Danny called on Friday night and, talking for a bit, Rion agreed to hang out Saturday morning. He set an alarm and got up early, deciding to have breakfast for once. He ate some toast and had coffee while he waited.

Rion was in a daze since he’d seen Noa. He hadn’t even looked at their old comic yet. He kept going over his memories of the other day, of seeing Noa, touching him, holding his hand, and spending time with him. He’d sat with Noa on the couch and they’d done stuff with the others like when they were kids… It had been a little awkward, but more than worth it to be with Noa again.

But Noa hadn’t accepted Rion’s friendship bracelet.

Rion didn’t understand his refusal. He hadn’t had time to talk to Noa about it and he wasn’t sure how to get that kind of opportunity again. He wasn’t sure if he should call Noa and if he invited him over, he was worried that Noa would refuse or someone would come with him, like Peter. And Rion needed Noa alone if they were going to have a proper conversation.

He should have given him the bracelet years ago. He should have slipped it in Noa’s room or something. He hadn’t been thinking, and now…

He was lucky that no one seemed to have noticed that Noa was missing his bracelet. If they found out it was gone, they’d be angry, right? And if Noa told them the truth…

Rion vividly remembered how they treated him when they thought he’d wrecked his bracelet. He was lucky that both his and Noa’s bracelet were the same pattern with the same colours in the inverse. He was able to lie, to take the blame and the anger. If they turned on Noa…

No. Rion would never let that happen.

If they turned on Noa, he’d defend him if it was the last thing he did. He’d do anything for Noa. He didn’t even care if–

The doorbell rang and Rion shot out of his seat, startled. Giving his head a shake, he hurried to answer it. Danny was on his doorstep, grinning at him.

“Hey, Rion!” he said. “Good morning!”

“Morning,” Rion said. “Come on in.”

Danny stepped inside, closing the door and kicking off his shoes.

“I can’t stay too late. Dad and I are going back to the lake this afternoon,” he said. “There’s so much stuff we have to do, you know?”

“Sure,” Rion said. “You still want to play some games and stuff, right?”

“Yeah, of course!” Danny said. “Oh, Mom and Dad also wanted to have you over for supper sometime when you’re free. They said you could tell me what works or just give the house a call.”

“…Maybe. I’ll let you know,” Rion said. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to sit through an awkward family dinner. “Did you want anything to eat or drink?”

“Nah, I’m good. Just had breakfast. Dad made eggs-benny,” Danny said with a grin. “That’s the nice thing about it just being me and the parents – I get to eat all of my parents’ amazing cooking without having to share.”

Rion couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah… I remember your dad used to make some amazing burgers.”

“Right?” Danny said with a grin. “Maybe I’ll talk him into doing burgers next weekend. If it’s nice enough maybe we can barbeque.”

They headed into the living room. Rion let Danny browse the games and pick something out while he hung back, taking a seat on the couch.

“Hm…you’ve got too many options,” Danny said. He glanced back at Rion. “Oh! I talked to Sarina the other day.”

Rion tried not to react. It was hard not to cringe, wondering what Sarina might have said or done to Danny. It made Rion instantly uneasy.

“Yeah?” Rion said.

“Yeah,” Danny said. “She, uh… It sounds like she’s done some messed up stuff. Like, she’s kind of how I remember but…also really different.”

Rion was surprised. He was used to people (mostly teachers at school) siding with Sarina or saying things like ‘she might fight you but she’s a girl – you should be nice to her’. As if that would help. People seemed to think that things would magically resolve themselves if he left Sarina alone; as if Sarina wasn’t the one hunting him down in the first place.

He didn’t expect Danny, who used to be Sarina’s best friend, to acknowledge that Sarina might have done something wrong.

“You think so?” Rion said, just to confirm it.

“Definitely,” Danny said. “She’s… I don’t know. She’s got issues. She had a lot of things to say about you too. But, um… Did you hit her? She’s got, like, this bruise on her arm. She said it was from you.”

Rion shrugged. “Yeah. And I’ve got a black eye.”

“So…you did hit her then?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you hit her first?”

Was that what Sarina told him? Rion felt his eyebrows go up.

“No? Not that it matters,” he said. “I got my arm free from Eric and since Sarina was right in front of me, I hit her.”

