Buck was unsure of his feelings as he knocked on the door to Jenos' house. He didn't know whether to be nervous, excited, sad, or happy. They had a great time on Monday, but the last time he had seen Jenos, he was miserable. It didn't help that he had flaked on him yesterday. He took a deep breath and hoped for the best as Jenos' mom answered the door. "Hello Buck." She let him into the house and Buck nodded in response. "Is Jenos in his room?" he asked. "Yes, I think he might be busy, though," she answered. Buck walked up the stairs and approached the room. He slowly cracked the door open, and was met with an unfamiliar sight. Jenos' room was messy. How weird, he always keeps his room tidy, he thought to himself, as he scanned the area for his friend. Suddenly, he heard a noise behind him. Buck turned around to see the boy he was looking for right behind him.

"Oh, hello Jenos," he greeted in an awkward tone.

"Hi," the boy responded flatly. He walked right past Buck and sat on his bed, which was unmade. Buck scanned the rest of the room. Papers scattered on the floor. Clothes hanging off of a chair. Books tucked into corners, far from the shelves.

"Geez, what happened here? It's like there's been a twister," Buck commented. Jenos stared back at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Uh, it's just a little messy, that's all," Buck cringed at himself. He regretted saying anything. There was a long silence. Buck stood in the doorway, trying to think of what to say. Why is this so hard? Finally, he managed to scrape something together.

"So, what did you do today?" he asked.

"Nothing."

Back to silence. Jenos was oddly distant, even more so than usual. After a couple of moments, Buck spoke again.

"What did you want to do with me?"

"I don't care."

"Alright then."

Buck set his stuff down next to a table in the room. He then sat on the floor next to Jenos' bed. There was something off about his friend. Sure, he was quiet, but never this quiet. He decided to dig deeper. "Is something wrong, Jenos?" Silence. Buck looked up at his friend after a couple of moments. He was biting his lip, and he could see tears forming in his eyes. Buck quickly got up and moved in front of his friend to face him. He squatted down slightly to meet him at eye level. "Jenos, come on," he started. The shorter man looked away. "Look at me, please." He moved his knees, and put his face into them. Buck sat next to him on the bed and loosely put his arm around his hurting friend.

"Jenos, you can tell me what's wrong, it's okay. I promise I won't judge you," he said softly. Jenos sniffled, and then turned back to Buck.

"P-promise?"

"Yes. I promise."

"Well, I just feel so…" Jenos started. He closed his mouth, as if his words had vanished into thin air.
"You can say it."

"Guilty." Buck raised his eyebrows.

"Why? Is it my fault?"
"N-no. I just feel like I'm holding you back, like I'm a burden on you." Buck nodded and continued to listen.
"Like, the other night made me realize that I'm not like you. We're not supposed to be friends. You're popular and social, and I'm just…" Jenos stopped. He was crying now. Buck frowned; he hated to see Jenos like this.

"A loser."

There was another pause. Then Jenos continued.

"Nobody wants us to be friends, Buck, we're not allowed. And that's my fault. It's my fault that the ambush happened. It's my fault that-"
"No it's not. You didn't do anything to cause that. You didn't cause Lian to be such a hateful, jealous, micromanaging bitch. You were just yourself, and there's nothing wrong with that. Let the rest of the school think our friendship is wrong, it doesn't matter, as long as we're happy," he blurted out. He couldn't stand listening to Jenos dig himself into a deeper hole of guilt anymore.

"But, I'm such an inconvenience to you. If we weren't friends, the ambush wouldn't have happened, and you'd have your old friends."

"Jenos, you're not an inconvenience. You're worth it, even if the whole school hates me for it. I love spending time with you. Besides," he paused, smiled, then continued, "I don't need them if I have you."

Jenos smiled, tears of sadness turning into tears of joy. Suddenly, he hugged Buck. Buck closed his eyes and held his friend against him. He could feel his tears soaking his shirt, but he didn't care. He enjoyed the moment. He smells like flowers, Buck thought to himself. "You're a great friend," Jenos mumbled into his chest. Buck patted him on the back and let go. His eyes were wet, and his face red, but he had a smile on his face now.

"So, what do you say? Chill out?" Buck asked. Jenos chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess. I have some homework to catch up on, what about you?"

