Peter needed to tell someone what Noa said, but he had to sort out his own thoughts first.

Noa was his priority. He broke down completely in Peter’s arms, and Peter regretted not being with him through the storm. He wished he could do more than offer hugs and back rubs until Noa finally had enough.

“I…I want to be alone,” Noa said, sniffling and puffy eyed when he pulled away.

Normally, Peter would be happy to hear Noa talking to him but those were not at all the words he wanted to hear.

“How about we do your laundry together instead,” Peter said. “Once your sheets are in the wash, you should have some breakfast.”

Noa couldn’t hide the unhappy twist that his mouth did at the mention of food.

“Mom was going to make scrambled eggs,” Peter added. “You like eggs. Maybe we could throw some bacon on too.”

Despite being puffy eyed and sniffly, Noa’s expression was sliding into something more neutral again. Peter knew that was a good sign.

“Come on,” Peter said, getting to his feet and offering Noa a hand. He knew he’d won him over when Noa put a hand in Peter’s and allowed himself to be helped up. “Laundry, food, and then you can get ready for your appointment.”

Noa was back to being his quiet self while Peter helped him with his laundry. Once they had the wash going, Peter went to help his mom with breakfast. With bacon on the table, Noa ate without picking at it. Peter was encouraged by that.

While Noa finished breakfast, Peter pulled his mother aside.

“Noa’s having a rough morning,” he told her.

“I was going to check on him, but I was hoping I could give him a chance to sleep in,” his mom admitted. “He’s got an appointment with Dr. Maes and I wanted to take him to the city after and pick up some groceries. I’m not too sure about the roads with all this rain, though…”

“The highway should be good,” Peter said but he hesitated. “I’m skipping class today. I’m already ahead on all my coursework and I have some things to take care of in town, but… Did you want me to come with you to get groceries after Noa’s appointment? I don’t mind.”

“No, no. It’s fine. I can manage. I’ll drive slowly. If the roads are too rough, I’ll turn around and come home,” she said but she was frowning. “What do you have to take care of?”

“It’s just some stuff with friends,” Peter told her. “I was going to call Danny. There’s been a lot going on and I want to catch up with him.”

“Oh, okay. Well, as long as you don’t make a habit of skipping class,” his mom said. “I know you’re really diligent but bad habits stick.”

“I haven’t called in sick for anything in years. I can miss one day,” Peter said.

Peter was an honour roll student who was regularly at the top of his class, and he was more than confident that he could catch up. He needed to take the day to collect himself. He wouldn’t be able to pay attention in class with everything that was going on.

“Drive safe,” Peter added, “and keep an eye on Noa. It’s a bad month for him.”

“I know,” she said. “Peter… I just want to say thank you again. You’re such a big help with everything. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

“It’s not a problem,” Peter said. “I like helping.”

“I know but I’m still grateful,” she said.

His mom pulled him into a hug and he hugged her back. They kept it brief, but when she pulled away, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. He made a face.

“Don’t get too mushy on me, Mom,” he said.

“You’re my son. I reserve the right to be mushy any time I want. Deal with it,” she told him. “When will you be heading out? Soon?”

“I’m just going to call Danny. Then we’ll see,” Peter told her. “I’ll probably head out right away.”

Peter felt an anxious need to talk to someone about the bracelets. He’d told Rion he wouldn’t tell anyone but…now it was different. Noa told him what really happened. It changed things.

He called up Danny as his mom and Noa were getting ready to leave for Noa’s appointment. Mr. Fox picked up the phone but at Peter’s request, he passed it over to Danny.

“Hi, Peter!” Danny began.

“I need to talk to you,” Peter said without any hesitation, lowering his voice. “It’s about Rion and Noa and the friendship bracelets. It’s really important.”

“I… Okay. Sure,” Danny said, sounding mildly surprised. “Did you want to meet up somewhere, or…?”

“I can come over to your place,” Peter said. “I want privacy. Can we hang out in your room? Would that be okay?”

“…Suuuuure,” Danny said, clearly hesitant. “I’ll just… Yeah. Okay. When are you coming over?”

“I’ll be there in ten,” Peter said.

“Ten…minutes? Hey, wait–!”

Peter had already hung up. He felt guilty but he really couldn’t wait. He needed to talk to someone. The sooner the better.

When he arrived, Peter was greeted at the door by Mr. Fox, who let him in with a warm smile.

“Hi, Peter. Haven’t seen you in a while,” he said. “Come on in.”

“Thank you, Mr. Fox,” Peter said, taking his shoes off in the entrance.

“It’s Greg. Please,” Mr. Fox insisted. “Are you staying for lunch? I was going to head out to the lake, but there’s some chili left over in the fridge. There should be enough for you and Danny.”

“I’m not sure what I’m doing for lunch yet,” Peter said, “but thank you. Is Danny in his room?”

“I’m here!” Danny called, hurrying down the hall, out of breath. “Sorry, I was just putting some stuff away. I have a ton of laundry and, uh… Hi, Peter! Nice to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Peter said.

Danny shuffled in place, looking anxious. “Uh…you wanted to talk?”

“It’s important,” Peter said.

“Okay. Just follow me,” Danny said. He turned to his dad. “Don’t wait up for me. If you want to go to the lake, just go ahead.”

“Sure,” Mr. Fox said. “If you’re staying home, do you mind unpacking a few more boxes? Your mother and I would appreciate it.”

“Yeah! Yeah, that’s no problem,” Danny said. “I’ll get right on that.”

They headed to Danny’s room together. The house was mostly put together but there were still a lot of moving boxes around.

Peter expected Danny’s room to be in a disarray and he wasn’t disappointed. There were boxes everywhere and his bed was a mess of tangled sheets and pillows. He’d already had a chance to hang up some posters, mostly stuff pulled from game magazines, but there were at least one or two movie posters. One was an old, worn poster for The Thing which used to belong to his older brother, Angelo.

