Math class had me reconsidering my plan to fix things with Taliesin.

                "Taliesin Leonard, if you stab me with a pen one more fucking time I'm going to stab you to death with it," I warned.

                Mariah furrowed her brow. "Your middle name is Leonard? What kind of name is Taliesin Leonard?"

                "A family name. The Leonard part, not the Taliesin part. Take that one up with my parents," Taliesin said, and stuck his pen directly into my side again. "I'd quit poking you if you'd quit ignoring me. What'd you get for number five?"

                I smacked the pen out of his hand. "I got a restraining order."

                He frowned. "Well, that's not a very mathematical answer. I think you're going to fail this class, Gabriel Giovanni."

                "Okay, see, that name isn't bizarre. That's a normal name," Mariah said.

                "Are you doing your work, or are you just sitting here judging our names?" I said.

                "I'm judging your names," she said. "Taliesin Leonard? Seriously?"

                "Listen, take it up with my grandfather for it being his name. I don't know what to tell you," Taliesin said with a shrug. He glanced at me as I snickered. "Shut it, sunshine. We can't all be Gabriel Giovanni."

                I smiled a little at that. Growing up, my mom used to call me her little dark cloud because of my hair. I'd admitted once to Taliesin that I didn't like it, because it made people think she called me that because I was moody. So Taliesin had started calling me sunshine instead, because he said then people would know I was a happy person.

                "Mariah, quit dragging his name and do your work," I said.

                "Wait, give me the answer to number five. I got 27," Taliesin said.

                Mariah turned to him in horror. "27? I got 238."

                "Uh...I got 27 too," I said.

                She picked up her calculator, dropped it to the floor, and stood up. "I need to go for a walk before I choke to death on my own stupidity. I'll be back."

                "She's going to bomb this class," Taliesin said, looking at her worksheet and letting out a whistle. "Yikes, now that's a scary sight."

                "She'll get tutoring, I'm sure," I said, flipping her paper over so Taliesin would quit staring at it. I turned in my chair and set my worksheet on his desk. "Let me see what you got for number seven. I wasn't sure if I did it in the right order."

                "Looks fine to me," he said, spinning his paper so I could read it over.

                We worked out the last few problems together and turned in our worksheets. I sat back down, leaning my arms against his desk.

                "More tea tomorrow?" he asked.

                "I wouldn't say no," I said.

                "Got it. Hey, speaking of tea, Kayden showed me this coffee shop on the outskirts of town. Quiet little place, kind of hidden. Want to head there after school?" he offered. "My treat. They have a really good iced tea, lot of flavor variety."

                I hesitated for a moment, because I'd been intending to go talk to the principal. But I could do that in the morning. I'd probably have a better time of it if I met with him in the morning. I could email him tonight to set up a quick meeting.

                "Sure," I said. "Food there? I'm hungry."

                "They have pastries and donuts and stuff. I'll get you something," he said. "We can do our homework. Or just hang out."

                "We'll see how we feel when we get there. Text me the address so I can stick it in my GPS. I hate following you places. I always get stuck at red lights and you don't wait for me," I said.

                He grinned a little. "Speed up, then."

                "Coming from you," I said, shaking my head.

                Taliesin hadn't started driving until after his accident, and he was hyper aware of everything when he drove. He kept to the speed limits, obeyed traffic laws, and left a comfortable distance between himself and whoever was driving in front of him. Yet somehow that jackass always managed to leave me in the dust at red lights when I tried to follow him.

                Mariah returned and I attempted to help her with the worksheet, but gave up and ended up giving her the answers so she wouldn't fail since we were running out of time. The bell rang and Taliesin and I left the classroom together.

                "You should've worked in the tutoring program. You're patient and smart enough for it," he said.

                "No time with the student council," I said.

                "Yea. No time," he said. But then he let out a dramatic sigh to lighten the mood. "Not enough time in the world for everything, I guess. But enough time for some tea and food."

                I looked forward, since Kayden always seemed to be waiting around this hallway for Taliesin. Sure enough, there he was, watching us approach and falling into step beside Taliesin as we passed him.

