I sat down and just looked at the book in my hand. Just like I had predicted, Jeseni was the new main character and Eril was now officially on the bad guy's side. Or at least I was pretty sure that it was the bad side. We kept getting chapters from his POV so I had no idea what to think at this point.

"I still can't believe this," I heard Zach mutter from next to me. I had ended up recommending the book to him, especially once I learned that the sequel was already out. What I hadn't expected was for him to start joining me at lunch.

"Don't believe what?" I asked as I set my book down. I had just reached a good stopping point anyway.

We didn't do much, just read and have the occasional chat. Like the kind that we were having right now.

"I'm reading a YA book, the genre of bad teen romance… and the main character starts in a committed relationship. A committed relationship with someone's who is basically his fiancé in an arranged marriage,"

"Yeah that threw me for a loop the first time I read it too," I admitted to him. "You get used to it though,"

"I guess I will," He said before flipping back a page and smiling. "Now Rowie? I like Rowie. I'm a sucker for his entire nice dudebro best friend archetype,"

I blinked as the scene of Eril standing over Rowie's dead body while Jeseni looks on in shook played in my head again.

"Yeah he's cool," I said as neutrally as I could.

Fortunately, Zach was spared from any accidental spoilers from me as the bell rang.

"And there's lunch," He said as he glanced over at the bell. "Same thing come Monday?" He asked as he got up.

"Sure," I told him as I put my book away and got up too. "See you then,"

We walked away from each other, heading to each of our classes to finish out the day.

Were we friends? I was pretty sure that we were friends…

Maybe I could ask Robby about it after school. Yeah that sounded like a good plan.

I found him easily enough once school ended. He was standing around the entrance, probably waiting for his boys to show up.

"Hey Robby quick question, I need the expertise of someone with a lot of friends," I said as I walked up to him.

"Sure, what is it?" He asked as he turned towards me.

"What is it called if you see someone every day at lunch to just kind of hang out, read books, and then chat about books?" I asked as I could see the sun slowly rise over on Robby's face.

"You made a friend," He said in an awed whisper as he got closer. I blinked twice as he pulled me into a hug and kept whispering. "I am so proud of you,"

"I can't tell what's worse, the fact that I know you're not being sarcastic, or the fact that I'm kind of proud of it too," I told him as he let go and held me at arm's length. Was there… oh my god there was an actual tear in his eye.

"Tell me everything," He said as I looked past his shoulders. I could see his quickly approaching boys.

"Maybe later, here come your boys," I said as Robby looked back and waved them over. Four pairs of eyes narrowed as I prepared myself for it.

"We're not his boys!"

I smiled at the coordinated four person yell.

"There is no way that you guys don't practice that and there's no way that you're convincing me otherwise," I told them as they came to a stop in front of Robby.

Now normally this would be the part where I would name and describe each of the four boys… but there was just one little problem with that.

Robby had introduced us like two years ago and I had honestly forgotten all their names. I hadn't done it on purpose or anything, but after calling them his boys that was the name that stuck in my head. And since I never really interacted with them… I didn't really need to know their names.

Was it a good excuse… I wasn't sure. But it was my excuse and I was standing by it.

"Oh hey guys," Robby said as his boys came up to us. "Sorry I'm going to have to meet up with you guys later,"

"Why I thought we were doing that church thing today?" One of his boys asked as I raise an eyebrow. Robby wasn't all that religious, neither were his parents.

"We were going to but now I have to have a little conversation with Rita here," He said as he placed his hand on my shoulder and then used his other hand to point at me.

"I don't mind if you're boys,"

"Not his boys,"

"Know about this," I told him as he backed away a bit. "What were you guys going to do anyway?"

"Oh well you see we heard this weird rumor and wanted to check it out," He explained as I let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh that's good, when I heard something about a church, I was a little worried that you were going to start burning my fantasy books," I chuckled.

"Oh don't worry about that. Basically there's this rumor about the abandoned church on the outskirts of town," He said as he lowered his voice in an attempt to sound spooky. "They say that in the middle of the courtyard is an old angel statue that turns around to look at you when you're not watching,"

"Well that sounds like fun. We can talk about my thing later. You guys have fun with…"

I stopped as I thought of just what exactly happened the last time that Robby told me about some sort of urban legend.

"On second thought mind if I come with you guys?"

"Okay so now tell me all about it," Robby asked as we walked with sandwiches in hand. We had stopped by a shop to buy some since we were probably going to miss dinner doing this.