Peter could respect Danny’s taste.

“Please don’t mind the mess,” Danny said with an embarrassed laugh as he closed the door. “We just moved and I’m trying to sort through everything.”

“Danny, I think I’ve only ever seen your bedroom clean once,” Peter told him as he turned to him. “It’s fine. I don’t care.”

“Yeah, well, my mom won’t be happy if she finds out I had someone over in this mess,” Danny said, nudging some dirty laundry underneath his bed with his foot to try and hide it. “So, why did you freak out and run all the way over here? Did something happen? Or is it something else? Yesterday was nuts.”

“Sort of. I need to talk to someone and I don’t know who else to talk to,” Peter said. “It’s… I almost feel like I shouldn’t say anything.”

“Why don’t you sit down?” Danny said. “Here. I have a chair in here somewhere…”

He pulled out a desk chair that was half-buried behind a stack of boxes next to the dresser and offered it to Peter. To appease Danny, he sat down. Danny sat on the bed.

“So…when we were at Rion’s the other day, I got a pillow and blanket from his room,” Peter began, trying not to speak too quickly. “I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I…I ended up asking Noa about it, and… I’m getting ahead of myself. Rion had a friendship bracelet underneath his pillow.”

“The one that’s cut up?” Danny asked.

“No. This one was intact,” Peter said. Danny’s eyes widened. “Exactly. I was going to set it aside and ask about it later, but I opened his nightstand drawer to put it away, so it wasn’t just laying on his bed, and I found the wrecked bracelet in the drawer.”

“So, Rion has two bracelets?” Danny asked. “One that’s wrecked and one that’s not?”

“Yes,” Peter confirmed. “I was going to ask Rion about it later and not tell anyone, but then I remembered that Noa is missing his bracelet. So I asked Noa about it this morning. And then he broke down and told me that he was the one who wrecked his bracelet.”

Danny’s eyes grew even wider. “Wait, whoa…what? So, you’re saying… Noa? It was Noa?”

“It was Noa,” Peter said. “I am…very overwhelmed right now.”

“Yeah…” Danny said, thinking it over, his gaze unfocused. “So…Rion’s lying then? But why would he lie? He’s been saying that he was the one that wrecked his bracelet… But Noa… Unless Noa’s lying?”

“One of them is lying,” Peter said. “But I don’t think it’s Noa. He broke down crying. I asked him why he did it and he said that it was because he wasn’t a good friend to Amber and that it was his fault that she died…”

He realized he’d maybe said too much but it was too late to take it back. The look Danny gave him was pained.

“He… He doesn’t really think it’s his fault, does he?” Danny asked. “That… It was an accident. Noa burned his hand trying to get into the cabin to get Amber out. That’s… He did everything he could. Why would he…?”

“I think they call it survivor’s guilt?” Peter said, feeling uncomfortable talking about it. “It isn’t the first time he’s blamed himself. The fire and what happened… Noa hasn’t been the same since. It doesn’t matter that it was an electrical fire, that it was dry that time of year, and that everything…everything got out of control.”

“Is Noa… He’s not home alone or anything…?”

“No! No, never. He’s with Mom today. He actually has a psychiatrist appointment. He should be okay.”

“Oh, good! That’s really… That’s a relief. Good.”

“I told Noa to talk about it with Dr. Maes, but it’s up to him,” Peter said. “It’s been so long that I can’t tell which bracelet belonged to Rion and which was Noa’s. Both their bracelets look similar and have the same colours. But I’m inclined to believe that Noa is telling the truth. I can’t see him lying about this.”

“But then why would Rion say that he did it?” Danny asked. “And why did Rion have Noa’s bracelet?”

“I don’t know,” Peter said. “Noa didn’t tell me why. After he started crying, I didn’t want to ask. I wasn’t even sure he was going to give me an answer at first, but… I know they had some kind of argument and Rion backed off. Maybe he took the bracelet then.”

“Like, Rion stole it?” Danny said. “But why would he do that?”

Peter thought about it briefly before speaking, “If it were me and I were in Rion’s shoes… Noa cut up the bracelet. He probably would have thrown it away. I would have wanted Noa to keep it in case he changed his mind… Maybe Rion was thinking something like that?”

Danny considered that. “Then…if Sarina found the bracelet… If she got mad at him and made him face all of you guys… Did he lie to protect Noa?”

It made too much sense. Peter hated the thought. He hated the idea that Rion had stood up against all of them, ready for them to turn on him, and took the blame. Not only that, but Sarina had gone after him for years after. The rest of them had all given Rion the cold shoulder and Sarina bullied and beat him.

And Rion was still saying he wrecked the bracelet. He was still repeating that, over and over.

It made Peter sick. If that was the truth, then he owed Rion so much more than an apology. If Rion was taking the brunt of everyone’s frustrations for Noa’s sake…to protect Noa who was vulnerable and struggling…

This changed everything.

“We should ask Rion,” Peter said. “I need to talk to him about it anyway. I said I wouldn’t tell anyone about the bracelet. I broke that promise because I brought it up with Noa and…and you… I need to tell him.”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed. “That’s… Wow. I can’t believe it. Rion… We have to talk to him about this. If it’s true, then we have to tell Sarina too. She needs to know that he didn’t do it.”

“Rion comes first,” Peter said firmly. “I don’t think telling Sarina will make much of a difference.”

“Well…she should still know. After we talk to Rion,” Danny said. “I wonder… I should call him up. Maybe we could meet up today.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Peter said. “Rion will be in school by now, and after the storm last night… We should call him tonight and make plans to see him tomorrow afternoon. That should give him some time.”

“Okay. Deal,” Danny said. “I’m in.”