It was Friday afternoon, which means it's a half-day today, like they have at the early college high school up the road. As Sebastian and I headed for my Jeep, it started to sprinkle.

"Didn't know it was supposed to rain," he commented while throwing his hood up. "Too bad, was hoping to go hang out in the woods again today."

"You certainly seem to be fascinated with the woods," I half jokingly said. I can't blame him though, as the forest is quite peaceful and beautiful. And a place where my family can run freely.

"Its' kinda helpful for my AP work. I can show you what I have so far when we get to my place."

By the time we got to his place it had started to pour a little more heavily outside and we were still talking about school work. Between the rain and us being so immersed in our conversations, neither one of us paid much attention to our surroundings. We were just walking passed the living room through the foyer when I heard an all too familiar male voice.

"Hey, where are y'all going? How were y'alls day?" Looking towards Seb, dad continues, "You must be Sebastian. Ben has mentioned the two of you have been hanging out. I'm Vikas."

I couldn't help notice dad's look of recognition in his eyes as he reached to shake hands. But taking a quick glance at Seb, the emotions flashing before his eyes were quite strange, first being almost a sense of recognition followed by doubt then panic before flashing to something unreadable. Do they know each other, I wonder?

As the rain started to beat down a little harder, suddenly a loud bang sang off. Someone must be hunting within a few miles. But as the shot was made I noticed Seb flinched and then grew a little pale. In fact we all noticed it.

"Not a fan of guns?" I asked.

"...It reminds me of an unpleasant moment, is all." It took a moment for him to respond. A few seconds later he seems to be back to his normal self when he asked, "Well want to go get our school work done?"

Nodding, we turned to leave.

It wasn't till about an hour later that we were about done with our english essays, which probably could have been done a little sooner if it weren't for us having little conversations in between.

"Would it be too soon to turn in that semester-long book assignment?" He asked, looking up from his computer.

"How are you done so soon?" I looked at his screen and saw everything had been filled out, except for the last little section, which he is still in the middle of typing.

"Haven't you noticed? I read all the time."

"I like reading too but I'm not even close to being done with mine.And haven't you been here for only like two weeks? How have you read that much in that time?"

He shrugged and continued typing, eyebrows furrowing just slightly. And just like that he closed his computer and was about to set it on his bedside table when a few papers there caught my eye. "Are those some sketches?"

He nodded and handed them over. "I've been a little stuck on what my next concentration piece is going to be. These were just what I had in mind."

Looking through them, they all centered around the woods, however two of the three had at least one or more wolves in them. "What is your concentration? I think it might be easier to decide then."

He handed me two completed works, explaining what he was aiming for. Though both are clearly mixed-media, the first one is more textured and features a typical looking forest scenery that is highly contrasted with evening sunlight.

The second one caught my eye a bit more. It had some textures like the first one, and was centered around a forest, however, it's main focus was a family of alarmed looking wolves that appeared to have been in the middle of eating late at night. I flipped back to the sketches and I observed the one that features a single wolf that is mid-pounce. I looked more closely to the wolf's surroundings, which I didn't pay as much attention to before, and noticed just how similar the two works are

"Are you doing a sort of story line with your works? Or is this sketch just a continuation of this other work?"

"I never thought of doing a storyline connecting my pieces but I guess it would not be a bad idea." He sat and looked at everything for a moment before speaking again. "These two were from a sort of dream, I guess, that I had a few weeks back. I only did this one because I couldn't really think of what else to do last week."

"Well," I said, "I think this one should be next. I think it would only be fitting." Looking over the sketch once more, I had almost forgotten about earlier and was beginning to debate with myself whether I should even bother asking when the words just came right out of my mouth. "By the way, have you and my father met before...?"

He looked at me skeptically. "Am I supposed to know him from somewhere?" He responded slowly, clearly a wave of confusion clouding his voice.

"Sorry, stupid question. Earlier you and dad seemed to recognize each other, moreso him recognizing you. I thought I'd ask." I still couldn't quite shake the feeling that they know each other somehow, to some extent.

Shaking my head I pushed those thoughts aside. Perhaps I'm simply just paranoid, or reading too much into things. But those thoughts keep edging at my mind as I continue studying the almost familiar face on the page. Even the background is vaguely familiar though I can't pinpoint where I've seen it before.

