"You look better today," mom said as I came downstairs.

                She'd come into my room as it got later and forced me to go to bed, checking on me a few times before I finally fell asleep. I was glad she was looking out for me, but was praying this didn't become a habit. Sometimes I had to stay up late to finish up work.

                "I feel better," I said, which was true. The headache that had been eating at me yesterday was gone, though I still felt a sluggish tiredness lurking in my mind. It would take a few days of a fairly steady sleep routine to get myself to feel rested.

                "Here," mom said, setting down a plate with eggs, toast, and bacon. "Eat all of it. I don't like wasting food."

                I sat down after checking the time, and dug in. Mom held a cup of coffee in her hands and leaned against the counter, watching me.

                "What?" I said.

                She shook her head. "Nothing. Just...It's high school, Gabriel. If you burn out now, what does that leave for your future? Learn to take it easy sometimes."          

                "Sure, mom. I'll slack off and play video games at some point," I said.

                "You stress me out, Gabriel Giovanni," she said with a sigh. "Do you want any coffee? I'll put some in a travel mug."

                "No thanks," I said.

                "More for me. I've got to go make sure your father didn't fall asleep in the shower. Drive safe," she said, squeezing my shoulder as she moved past me and left the kitchen.

                I finished eating and grabbed my bag, leaving for school. When I got there, I went instead and started for the senior council room.

                But when I got there, my mood sank a little. Marshall stood waiting with Taliesin and Kayden, noticing me as I approached.

                "This isn't your room, and they're not student council," I said. "So unless you're here to ask me how I slept, please go bother someone else."

                "We need to talk, Gabriel. If we could just sit down for a few minutes..." Marshall started.

                "Wimp," Kayden grumbled.

                Marshall glared down at the floor a little. "We're going to talk, Gabriel."

                "If we're going to talk, it's going to be you and me. Not them," I said.

                "I'm here to give you a drink, sunshine," Taliesin said, holding up his thermal bottle. "Unless you'd rather I give it to Bitchy Betty over here."

                "I hope you're talking about Marshall," Kayden said.

                "I am absolutely talking about you, Bitchy Betty," Taliesin said, and let out a mild "Ow" when he was punched in response. "Violence is never the answer."

                I pinched the bridge of my nose. "It's too early for this. Are we talking or not, Marshall?"

                Marshall looked nervously to Taliesin, who just stared blankly back at him. Marshall swallowed and turned his attention back to me, trying to look casual and in control.

                "Yes," he said.

                "He's stands up pretty straight for not having a spine. Like a jellyfish if you impaled it," Kayden said.

                "Alright, time to go, big guy," Taliesin said, shoving him away from us. "You're not helping. Here, Gabe."

                I took the tea from him and unlocked the room, gesturing Marshall in. Hopefully Nadia or one of the others would show up so I wouldn't have to deal with this alone.

                We entered the room and I shut the door, taking a seat. Marshall sat across from me, attempting to look serious.

                "You're still standing on that position of staying out of the drug problem?" Marshall said.

                "Not this again," I groaned. "Marshall, we are never changing our stance on that. Students don't get to handle those problems. That's a staff issue. Leave it to the people who get paid."

                "And there's nothing I can do to persuade you?" he said. "Not even the knowledge that innocent students are falling into drug addiction because of this situation changes anything for you?"

                "It's a problem, I agree. I wish it wasn't. But it's coming from a larger scale problem. There's been a growing drug issue all over the area. It came in from nearby cities and now it's made it's way into the high school. It sucks, but that's why the cops are cracking down on it. There's nothing we can do," I said, voice final on the matter. "We're in charge of handling events and budgets for our respective years. Drugs were never part of the deal."

                Marshall stood up. "Then this is a short conversation. I'll see you later, Gabriel."

                I grabbed his shoulder before he could leave, not liking the look on his face. "Marshall, is this coming from you, or from Taliesin?"

