[this is like a calm before the storm chapter. Rip @ yall]

Brendon seemed like he was back to his normal self.

Well, as close to normal as he would ever get, taking into consideration of who he was.

He'd started to try and start sneaking the drinks again, and hell, he knew nobody was going to stop him since he'd been so down and out of it lately. But for some reason, whenever he would pick one up, he'd stare at it for a moment like it was toxic, and cautiously place it back in his refrigerator to save for another time.

I wasn't complaining though; it was a big step in the right direction.

Brendon set down the unopened drink in his hands and slammed the fridge door shut, smoke practically flaming from his ears in blind rage with no origin.

His bad mood had cleared up when we made it to the bunch of trees near the jacuzzi, though.

When I glanced behind me just after crossing the river with him, he was smiling bigger than the Cheshire Cat.

"Why are you so happy?"

"Is it a crime to smile once in a while?" He giggled and caught up to me, locking our elbows together until we reached the clearing and the cement hole in the ground everyone was gathered around already.

"Hey Dallon," Ryan cupped his hands around his mouth and called over to me "I didn't flunk on my lung project."

"What'd you get?"

"Solid B-, because only the left lung exploded."

I expected less. Not a lot less, but just less.

I gave him a smile in place of congratulatory words, and sat down next to Brendon and to the right of Pete and Patrick, who were as usual, closer than ever.

"Heard you two skipped class the other day." Pete mumbled, half asleep on Patrick's lap. I wasn't sure where he'd heard that from, but I guess it didn't really matter.

"Mhm." Brendon confirmed, and leaned on to my shoulder like my side was a pillow. I didn't object, but I also didn't want him to fall asleep. For some reason I'd been afraid lately that he'd fall asleep and never wake up. Which was absolutely irrational and stupid, but it was like the childhood fear that a shark was swimming in the pool. Like, you know there's literally no way there's a shark swimming next to you and then you go underwater and search for the other side of the pool but the water is just so murky and gross you can't see, and there's a metaphorical shark about to bite you in half.

"We all gotta skip class sometime," Ryan suggested "coordinate it or something. Half the teachers couldn't care less - well, except for my anatomy teacher. He literally searches for me each class period."

"That's what you get for setting the anatomy skeleton on fire."

"Fuck off, it was an accident." Ryan huffed then laughed loudly, the sound echoing though the trees and lingering in the air like a wispy cloud.

And I wanted so badly to be back on the cliff ledge and watching the stars, even though I knew deep down we shouldn't be because the moments leading up to it had been so terrible and awful that it made me almost want to never repeat it. Then the watermelon candy and pencil shaving smell mixed with the smoke of the cigarette he grabbed on the way out, and I definitely never wanted to have to go through that again.

"You're going to suffocate poor Dallon," Patrick snickered, pointing to the cigarette in Ryan's hand (I hadn't even noticed he had one as well) "he almost died the other day when he tried to smoke for the first time."

Everyone glanced over at me in surprise and preparation to laugh at me, and I said "the key word here is 'tried'" and then everyone did laugh, exactly what I'd intended to happen.

"Alright, so I know we all have the same English teacher, and I gotta ask if you guys read the assigned book yet." Pete said and slapped his palms rhythmically on the grass.

"Which one?" Patrick rolled his eyes, disgusted at the amount of paperbacks we'd been given.

"The one with the monster on the cover. Which theme did you guys get, because I found like 20 and I don't know which one to write about."

"You exceeded the necessary amount of work. That's a first."

And I zoned out of the conversation with my eyes locked on Brendon, his blank stare fixated on the trees in front of us. And I thought, something is more wrong than usual. Because it was. Something was off, like scales had been tipped or anything remotely similar to that. And I wanted an explanation because I didn't want to believe that something was about to happen that would absolutely annihilate the perfect life set out in front of me like plates at a fancy party with waitresses at every turn.

And I thought of the stars the other night and the bright glow of the minuscule planets drifting in a never ending space of emptiness and-

"Dude, Dallon's not even listening."

"I'm listening." I shot back and Ryan shook his head disappointedly. And everyone but Brendon stared at me for a second like they expected me to respond to a question. "Okay, I wasn't listening."

"Well, to quickly fill you in on the 8 years worth of information you missed, how would you feel about pulling off an end of the year prank bigger and better than the cat Armageddon?"

I thought about it for a second, weighing the pros and cons against each other. The overall concept of the first prank was absolutely golden, and the cats definitely annoyed the hell out of Spencer, who had no idea where they came from. Every now and then, if you listened closely, you'd be able to hear him scream and call animal control to take away the recent cat he found. And the suspension letters had been a success, more than any of us could've expected them to be. Of course it was (sadly) only a 3 week suspension, so everyone was back already and the Seacoast population total was back up to 195.

I looked down and watched Brendon wrap his arms around my waist and move my arm so it rested across his shoulders, and I remembered how happy he was that night while he carried the cats and sent out the letters to everyone that had ever hurt him.