I passed it back and was in the middle of a question when another couple of shots rang out, a little closer this time around, unlike earlier. Hearing it caused Sebastian to flinch very noticeably.

Eyeing him, I commented, "That has to have been one hell of an unpleasant moment. There isn't anything to worry about, the gunshots are far away."

"That didn't sound far away. And besides, guns and shooting can't be that unreasonable as far as fears go. Like what's yours?"

A few things flash in my mind. Not that they themselves are something I'm particularly afraid of, but anyone knowing of them perhaps. One of which, upon looking at Seb, starts making my cheeks warm.

"Am I seeing this correctly, because I swear your cheeks are red." He flashes a big, toothy grin as he lets out a faint giggle. Such an adorable sight just makes my cheeks grow hotter. I turned away in hopes he wouldn't notice.

"Seriously,, what is it? You can't leave me hanging now!"

"Probably death."

"You've got to be just saying that! If that was the case, then what was with the red face?" He shoved my shoulder hard enough I almost lost my balance. 

Pondering what to say for a moment, I begin to speak. "Getting really close to people, like really getting close. To the point of knowing the person's deepest darkest secrets sort of thing."

"Really? So...wouldn't that be more or less a bit of a rejection fear?" His expression changed into that of genuine curiosity.

"...," I was almost tempted to give some sort of comeback, however, what he said seemed to make sense.

Now closer, I saw another wolf with them that I didn't seem to see before. He was about as black as the night itself and there is a sliver of blue-silver in its left eye. Before I could leave the family be, the black wolf launched into the air, landed on me and growled, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Hearing another gunshot gave me a vision that lasted only a few seconds. Dropping the artwork and sketches I've been holding onto, I couldn't help but wonder, 'What the hell is going on.'

Before I could react more Ben asked, "That has to have been one hell of an unpleasant moment. There isn't anything to worry about, the gunshots are far away."

From there we started talking about fears, which lead to an array or other topics that kept us busy for hours. At one point we did head down to get something to eat and drink, as we hadn't really had anything during lunch period at school.

Before we knew it 5 o'clock rolled around. While we had some music playing we heard a knock on my partially opened door followed by dad's voice. "Hey I'm going to start cooking soon. Do you want to join us for dinner, Ben?"

"I don't want to put you through the trouble, sir. Though It is much appreciated."

"Are you sure? I honestly don't mind. And no need for formalities here, just call me Johann."

Sure enough Ben agreed. After we heard him head back downstairs, he went ahead and sent a message to his parents. By the time the last few songs on the record finished, we've had put back a stack of records and were halfway to the door when we started to notice the smell of chicken and peppers.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, dad was just bringing a couple plates of chopped lettuce and tomato and shredded cheese along with a stack of tortillas to an empty area of the island countertop. Looking up when he heard us, he said, "Good timing, dinner should be done shortly. Sebby, do ya mind giving me a hand?" He passed me a pot that had some sauteed onion and pinto beans to mash.

By the time i was done with that and had put away things that were no longer needed, he had finished shredding the chicken and put the skillet on the counter with the rest of the food. "Dinner's ready!"

Just as he said that and was about to reach for some plates, his phone started to ring. "Hey, y'all get started. Getting a call from work, I'll be back in just a moment." He passed a couple plates to us and then headed down the hall.

Before i sat down, I reached into the fridge to grab us a drink when Ben asked, "What is that on your arm? A tattoo?"

I turned, confused, when he pointed to where my sleeve is. "I saw it peeking out just a moment ago when you were reaching into the fridge."

It took me a moment before it dawned on me what he was referring to. I pulled up my sleeve in order to expose the pawprint. "It has always been there for as long as i can remember. A sort of birthmark I guess." Still a little puzzled, I continued, "Although you're the first person who have noticed it, let alone say anything."

His only reaction initially was an unreadable expression as he looked at it for a moment, followed by a huff so faint I almost didn't even notice it. "...In all honesty I am having a hard time believing that is natural, at least not entirely. It looks a little to perfect to just be a birthmark."

By the time dad had come back in we've already assembled a couple tacos on each of our plates and were nearly done eating our first ones. After a little bit of small talk, Ben brought up a little cookout that his family were having tomorrow, inviting us to join them.