"Same here. We could maybe listen to some tunes, eat some snacks, and work."

"Sounds good enough. I'm going to go downstairs and get some food. Want anything?"

"Just get some of those cheese crisps for me, I'll set up my portable speaker," Buck added, moving towards his backpack. Jenos nodded and went down the stairs. Buck took out his phone and speaker and put the setup on the table. He had just started to browse stations when Jenos returned with snacks.

"So, what do you have to do?" Buck asked, as Jenos handed him a bowl.

"Just a lab report, you?"

"Well, I actually have an art project to work on, as well as some math homework."

"Art? How interesting."

"What do you want to listen to?"

"What are the choices?" Jenos asked. He handed him his phone. While he scrolled through the stations, Buck got out his math worksheet. He stared at it, slightly confused at its contents.

"Hey, you think you can help me with this?" he asked Jenos. Jenos, being a committed student, was far ahead of him in math. He had managed to skip ahead and was already taking Calculus. Some simple algebra meant nothing to him.

"What is it?" he responded as he continued to search for a station.

"Some logarithm problems."

"Yeah, sure." He handed the phone back to Buck, and shortly after, country music started blaring through the speakers. Buck raised his eyebrows and glanced up at Jenos.

"You like country music?" Buck asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Jenos responded, shyly.

"That's… unexpected," Buck said, trying to hold back laughter. He could see Jenos blush.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, I don't mind," he reassured his friend. Jenos nodded, then sat next to him on the floor.

"What do you need help with?" he asked.
"I just don't understand how these problems work." Buck pointed at a section of questions on the paper. Jenos squinted.
"Oh, for those, you just have to use the rules to isolate the variable. It's solving, but with different rules," he started. Buck gave him a puzzled look.

"Here, let me show you. To isolate X, you need to get rid of the logarithm. So, you use the rules to combine these two, then, you can cancel them and solve the equation," he explained, performing the steps slowly to make sure Buck understood. He nodded, then thanked his friend. The two started to work on their respective sheets, enjoying the music and each other's company.

After about an hour, they had both finished their work. Buck put away his sheet, then got out a piece of paper he had started to sketch on during art class today. He sighed and looked at what little progress he had made. Suddenly, Jenos sat down next to him on the floor. He peered at his drawing.

"What is your project about?" he asked, noticing his clear distress, "Maybe I can help you."

"Well, it's a group project, and each of us has to make a painting that represents a season. I have Winter, and I don't know what to do," Buck explained.

Jenos nodded. "Well, start with something simple, like, what's something you like about Winter?"

Buck paused. His mind was blank. "Nothing."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's just so cold and miserable all of the time."

"Well, it's actually my favorite season."

"Why?"

"I don't mind the cold. I actually quite like it. I also think it looks really cool when the trees in the forests shed their leaves. They kind of look like skeletons. And it's dark for longer too, so there's more time to stargaze. The stars are much brighter in the Winter, you know. It's fun to go out and see them, but I also like watching them from the comfort of my room. I always like to drink my tea on that chair and read too. It's really pleasant."

Buck paused, taken aback by the level of detail Jenos put in that short description. It had opened his eyes to a new perspective of enjoying the changes in the world around them. He never saw it in the way Jenos did; usually, he would accept the general notion that Winter was miserable. He felt inspired by this new opinion, and nodded back at Jenos.

"That's actually really cool," he said. He got up, sat at Jenos' desk, and frantically started adding to his sketch. Jenos watched him intently from the edge of the bed. The silver-haired boy smiled as he watched his short vignette materialize on the paper. After about 30 minutes, Buck had almost finished. He cracked his knuckles, and looked at his creation.

A mountain range set the stage. Skeletal trees framed the edges and dotted the background. Shrubs and grass poked through a light layer of snow. There was a small tent on the ground, and a campfire in front of it. But the main focus was the sky. Shining stars were sprawled across the dark blanket of the night, almost like a necklace had snapped and dropped all of its beads on a black cloth. The cosmos was like a glowing network in the sky. Two friends sat around the campfire with mugs in hand, staring up at the sight above them. Suddenly, Buck snapped back to reality when he felt a presence behind him. He turned around to see Jenos transfixed by his sketch.

