The Key Chased the Blade

Simon and I watched Iron Man until school was officially over. Then he and I texted our parental units, his mom and my dad, that I was over at his house. God. My phone somehow survived the downpour today. I was a little washed out as well, and I didn't want to make an effort to go back into the hell that was the outside world to go back to my house. Simon was content with letting me stay. I thought he was still worried about me dropping dead from the cold.

We had a movie marathon and made a blanket fort to watch the movies in. Sometimes we really were little kids at times. It was like nothing crazy ever happened today, I almost didn't even mind wearing the stupid hippie jacket. Simon was back to his old self and he drew pictures of Iron Man, The Hulk, Superman - we'd watched nearly all the superhero movies today - until his mom came home and kicked me out. Jesus. She was so anal sometimes. She had to have Simon check in with her like twenty times while I was over here. God, it wasn't like we'd do anything inappropriate. Simon was more like my brother than anything.

Mrs. O'Neill was kind of unnerved by seeing me in his clothes, but Simon told her that we'd been outside and had gotten soaked. It was true, after all, and she just dropped it. Jesus. Simon had his Golden Boy face on though, so anybody would've believed what he was saying. I swear, Simon could potentially get away with anything he wanted with that face. I assumed he didn't want to tell her about what happened today anyway. I personally wouldn't. Usually Simon was a goody-two-shoes and would tell his parents everything, but this must've shaken him up pretty badly. Or maybe it was because I was there and he didn't want me to get interrogated with him.

Simon's mom and him dropped me off back to my house and told me they'd give my clothes back tomorrow at school. But what was different was that Simon pulled me into a hug before I got into my house. I was a confused, but I didn't push him away; after the hug was over I just kind of stared at him.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"I felt like you needed it," he said, but I didn't believe him. I felt like he needed it a whole ton more than I did; that hug was probably more for him than me. But I just numbly nodded. I was feeling all choked up for some reason.

"See you tomorrow," he said, and he waved goodbye.

"See you," I said, and I stood out in the rain and watched them drive off. I stayed there until they disappeared from my sight before finally going inside.

I told myself that I was going to get to the bottom of this.