Mako's Message:

Readers: Yo, mako! you said this would be up yesterday! What gives?

Mako: Shit happens.

Anyway, there's not much to this chapter but I just love it so much.


I'm really looking forward to this summer. Not only will I be able to sleep in again, but I've got a whole new outlook on life and summer is the perfect time for it to start.

And Alice was right; I didn't fuck things up anywhere near as bad as I thought I had.

School is pretty much over for the seniors now that finals are over. Nobody expects them to show up. I know for a fact that some of the teachers specifically asked them not to come in the last week so they could get a head start on their end of year work. Dave was one of the ones that was more than happy to not come in. The lucky bastard.

So, imagine my surprise when, while I'm sitting on the steps outside of school waiting for classes to start, Dave come walking towards me across the lawn. He sits down next to me and without looking at me says, "I'm sorry for freaking out on you like that. I didn't meant to make you cry. You seriously crossed a line there, but I could have handled it better." Then he passed me a brown paper bag and said, "Peace offering?"

I closed my book and took the bag and pulled out a massive, fresh baked, mixed berry muffin.

I couldn't help smiling. It's always nice to have your fears dispelled, and this particular fear couldn't have been dispelled in a better way. I knew I had to apologize to though, so I sat there and rolled the muffin back and forth in my hands trying to find the right words. I settled on, "I completely understand you freaking out. What I did wasn't cool. At all. So, yeah, I'm sorry about that."

And he looked at me and said, "So we're good?"

And grinned and nodded and said, "Yeah, we're good." Then as we sat there, just being glad we'd gotten passed that, I had this idea that was just too good to pass up.

I asked him, "So, do you want to try my muffin?"

And he started saying, "No, thanks, I alre-" and he stopped, he squinted at me, and he must have caught my tone because he asked, "Was that an innuendo?"

And I grinned so wide it hurt and said, "Yup."

And his eyes went wide and he said, "You're not even going to pretend anymore, are you?"

And I said, "Nope."

And he dropped his head down and said, "oh fuck me."

So I said, "Gladly."

And then he cupped his face in his hands and groaned.

I wanted to keep teasing him, but the bell rang then so I got up, threw my backpack over my shoulder, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Thanks for the muffin" then headed in, leaving him there on the steps with his head in his hands.

I'm so looking forward to going shopping with Angela next weekend. This is going to be a great summer.


Mako's Follow Up:Thank you for all the concern and well wishes. It's much appreciated.

Just wanted to explain a bit more to ease some of that concern though.

My son has asthma, and between the move and the rapidly fluctuating temperatures we've had here lately, it was set off pretty bad. It necessitated a few doctors appointments and a trip to the ER(which wasn't really necessary and got him so hyped up on stimulants and steroids he was like Hit Girl at the end of the Mother Russia fight). In an example of supreme irony, I'm actually so poor I have state health care coverage for me and my son so we're fully covered for all of it.

Also, after, thanks to donations from some of you and half my family, I avoided eviction last year, my lease was changed to month-to-month, and since I was actually given (barely)more than a month's notice, my getting the boot was completely legit. And I wouldn't have been able to afford my old place much longer anyway. I can also walk to work from my new place so my monthly expenses have been reduced by about $100. So I'm more or less doing fine.

Thank you all once again.