"Hey. Get up. C'mon, get up."

                I cracked my eyes open as Silas shook me, his voice sleepy. I looked up at him and rubbed my eyes, realizing the TV had been turned off but a light had been turned on.

                "It's three in the morning," he said, stretching.

                I fumbled around for my phone, realizing I had a missed call and texts from my mom. My brain was foggy as I tried to type out that I'd fallen asleep, squinting at the bright light from the screen.

                "You can stay here, but I ain't sleeping on the couch," Silas said, pushing the blanket off himself and getting up.

                I copied him, sending another text to my mom to let her know I was staying here tonight. Silas led me upstairs and to a bedroom I was assuming was his. He opened a closet door and grabbed a pile of blankets, tossing them on the floor. He left the room and returned a minute later dragging a long cushion, settling it on the floor.

                "You can sleep there," he said, dropping onto his bed and closing his eyes. He pointed in the general direction of a door across from his bed. "Bathroom's there, if you need it."

                I was too tired to need it. My bladder could explode and kill both of us right now and it would be worth it if I got a few seconds of sleep before it happened.

                I set up the blankets on the surprisingly comfortable cushion before lying down. I closed my eyes, falling back to sleep almost instantly.

                                                                                                ***

                I rolled over, blinking at the sunlight streaming in from the cracks in Silas's curtains. I looked over, realizing that Silas was still fast asleep, his arm dangling over the side of the bed and his face partially buried against his pillow.

                I rubbed my eyes and looked around his bedroom. I'd been too tired to pay any attention when we came in here last night.

                There was a small bookshelf, the bottom shelf lined with some books and the top shelf lined with some video games. He had a desk with a few CDs lined up on it and postcards from different places. There was a DVD stand at the end of his bed, with a TV on a shelf next to it. A few posters decorated his wall, and there were two pictures on his windowsill. I squinted to make them out, realizing one was of him with Kaito and Jill, and the other was of him with Ray.

                One thing that caught my eye were the lanyards hanging off the edge of the mirror in his room, each one weighed down by an abundance of keychains. I wanted to look at them closer, but I was afraid I'd wake Silas up if I touched them and they made noise.

                That fear was made irrelevant as Silas's bedroom door creaked open. Ray peeked in and noticed I was awake. He looked at Silas and shook his head.

                "Pain in the ass kid needs a sleeping schedule. This is what happens when a kid's never had a bedtime in his damn life," Ray grumbled, coming into the room. He went over and nudged Silas with his foot, hopping away as Silas shot up. "Just me, you lazy ass. Come on, get up."

                "I was sleeping," Silas said, lying back down and closing his eyes.

                Ray grabbed him and pulled him into a sitting position. "And now you're awake. I made the two of you breakfast. Get up."

                "I thought I smelled something good," I said.

                "It's Ray's cooking. It ain't that good," Silas said.

                "It's fantastic, but you'll never know because only Garrett gets to eat it, you rude ass punk," Ray said.

                "I'm going to tell grandma every time we're about to eat so she calls you," Silas said.

                Ray scoffed at that. "You act like my mother wants to talk to me that often. Empty threat, kid."

                Silas ran a hand through his hair and reluctantly got out of bed. I stood up, fixing my hair with my hands as I followed the two out of Silas's room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

                Ray set a large plate of French toast down between us. "There, French toast with cinnamon butter and that glaze you like. I have bacon too, let me grab it." He handed us bacon as well, and set down a bottle of syrup and two glasses of water.

                "Oh, wow, thank you," I said in surprise. I hadn't even been expecting to stay the night, and now I was getting treated to the most delicious looking breakfast I'd seen in a while.

                "How was the whole movie night thing?" Ray asked.

                "Your movie setup is incredible," I said. "I hope Jack never screws that up with a rogue firework."

                "I would strap him to a firework and send him blasting into space to suffer that weird 2001: A Space Odyssey floating fetus fate," Ray said.

                "Floating fetus fate?" Silas said, looking extremely confused.

                "It's a movie. You'd be bored to death by it, though," Ray said.

                "I was bored to death by it," I said. "I wasn't bored to death by Jaws, though."

                "Weren't you also watching a documentary on shark attacks or something?" Ray asked.

                "In New Jersey in 1916," Silas said, perking up a little. I noticed the way Ray gave him his full attention, nodding at Silas to tell more about it. "There were five victims, but only one of 'em survived. Two of 'em were killed in a creek."

                "A creek, huh?" Ray said. "That's pretty scary to think about. We used to swim in a creek by our house when we were kids. Hard to think anything deadly could've been lurking in those waters."