"Let's do it."

"Later though," Brendon mumbled through a lazy smile, lacking sleep instead of being drowsy from the drinks he'd had already "I've got plans."

"Speaking of plans," Patrick blurted out and brought himself to his feet, along with Pete and Ryan quickly following "I wanted to get some more caprisuns before the store closed. Did you guys wanna tag along with us?" He pointed at Pete too, and Brendon and I both nodded once in agreement before standing up and following Patrick to his car.

The road was pretty quiet, more so than the average bustling street. It was nice.

The parking lot was near empty too, and just as silent. The only sounds audible were the buzzes of the neon letters flickering above the shop doors. A couple letters were on the fritz, so the sign read "Seac st grcers" instead of "Seacoast Groceries"

Brendon found it to be particularly hilarious.

He howled with laughter right next to my ear, wrapping his legs around my waist tighter and draping his arms over my collarbones a little looser as I gripped the bend of his knees.

We grabbed a single cart, which Brendon insisted on sitting in, while Ryan pushed and the rest of us either trailed in front of or behind.

I found myself drifting a couple feet away from everyone else, appreciating the serene moment I'd long awaited and long deserved in my opinion.

If you'd have asked me what I would've been doing 217 days or so before this moment, there was no way I would've believed anyone that told me the scene playing out in front of me.

No matter what anyone could've told my past self, I would've never believed that 2 of my friends would be piling boxes of caprisuns into a shopping cart while another sifted through different types of microwave dinners while the other (very attractive) one wandered with no purpose through the next aisle. Heck, I wouldn't even have believed that I'd made a couple friends.

I'm glad I believe it now, though.

Pete was shaking my shoulder by the time I'd decided to rejoin the present, a smile on his lips and other hand in his jeans pocket.

"Ready to go?"

I nodded. "Get me out of my mind."

"What?"

"Nothing. It's an inside joke."

He shrugged and pulled me along behind him while we went to gather up the rest of our dysfunctional crew dawdling aimlessly throughout the fridge and freezer section.

When we'd finally found them, Patrick and Ryan were both standing stone still, slack jawed, with hands stuffed in their jacket pockets while staring straight ahead down the aisle. I was terrified to see what they were watching.

We got closer and if Pete were to be anymore scared, he'd cut off the blood flow to my hand, but his grip around my wrist loosened in shock once he caught sight of Brendon with his hand on the door to a section of drinks he hadn't touched in so long.

From the distance, it was obvious his hands were trembling like an earthquake was sending tremors throughout his veins.

I thought for sure this was the end of the amazing cold turkey streak. His fingers curled around the rod to open the door and for sure everything he'd worked for was over. Weeks upon weeks of not breaking his streak, yet here he was.

There was no way he would leave those alone once he got ahold of them. Everyone else seemed to know it too, our breaths caught in our lungs simultaneously in fear he'd never really gotten better at all.

I thought, I should go get him before he does something he's going to regret. But I didn't. Mainly because his eyes looked like they were on fire, which was definitely not a good sign, and was assumedly the other factor holding everyone else back to watch in stunned silence.

We really thought he'd gotten better, but had the opportunity to prove otherwise.

Brendon's dark hair shook messily like a dog trying to dry off after a bath, and he stepped back tentatively, as if he realized he shouldn't even be near the stuff in front of him.

And to our surprise, he walked back down the aisle to us with hands empty, the stench of alcohol nearly dissipated.

He pushed past us without acknowledging anything we were wildly gesturing to with no words, a small smile on his lips when he passed by as if he knew he'd did it. Proudness swelled in my chest, even though it should be more prominent in Brendon's than mine.

"He did it," Pete muttered incredulously next to me, excitement hinting in his tone "he got... he got better-"

Some nasally sounding voice rang through the speakers and cut off Pete's unfinished sentence, only to inform us that there were 15 minutes remaining to closing time.

So we headed to the vacant checkout line where Brendon was waiting for us, his nose buried in a cheesy magazine with the cover reading "deadly car crash kills 5, morphs into uncontrollable wildfire". How pleasant.

Ryan and Patrick were piling boxes upon boxes of juice pouches on to the conveyor belt while Pete dug through his pockets for his wallet, since he was nominated to pay this time around. Which didn't make sense, because Patrick was the one that had wanted caprisuns. But I wasn't paying this time, so there was nothing to complain about.

I took the opportunity to bump my elbow lightly against Brendon's back to grab his attention and lean down a bit to his level. "Why didn't you take the drinks?"

He only smiled sheepishly at the dusty floor in response, staring down at his shoes so I couldn't see his expression. But when he looked up at me, he was smiling bigger than I'd ever seen before.

And his hand slipped into mine without any major acknowledgement from either of us, his cheek finding a place against my upper arm. It felt natural, like he was always meant to rest against me.

"I didn't want to forget anything this time." He sighed against my shirt, and I made sure I'd never forget either.

-

[2152 words, 10/25/16, I'm so ready to update the next few chapters maN]