Brendan sighed too. Simon was trying to hide it but there was a glint in both eyes. If Brendan kept pushing it then who knows which side of the cliff the conversation could slide down on?
'So…what now?' Brendan asked him after a moment. They were now approaching their classrooms, only a handful of students now lingering in the corridor.
'You're my best friend, Brendan,' Simon said. 'My only friend, I guess. But even I have my limits.'
'What do you mean?' Brendan was now worried. Simon's tone sounded more regretful, unprocessed. He was no longer looking at him.
'What I mean is that as friends, it's important to always have each other's backs, to understand the other's pain.'
'Simon, what are you trying to..?'
'If you want to keep this friendship afloat, you'll have to ditch her. Immediately.'
Simon's bluntness was a shock to Brendan this time. Never ever, since they were friends, had a bomb like this ever been fired. But Brendan was not going to give up so easily;
'Well, then in that case I'm sorry because I can't.'
'And why not?'
'I just can't, okay?'
'Because you've got feelings for her, right?' he asked suspiciously.
'What! That's ridiculous, Simon and you know it. How could you even think of something like that?'
'You give me all possible reasons to do so. You know something? I should stop hanging out with you for a while and then maybe you'll realize just how important our friendship is.'
'Cool with me,' Brendan shot back without thinking it through. 'Maybe you'll realize just how terrible you are at maintaining our friendship.' They both parted ways with not another word uttered to the other.
In class, Brendan's mind was aching. How could Simon threaten to jeopardize their friendship like that? Patricia's feelings were also stinging his mind. How could she accuse him of being a racist? The other thing on his mind was what the Finch had said, that there were other creatures still in existence that possessed great power, but the worst issue on his mind was the favor he owed her which she could call on anytime soon.
Dismissal time came and he grabbed his books and left. He was so upset with Simon he could not stop thinking about him but he was also determined not to give up on Samantha as well. He had promised to forgive her when the time was right and he was determined to stick to that promise.
When he arrived home, he took a shower and brushed his teeth. He went to look in the mirror on his wardrobe. With his shirt off, he expected to see bulging biceps and a body-builder's abs, not to mention shoulders swollen like mountains, but nothing had changed. His body was still the same as it always was, just fit. Which made him wonder how it was possible to package all that strength in such a small vessel. How the Finch had pulled it off was still perplexing, but a danger about her still worth noting all the same. Someone capable of achieving something science could never hope to explain, hiding from society and brewing God-knows-what in a world locked away in a tree was nothing short of a terror waiting to unfold.
Brendan immediately remembered his conversation with her. It all started coming back to him now. The existence of other creatures she had termed as "Races", the souls she had stolen from the innocent just to maintain her own youth, and that dreadful warning she had cautioned him with; "If you were to ever start a war with me, you would not succeed." Brendan remembered the confidence in her voice when she had said that. Another dangerous trait of hers worth noting.
Nevertheless, he wrote his homework before going to bed, his body worn down by stress and fatigue.
*
The next day, Brendan woke up late. He knew he was probably going to bump into Samantha by the gate and she would stamp his name on the detention list, so he took his time. The freezer was empty and so he had no choice but to go to school on an empty stomach.
The weather was cool and calm and to him, it was a perfect day for detention, but to his surprise, Samantha was not by the gate. He thought that to get his forgiveness she stayed out of his way but he was surprised to find out that for the first time in her life she was absent in class. Luckily for him though, there was no teacher in class when he walked in. Prefects left the gate at 9 o'clock for their classes but time gradually passed and there was no sign of Samantha at all.