Chapter 34

Fox just glared over at them. "Dude would you chill out?" Falco asked as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Yeah Fox lighten up, they're not doing anything wrong." Katt told him.

He was glaring at Panther, and Krystal, and the rest of Panther's group.

"I just don't like it. Don't know why, but I just don't." Krystal had hung out with everyone significantly less for the two weeks she and Panther had been dating. Falco and Katt left him by himself and walked over to the group.

"Looks like he picked the wrong way to come back." Katt moaned as she sat down. Everyone sighed. "Well a few weeks ago she would have loved this news, but not now." Lucy said with remorse. It was too late, she was taken, and by one of the worst people she could be with.

'Maybe I can talk to her when we leave lunch.' Then that maybe changed. Fara sat down right beside her and they started talking. 'This is crossing the line.' Fox was angry, he didn't want to talk to her right now but he had to. He got up a little after she did and caught her. "Hey Krystal, do you uhhh, mind if I take you home this afternoon?"

Krystal was a little surprised at this sudden request. "Well Panther didn't drive his mom's car this morning, so sure! Mind if I ask why all of a sudden?" "Well I just feel like I've been ignoring you for a really long time, like you said a couple weeks ago. So I guess this could be a way of hanging out a little bit." He felt a little nervous. She just smiled and walked off.

'That was weird, this isn't a date or anything.'

'What was that all about? He just came out of nowhere like that.' Krystal thought as she walked away.

After school, Fox was a little late getting outside. 'What's taking him so long? Ugh, this feels like we're dating again or something.' She laughed at that last thought.

Fox was pacing in the lobby thinking this was a mistake, he didn't get to prepare for this talk all day. 'Okay, this is called winging it' he said as he walked out the door.

They greeted and walked over to his convertible. He sighed when they got in. "Krystal, it's cool and all that you and Panther are dating. But I don't want you and Fara talking any, I think she's still kind of out to get me."

'I knew it would be this.' She thought to herself.

"Well you see she just sat down there and I was being nice and just saying hey, if you had paid attention you would've seen that I stopped talking to her right after that. And since when do you care so much all of a sudden? You've practically ignored me since you had that memory loss of yours, and now all of a sudden you think you can come back and tell me what to do? No Fox, that's not how it works." Fox felt pretty burned.

"Well yeah I know I've been a terrible friend for a while, but I'm trying to look out for you and be a better friend. Just from what you and everyone else have told me she's trouble. I just don't want her to have you turn on us anything." Krystal just puffed and looked out the window.

"Hey look, I'm sorry. I know I've been an awful excuse for a friend for a while now, but I'm legit trying to be a better friend now. And stop acting like we're dating, Panther wouldn't like that." He managed to make her laugh a little bit.

They made it to her house and not a moment too soon. "Well yeah I guess I kinda got onto you too much there, sorry Fox." He smiled at her knowing that it was okay. "Maybe we can hang out sometime, just us, it's been a long time since it's been that way."

"That…. That would be cool I think." She smiled, picked up her books, waved and walked.

'That felt weird' She thought to herself. 'And he thinks that too, how weird.' Things had been weird lately, all of it. And what's making it so weird.

"Hey Panther! Do you wanna come over later tonight?" Panther spoke up. "I'd love to darling, I'll be over around six." She smiled and hung up her phone with a giddy smile.

Falco had come over to Fox's house that night. It had been a while since they went on a mission so they went for a run to get in shape. It was seven that night that they began and ran three laps around the neighborhood. Fox ran by Krystal's house and noticed the extra car, then kept running. On his way back around he stopped this time to inspect it, then something caught his eye.

Krystal was in her PJ's again, but she wasn't alone. "Panther, should've known." He said to himself. He looked in and saw the two sitting on her bed together laughing at something on his phone. He just laughed to himself as he stood in the dark alone.

Falco caught up to him standing there. "Hey man, something got you stumped?" He grinned to himself. "Nah, just needed a little breather, let's go get some food now." They ran off down the road, but Fox looked back to the house.

Panther left that night around 8.

Krystal sat in her room by herself and looked out the window. "Fox….why are you showing up so much?"