                "Yea, some kids were swimming when they saw the dorsal fin. The shark dragged one of them under, and the others got help. One of the guys who went in to recover the body of the kid got bit in the leg, and, you know, there were witnesses, so they knew those other kids weren't making up the tale about the shark being in the creek," Silas said.

                "The final attack actually took place about a half hour after that one," I said.

                "Yea! That was the one survivor. They tug-o-warred the shark for him," Silas said.

                "So those three all happened around the same time, yea? You didn't tell me about the first two," Ray said.

                I watched as the excitement grew on Silas's face as he told the tale of the other two victims, recounting any details he could think of from the documentary. Ray stayed engaged, nodding along and asking questions to keep Silas talking about it. The whole thing made me smile a little as I watched, occasionally tossing in a few facts Silas forgot about.

                "Sounds like a good documentary. Maybe I'll give it a watch," Ray said when we were done telling him about it. He checked the time and sighed, grabbing a slice of bacon to chew on. "I've got a self-defense class to teach at one. You want to work today, or are you and Garrett hanging out?"

                "I'll work. I ditched you the other day," Silas said.

                "It's summer. I'll let you ditch if you want to do stuff with your friends," Ray said.

                "A man's got to earn his keep," Silas said.

                "A kid's got to live a little. But, it's your choice. I'm going to go shower. If you're going, be ready by noon. I want to get there early," Ray said, getting up and leaving the kitchen.

                "I'll head home so you can get ready for work. I really did have fun last night," I said, getting up.

                "Don't forget your movies and your snacks," he said.

                "You can keep the Reese's. I'll text you a link to the documentary. If Ray really is interested in checking it out, maybe you could watch it together," I said, Silas following me to the living room and helping me gather my stuff.

                Silas rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from me. "I'll look into the hike. Don't know if I'll be free for it. But I'll let you know. I guess."

                "I hope you are free for it. I'm not trying to put on that much weight this summer," I said. "Hey, mind if I ask you something?"

                "You're going to ask anyways because you're annoying like that," he said.

                "You're damn right. What's up with all the keychains in your room?" I asked.

                "I collect them," he said.

                "Really? That's pretty cool. Do you collect keychains in general, or ones with specific meanings?" I asked.

                "Whenever he takes me somewhere new, Ray buys me a keychain. Or if we do something cool. I have one from that place with the shark tunnel we went to. My grandparents found out and started sendin' them to me, too. Then Kaito and Jill started doing it. Now I just have a lot," he said.

                "It's a big collection. That's a lot of memories," I said. I'd have to keep it in mind. Maybe I could get him a keychain of a shark or stars or something. "Sorry, I'll give you a break from me now. Try not to miss me too much."

                "That won't be a problem," he assured.

                I laughed. "Bye, Silas. I'll talk to you later."

                "Yea, sure," he mumbled, walking me to the front door. He shut it as I left, and I headed to my car to put my stuff in it.

                I got in my car and dialed Akira's number, starting my car and leaning against the door as I waited for him to answer. Come on you lazy bastard, pick up already.

                "What's up?" Akira finally answered.

                "Finally! I thought I was going to have to suffer through your generic voicemail tone. I have a bunch of leftover snacks and drinks from hanging out with Silas last night, so let's do something. I want to head home and shower first, though," I said.

                "I'm with my mom, remember?" he said. "That's why it took me so long to answer."

                "Aw, dammit," I said, smacking my palm to my forehead. "I forgot. Sorry, Aki."

                "It's fine. I'll be home when the shop closes. We can do a bonfire," he offered.

                "Yea, that sounds good to me! I think my dad wanted to go to lunch today anyways, now that I think about it. Text me when you're leaving the shop. I'll text Jack to let him know we're doing a fire tonight," I said.

                "It's a plan, then. Talk to you later, Garrett," Akira said and hung up.

                I left Silas's house and drove home, dropping my stuff off in my room and heading off to take a shower. I redressed and grabbed a book, going down to the living room and dropping on the couch to read, Michigan jumping up onto the couch and curling up at my feet.

                It was about three hours before the front door opened. Michigan jumped off the couch and ran to go greet my dad, barking happily. I put a bookmark in the pages and set my book down, sitting up and stretching.

                "Hi Garrett," dad said, coming into the room and nearly tripping over Michigan. He knelt down to give Michigan proper love and attention.

                "Lunch?" I said hopefully.

                "Of course. Let me just calm him down a little," dad said, scratching behind Michigan's ears. "Are you still down for that place with the cheesecake, or was there somewhere else you wanted to go?"

                "Cheesecake," I said.

