Don't Believe Everything You Hear

"Caleb, just answer the door," I said in a hushed voice through the front door of Caleb's house. "It's freezing outside.

"Okay, okay, go around the back and come in," he said through the door. I sighed and walked through the small side yard to the back door. The sliding door was open slightly, so I walked in. As I did so, Caleb walked into the room.

"So, are you ready to face the cave dwelling monster?" Caleb asked. I laughed and nodded slightly. "Well he's in there, and I suppose I should tell you, his door locks from the outside," he laughed.

"Okay," I looked at him oddly and walked down the hall to where I remember Austin's room to be. I knocked on the closed door, sighing quietly.

"What do you want?" Austin yelled. I opened the door and walked through slowly. "What are you doing here?" he asked, glaring, once he saw me.

"I just came to talk to you, and nobody will even know that I'm here," I told him.

"What do you want?" he said, spinning around in his computer chair.

"I just wanted to talk about some stuff," I told him.

"Like what?" he asked.

"For one, how did you get the black eye?" I asked him.

"That's none of your business really," he sighed.

"Austin I'm trying to be a good friend, please just tell me," I whined.

"What if I don't want you to be my friend, what if I say that would cause way too much trouble," he sighed.

"I'd say that, by the look on your face, you don't believe that," I told him. The room fell into silence while Austin said nothing, and I thought of a way to get him to say anything.

"Somebody punched me," he sighed.

"What?" I asked, not getting it.

"I got the black eye because somebody punched me," he repeated, slower.

"Because they felt like it," he grumbled.

"You're not a big help with this talking thing," I told him.

"Then leave," he said defensively.

"Okay, sorry, but why did they just feel like punching you?" I asked him, looking at his eye.

"Because," he started, sighing, "They showed up here to talk, hang out, and whatever, but I wasn't here," he sighed.

"Where were you?" I asked.

"I was at your house, working on math, but they didn't believe that, so they punched me." He sighed.

"Who is really that much of an idiot to do that?" I asked.

"My friends," he mumbled. I don't know if he meant for me to actually hear it, but I did.

"Friends? Like Caleb? He wouldn't hit you, would he?" I rambled.

"No, my other friends," he shook his head, "They get possessive over everything," he sighed.

"Then why don't you stop hanging out with them?" I asked.

"Because they'll kill me!" he said loudly. I sighed.

"I'm sure they wouldn't kill you," I told him.

"They gave me a black eye because I wasn't home to hang out with them, they were basically gonna rape you in a school hallway, I'm pretty sure that they will kill me," he yelled.

"Then make it so that they don't want to be your friends," I said to him.

"That work until they see that I have other friends, then they'll get jealous and I'll be back to square one!"

"Wow, that sounds…" I started, not knowing the words.

"They basically make it like I'm they're boyfriend or something, and they won't let me hang out with anybody else because they want to hang out with me!" He sighed loudly.

"Those weren't exactly the words I would have used, but that works all the same. How did you become friends with them anyways, they seem like they would be the obnoxious popular people that nobody likes," I said.

"They kind of are, but I'm kind of different, so I don't really fit in like that, they just keep me around. I've been friends with them since 2nd grade, so they're kind of possessive now," he sighed.

"You can't just go on like this," I told him.

"Well unless they get kicked out of school and find new pals, or they get shot, then I don't see anyway out of this for at least another two years," he sighed.

"Well…" I trailed off.

"I'm not gonna kill them," he said loudly.

"I wasn't going to ask you to kill them," I defended, "I wasn't going to ask you to get them kicked out of school either, I was just stating a random word," I said.

"Touchy," he said, laughing a little.

"I have a bit of a past about people assuming what I'm gonna say or what I'm like," I sighed.

"Okay, really, everybody's over that now," he said.

"See, now you're assuming that you know what I'm talking about.," I laughed.

"Funny, so anything else you want to talk about?" he asked

"Why couldn't you just tell me all of this before?" I asked.

"It's not that simple," he sighed. "It's far from being that simple." He said. "It's getting late, you should probably head home," he said, looking at me. I stared into his eyes from a second before sighing.

"Okay, I guess I should," I sighed and tried to leave the room. "The door's locked." I said to him.

"What are you talking about?" Austin questioned. He came up beside me and tried the door. He groaned and banged loudly on the door.

"Dude, what are you doing!" Caleb yelled through the doors after a moment.

"Unlock the door," Austin said loudly to him. The knob jiggled a little bit and such, but never opened.

"It won't open!" he yelled, "I don't know what to tell you," he sighed.

"Dang it! That's why you don’t' lock this door, because it doesn't unlock without a stinkin' key!" he yelled.

"What?" I asked, not getting that concept.

"It can lock without a key, but in order to unlock it, you need to use the key from the inside,"

"Where's the key?" I asked.

"I don't know, my parents hide it, and they won't be home until tomorrow night.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"Well, I'd say that we could just go out my window, but it's been painted shut and nobody's gotten around to fixing it yet," he sighed.

"Then what do we do?" I asked.

"You stay in there and get to know each other!" Caleb yelled through the door.

"Caleb, did you plan this?" I yelled through the door.

"Hey, you have your plans, I have mine," he laughed and I heard the foot steps fade away down the hall as he walked away.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Now? We wait, I guess," Austin sighed and sat down on his bed.