"Not much to tell," I said before biting my sandwich. It was a tuna sub with tomatoes and mayo, the same sandwich I always get when buying from shops. "Last week I was sitting in my usual place during lunch when someone walked up to me and asked me about the book I was reading,"

"Yeah that would make sense," He said with a slight chuckle. "Still, it's a bit different from what I would have expected. Normally you would… you know,"

"Told him to buzz off and let me get back to my reading?" I finished for him. "Yeah I know, I'm trying to fix that part of me,"

"Oh so it's a he?" Robby said with a certain tone that I wasn't sure I liked. I bit into my sandwich again and looked straight on. I couldn't look at his face right now. I knew what was there, and I didn't want to see it.

I strained myself to keep my eyes as forward as they could…

They glanced over and saw Robby's wiggling eyebrows.

"Ugh, why do you have to do that?" I let out a frustrated growl. "You know I hate it,"

"Hate what?" He asked innocently as his eyebrows kept wiggling away. "So tell me more about this guy,"

"Fine, but stop," I told him as the eyebrows ceased their movement. I let out a sigh and massaged my temples before continuing. "His name is Zach and he's really into books like me. His Aunt recommended that he read 'fangs over hearts' and when he saw me reading it he asked me about it. I told him that I hadn't finished it yet and to come back when I did,"

"So not only did you not shoo him away, you invited him back to your spot?" Robby asked in amazement.

"Like I said, I'm trying to not be that person anymore…" I paused before thinking it over a bit. "Well maybe it would be better to say that I'm trying to not be that particular version of that person anymore,"

"Weird way to say it but it makes sense," He said as he notched his head to the side. "You're still you, but like a nicer version of you,"

"Pretty much," I shrugged. "So I finished the book, told him that I thought it was worth reading. He showed up the next day with his own copy and we've just kind of hung out reading together since,"

"Then I would say you're friends then," He told me with a wink.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that just yet," I told him as I gulped. He frowned as he took a second glance at me. "You remember last week when I showed up to school dead?"

"Was it the same book that you recommended him?" Robby asked, hitting the bull's-eye. I gave him a nod.

"Let's see if he still wants to be friends with me after that," I told him as I tried not to think too much about the worst possible scenario. "Probably should tell him to order the sequel now he just has it when he finishes the first one,"

"You're going to have to follow your own judgment on that one," He said before rubbing his chin. "Still, Zach… I don't think I know a Zach," He glanced up at his boys who were walking a little ahead of us. "Hey guys, any of you know a Zach?"

Three of the boys shook their heads as one of them looked back at us. He snapped his fingers at us with a grin.

"Yeah I know a Zach. You talking about the short dude with the hair that covers one of his eyes like a discount anime character?"

"He's not that short," I argued back. "He's about as tall as I am, oh he is short isn't he?"

"I'll say that that's a yes Kenny," Robby said with a snicker. "What's he like?"

"Oh he's kind of quiet, doesn't say much," The newly, for me at least, named Kenny explained. "Crazy smart though. Got paired up with him for a project once. He did like 90% of the work for it and I got an A out of it… Feel kind of bad about it now that I think about it,"

"Well the two of us are usually in the small courtyard behind the new building during lunch," I told him. "Feel free to stop and apologize if you feel that bad about it,"

"I might do that," Kenny said before turning back around.

I watched his back for a second as my own question danced on my tongue, waiting for me to let it loose.

"So do you guys always do this on weekends? Walk around town and investigate mysteries?" I asked as Robby.

"The walking around town part is pretty normal for us," He explained. "But the investigation part is brand new. We usually just walk around town looking for something interesting,"

"And that works?" I asked as I tried to imagine just walking around town to find… anything.

"Clarksville is just weird enough that we can usually find something after a little while," He explained.

I mean… I didn't really go out that much. I knew Clarksville being weird was a bit of a meme online, but I never knew that it was that bad. I guess I would just have to take Robby at his word.

"I guess that works out for…" I stopped as we came to a stop in front of our destination.

We had come far in our little walk. The buildings around us were sparse, a sign of how close we were to the city limits. The only tall building in sight was the one right in front of us.

It was an old catholic church, long abandoned for the newer that got built downtown. At the center was the building itself, a typical church with a spire and hall. The walls had been painted white once, but now the paint was peeling to reveal the brown wood beneath. Some of the windows were shattered, probably from people throwing stuff in if the lack of glass on the floor outside was any indication.

To the building's left was an empty parking lot with a bit of trash scattered around. Nothing overwhelming, just the natural amount of trash you would expect to get in a city. Someone could probably clean the whole thing up in an hour or two with the right tools.

And of course, to the left was the enclosed courtyard. Coming off the side of the church was a brick wall that towered over me. In other words just tall enough that Robby and his boys could reach up and grab the top.

Robby stood in front of the wall and smiled at the five of us.

"Alright guy's let's do this,"