                "I'm going to get a drink with Gabe," Taliesin said.

                Kayden scowled. "You said you'd help me with my homework."

                "And I will. I'll come over when we're done. Only if you're feeding me, though," Taliesin said.

                "Enjoy the food war, then. Grandpa wants chili, dad wants meatballs, mom wants peace and quiet," Kayden said.

                "Oh, I hope grandpa wins. I can't eat meatballs that aren't made by Gabriel's dad anymore. Once you have his cooking, you're ruined," Taliesin said.

                "He does make the best sauce," I said.

                "Stereotypical Italian man. Not that I'm complaining," Taliesin said. He clapped Kayden on the back. "Tell gramps I'm siding with him and want a bowl for myself. I'll text you when I'm on my way."

                "Don't be too late," Kayden said, and took off.

                "His grandpa lives with him? Mom always says if grandma has to come live with us, she thinks she'll die of complications before grandma does," I said.

                "Actually his grandpa moved in to help them out after Kayden's dad lost a leg." At my expression, Taliesin just snickered a little. "Old sob story by now. He just never moved back out."

                "I'll meet you in the parking lot. I've got to get my stuff," I said, not wanting Kace to see us together. I wasn't ready for that fight just yet.

                "Right, catch you in a minute," he said, taking off for his own locker.

                I went to my locker, exchanging my stuff for what I needed. Sure enough, Kace called out a goodbye as he passed me. I waved to him, and to Leigh as she passed by a minute later.

                Nadia stopped at my locker though. "Are you okay, Gabriel?"

                "Hm? Yea, I slept last night. I feel a lot better," I said, standing up.

                "That's not..." She eyed me a little. "Are you seeing Taliesin after school?"

                I felt surprised. "Uh, woman's intuition?"

                "Give me credit for how smart I am," she said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, then. Be smart."

                I left the school, texting Taliesin. He was waiting in the parking lot, leaning against his car when I got down there.

                "Get the address?" he asked, unlocking his car.

                "Already put it in my GPS. I need to be prepared for when I lose your car," I said.

                "Still a drama queen. Race you there," he said, cracking his grin at me before getting into his car.

                He made a point of driving a little too slow so I could keep up, once even stopping at a green light until it turned red just to tease me. By the time we got there, I was regretting joking around about his driving at all. God, he could be insufferable when he wanted to be.

                "You're such a jerk," I said as I got out of my car.

                He laughed heartily. "But I didn't lose you at the red lights!"

                I stomped on his foot since I was worried about his back, but it made him wince, which made me smile in satisfaction. He led me into the coffee shop and gave me a recommendation before we went up and put in our orders. When we had our drinks and donuts, he led me to a table in the corner and we sat across from each other.

                The coffee shop had a nice, quiet atmosphere. It was in a pretty hidden, secluded spot in town, so I wasn't surprised I'd never realized it was even here.

                "They do most of their business during the lunch rush because of the big company up this way. That's how they stay open. They're usually pretty quiet outside of the lunch rush," Taliesin said as he watched me look around. "We come here to do homework a lot."

                This was...a lot quieter than what I imagined him and Kayden did when they hung out. I guess I pictured them roaming back streets in search of a fight, or some other over the top cliché of what the "bad" kids in school do in their free time.

                Not that they hadn't gotten into fights in their free time- I'd heard about those incidents. Still, this set me at some ease. He hadn't just been getting up to trouble the whole time.

                I didn't want to ruin the easy mood we had between us, but I tried to keep Nadia in mind. I couldn't just pretend nothing had ever happened.

                "Taliesin, what's up with you and Marshall?" I asked.

                He traced his finger along the condensation on his cup. "What about us? We're friends. Kayden's not a fan, but those two are very different, so that's to be expected."

                "But how did you start being friends with him and Kaya and the others?" I said.

                He looked up at me, watching me for a moment as he tried to think of what to say in response. Finally, he just shrugged.