"I-I love it…" Jenos stammered. Buck felt his face turn hot. Jenos was never before this impressed by something Buck had done.

"Hopefully I'll have enough time to paint with this much detail," Buck added, facing Jenos. There was a pause.

"Can I keep it? You know, when you're done with it? Just the sketch is fine," Jenos asked nervously, avoiding eye contact with Buck.

"Of course, I mean, you inspired it." Buck gave a slight smile. Jenos grinned, then looked towards the windows. The sun was going to set soon.

"You want to go to the yard?" Buck asked, changing the subject.
"Are you a mind reader?" Jenos responded playfully as he walked to the door of his room. Buck got up from his chair and followed him outside. They went through the door, off of the deck, and past the lights. Each boy sat down in a chair in front of the pond, viewing the sky's vibrant colors. Birds chirped and the garden had a distinct floral scent. Buck looked towards the sunset, but also at his friend, whose silvery hair reflected a dampened peach color from the sky. Then, he spoke.

"Winter may have the best stars, but Autumn has the best sunsets," he commented. Hues of pink, orange, and pale yellow blended with the light blue of the sky. The clouds looked like pink plumes floating freely in the large expanse of color. As the sun dipped lower, the colors turned darker, yet more vibrant. The two watched in silence as the last of the light faded into night. After that, they walked back inside and back to Jenos' room.

"You should stay for the night," Jenos suggested.

"Yeah, that would be nice, I just need to get some stuff," Buck responded.

"Alright, I can take you back to your house to pick up your stuff, then we can come back here and eat or we can pick up dinner on the way," Jenos said.

"We can stop," Buck answered as Jenos grabbed his car keys and headed towards his door. Buck followed him downstairs and outside. They hopped into his car and drove back to his house. Buck let his parents know he was staying with Jenos, then rejoined his friend, clothes and toiletries packed in a bag. They stopped at a small fast food restaurant to pick up food to eat at home. The drive back home was quick, and they got out of the car to eat their meals inside. The two chatted about school and other various topics as they ate. Then, they headed to the living room and proceeded to play video games for a couple of hours. By the time the friends were finished with playing, it was late.

"God, you always beat me in that game," Buck commented as they walked up the stairs towards Jenos' room. Jenos chuckled.

"How do you do it, anyways?" he asked.

"A magician never reveals their secrets," Jenos teased, walking into the room. Buck rolled his eyes, but was glad that Jenos was back to his normal playful, friendly self. Jenos took his clothes to take a shower and change, so Buck waited in his room. He decided he would do a favor for Jenos: help clean his room. Jenos had kept his room the same way since he was a young child, so Buck quickly got to work. He started by moving the stray books back to the shelves where they belonged. Then, he made his bed. Lastly, he folded the clothes sprawled on the floor and put them into the drawers. He stumbled across what seemed to be Jenos' diary hidden in one drawer, and although he was tempted to read it, he left it be. Soon after, Jenos returned. He gasped.

"Buck, did you- did you clean my room?" he asked, stunned.

"Yeah," Buck responded.

"W-well, thank you." Jenos started to roam around and examine the room.

"You got everything right," he continued. Buck put his hand on the back of his head.

"It wasn't too hard, I just felt like it would make you feel better, you know, since you like your stuff all neat," Buck explained. Jenos smiled.

"It worked."

After that, it was Buck's turn to shower and change. By the time they had both brushed their teeth and got ready to sleep, it was almost midnight. Jenos had set up a mattress on the floor for Buck to sleep on, just like when they were children. They both tucked themselves in after Jenos turned off the lights. When Buck stared up at the stars through the skylight, he felt a sense of nostalgia, as well as wonder. As a child, whenever he would sleep over at Jenos' place, he always watched the stars until he fell asleep under their glow.

Some time later, when Buck was sure Jenos had fallen asleep, he shifted to get a better view of the stars. Buck, being the large man he was, naturally made noise while moving around. This had unknowingly signalled to Jenos that he was still awake, prompting him to speak.

"Buck? Are you still awake?" he asked.

"Yes." There was a short pause.

"You're my best friend."

"You're my best friend, too, Jenos."

Buck smiled as he drifted off to sleep, the starlight casting a ghostly glow over everything in the room.