𝚂𝙰 ⋆ 𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 ⋆ 𝙰𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗

The energy in the van was getting weirder and weirder. Mo was the one acting off, and everyone knew it. The others definitely thought it was all about Danny, but it wasn't. Not everything was about Danny with Mo. She was a different sort of weird than how she was when she was angry. The Saskatchewan plains made the sunset drag on forever, and I inspected her movements closely as we all watched the sun dip deeper into the distant horizon.

Leaned against the van, parked in front of a cornfield. The moment was peaceful, but the energy was off. I always loved unpacking the mysteries of my friends. Sometimes when I tried to figure stuff out, I would find something bad, like with Wes's step-brothers. But, my morbid curiosity always won.

Isla spun around slowly, letting her skin soak in the last drops of sunlight. I watched Danny watching her, entranced. What an idiot. Wes started to imitate her, which made her laugh. She hadn't been around Wes long enough to find him irritating yet. They spun together and I felt Mo's head hit my shoulder. Her head was heavy, but I pretended not to notice. This was her way of reaching out to me.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝟿 ⋆ 𝚂𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔

Aiden had been dealing with it for a while by the time Spring Break rolled around. In his moments of clarity, he would hate that he was hiding from his friends. But, this hole wasn't one he could easily climb out of. He felt stuck.

During winter break of that year, after many secret counselling sessions with Mrs. Juma, Aiden's Father had finally conceded on the medication front. Aiden felt like slowly, a cloud was lifting from in front of him. He started to see more clearly. He started to miss his friends.

After more than half a year of barely hanging out with his friends, pretending to be tied up with homework, Aiden finally ached for them. He finally felt something other than the void. On the last day before Spring Break, Aiden decided to approach Wes.

His friends hadn't given up on him all this time. Though they had assumed his Dad had a tighter leash on him because of the incident at the water park, so they never pushed too hard. Aiden wasn't sure what he was going to say to his friends, but he knew he wanted to be around them no matter what. He just hoped they still wanted to be around him.

He found Wes by chance in the hallway during lunch. Wes was one of those people who would walk around the school until he found people doing something he was interested in. During lunch, Danny and Aiden always studied, and Mo always napped.

"Hey, Wes." Aiden said in a too-small voice. Wes's head snapped over, and he grinned his toothy crocodile grin.

"Long time no see buddy," He responded, wrapping an arm around Aiden's shoulder. It was as easy as that with Wes. No explanation was needed. As they started walking down the hall together, a voice rang out from behind them.

"Hey, where's the rest of the team?"

It was Chad Bowman. He was popular and tall, and he seemed irked by the fact that Wes wasn't particularly interested in his own squad. It was kind of sad. Wes turned around and shrugged, still unbothered. Aiden smiled.

"It's usually three guys and a sasquatch, right?"

Aiden felt Wes's arm tighten on his shoulder. Sasquatch was certainly a name that Wes had been calling Mo since third grade, but it felt dirty coming out of Chad's mouth. Wes had created that nickname when Mo came to school without her hair in braids, and it had poofed into a frizzy mane. Aiden watched Chad sneer, happy to get under Wes's skin for just a moment.

He turned back to his group of friends. "Have you seen this girl? No wonder he calls her sasquatch," Chad chuckled and Aiden's breath hitched in his throat, "She's so hairy, you seen her arms?" A few of his friends laughed in agreement. "That's why I don't mess with Mexican chicks, so gr-"

He was cut off, and Aiden took a few moments to realize why. Wes was no longer beside him, but standing over a cowering Chad. Chad was holding his hand over his left eye, groaning. His friends all scattered, presumably to get a teacher.

"Mention my friends again and see what happens," Wes seethed as Chad started to slide himself away, scared of further assault. Aiden ran to Wes, pulling on his shoulder to make him run away. Wes just shook his head.

"You go ahead, they're gonna have to deal with me, not you." Wes pushed him away playfully, "Oh, and don't tell the others what happened."

Aiden would never forget that day. At that moment, the fierceness Wes had for his friends gave Aiden the courage he needed to move forward.

So, that first weekend of Spring Break, Aiden headed to their cove. Pushing through the bushes felt like coming home. He was immediately greeted with bickering, and he smiled to himself.

"You could have been expelled," Danny was explaining to a bored Wes. Mo was curious too, hands on her hips.

"Come on, just tell us why you hit him!" She pleaded, hungry for something interesting.

Everyone looked at Aiden simultaneously as his sneakers crunched into the pebbles.

"You were with him, right? What happened?" Mo asked, not yet acknowledging the miracle of Aiden's presence at their cove.

Aiden glanced at Wes, who shook his head slightly and looked back at Mo. "It was nothing. You know how crazy Wes can be," He shrugged, eliciting a groan from both Danny and Mo. Wes smiled, grateful.

Aiden had a feeling at that point. A feeling that he always pushed to the back of his mind, as it seemed that Wes wasn't ready to confront it yet. But, it was suddenly quite clear what Wes's true motivation was.

"How are you, man? It's good to see you again!" Danny broke the tension, patting Aiden on the back with a winning smile.

"I have to tell you guys something," Aiden admitted, closing his eyes tightly. The rest stayed quiet, waiting.

"I've been diagnosed with depression," He said it quickly to force it out of himself. He could still picture his Dad's disappointed face in his mind's eye. Depression is real. Depression is real. He had to keep reminding himself. He opened his eyes to see his friends, still quiet and waiting for him to continue.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around, but it's been kinda hard to do anything... and I don't know, I've been feeling better on this new medication and I realized that I don't want to lose you guys." Aiden sighed heavily and gulped down a loaded emotion, "I can't lose you guys."

Mo was the first to hug him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. Aiden rested his head on her shoulder and allowed a few tears to fall from his eyes as he squeezed her back. "You couldn't lose us if you tried." She said quietly, voice full of emotion.

Soon enough, the guys had joined the hug as well. They wrapped their arms around each other and stood in silence, taking in each other's warmth on that chilled March afternoon.

When they finally parted, eyes all red and puffy, noses snotty, Wes said, "You better not keep something like that from us again." He flicked Aiden on the head, and Danny swatted his hand away.

"He means that we love you man,"

"Always," Mo added.

And Aiden couldn't imagine having another group of friends.