My eyes widened, and I nodded frantically.
“Yeah, I’ve never had a friend before,” I admitted, feeling embarrassed but wanting to be honest.
“That’s okay. It’s pretty easy. You just have to always have each other’s backs.”
“O-okay. I can totally do that!”
“Cool! I knew you would be a good friend! Anyway… I find most of my rocks by the pond in our backyard. Sometimes there are frogs and turtles and stuff in there, too. Wanna come check it out?”
I nodded, because that’s what I thought a good friend would do.
A good friend.
A sense of responsibility welled inside me, and I squeezed Jay’s hand, hoping he would never let me go or leave me behind.
Good friends always have each other’s backs.
(Age 17)
Iwas waiting for Jay to get back from Think Tank. He was always at school for way longer than I was because he was involved in so many clubs.
He was popular, but also really smart, and I was always so proud of him when he seemed to effortlessly sweep the competition away at all the science fairs and math competitions he attended, but I did miss him when he was gone.
Luckily, Mr. Reynolds had noticed me moping around the Neurovance campus on the weekends when Jay was busy at school. He started to invite me over to his house to spend time with him while we waited for Jay to finish up with whichever club was keeping him away from me that day.
At first, I’d been nervous to be alone with Mr. Reynolds. I’d worried he was secretly like my father, but after his expression had darkened the first few times I flinched when he moved too quickly, he sat me down for a very serious chat.
“I hope you know that you’re safe when you’re in this house, Sebastian. Neither my son nor I would ever do anything to hurt you. Both of us would be horrified if we hurt yourfeelings,let alone your person.”
I’d blinked at him, completely baffled and confused that an adult man cared about something as trivial as myfeelings.
He smiled at me kindly and put his hand over mine.
“You and Jay take care of each other, and that’s such a special thing. I’m so glad you both have each other in your corners. Make sure you don’t lose sight of that as you get older. No matter what anyone might do to try to ruin what you two have. Promise me?”
I couldn’t be sure, but I felt like he was talking about my dad. Things between the two of them had gotten even more tense lately, and though Mr. Reynolds never said anything to me about it, I think he knew why I didn’t like going home. He was the only person who ever asked questions when I showed up with new bruises, and sometimes when my dad told me right in front of him that he thought art was a waste of time, Mr. Reynolds would stand up for me.
The fury I would see on Mr. Reynolds’ face when my dad belittled my passions always made my face heat with shame and embarrassment. I hated causing problems for him. I always worried that one day he and Jay would decide it wasn’t worth dealing with my dad and they would abandon me.
But that never happened. Every time, he would firmly tell my dad that Jay might be a science whiz, but I was a creative genius, and it would be a waste to hold me back.
He and Jay were the only people who ever encouraged me when I tried to paint or draw. It was the only way I could get the deep-seated feelings of sadness out of me.
Nothing else ever seemed to make them go away…
Except for those days when it was just me, Jay, and Mr. Reynolds.
Sometimes I pretended Jay was my brother, and Mr. Reynolds was my dad.
What was even better, sometimes Mr. Reynolds would find us playing video games together and would say things like:
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you two could be brothers.”
Jay would always laugh and nudge me with his elbow and say something stupid like:Ready to lose, big brother?
When he said things like that, it made my chest so warm and my heartso happy.
I could almost forget that it wasn’t true.
