Max appears to not be the only one hiding something! Jamie is convinced that Bobby is keeping a secret and he is fixed on trying to figure out what it is. Last chapter we learned that Chastity is dating Avalanche and Trinity is not happy at all. And from last time, the question still hangs in the air, Where is Tabitha?

-Lonelybelovid

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Jamie Maddrox was sitting across from his best friend in the dining room, both currently eating Bungee's famous lasagna. The rest of the group was supposed to catch up with them soon, so it was giving Jamie time to watch Bobby more. He had acted weird all summer, leaving him to go hang out with some person that he would never elaborate on, even to Jamie. Bobby's parents hadn't questioned it, saying that some girl had caught Bobby's eye and that he would get over it eventually. Now though, Jamie wasn't so sure.

Bobby had been acting extra weird since the weekend before school started that year. Trinity had sent Jamie a text with his and Bobby's roommate assignments. When he mentioned Max to Bobby, the other boy had gotten weirdly dodgy with conversation and at first Jamie had assumed that maybe Bobby was upset that he was roomed with Max.

Bobby had never been remotely homophobic, but maybe sharing his personal quarters with a guy who had been blatantly into him at one point, was another story.

But then, Bobby would jokingly flirt with Max and danced with him every year at formal. They had even danced together once at Dante and Judah's wedding while the rest of the group was off at a distance.

On top of all of that, earlier that day during lunch, Jamie was sure that he had seen Bobby and Max holding hands. It had Jamie mildly speculating, whether or not Max was the 'New Girl' that Bree Drake had spoken of that summer. Sighing softly, the multiplier spoke to his friend as he pondered these thoughts.

"So… Trying to decide where Trin and I should go this Friday, we were wanting to go get dinner!" Jamie threw out seeing Bobby nod but not look up from his phone, "Any ideas I could steal?" He questioned the other who just nodded once more.

"Sounds great…" Bobby robotically stated back, making Jamie roll his eyes.

"You aren't listening to a word I'm saying, are you?" Jamie asked the boy, seeing him shrug his shoulders.

"Sure…" Bobby mindlessly retorted, not looking up.

Jamie chuckled a little, rolling his eyes. Bobby had been like this all summer, with his family and Jamie, they were all halfway used to it at this point. Jamie noticed the rest of his friend group heading toward the table but turned his attention back on the ice mutant.

"You know, I was thinking that after dinner tonight, I would go bud off like 45 clones in the front yard and light myself and all of them on fire… then all 46 of us will stand in a circle and do a special dance!" Jamie stated calmly, seeing the eyes of several of his approaching friends light up in concern and confusion, but he simply gave them all a look before glancing back at Bobby, "Wanna film it?" He added seeing Bobby shrug his shoulders.

"Yeah, sure Jay… whatever you want!" The ice mutant told the other, getting several wide-eyed glances and face palms from his friend group who were all sitting down around him.

He looked up from his phone to see the chorus of bizarre expressions and gained a look of confusion.

"What's up?" Bobby questioned as he looked at his friends faces, seeing an eye roll and a sigh from Jamie.

"Don't even worry about it, dude!" the multiplier stated chuckling softly, before moving on to discuss the day's events with the members of his social group.

Everyone in their social circle had arrived save for Evan, Shylow, and Tabi. Nobody had seen or heard from Tabitha in weeks and Evan was rarely seen for most of the day. The teens were all collectively worried about her, but nobody had mentioned her absence all day.

"Ok so like… when is Tabi gonna be here?" Kitty finally asked what the rest of the group was thinking.

"Did anyone hear Evan say if she was running behind or something?" Ruby added on what her friend had just asked.

"She's… not gonna be coming back, guys…" Shylow told them as he walked up to the table, moving to sit down between Bobby and Blake.

It went deathly silent for several moments around the group of students, before Trinity turned and looked at the telepath.

"What do you mean 'not coming back'?" Trinity asked the other teen quickly, brows furrowing tightly.

The telepath looked over at the shapeshifter for a moment before shaking his head calmly.

"Apparently Tabi joined the brotherhood a few months ago…" Shylow elaborated, hearing soft gasps from around the table and seeing many concerned looks.

"Why the hell would she do something like that?" Bryce asked the other boy who only shook his head.

"I guess she's been struggling with school and her mom formally kicked her out… her dad's back in jail too!" He told them all, "Evan said that she was about to flunk out and she decided it was the next best option!" He added after a moment.

The whole group quickly spread the conversation into many small offshoots. All fervently discussing what this news meant for their group. Blake meanwhile was texting Pietro, just confirming that Tabi was there to begin with, hoping at the very least that her friend was safe and that her location was at least known to someone in the group.