                "Taliesin isn't in the student council. Even if he was, he's a senior, not a junior," he said.

                "We both know he's involved. Is he the reason you're pressing so hard on this issue?" I said.

                He brushed my hand off, probably the ballsiest thing I'd ever seen him do, and grabbed the door handle. "I lead my council. I'm the president."

                He left the room and I crossed my arms as the door shut. I didn't like this. Something was up.

                I paced the room until the door opened. Kace looked like he regretted entering as soon as he saw me pacing back and forth.

                "Should I go?" he said.

                "No. Where are the girls?" I asked.

                "I saw Nadia at her locker. Leigh is probably around here somewhere too," he said.

                I took out my phone, texting our group chat to tell them to get here. Kace shut the door and sat down on the couch, watching me as I resumed my pacing.

                "Everything okay?" he said.

                "Yes. No. I don't know," I said.

                But then I slowed my pacing. If I mentioned this to them, they'd surely suspect Taliesin was behind it. I didn't know for sure if he was. It was likely, but maybe I should talk to him first. Kace and Leigh wouldn't trust me with him right now, and especially not if they thought he was up to something.

                "Gabriel?" Kace said.

                I put my hands on the back of the couch and leaned forward a little, sighing heavily. "I just want to get back on track with everything. I slept through our last meeting and I'm anxious to get us all reoriented."

                "That's all?" He looked doubtful.

                "That's all," I said. I'd tell them about the meeting with Marshall once I'd talked to Taliesin about it. I wasn't going to keep something like this from my friends, but I wanted as much information as I could get before I brought the issue up to them.

                It was a few minutes before Nadia and Leigh entered the room together. We sat down and went over what I'd slept through yesterday, spending the time before class started getting caught up on everything together.

                "Okay, everyone clear on their jobs?" I asked, checking the time.

                "Yes sir!" Leigh said, saluting me.

                "As long as you don't go hogging all the work again," Kace said.

                "What he said," Nadia said.

                "Your work is your work this time," I assured. "Alright, well, let's get going. Class is about to start."

                "You look a lot better today," Leigh said as we gathered our stuff.

                "I feel a lot better," I said.

                She smiled, a genuine smile. "Good. I'm glad to hear that, Gabriel. Now, you better keep it up, mister!"

                "No promises," I said, handing her a notebook she'd forgotten to put away. "How is it I'm the tired one, but you're still more scatterbrained?"

                "Oh, I forgot about my notebook," she said, taking it and shoving it in her bag. "Can't write everything down. That's why I have you guys to look out for me, though!"

                "Oh, Leigh," I said, shaking my head and leaving the room with my friends.

                The warning bell rang and we all parted for class. I was trying to puzzle out how to talk to Taliesin about this. Maybe on our walk from first period to second period. I didn't want us to be overheard, but I also didn't want to hold off on this for too long. If Marshall was up to something, I wanted my friends to know by our meeting during lunch.

                I entered first period and watched the door until Taliesin came in. He caught my eye and came over to my desk.

                "Something's on your mind," he said, seating himself on my desk.

                "I need to talk to you," I said.

                He gestured between us. "What, this isn't a conversation?"

                "Taliesin," I said, fixing him with a look.

                He raised his hands in surrender. "We'll talk after class. Good enough for you?"

                "Good enough," I said, shoving at him to get off my desk. "Move your ass somewhere else."

                "Make sure you keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't wander too far," he said, grinning as he got off my desk and headed for his own.

                I opened the bottle and gulped a bunch down. Taliesin was exhausting and I needed all the caffeine I could fucking get when I had to put up with him and his smug ass.

                Class passed by far too slow for my liking. I found my eyes wandering to the clock more than usual, and the clock taking it's sweet ass time going from minute to minute.

                Finally though, the bell rang. I gathered my stuff and stood up, waiting for Taliesin to come over. If he suspected what I wanted to talk about, his face didn't give it away.

                "You and Marshall are friends," I started.

