy asked.

"He wants to know why."

"Because I like looking at the natal charts of the serial killers and other people we learn about at school but I can't find your time of birth anywhere on Google and I need it to know your ascendant sign."

"Sounds complicated. Shame my dad threw away my birth certificate after I moved out."

"...He doesn't know."

"Awh, damn it- wait," Sage looked at Joe, "he's your father's half-brother, right? They were born on the same day? Uh, Remy, do you know at all if you would be older or younger than him?"

"Wish I did."

"He doesn't."

"Damn. Well, Joe, if you can get me your father's birth time then I can just use that because they're probably only an hour at most apart. And I don't think that'll change it too much, it might but I'm not sure, I'll just have to look at it a few different ways."

"You're really into this, aren't you, Sage?"

"Hah- yeah, I guess I am. I just really like this stuff."

"So... are you still confused that I can literally talk to dead people or are we over that now?"

"Ah, no, it's still pretty confusing but clearly if you're talking to him then he probably exists. Not like there'd be any way to give me proof either way."

"I mean, technically if he passed his arm through you, it would just feel like cold air."

Joe looked over at Remy, who rolled his eyes and waved his arm through Sage's torso for a few seconds. Sage shivered, and then grinned.

"Holy shit, that's freaky!"

"A little bit," Joe chuckled.

"How often is he and his husband usually around you, then?"

"A lot, since we met, mostly. He just kinda says passive-aggressive shit every once and a while and then tells me stuff about my parents."

"True that."

"Well I guess that's pretty helpful. Oh- there's my house up ahead, I gotta go. I'll text you this weekend, bye, Joe!"

Sage began to run across the street and to his house, and Joe waved after him, watching until he got to his door and inside.

"...Well, he is sure something," Remy mumbled.

"A little bit," Joe agreed, smiling.

•~~~~•
about time he found out, smh

see ya in the next chapter!💭
~Maxx(SanderShipper)