                "I shot myself in the foot with you guys. Marshall and I had similar ideas. Easy enough to strike up a conversation with a like-minded person, and go from there. Kaya was casual friends with Kayden, so he introduced me to her," he said.

                "Similar ideas?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "You mean like taking more power to go after the drug problem?"

                I could see his anger starting to creep in. "It's a serious issue."

                "I get that. I'm not saying that it's not a serious issue. But I am saying there are better ways to go about it than having students going after other students," I said.

                "The principal and his staff are too big of cowards to tackle the problem. They don't want students transferring out of the school. So they'll just let the problem go and pretend it's not happening if it makes them look better, while students get swindled into it," Taliesin said, growing angrier with each word. "Something needs to be done. Marshall understands that. I wish you would."

                "I do. I just don't agree with your methods," I said. "For instance, trying to topple the student council run by your best friends."

                Now that anger drained away, and went back to dragging his finger along the cup. "Well, we all have our off days."

                "Taliesin," I said.

                He sighed heavily. "What do you want me to say, Gabriel? Yes, I lied to all of you. I tricked all of you. I tried to sabotage our student council. I deleted emails and hid work and sent anonymous complaints to the staff that you guys weren't doing your jobs. I turned you all against each other and almost ruined your friendships and your academic lives. I did all of that." He looked me in the eyes as he spoke, his expression unreadable. "When I finally got kicked out, I stole a card to get back in the room and try to sabotage you guys again. I did that, too. This is all stuff you knew. But if you needed to hear it from me, there it is."

                "That's not what I needed to hear from you," I said.

                "I could say sorry all day long, until I lose my voice. It wouldn't mean anything. I wasn't sorry when I did it. I'm not going to pretend I was," he said. "I'm not afraid to own up to what I did."

                I swallowed the lump in my throat. "You're a stranger."

                Now he just looked tired, the lighting of the coffee shop casting dark shadows under his eyes. "I know. Believe me, I know."

                "You've lost weight," I said.

                "Stress is better than any detox cleanse," he said.

                Here in this quiet place, framed by vague coffee shop lighting, he looked sickly and tired. The stubble on his face used to make him look messily cute, but now he just looked like he'd forgotten to shave for too long. His clothes were just a little too loose for his frame.

                "What happened?" I asked quietly.

                He smiled, but there was nothing behind it, just a hollow expression. "Does it matter what happened? This was about what I did."

                "Taliesin," I said, leaning forward a little, feeling a sudden desperation. "What happened to you?"

                And just like that, his grin was back and he'd shifted enough to get his face out of the unflattering lighting. "Not enough coffee. Too much coffee. I'm still trying to figure out which was more detrimental." He pushed a donut towards me. "Eat up, I paid for that."

                I didn't press the issue further. There was no point. Taliesin was too stubborn, and when he didn't want to talk about something, he wouldn't let the topic carry on.

                "So, what have you been up to in my absence?" Taliesin asked.

                "Just working," I said. "Been a busy senior year."

                "All you ever do is work," he said, shaking his head. "Need to remind you how to have some fun, sunshine. Gym tomorrow morning before school starts? I have access to the workout room in the gym hallway as long as someone is with me."

                I brightened a little, because we used to work out together in the mornings a lot back when things were normal. "Sure. But I'm getting a little rusty, so don't make fun of me if I can't run as long as I used to."

                He snickered. "Can't wait to make fun of you wheezing right along on that treadmill."

                "Oh, yea? I bet you can't bench as much as you used to," I challenged.

                He flexed his arms. "We'll see about that tomorrow. Bright and early, don't oversleep."

                "Meet in the parking lot at our usual time?" I said.

                "See you there," he said, grinning widely. "Now, finish your donut. You're going to work it off tomorrow anyways."

                So the two of us ate and slipped into a casual, safe conversation about our classes. It was so simple to slip back into our easy banter, teasing each other about who would do better on what tests and who had gotten a high grade on what assignment.

                Things felt normal. Maybe it was just because we were in the quiet of the coffee shop, away from the school and the reminder of everything that had happened between us. It didn't matter. It was a start, and I'd take it.