                "I don't know why I even asked." Dad stood up, giving Michigan one last pat on the head. "Let's head out, then."

                I eagerly followed dad out of the house and into his car. He drove us to the restaurant, telling me about something that had happened at work to fill the silence.

                When we reached the restaurant, we were seated and left with menus. Dad looked his over for a bit before deciding on something and setting his menu down. He waited until I'd set mine down before speaking.

                "How was last night?" he asked.

                "It was fun! Silas seemed to really enjoy the documentary I showed him," I said.

                "That's good. You know, mom was a little worried about you sleeping there. She knows Ray Edmon has a good reputation around town, and she recognizes him from the gym, but she still doesn't know him or this kid very well," dad said. "I'm not saying you can't go there! It's good to have more friends. I'm just saying, maybe invite them to the cookout we're doing this weekend? It'll set your mom at ease."

                "And you?" I said.

                "And me," he said. "I trust you and your judgment, but we were worried when we didn't hear back from you for a while."

                "Sorry," I said with a sigh. "I really didn't mean to fall asleep. Sure, I'll tell Silas and Ray to come to the cookout. I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Riku will drag Kaito along, so Silas can hang out with him, at least."

                "Do you want us to uninvite Roan's parents? We wanted to talk to you about it before we made any decisions," dad said.

                "Oh, no, don't uninvite them! They had nothing to do with our breakup," I said. I didn't want to put my parents in an awkward situation with Roan's parents. I knew our parents had become good friends over the years. "I doubt Roan will come. It's not a problem, dad, really."

                "You're sure?" he asked, looking concerned.

                "Positive. Just because Roan and I aren't dating anymore, it doesn't mean you can't be friends with his parents. You guys had nothing to do with it," I said.

                "Alright, but tell us if you change your mind," dad said.

                I was spared from the conversation by a waitress coming over. She took our orders and left us alone again, nothing but my drink to play with now.

                But dad didn't bring up Roan again. He just asked me about last night, listening as I told him about the movies and Silas's excitement to recount them to Ray in the morning.

                "So, is Silas his...son?" dad said.

                I shook my head. "No, I'm pretty sure Silas is his nephew. I didn't want to be rude and ask. But Ray's mom called while we were eating, and Ray said it was Silas's grandmother. So, context clues, I guess. They look vaguely similar, too. You know, like how me and some of my cousins have the same facial structure." I gestured to my face. "You can tell we're related, but you wouldn't necessarily think we were siblings."

                "Gotcha," dad said. "How long has he been with Ray?"

                "Um..." I tried to think back. "I think he started going to school with us when he was thirteen, so about four or five years ago. I always saw him around because he's good friends with Akira's brother, but I just started talking to him this summer."

                "Ray is neighbors with Mr. Waymire and Jack, right? Are Silas and Jack friends?" dad asked.

                I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of me. "Hell no, not in the slightest. You know how Jack is."

                "Mr. Waymire really does need to discipline that boy," dad said, shaking his head. "Jack's a good kid, he's just wild. I'm glad we didn't spoil you like that."

                "I mean, will you spoil me enough by buying me my own slice of cheesecake?" I asked hopefully.

                He pat my shoulder. "Just this once."

                "I'll take it!" I said.

                The waitress brought out our food and we talked casually as we ate. I'd been so busy with my friends that I really hadn't sat down and talked to my parents like this in a few weeks. It was nice to catch up with my dad.

                When we were done eating, dad let me order a slice of cheesecake, getting one for himself and one to take home for mom as well. I happily dug in the moment that cheesecake was set in front of me.

                "You and your sweet tooth," dad said with a laugh.

                "I really love cheesecake and I will not be shamed for it," I said, shoving another forkful in my mouth.

                We finished eating and dad paid. The two of us went back out to the car and dad drove back to the house, parking in the driveway.

                "Thanks for lunch, dad," I said, leaning over to hug him.

                He hugged me back. "Anytime, Gar. Have a good day today. And don't forget to invite those two to the cookout, okay? Your mom and I would like to meet them, especially if you're going to be spending more time with Silas."

                "Sure thing. Have a good day at work," I said, getting out of the car.

                I still had the rest of the afternoon to myself. As dad's car left the driveway, I went inside and found Michigan's leash, deciding to take him on a run. I could certainly use the exercise after all the junk last night and the cheesecake today.

                I'd kill time until tonight for our bonfire. Hopefully I'd see Silas at Akira's house so I could tell him about the cookout. And, well, hopefully he'd come.

                I shook it out of my head as I hooked Michigan's leash on and left the house. As I started running, I let my mind clear and just focused on the nice day and the excitement of the bonfire tonight.