All they ever do is stare at each other and laugh all the time, there aren't enough jokes in the world to explain all that annoying laughter. He thought to himself. Blake wasn't really some resentful, selfish brother; he just had a short fuse. He kept me at a distance, he kept everybody at a distance or moreover everyone else backed away in fear. I don't get it, when did it stop being me, the one he called out to. Marcus and I had been spending more time together over the past few weeks. We were talking more, we walked home together, some nights we did our homework together at the diner,Blake came too, sometimes. But he never sat with us. I always knew Marcus would want to take the next step on his own, I just didn't think it would be so soon. Blake thought to himself as Marcus and I walked home together. I could feel him drifting away, not needing me by his side as I needed him. I'm not bitter just...alone. His internal monolog tearing him apart. Marcus and Blake were codependent, but the codependency was one sided. Blake was the one of the two that shut the rest of the world out only in need of that one person and for as long as he could remember Marcus mimicked that behavior. Marcus was the one of the two who was very easy going, it didn't make a difference who he was around so he opted to stay by his brother's side. For 17 they were inseparable but suddenly it was like he was slipping away. Blake was happy that Marcus found someone who made him happy, that he could lean on somebody else for a change. The only problem was that person was me. Truth be told, Blake had always had a thing for me, he just went about expressing it all wrong. I could see right through him at times and I had known for a while, he however was to dence to notice that all those I timed I reached out in middle school, they were really failed attempts at letting him know the feeling was mutual. I eventually gave up on that as he grew more distante and when they left for boarding school I had almost completely forgotten. They had popped back up just as quickly as they had disappeared. When I first saw Blake it wasnt that day in school when both him and Marcus caught me in the hall. I had seen Blake at the diner two days before. I walked in and there he was, in my booth. Without hesitation I approached him and I had a bone to pick. "Excuse me, I know you've been gone for a while but this is my booth." I said playfully as he redirected his attention off the menu and onto me. "Well i guess you'll have to live without it for a while, goodbye." He said as if he couldn't give a care in the world looking back at the menu. I took that as a subtle hint to sit down and join him. "So how long have you been back?" I asked as I planted myself across from him. He looked up at me as if I was a foreighn object speaking another language. "Please sit and join me.''He said snarkily. "I Don't mind if I do." I said as I took the menu out of his hand and set it beside me. "But seriously, are you back for good?" "I was looking at that!" He said pointing at the menu. "Oh please it hasn't changed in 15 years, your orders are still the same. Burger no tomato extra fries.''I said as I rolled my eyes. He looked a little surprised for a moment before his expression faded back to his naturally angry looking face. "What do you want." "How about lunch." I said cheerfully as I picked up the menu and started looking through it. "I thought you said it hasn't changed in 15 years, last I checked you came here twice a week. Meaning you don't need the menu." He said as he made eye contact and looked away nonchalantly.``You remembered that?" I was a little shocked considering I never noticed he even knew I was alive half the time. "Yeah you used to drag me here when we were kids, or at least you tried to. I was really annoyed you just couldn't take a hint.``''Yeah I was a persistent child." I laughed at that for a minute, when I shifted my attention back to him I noticed he was staring at me and it almost looked like he was smiling too. It was more than his cocky smirk but not a full smile he let out a small laugh as he looked away.``What?" I was very intrigued as to what had triggered this new unseen emotion known as not rage in Blake. "Nothing its just still there." "What still where?" I asked looking at him for an explanation.He put hush chin in his palm, resting her elbow on the table shifting his focus around the room." It's still there, that sparkle you get in your eyes when you smile." Still refusing to make eye contact he mumbled something else underhis breath that I couldn't make out, but something told me about the way his composure shifted that I wasn't supposed to hear that last part, at least not yet anyways. "Wow look at you being civil." I said jokingly as I gently nudged his leg under the table with my own. He wasn't the only one who picked upon small things. I could always notice the little things about him back when I would stare at him like a mindless idiot. Now I didn't stare as much but our gazes did meet from time to time. "Are you coming back to school this week?" "yeah Marcus wants to so I guess we are. I wanted to milk this long awaited return for at least another week but whatever." We talked for a few hours until we said our goodbyes and without thinking he had grabbed my arm just above my elbow before he left. He used to do that when we were kids too. 