I expected there to be some pain with my injury, I did. What I didn't expect was to wake up and have my entire chest and forearm be so sore I could barely move. Naturally the first thought that went through my head was "oh shit I'm having a heart attack," but I knew I was just bruised from having a tackle contest with a steel door. It was one of the only times I opted for a cold shower. I figured it would have the same effect as an ice pack.

It did not.

Just froze me to death and made me turn the heat up instantly. As I cleaned myself off I thought about the next seven days. I was home all by myself, with $2,000 I could spend however I pleased. It was Saturday, pretty much the only day I had to really relax. Sunday was more of a prep day for another week of school. So I'd have to make the most out of today.

Once my shower was finished and I was dry I grabbed my phone and strolled through the house in a comfy pair of pajama pants. I quickly scrambled myself a mushroom and tomato omelet which I sided with couple slices of toast lathered in homemade strawberry jelly. I flipped on the plasma TV to the weather channel see the forecast while I ate. In the meantime, I texted up a few friends to see if I could arrange some plans. I sent out a message in the group chat we at had. It included myself, Percy Adams, his twin brother Alex, Candu, Leon Killin, and Jason Dodson.

I'd known them all since pre-school. We were a regular band of brothers. We all shared a love of games, music, movies, and the outdoors.

"Hey guys, anyone want to do something today?" I asked. Percy was the first to reply.

"Sorry m8, me and Leon already made plans." Probably should have guessed. Percy and Leon often went on dates on Saturdays. It shocked us all when the two came out, but we didn't care. They were our friends and nothing would change that.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to pass too, clan stuff today." This time Jason replied with an image of his TV. He was playing Destiny 2 with his clan he'd met when the first one came out.

"Oh shit that was today? Fuck. Tell them I died in a car crash and but I'll be back tomorrow. I'm down for whatever you are Hutch, long as you want to come pick me up. Percy is taking the car." Alex agreed to join. He and Percy weren't very rich so the two of them had to share a car. I didn't care to come pick him up.

"Where you guys going?" Candy asked.

"Idk, out. Better than sitting around the house." I replied.

"Well dad needs me to pick up some nail and plywood for the renovations we're doing. If you don't care to go by the hardware store with me we can go out to eat afterwards." He suggested.

"No please don't threaten me with lunch." Alex joked.

"I'll be over in like 10 minutes Alex. Where we eating?"

"Tim's" Alex immediately relied.

"^" Candu agreed.

I shrugged and got myself dressed. I was never a picky dresser. Mostly graphic tees and jeans made up my wardrobe. I grabbed the nearest black 'Rammstein' shirt and slid it on with a pair of comfortable jeans. I snatched my keys and headed for the door about the time I got message from Lilly.

"Morning~"

"Good morning sleepy head." I teased.

"Shuddup I sleep when I want. Soooo what are you doing tonight"

"Uhh not sure yet. Me and Alex are going to help Candy pick up some stuff and then we're going out to lunch. Haven't really planned that out yet."

"Wellllllll I have a favor to ask."

"Shoot."

"Wellll mom and dad are working late tonight and Kate plans on bringing Humphrey over soooooo can I spend the night at your place?"

"Sure. I don't mind."

"Thank you sooo much 3"

"Anytime."

I put my phone away and hopped into my truck to not keep Alex and Candy waiting any longer. Alex and Percy lived about 10 minutes away from me, in the more rural part of the town. They lived in what resembled a log cabin. Their dad was a bit of a dead beat and their mom was a nurse. Their mom barely made enough to support the twins plus their drunken dad who really disapproved of Percy being gay. But Alex had put him in his place on more than one occasion. The only reason their mom hadn't left him yet was because they'd have had nowhere to go. Their Nissan was gone which meant Percy had already left. I blew my horn as I made my way up the driveway.

Not a second later Alex appeared. White fur all over except for his head, which sported a shoulder long head of jet black hair. He was wearing a flannel and tattered pair of sawdust covered jeans. He waved at me as he rushed over to the truck. He threw the door open and practically jumped in.

