Archive of Our Own

It had been a weird summer. Michael had moved from Arizona to California. He’d gotten away from his really shitty dad. He’d also been a half vampire for a few days, and then he hadn’t. He’d bought a skateboard. 

He still hung out over at the ironworks with David and the guys sometimes. He hadn’t managed to make other friends yet. And David had killed his own dad for Michael and his family. And they let him practice skating on whatever he wanted around the factory. For the most part they seemed happy to not eat him and let him stay human, except sometimes when it was just the two of them David would cut his wrist open and hold it out to Michael and waggle his eyebrows. 

Michael passed a lot of summer evenings out there, he’d gotten strangely fond of them all and pretty good at skate-boarding to boot. The other nights he spent at home, play-fighting with Sam and helping his mom out around the house. Santa Carla and California in general had been pretty good save for that one week, and he was glad he wasn’t going to have to go far. 

It was an evening in late August. Michael was sitting on the couch in the ironworks eating a bag of fries he’d brought in. All four boys were spread around him, watching him eat. They did that a lot. Liked to ask things like ‘so are fries still salty?’ David was perched on the couch behind him, silent and trying to braid one of his kind of short curls. It felt nice and David was always really happy when Michael let him do it, so he ignored the implications. 

“You got another burger in that bag?” Dwayne asked. He really liked watching Michael eat burgers, specifically.

“No, man, sorry,” Michael said.

“You should bring two next time,” David said in his ear. “He likes it.”

“Uh, one’s usually enough,” Michael said, shivering. 

“Hmm,” David said, still in his ear, and he felt guilty.

“Guys, actually,” he leaned forward, away from David’s hands, and started un-knotting the lock he’d been working on. “I, uh. I wanted to tell you, I won’t be around as much after tonight.”

“What?” Dwayne, Paul and Marko erupted in a chorus. “Whoa.” “Dude!” “Why?” 

David went completely still behind him. 

“I’m uh, going to college.”

“Oh.” “What?” “College.” “Why?” “Fine, we’ll come.”

“I don’t think you can come?” Michael tried. David still hadn’t moved at all.

“Why?” Dwayne said. “You think we can’t get in?”

“Did you apply?”

“Applying is for suckers,” Paul said. 

“Yeah,” Marko added. “We just show up places.”

“I think most of the classes and stuff are during the day,” Michael tried again. 

“But the parties are at night, right man?” Dwayne said, throwing up devil horns and sticking his tongue out.

“Well,” David said, moving all at once. “Sounds fun.” He stood from the couch, almost kicking Michael’s head with his boot. He lit a cigarette. “You should all go.”

“Fuck yeah! We can stay with Michael,” Paul said, high-fiving Marko.

“I’m going to have a roommate.”

“They’ll eat him,” David said, clapping him on the back. “Don’t worry, Michael. It will be great.”

“Okay,” he said, crumpling up the empty paper bag. 

“I’ll be right back,” David announced, and he disappeared into the part of the ironworks Michael was never allowed in. 

“What should we major in?”

“Forensic science?” Michael suggested. They all looked confused. “Hey,” he said, glancing nervously around. “So is David not… coming?”

“Aww,” Marko said. “Why, afraid of long distance?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “I thought you guys did everything together.”

The rest took their turn looking nervously around. 

“I dunno,” Paul said. “Might be nice to get away for a bit. Spread our wings.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “He can be… a lot.”

“Thanks!” David said, and they all jumped. He plopped back down on the sofa and put his arm around Michael and dropped something in his lap. 

Michael looked down at the calculator. It was covered in something, at this point he assumed most somethings were dried blood. “Thanks?” he said, picking it up between his index finger and thumb. The batteries were leaking out the back. 

“For college,” David said, patting him on the head. “Stole it from my accountant.”

“You have an accountant?”

David tilted his head and looked between Michael and the calculator. “Not anymore,” he said, like Michael was an idiot. 

“Yeah,” Michael said, standing to go. David’s hand lingered on his back as he did. “I should go pack actually. Thanks for this.” 

“Do you want to drive up together?” Paul suggested.

Michael remembered the current state of their red Yugo. “No, nope. I’ll meet you guys there.” 

His roommate was named Dane and he kind of sucked. At least that’s what Michael told himself, just in case.  They were a week into college and Michael was finally starting to relax.  He was rolling a joint at a picnic table on the quad, grateful David had at least taught himself something useful. Dane was talking about what it was like to be an only child. Their skateboards sat on the bench next to him.

Michael heard the roar of motorcycles and sighed, passing the joint to Dane. “You finish that,” he said, when Dane tried to pass it back.

It was only the three of them at least. They drove straight onto the grass, almost hitting a few drum circles on the way, and waved happily to Michael as they parked. Their clothes were covered in dried grass and leaves, and he tried to figure out what road they possibly could have taken. 

“You forgot this,” Dwayne said, tossing him something soft. Michael looked down and saw a tattered plush puppy, missing an eye and one ear. The one he’d slept with for the first nine years of his life and then stuffed under his bed. “Found it with David’s stuff in the factory.” He’d definitely never brought it to the ironworks. 

“Thanks,” he said. It was often all he could say. 

“Who’s that?” Paul said, pointing at Dane. “Roommate?”

“Dane,” he said, standing and holding out his hand. No one took it. “Nice to meet you.”

“Dane,” Paul said. 

