Chapter 7: And we'll have fun. fun, fun

I have to admit, being with Owen actually helped. I could feel my wounds starting to heal. I just felt so alive with him. He is truly my best friend. Over the next few weeks I bonded with him and his group of friends. They were actually pretty cool. I believe that Graclynn had a severe crush on me. How sweet. As he finally finished up the last go-cart he gave me a high-5.

"Dude I told you I could do it." he said.

"I never doubted your skills. They're beyond good." I said. We walked to my truck and I got in. He leaned against it.

"You know, I believe Graclynn's taking a liking to you." he said with a smile. I rolled my eyes and started the truck.

"How sweet, but I'm not really into the label 'Manther' under any circumstances." I scoffed. Owen bowed his head and started to laugh.

"Oh my god, you and age. I don't get it. Wasn't Riley older than you?" he asked. I instantly felt some wounds re-open. I felt prickling behind my eyes. I looked at him and his smile faltered. I guess he knew he had hit a rough spot.

"Yeah, he was." I said with a sad smile.

"Oh Zane, I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have brought it up." he stammered. I could tell he was embarrassed because his face was flushed.

"It's okay; he's gone and probably moved on. So I'm doing the same. See you later." I said as I nudged his arm playfully. He looked up at me with his puppy-dog eyes and smiled.

"Okay." he said. I pulled out of his driveway and went home. When I got there, I went to my bedroom and went to sleep. I didn't feel like being bothered for the rest of that day. I had another nightmare that night. My mom came rushing in to console me.

"Hey honey, I know you're still in pain, but I thought that maybe hanging out with Owen would've gotten rid of some this stress." she said. I leaned up and smiled.

"It has, sort of. But I still think about…him. I can't help it." I said sadly. My mom smiled at me.

"Don't worry, things will get better. I still think about 'the one that got away' too. It's hard not to. The important thing is to focus on today." she said. Sometimes my mom was so wise.

"Thanks mom." I said.

"No problem, now get some sleep." she said and left. I laid back down and had peaceful dreams for the rest of that night.

I drove with Owen to a special place to be able to use our go-carts. We had a pretty fun discussion while on the way there. But eventually he got quiet. I looked over at him and noticed that he had a sad expression on his face.

"Hey big guy, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I was just thinking that if I hadn't been able to tune up these old go-carts what would you have done?" he asked. I pursed my lips and thought for a moment.

"Please don't tell me that you're actually doubting yourself." I said.

"No! I mean no." he said all manly-like. "Trust me; they'll be better than ever. I just sort of wished we could've procrastinated for a few more weeks." I smiled at that. He wanted to spend more time with his best friend. How sweet.

"Well, if you hadn't have been able to fix up the go-carts, I guess we'd have to find some more dangerously fun stuff then, huh?" I smiled. His expression immediately changed after that. I looked out at the beach and saw some boys. "If I'm not mistaking, isn't that Drew and K.C. over there?" Owen looked out the window and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah it is. They're with my brother. He just got back into town." Owen said. I watched as the boys were in the water and one of them fell of some type of surfboard. I pulled over and got out.

"Jesus, check that out!" I said as I ran to get a closer look. I could hear Owen laughing in the background.

"Wow dude, you get worked up over nothing. It's just windsurfing. It's completely harmless…well if you're careful that is." he said. I just stared out at the boys.

"Can it cause an adrenaline rush?" I asked hopeful. He walked up behind and smiled.

"Yep. We can do it sometime if you'd like?" he said. I thought about it.

Why would you want to do that! It's completely dangerous. You promised! Riley's voiced boomed inside my head. I just tuned him out.

"Sure." I said. I looked at his expression and saw pain.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. It's just that ever since my brother got back he's been acting weird. It's like he's a totally different person. Even some of my friends are acting like that." he said.

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"I have no idea. It started as them missing school and now they run around like they're the stuff." he said. "My brother gives me like this look every day. It's creepy."

"Did you tell your dad?" I asked.

"Yeah, but he didn't do anything about it. I don't understand. Tristan and I are the only ones acting normal. Well our sister Jenna is too, but that's a different story." he said.

"My advice would be to avoid your brother. Come to my house if you want." I said with a smile.

"I might have to take you up on that." he said.

We were soon on this little patch of road not too far from the beach. I stared out at the water and sighed. I hopped into the go-cart and started it up.

"Okay, so I've taught you how to start it up, accelerate, brake, and that's pretty much it." Owen said. I was about to hit the accelerator when Riley ended up beside me.