"Hope you don't mind the sawdust. One of our floorboards needed replaced so I had to cut a new one," he said buckling up.

"Don't worry about it," I shrugged off the thought. Sawdust wasn't the worst thing I'd ever had on my floor mats.

"Kinda glad you asked me to join. David has been really pissing me off lately," David was Alex and Percy's dad. The two refused to call him 'dad' and instead resorted to calling him by his first name.

"What's he done this time," I asked as we pulled away from the tiny gravel road.

"Keeps talking bad about Percy behind his back. Had to remind him last night why that was a bad idea," he smirked shaking his right hand. It was no secret that Alex and David fought, though it was more Alex doing the fighting because David was too sorry even to fight back.

"I really wish your mom would leave him already. I could probably hook you guys up with a place to live," I offered but he shook his head.

"She'd never go for it. She hates taking help from other people. Personally, I think she has Stockholm syndrome. But I wish she would. I'm tired of seeing him lounge around all day while me and Percy bust our asses to keep the house in shape. One of these days I'm going to really break down and let loose on the bastard. Least then he'd have an excuse to not get off his ass. By the way how's your chest? Candu said you went to the hospital yesterday after fuck face hit you with the door."

"Cracked rib. Still hurts a little bit from the bruise."

"That's rough man. But hey, got to spend the day with Lilly." He emphasized her name just to tease me. Everyone knew how I felt about her. Every day they would try to talk me into asking her out.

"Yeah it was pretty nice. I bought her a new turtle."

"You spent all day with your crush and it was just "pretty nice". Man, you are hard to please. I suppose winning the lottery is your idea of a day just being 'alright'." he laughed as I rolled my eyes.

"I've told you before she deserves better than me. And as long as it's anyone but Garth it's fine."

"Ohh good. Because she asked me out last night."

"What?!"

"See? Jealous as can be. We all see the way she looks at you. She'd bend over backwards for you."

"Never claimed I wasn't jealous."

"You're so difficult. You two need to fuck and get it over with. Oh! I almost forgot I got you a birthday present."

"Alex my birthday isn't until October."

"In that case it's October because I'm giving this to you anyway because you have to use it soon-ish."

Alex reached into his flannel and produced an envelope with the name "Kevin" written on it.

"Oh, Alex you shouldn't have. An envelope with a name on…did you steal this from someone's mailbox?"

The state he gave me was priceless. A look of pure disdain that told me he was seriously regretting giving me something. I took the envelope as we pulled up to a stop light and opened it. Inside was a pair of tickets and passes attached to lanyards. They were concert tickets and backstage passes. And the performance was….

"Sabaton." I gasped. My whole body froze. I'd never imagined I'd get a pair of concert tickets to by far my favorite metal band. I almost felt myself tearing up.

"Yep. They're coming through next month. Powerwolf is opening for them. Front row. Figured you'd like that."

"H-how'd you get these?!"

"Kevin is my uncle. He works at the arena where they're going to play at. He always gets a pair of tickets and backstage passes to all of the upcoming acts because he is good friends with owner. They're supposed to be for his family, but since he's single he always offers them to me and Percy. I took them because I knew you'd want them."

"D-dude. Are you sure I can have these? Like seriously how much do you want me to pay you."

"How about you push the gas pedal. The cars behind us are starting to give us dirty looks."

"Shit." I swore and quickly put the envelope in my lap and nearly slammed on the gas to catch up to the car in front of us. I'd been so lost on the tickets I forgot I was even driving.

"Seriously Alex, how much money do you want? I can't just take these."

"Well you're going to take them. Percy and I are going over to Vancouver to see our grandparents that weekend anyway so they don't do us much good. Besides you've done plenty for me and him in the past. Taking us out to lunch, helping with our cell phone bill, giving us a place to stay when dad gets unbearable. If anything, considering this a fair trade is an insult."