                "Sure," he said. "Not that Kayden's very happy about that. He's really not a fan of Marshall."

                "Then maybe you'll know if Marshall is up to something," I said, deciding to just be blunt. I never had to tiptoe around Taliesin before. He used to only keep me in the dark on something if it meant I couldn't get in trouble because I hadn't known.

                "Something like...?" He quirked an eyebrow and waited.

                "When he talked to me this morning." I felt frustration growing. "He looked to you, Tal. So either you're part of whatever he's planning, or he just really likes the sight of you."

                "Could you blame him if it was the second one?" At my expression he sighed. "You're no fun sometimes, you know that? I'm not part of the student council. What he does is his business."

                "Cut the shit," I said.

                "Kiss your mother with that mouth?" he said.

                "Taliesin," I said, my suspicions confirmed. He was being evasive. He wasn't saying yes, but he was avoiding saying no.

                He grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop and meeting my eyes. "I am not out to get you or your friends."

                "They were your friends, too. Until you hurt them," I said, shoving past him. "I was willing to give you a chance, but you can't even answer a question without being evasive."

                He caught my arm again. "He wanted your help with the issue, and you weren't going to give it to him. He's going to find another way."

                It was more truth than he'd been willing to offer before. "What other way?"

                He shrugged. "Proper channels? He can't do much without permission. Student councils are just the school's pets. If he's going through the principal and the proper authority, there's nothing to worry about, right?"

                I wasn't sure that was true, but it did put me at ease a little bit, at least. But Taliesin didn't let my arm go, just watched me with that expression that said he was searching for words.

                "What do you mean by willing to give me a chance?" he said at last, releasing my arm.

                I put my hand on his back, pushing him along down the hall. "We're going to be late."

                Taliesin snorted. "Now who's being evasive?"

                "I'm not being evasive. I'm trying not to be late," I said. I sighed, dropping my hand from his back. "Taliesin...A lot happened. Between you and me. Between all of us. You did some really shitty things. I won't just forgive that. That kind of forgiveness needs to be earned."

                His expression hardened. "Good. I don't want you to just forgive me for what I did. I'd be pissed if you didn't make me work for it."

                I felt a little flutter in my chest. The way he worded that...

                He planned to work for it. He wanted to fix things. He didn't want things to just go back to normal though; he wanted to earn his place back with us.

                We entered class just as the bell rang. Nadia watched me as I came over to my desk and took my seat.

                "He wants to work at fixing things," I said, keeping my voice down since our teacher had started his lesson.

                "He better work damn hard," Nadia said.

                We fell silent to pay attention in class. My mind was on Taliesin's words, no matter how hard I tried to focus on class.

                He was willing to work for this. We had a long way to go, but he was willing to try. Taliesin could be stubborn and frustrating as hell, but I knew he was a good person. If he was going to work at a relationship with us again, it meant I could find out what had happened and we could work together to make things better.

                By the time lunch came around, I was feeling optimistic. Sure, Kace and Leigh may not come around right away. But surely if they saw Taliesin really trying to fix things, they'd give him another chance. It'd be hard-earned, but that's what would make it worthwhile.

                But then my heart sank as my friends sat around me for our meeting. Marshall. Shit, I'd forgotten about Marshall.

                I glanced at Kace. He'd be the most against giving Taliesin another chance. He may not ever forgive Taliesin. If I put even more doubt in his head about Taliesin, there'd be no chance of him tolerating Taliesin.

                I couldn't hide this Marshall situation though. He was clearly up to something, proper authority or not.

                "Let's go over the senior ball theme," I said at last.

                If he was going through proper authority for whatever he was planning, I could investigate on my own. I'd find out what he was up to before I worried my friends. I could talk to the principal after school, and go from there.

                So we started our meeting, and I focused on that instead of Taliesin. Still, the thought of him lingered in the back of my mind, exciting and terrifying after everything we'd already been through.