“Dane,” Marko parroted. “Dane. Dane… Dwayne.” He put a hand to his chin and looked thoughtful. “Nope. That won’t work.” 

Marko plucked the joint out of his fingers and put an arm around his shoulder. “Come on, Dane, let’s go.” Paul trailed after them, pausing to turn back and give Michael a big thumbs up. He waved sadly. 

“Don’t worry, Mikey,” Dwayne said, picking up Dane’s skateboard and miming a bass line on it. “We’ve been practicing.”

“Practicing what?”

Skateboarding, it turned out. Michael let them into his hall to wash the blood off and then they all headed back out to shred pavement on the east end of campus. They had been practicing, obviously. They’d gotten really good really quickly in the week he’d been gone and for a second he reconsidered becoming a vampire. Then Marko pulled one of Dane’s hairs from his molars. 

They had a lot more stamina than he did, and after his second wipeout Michael was sitting on the grass covering his skinned knee with both hands. Every few tricks one of the guys would freeze and sniff at the air and look over at him with scary eyes, and then shake themselves out of it. He prayed it would scab over quickly. 

“You’re pretty good,” someone said from behind him. He looked up and saw a guy with thick glasses and red hair. Not the usual skater type, but he had a nice board. He was wearing elbow and knee pads. “I’m Pete,” he said, sitting on the ground next to Michael. 

“Michael.” They shook hands. 

“We have a skate club on campus,” he said. “You should join.”

“Cool, yeah.”

“Can we join?” Dwayne called out from fifteen feet away. 

“Yeah, it’s open to everyone,” Pete said. He had a really friendly smile. “We meet at 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” 

“Can you meet at night?” Marko asked. 

“No,” Pete said, still smiling and rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry, it’s always at 4.”

The guys started to look really angry, and Michael stood quickly. 

“We can do our own skate club,” he said, motioning his hands downwards. “At night. It’s cool.” He smiled apologetically down  at Pete, who shrugged. 

“Yeah, that’s fine.” 

“We’re gonna fuck you guys up,” Dwayne said as he skated by. 

“Yeah, we’re gonna beat you so bad,” Marko did a kickflip aggressively at Pete. 

“We don’t really skate competitively,” Pete said, joining Michael on his feet. 

“Loser gets eaten!” Paul called out from where he was trying to grind a staircase with three steps. 

“What?” Pete started to look nervous. 

“Time to go guys,” Michael said. “Come on. I’ll show you the laundry room.” 

That worked, probably because they lived in a factory with generators and no running water and had for god knows who long. Michael shook Pete’s hand one more time and hoped they wouldn’t run into him again. He seemed cool.

The guys spent their first night on campus lofting both Dane and Michael’s beds and installing a metal rail under each that they could hang off of. Then they drilled in blackout curtains. The people on both sides of the room banged on the walls all night. Michael briefly mourned the loss of his chance to make normal college friends. Then he accidentally slept through his 8am. 

He knew they slept upside down, David had worked it into a few innuendos. But he’d never actually seen it. They looked sort of peaceful, ends of their hair touching the tiled floor. He locked the door behind him 

Three hours of sleep turned out to not be enough to stay up through Intro to Macroeconomics and Michael fell asleep at the back of the lecture hall. 

A hand gently shook him awake and he realized he’d drooled and smeared the three lines of notes he’d managed to take. Maybe he could find David and beg him to take the guys back home. It was actually the longest he’d gone without seeing David since they’d met. 

“Hey,” a gentle voice joined the gentle and and he looked up. “Look alive, man.”

She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. A wry smile and bright eyes. A flowy weird white top and hair in locs with rings and charms placed throughout. “Thanks,” he said, wiping away drool that thankfully had nothing to do with how pretty she was. 

Michael managed to stay awake for the rest of the lecture by focusing on what he could say to her when it ended. 

“Thanks,” he landed on, when it did. “What’s your name?”

“Star,” she said, holding a hand out. She had a lot of rings on, they were cold against his palm. She was so cool. 

“I’m Michael. Sorry, boring name.”

“You want a better one?”

“Sure,” he said, tripping slightly on the stairs and catching himself on the railing. She laughed at him but he liked it. 

“Moonchild?” she tried. He shook his head. “Moonbeam?”

“That’s the one.” Michael was impressed with himself, his conversation skills had felt really rusty since orientation. Probably from talking exclusively to vampires. 

“Well, Moonbeam. I’ll be at the library tonight after 9pm. If you want to copy the notes you missed.” He nodded eagerly. 

“Yeah,” he said, trying to hold the door open attractively. “I’ll see you there.”

He watched her go for a few seconds. She turned and waved once. Maybe he could show the guys the gym tonight and they could distract themselves with treadmills for a while. 

After killing an afternoon and evening around campus he headed back to his room and realized that wasn’t going to happen, because David was in his bed with his boots on. 

“Michael!” he said, hopping down gracefully and pulling him into a hug. The other three were crowded onto Dane’s. They also had their boots on.  

“What are you doing here?” Michael asked when David let him go. 

“Lost my job,” he said with a shrug. 

“You… had a job?” 

“At a toy store.”

“What the fuck?”

“It didn’t work out.”

“What did you do?”

“They couldn’t accommodate my schedule.”

Michael remembered the only toy store in Santa Carla was open from 10-3. 

“Need us to kill someone, boss?” Dwayne offered. 

“All taken care of.” That could mean anything, really. