Gavin was sitting in his room on the seat next to the window his head resting against the cool glass. His mind was full of one thing and one thing only, it was Michael, Gavin was worried about him , dammit they all were, He didn't know what to do he didn't know what he could do. He stared at his phone maybe he'd try texting again.

He picked it up tentatively and found Michael's name easily

G: u there?

He waited over ten minutes before there was a reply

M: ye boi

G: what's up

M: just finished dinner with the Matthews

G: Josh?

M: yup

G: what happened?

Again he waited a further ten minutes for a reply

M: I cnt rly explain but I punched a mirror, its not bad I fixed it up

G: whaat?

M: I was angry

G: whhat happende?

M: I said I cant tell u

G: Its ok u can tell me anything

M: sry Im gonna go

Gavin began to panicked and hurriedly replied

G: sorrry, you dont have to tell me

Gavin waited, ten minuted passed and then an hour passed with no reply, he squeezed his phone tightly letting his frustration out, he threw the object aside angrily, he couldn't seem to do anything right.

"Hey Gavin" He jumped, he hadn't heard Geoff enter the room, he didn't respond but Geoff sat down on his bed anyway.

"What's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong with me, I'm fine" Geoff raised his eyebrows incredulously

"What?" Gavin said defensively

"I know you pretty well by now and I can tell when you're lying, by the way you're also fucking terrible at it"

"Alright, you don't have to be smart about it" Gavin paused for a moment trying to put his worries into words and then said "Its Michael, I'm worried about him, I asked but he won't tell me anything, he doesn't trust me Geoff and... and it hurts because I trust Him!, I don't know how i can help him if he won't let me" By the end of this passionate rant Gavin had shed some tears "he won't even talk to Ray or Lindsay"

"Did he say he didn't trust you?"

"Not exactly"

"Well maybe he has a good reason for not telling you and the others"

"even if that's true, how are we supposed to help him if he doesn't tell us shit!"

Geoff sighed deeply "listen, if Michael won't change his mind about telling you then you have to help him in other ways, treat him how you would normally, be patient with him when he's angry, maybe try to distract him from his problems, take him out somewhere"

"he won't come out anymore, he's always doing homework"

"Help him with that then"

"ok, I'll try"

Geoff smiled "That's the spirit, don't stress over it Michael's a good kid and he'll soon realise that you are too"

gavin watched Geoff leave and then he began to brainstorm ideas on what he could do for Michael to distract him,his , the idea he liked best was to take him to his favorite place, but where was his favourite place? Gavin hopped up off his seat and retrieved his phone from the floor he pulled up his contacts and selected Ray.

G: wheres michaels fav place?

R: i think its the lake, went there lots last summer y?

G: i want to distract him

R: we should def go, he'll luv it!

G: u think he'll go?

R: hell yea man

G: awsome i'll ask im, night

R: night

Gavin was excited now, if ray was sure he'd go then it would be perfect, Michael would be his happy self there and they could have fun again.

Gavin tossed and turned on his bed, he was too excited to fall asleep he wanted to ask Michael now, it was hard for him to contain himself he reached over to his phone and unlocked it, it read 23:34 would Michael still be awake? He couldn't believe he was considering walking to his house, Gavin shook his head he was going to walk to his house.

He lept up off his bed and pulled his pants on, he pushed his feet into his worn out shoes and sneaked quietly out of the door grabbing his jacket on the way. By the time he had gotten to the front door he had counted three squeaky stairs and a wonky floorboard.

he left the house and he only realised that he didn't actually know where Michael lived until he was half way down the street. "Shit" he muttered, he knew that he had mentioned the street name before, but what was it? he squeezed his eyes closed willing himself to remember.

He opened his eyes having had an epiphany "Rockbridge!"He exclaimed almost jumping in excitement.

he pulled out his phone and brought up Google maps, he searched Rockbridge, Austin, texas and the arrangement of houses popped up immediately, luckily for him there was only a few houses on that street.

It took Gavin longer than he expected to get there because he would convince himself he knew which way to go and close his phone than proceed to get lost and be too stubborn to open it back up, this continued for over half an hour before he decided he was better off keeping it open and following it to a T.

when Gavin had finally reached the street it was almost exactly twelve and he discovered a new problem, he didn't know which house it was.

"Fuck"

Michael leaned back, resting on his beds headboard.

he looked at Gavin's messages for the fiftieth time, feeling worse every time he did, he could clearly see that Gavin cared but he didn't know if he could trust him with his secret, he hadn't known him that long and he didn't trust people that easily anyway. Michael sighed, he didn't know what to do; he rarely did these days. He felt his hand throb, the bleeding had stopped long ago but the pain certainly hadn't gone with it. he had removed all the glass shards and was a thankful that he didn't punch the mirror harder, it could've been a lot worse.

Michael got out of his bed and walked over to the window, he leaned on the window sill and stared out into the darkness, he got a shock when he saw a figure walking up the street, he peered at his clock 23:58 "Who the hell walks about this late at night "He whispered to himself.

He was about to turn around when suddenly he had a weird feeling that he recognised this person, he squinted and leaned closer, his eyes widened realising who it was "Gavin?" he opened the window wide and leaden out a little "Gavin!" he shouted, the tall boy leaped about a foot in the air upon hearing the voice, then he spotted Michael and smiled widely, relief flooding over him.

Gavin walked up to Michael's house waving "hello!" he said

"What the hell are you doing here?" Michael fumed

His smile faded away "I just wanted to ask you something jeez"

"Why didn't you text me then?"

"Who know's when you'll reply"

Michael felt a pang of guilt "Sorry, wanna come up?"

"You want me to climb up?!"

"No you fucking idiot I'll let you in the back, hold on wait there, I'll come get you" Michael crept through his house, he knew his parents were asleep but he was extra careful nonetheless. He opened the door and found the Brit and instructed him to follow.

Once they were inside Gain began to get clumsy he stumbled into the same table twice and a counter before Michael began to react.

"Will you stop walking into shit"

"I can't Michael, it's dark!"

"come closer" Gavin complied, shuffling foreward "Take my hand"

"What!" Michael sighed reaching out into the darkness and retrieving the other boys hand himself "It's easier this way"

" ok" He said feebly

neither of them were aware of the redness that had accumulated on each others faces, he led him through the house, going slowly partly because he didn't want to wake his parents and partly because he wanted to hold Gavin's hand for as long as he could.

"This is my room" he said opening the door and gesturing inside with his cut-covered hand.

"Uhm, Michael?"

"What is it not clean enough or something?"

Gavin shook his head "No no, it's... uhh my hand" he realised he was still gripping his hand tightly He dropped it and stepped back, he laughed somewhat nervously and whispered a soft sorry.

Gavin grabbed Michael's injured hand by the wrist and gently brought it up to his face"Holy shit Michael! What did you do?"

Micheal pulled his hand back and glared at Gavin "Shut up, my parents are sleeping"

"Sorry, but This is way worse than you said"

"I'm fine, don't worry" Gavin remained skeptical but Micheal continued " So what did you want to ask"

His expression suddenly turned from concern to nervousness "Uh..the lake will you come?"

"Are you kidding me?, you seriously came all this way to ask me that?, really?, seriously?"

Gavin nodded, slightly embarrassed "So?"

Michael laughed "of course I'll come, I love it there"

The smile on Gavin's face flourished once again."I guess I'll go then"

"You're gonna walk home now?, Right now"

"Yeah?"

"Nah, you're not going anywhere, I'm not letting you get murdered in the middle of the night"

Gavin scoffed "I won't be killed"

"This is america man, land of the free-and the murderous, I have a double bed anyway, we could watch a movie or something"

Gavin thought for a awhile and apparently he liked the idea because he started to grin again "Alright then, If you say so"

soon enough the boy's were in bed together watching a movie they had agreed on almost instantaneously an falling asleep almost as quick, they had both gone through a roller coaster of emotions that day and were exhausted.