“Wait, what?!”

Danny was staring at him with wide eyes.

“Eric was involved?” Danny asked.

“Yeah,” Rion said. “Sarina usually comes at me with a couple of her friends. Eric was there last time. Monique was there too, and Jolie, I think… Eric was the one pinning me down for Sarina. He’s got muscle so, you know… Kyle was sick that day otherwise he would have joined in too, probably.”

Danny stared at him, open mouthed. Rion didn’t understand why he was so surprised.

“What?” he said, holding out his hands. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“H-how long has Sarina been ganging up on you with her friends?!” Danny finally burst out, finding his voice. “That’s not okay! That’s so wrong! What the hell… She didn’t say anything about that!”

Rion shrugged. It didn’t matter to him. If Eric held him down or if Sarina threw herself at him, it didn’t make much difference.

“Whatever,” Rion said.

“No, not whatever!” Danny said. “Holy shit! I had no idea that… Fuck!”

Rion wasn’t sure he'd ever heard Danny swear. It was a shock. And Danny looked overwhelmed and flustered. Rion didn’t expect him to get this upset.

“Danny, it’s okay,” Rion tried again. “It doesn’t matter. Sarina’s just a bitch–”

Danny let out a humourless laugh. “That – that was another thing Sarina mentioned. She said you called her names but if she’s got her friends pinning you down so that she can beat you up, I think I have to agree with you!”

“It’s not a big deal,” Rion said.

“It is, Rion,” Danny said. “It’s a really big deal! No one should ever treat you like that, okay? I don’t care what you’ve done! Seriously, all this over a bracelet? You’ve got to be kidding me! This is insane!”

Rion could see that he wouldn’t be able to convince Danny. He couldn’t downplay it and if that was off the table, now would be a bad time to say that the beatings were okay because he deserved it. Because he didn’t have a way to explain why he deserved it.

Instead, he said, “So, are you going to talk to Sarina again? Or…?”

Danny got up. He came over and flopped down in the seat next to Rion. Then he pulled him into a hug. Rion was surprised and sat there for a moment before reaching around to awkwardly pat Danny’s back.

“Rion, I’m so sorry,” Danny said into his shoulder. “You should never have to put up with any of that.”

“I… Thanks?” Rion said, giving Danny more back pats. Danny needed this hug more than he did. In fact, it kind of hurt since Rion was still bruised and sore. “I’m okay, though. Really.”

Danny pulled back. He looked ready to cry.

“Why are you shrugging this off? This kind of thing is really bad!” Danny insisted. “What if Sarina was beating on me? What if she was doing it to Noa?”

“No. I wouldn’t let her,” Rion said sharply, without any hesitation.

He didn’t mean for the words to come out so harsh or abrupt, but he’d had a long time to think about his relationship with Sarina. He’d imagined what she might have done if she knew that Noa was the one who cut up his bracelet.

Noa came from an abusive home. If anyone was going to try and hurt him, Rion would do everything in his power to defend his best friend. It didn’t matter what lengths he had to go. He’d protect Noa.

And Danny too. Rion would admit that his feelings for Danny weren’t as strong, but they were still friends and Rion wouldn’t stand by and let Sarina or anyone else hurt him. But it was…different. Sarina wasn’t likely to hurt Danny since they’d always been friends. Rion was also sure that Danny would be a lot better at defending himself.

Danny might be shorter than Rion and Noa, but he definitely had more muscle on him. He was fit. Anyone would have a tougher time messing with Danny. And you would have to want to in the first place which was hard enough, considering that he was such a likeable guy.

“What makes me or Noa different from you?” Danny asked. “You shouldn’t get beat on any more than us. It’s just as bad.”

“Okay, it’s bad,” Rion was forced to concede, “but I’m handling it. Besides, I’m not exactly innocent here. I’ve done things to Sarina too.”

“Maybe, but you’re one guy and she’s getting her friends to hold you down and help her beat you up,” Danny said. “That’s not fair. That’s not okay. …Does she do that to other people?”

“I don’t know,” Rion said, but now he had to consider it. “I mean, Eric is worse than Sarina. He’s a dick to everyone. But Sarina…pretty sure she only goes after me.”