I hadn't even thought about that. Everything I'd done for him and Percy had been just because they were my friends. But it was more than that. They were like brothers to me. Growing up as an only child was extremely lonely. I found refuge in them and the others. They slowly became like my brothers. I knew they hated asking for help, so I would always offer or just force their hand. Like when they needed money, I'd just give it to them. Mom and dad didn't seem to mind, in fact they encouraged me to be so charitable.

By the time we got to Lowe's the day felt surreal. We hadn't even gotten to the parking lot when we spotted Candu in his dads Ram. He swung wide into a parking space and I followed suit in my much smaller truck.

"Morning guys, surprised I made it when you did traffic was a bitch," he said hopping out.

"Yeah well Hutch thought it'd be a good idea to sit at a green light. So what are we here for again?" Alex yawned widely as the three of us made our way to the entrance.

"A lot. I need 8 sheets of plywood, 6 2x4's, nails, all that jazz. You guys just follow, and grab a cart for the smaller stuff," he instructed as he took one of the larger push carts.

"Okay dad but we get to go the toy store after this right," Alex laughed in a childish tone as pretending to climb into the kids seat. We all laughed and began our shopping spree. Candu's earlier list was nothing compared to what we actually bought. Nails, paint, tile, grout, hinges, drawer rails, wood, electrical wire, and a a tile saw blade.

"Damn Candu, when you said you were renovating I thought you meant remodeling, I didn't know you were building a whole new house," Alex groaned as we finally made our way out of the store. Overall, we'd spent nearly $800.

"Well mom wanted a bigger kitchen so dads making it huge. This is only to expand the floor space, he's got me figuring up the cabinets." Just as we got back to our trucks an SUV swerved so close to us it nearly ran the three of us over.

"Holy shit," Alex screamed as he pinned me to my tailgate to avoid being hit. In shock we turned to see the big white monstrosity that belonged to him.

"Get out of my way shitters," Garth laughed as he rolled down his window to glare at us.

"Watch where you're going you fucking cum stain," Candu barked harshly.

"Ohh man real scared of you shorty. Go see if they've got a ladder they'll let you borrow so you can say it to my face." He smirked.

"Oh, you wanna play that game huh? We'll play that game motherfucker," Alex growled as he reached for his pocket, producing a large knife.

Out of all of us, Alex easily had the most violent temper. Growing up he and his dad clashed a lot which contributed to his anger. Candu was close behind him, only he'd never actually pull a knife on someone and threaten them with it. Even if he did, he wouldn't actually use it like I knew Alex would. I'd seen him slash at his father with that same knife fully intent on maiming him.

"Hey how about one of these for the road fuckers," he flipped his middle finger up towards and slammed on the gas, causing his tires to squeal.

"Scared little cunt," Alex smirked and hid his knife back away, presumably in its sheath.

"Dumb mother fucker could've killed us driving like that," Candu huffed as he practically slung most of the wood into his dads truck.

"He'll get what's coming to him one day." Alex snarled moving to help Candu.

Garth did not like me, because I was his only competition with Lilly. By extension, he hated all of my friends. Granted he harassed us like that all time. But before any of us could do anything he'd run off. In Alex's case I was thankful because I was almost certain Alex would kill him. I'm not saying that metaphorically either. There was an instance where Garth called Percy out for being gay, made him feel humiliated. Ever since then, Alex gets this weird bloodthirsty look in his eyes when he sees Garth, almost like he's waiting for a command to attack him.

Candu didn't really care what Garth thought about him. He didn't care what anyone thought about him. He was pissed at Garth for what he'd done to Percy, but he had no personal grudges against him.

Garth was an all-around bully at Jasper High. If he didn't like something about you, he made sure you knew it. He had a clique of jocks he hung around with as a sort of possy, all of who blindly followed him because he was football team captain.

As we loaded the last of the supplies into Candu's truck I tried to take my mind of the meathead. I thought about the tickets I had. I thought about how happy Lilly would be when I surprised her with them.

Thinking about it completely alleviated any anger I had.