'Glad that hasn't changed.'I thought to myself. The next week at school surly enough they were back and Both him and Marcus greeted me in the hall bike however cut the reunion short and went off to god knows where.For the rest of that week Marcus and I had been getting closer and it was nice to have an old friend back. I was a little worried about Blake so I came up with two ways to get past that god awful barrier he put up to keep out the rest of the world.I caught up to him after school. "Hey Blake, you're a good fighter right?" I asked as if I didn't already know the answer. "Yeah , why?" He did not even pay me any attention. "Well I was thinking you might be open to some sparring, I figured since I'm a supernatural bad freak I could use a little self defence training, and who better to get that from that million dollar baby himself." "Yeah, no, I don't do charity." He said as he scoffed at my reference and kept walking. "Fine I guess I'll just have to find someone better, hmm Jack can spar with me." "NO! Absolutely not, meet me in the woods tomorrow after school." "ok sensei!" "Call me that again and I will literally kill you." He scoffed. "Ooo, maybe I can spar with Bruce Lee instead." At that point your mission was accomplished and you stopped following him. Step one of being friends with Blake was ago now all I had to do was hope he showed up. The next day was normal. U headed home after school got changed and headed to the woods. When I got there I was surprised that Blake was there waiting for me. I was relieved he didn't bail. "Let's get started shall we?" "Yeah, but before we do, can we make some rules or something?" "Rules? For what." "Oh I don't know, umm, general safety. We're literally in the middle of the woods." "come here." He said as if he was annoyed already. He walked towards me and ushred for me to give him my hand, I stuck my hand out towards him palm down and he rolled his eyes.he grabbed my wrist turning my hand over, before I could question his hand changed, his nails got longer and sharper and the general shape was adjusted slightly. Before I could protest he scratched across my palm leaving three gaping cuts in my hand.I winced at the pain and pulled my hand back clutching my wrist. "What's wrong with you! Are you crazy this could get infected. Are you trying to kill me?" I yelled, "are you sone?" He asked as if I was being overly dramatic or something."Yes!" I barked, "Look at your hand." He said pointing to my right hand was now fine. "What!" I was so confused, the wounds had closed and all that was there was a little dried blood that I wiped off upon closer examination of my hand. "But how?" I asked, looking at my hands in disbelief. "You regenerate faster because of the animal DNA, though I wasn't sure if you would because of whatever freaky blood lust mutation you have or whatever." I stood there for a minute processing what he had just said. "Wait, you just cut my hand open with your dirty nail in the middle of the woods and didn't even know if I would heal, I could have gotten my hand cut off by you moron." "Relax, that was the worst case anyways. Now are we gonna fight for what?" "Unbelievable." I said as I put my hand down and sighed at how normal he was acting. He was actually acting a little too normal , his tone was softer than it normally was and he was way more call and not as tense as he usually was. When I was watching him show me some basic fighting stuff that I wasn't trello paying attention to He looked genuinely happy. I knew he got into fights a lot but he really looked like he was in his element. After a few hours of fighting and basic blocking and dodging I was thoroughly surprised. "Wow I don't feel tired at all, wanna go again?" I asked as I got up off the ground. "You need to cool it, you may feel fine now but that's because you're running on adrenaline, if you don't pace yourself you're gonna be super sore tomorrow." "One more time then I'll pace myself." I said early as I playfully punched his shoulder. "Just as stubborn as always." He said, rolling his eyes and squaring up again. "Oh and no holding back this time." "Any particular reason why you want me to beat you even harder than I have been for the past 3 hours?" "I haven't really seen how strong I am now, I don't play sports anymore and I want to see what I can do." That was the last thing I remember saying before I totally lost. He was really holding back way more than I thought. I held my own for the first three minutes but then I was just about done. The sound of my back being slammed into the ground was gruesome and I was pretty sure we had scared away bares who were inhabiting a nearby cave. I Layed there for a minute catching my breath when he walked over and extended his hand down to help me up. "You ok?" He asked as he pulled me up, not letting go of my hand. "Yeah I'm fine." I said both of us were too exhausted to notice we were still holding hands."Come on I'll walk you home-" as he started to walk away he noticed my hand slip away from his and we were both caught off guard. Suddenly the void between us was filled with awkward silence and he looked uneasy. He put his hand behind his head as he walked back towards me, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're a good fighter." He said as he put his hand on my shoulder. It was as if for a moment he was letting me know that he was somehow at ease. When he removed his hand his touch resinated in my sending a chill down my spine, and he started to walk away. I grabbed his hand without thinking. One thing I knew about Blake was that he had always used physical contact to express his emotions, probably why he always got into fights. When he was happy or anxious he wasn't very vocal about it. Instead his love language resided in touch, wanting a certain type of closeness. A sense that the connection was broken after the moment has passed. I could tell he had gotten a little anxious and my grabbing his hand was a type of reassurance. He walked to my home and I went to bed shortly after he had left. I was so exhausted it was like I could sleep forever but 10 hours did the trick just fine.