“Okay. Well…this complicates things…” Danny said. He sat back, frowning, chewing on his lip.

“Complicates what?” Rion asked. “What are you talking about?”

“So, I wanted to smooth things out between you and Sarina,” Danny said, picking at a loose thread on his jeans. “I figured if you said sorry to each other, you could start working things out and we could all be friends again. I mean, I still want to try, but… Sarina didn’t tell me about all this other stuff. She just said that you wrecked the bracelet, which I already knew, and that you called her names and hit her back, and… Did you wreck her homework once? Or steal it? I think she said something about that.”

Rion didn’t answer. Instead, he barked out a laugh.

Apologize? Work things out? Be friends again?

Only Danny would be so hopeful. There was no way in hell that Sarina was going to turn around and make peace. If anything, she’d try and use it as a trap to hurt Rion, she’d do something else to him or make everyone hate him more. He didn’t know what she’d do, but Rion didn’t trust her one bit.

Still huffing out bitter laughter, Rion said, “I don’t know. I probably wrecked some of her stuff. I don’t give a shit. It doesn’t matter. None of this is going to work.”

“What? What do you mean?” Danny asked, frowning.

“Sarina’s not going to make peace or apologize, Danny,” Rion said.

“She said she would.”

“Yeah, and I bet she didn’t mean it.”

“Well…well, how else are we supposed to fix things? I mean, I know that nothing will get better overnight, especially with everything you’re telling me. But, like…you have to start somewhere.”

“Sarina hates me,” Rion said. “She’s not going to apologize for anything.”

“She told me she would,” Danny said. He really, really must want to believe that Sarina wouldn’t lie to him. “She told me that if you said sorry, she would too. She told me that you were the one that wouldn’t apologize.”

Rion let out another bitter laugh. It was just too funny. She would say sorry if Rion would apologize for fighting back, for not taking his beatings as quietly as he could, for being a shitty punching bag. Yeah, that seemed real fair.

“You know what? Fine. I’ll apologize to her,” Rion said. “I’ll say I’m sorry for calling her names and…wrecking her homework? I don’t remember that but fine, I’ll say sorry for that too. And for hitting her in self-defence. Why not? I don’t care.”

Danny was looking at him with a strange expression... Was that pity?

“Maybe I should… I could talk to Sarina about it again,” Danny said. “It sounds like she’s put you through a lot of shit, and… Has she really changed that much?”

“Is it even a change for her?” Rion asked. “We weren’t exactly friends as kids. She never hit me back then, but we didn’t get along either.”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t…she wasn’t like this. Never,” Danny said. “It’s like she’s a different person. I don’t even… I don’t know where to start. This is all so messed up.”

“I say we do it,” Rion said. “I don’t think she’s going to say sorry, but I will. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll know there’s no chance of fixing things and we can be done.”

“That… I don’t know,” Danny said.

“I have an idea,” Rion said. “Why don’t we have witnesses? Jesse and Celeste, maybe? Even Peter? Then everyone’s on the same page.”

And then if Sarina brought her friends, they couldn’t gang up on him.

Seeing Jesse, Celeste, and Peter at Noa’s place…they’d all treated Rion normally. He wasn’t sure why or what miracle Danny worked to make it happen, but it had been nice. If they came, even if they weren’t on his side or they would turn on him again, it was better to know all at once. Rion wanted it to be over in one fell swoop.

“Witnesses… That’s a good idea, actually,” Danny said, considering it. “They might be able to help us sort it out. And, like, I’m pretty sure that Peter and his family are going to want to want you over again since things worked so well with Noa last time… If you and Sarina could put this behind you, or at least start to… Yeah, I think it’s worth a shot.”

“So, when can we do it?” Rion asked. “I’d rather get this over with. It can be hard with school and jobs and everything. Would tomorrow work?”

“It’s Sunday so maybe?” Danny said. “I’ll have to make some calls. Can I let you know later tonight?”

“Yeah. Sure,” Rion said. “Sounds good to me.”

He already knew this was going to go wrong. Sarina would never quietly sit down and make peace. She was going to blow up on him, like she always did.

But maybe it was a good thing. Everyone would get to see what kind of person she really was.