Come on, get out of that thing. It's too dangerous. He said. I hit the accelerator a little too hard because it bucked forward.

"Whoa man, you alright?" Owen asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Uh, I'm about to go ahead and try it out." I said as I slowly took off. I put a little more force onto the accelerator this time. As I shot down the street I saw Riley pass by me. I looked to my left and he was there. I looked to my right and he was there again. I soon started to lose control of the go-cart and crashed it. Owen got in his and came riding down beside me. I slowly go out of the cart and sat on a rock. I rubbed my head.

"Oh man, maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Owen said. I smiled up at him.

"Oh please, I'm a lot tougher than you give me credit for." I said as something dripped onto my lip. I reached up and noticed that my nose was bleeding.

"Ooh, you're bleeding, here let me help with that." he said as he took off his shirt leaving him in a white tank top. I marveled at his physique. He held my head down as he put his shirt up to my nose.

"Ugh, not one of my best days." I said.

"I can tell." he said. When the bleeding had settled down, I looked more at his body.

"You know, you're actually kind of striking." I said. He was taken aback.

"Uh, thanks?" he said as helped me up. "Here let's get you back home."

Later that day some of Owens' friends came over to my house. "Hey guys, we should totally go to the football game tonight." Owen said. I sat on my bed and smiled.

"Football, really?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I'm in. I'd love to see the hot football players anyway." Graclynn said as she stood up. She looked over at Pauly who was asleep at my desk. She slapped him on the forehead and left.

"Ugh! That girl is without a doubt the most annoying girl on the planet." he said as he rubbed his head.

"Dude chill, she's my sister. At least you don't have to go home with her." Adam said as he adjusted his beanie. I just laughed at them. I walked over to my window and looked outside. It was dark and sort of foggy. I saw something move in the darkness. I looked a little closer and saw a figure sitting in the trees. I rubbed my eyes and looked even closer. It turned out to be 3 figures. The fog slowly started to vanish and then I saw them! There were three boys. One had black curly hair; the other had light brown hair. I couldn't make out the last one. I looked over at Owen and his friends. Graclynn had come back with some sodas. So I know it wasn't either of them outside. When I turned around they were gone. Something wasn't right. I put the thought aside and went out with my new friends.

A few days later I went to lunch and sat with my old friends. I was actually coming back to reality. And it was all thanks to Owen.

"Hey dude, we missed you." Connor said as Imogen sat on his lap. I smiled and waved.

"Yeah, it's true. The circle felt so incomplete without you." Katie said. I sat down next to her.

"Well it feels good to be back." I looked around for some people. "Hey, where's K.C., Drew, and Pauly?" Graclynn came over to our table and sat down.

"You know what's funny? I don't know what's going on with them. Drew's been acting so strange lately. And so has Adam." she said sadly.

"But they were fine when we were at the game a few days ago." Owen said.

"Maybe it's something going around. I heard that the Flu is getting to some people." Marisol said. God, I hope I don't get it.

"Well, let's hope none of us get it." I said with a smile. As we talked about previous events like the bear or some type of animal that had been killing hikers, I noticed two new boys walk into the room. They were both pale and beautiful beyond reason. The taller one had brown hair and had an elf like appearance, while the other one was short and had his black curly-looking hair gelled back, had a hobbit type appearance. But all in all they were beautiful. Why did they look so familiar?

"Ooh, two new students. We should invite them over." Katie said with a flirtatious smile. She got up and went towards them. I watched her talk to them and led them over to us. I looked closer at the boys and noticed that the hobbit one had hazel eyes and the elf like one had blue eyes. Both had very fashionable outfits. I wonder what their story is.

"Hey guys this is Kyle and Blake. They're new here." Katie said as they all sat down.

"Nice to meet you." both boys said. We spent lunch asking them about their lives and what not. They actually seemed pretty cool. They girls loved them. When the bell rang I went on about my dad as usual. I noticed that most of lunch, Kyle and Blake kept sneaking glances at me. I wondered if maybe they knew me. But no, they could've have known me. They were from out of town, so I know they didn't know me. I went to my locker and sure enough, their lockers weren't too far from mine. This was way too weird. It was as if they were watching out for me. I closed my locker and went home. That night as I looked out my window, I could've sworn I had seen Kyle and Blake. It was then what I had come to a conclusion. Kyle and Blake were the ones outside my house that night. Well at least think they were. I had to find out.