All The More Reason ✔

Chapter 2 - Best Friends

Wednesday

The next day, the sun was shining brightly, school ended early, and his friends had suggested going fishing at the local river. They usually only did it during summer since there were plenty of other things to do in town and fishing wasn't exactly their hobby. In fact, most of them never even touched a rod while hanging out there.

Senn himself was one of them. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually held a fishing rod when they went there—if he ever even had. He simply wasn't the type to sit still and wait for something to happen. Besides, he wasn't necessarily disgusted by the thought of touching the maggots they used for bait, but he wasn't going to voluntarily touch them either.

He'd rather lounge beside his friends with a beer, some music in the background, and the sun burning on his skin.

The girls were seated in the grass slightly behind them, while Senn was seated in between his two best friends; Lucas and Avan. Lucas had been his best friends since the end of freshman year. They were in the soccer team together, and for the longest time, Senn had tried to act cool enough to gain Lucas' attention. When they finally started hanging out Lucas had soon explained that Senn's attempts at being 'cool' were exactly the reason why he had disliked him. They had a good laugh about it, though Senn had never honestly admitted why he so desperately wanted Lucas' attention, and not anyone else's.

Avan, on the other hand, had been Senn's friend since the early years of middle school. He was a Moroccan boy, and although he wasn't raised strictly Muslim because his mother was American, he had his religion and Senn respected that since Avan—and both of his parents—had always been open and accepting towards Senn's Christianity too. They were regular guests at each other's homes, and sleepovers weren't a rare occurrence. If anything was wrong at home, they could always go to each other, and their parents would be there for them. That had never changed and probably never would either.

The girls had been an addition to their little group in sophomore year, when Senn had started dating Joyce. She and her best friend Samantha started hanging out with them on a regular basis, and even after Senn broke up with Joyce, the two had remained good friends and Joyce and Samantha were still a part of their group.

"Say, Senn?" Lucas nudged him. "Avan and I were talking about the weekend. We wanted to go out this Friday and Saturday. Wanna join? We'll go to the movies first, on Saturday—"

"I can't go to the movies Saturday," Senn said, cutting him short. "We're celebrating Liam's birthday."

"I thought celebration was on Sunday," Lucas answered, reeling in his line. "Since we're invited then."

"Yeah, we celebrate with family and friends on Sunday, but we're celebrating on his actual birthday with just the four of us." Senn stretched his legs as Lucas ditched his old rod in the grass behind them, standing up on the rock they sat on. "But I can come to town after dinner? I'm driving, so I'll have to pick up my bike first."

"The movie will end at ten thirty, so you could just meet us there. I assume you won't be out late with Liam present." Avan pulled on his rod, trying to stir the floater a bit.

None of them had any idea how fishing even worked, and whenever one of them did catch a fish, it wasn't anything but luck.

"Well, in that case I'll meet you guys at the theater, and we'll ride over to Macy's together," Senn suggested, getting up too since his ass was starting to hurt from sitting on a rock for over an hour.

"Are you going to mysteriously disappear again at the end of the evening?" Joyce asked, giggling along with Samantha, while Lucas and Senn lay down next to them in the grass.

"I'll do that Friday, since I'm already missing out on time at the movies with you, darling," Senn mumbled, closing his eyes. His 'mysterious' disappearances weren't that mysterious. He usually left with another friend—Julian—who lived close by. They drove to school together most of the time too, so it wasn't really that weird to drive home with him after going out either. Though, they didn't always go home right away. But his friends didn't need to know that.

Senn opened one eye when a shadow was cast upon him. Lucas hung over him with a frown on his face.

"And why are you always leaving without telling us? When you're sober, I don't give a flying fuck because you're seventeen and you'll get home. But you have a tendency, like every teenager might I add, to get drunk when presented with alcoholic beverages. You know how worried I get when you disappear in a state like that?"

"What do you think is going to happen, Luc? Someone's going to kidnap me in a bar full of people?"

"Well... not that," he grumbled, sitting down again. "But seriously, why so secretive?"

"You know I sometimes leave when Julian does. You know parents like it when their kids don't go home all by themselves in the middle of the night, right?"

"As if that's on your mind whenever you're drunk," Lucas said, laughing out. He grabbed a beer, offering Senn one too. "Let me rephrase; is there a girl that we know nothing about?"

"No, Lucas, there is no girl," Senn replied, side-eyeing Joyce. He knew she was the one who'd made Lucas start asking questions. They all knew he listened best to Lucas, so whenever he wouldn't give them satisfying answers, they would send Lucas his way to do their work for them. "And even if there was, why would it be any of your business if I don't feel like telling you guys about her?"

"So, there is a girl? You just don't want to tell us?" Joyce asked hesitantly, knowing full well his last words were aimed at her, not Lucas.

"Now you're asking a question that is impossible to answer. Because if there was, I wouldn't want to tell you so I'd be answering no while it would be the case anyway. But since there isn't a girl, it's still a no and now you know jack shit more than you knew five minutes ago." Senn pushed himself up. "Stop prying. There's no girl."

And really, there wasn't any girl.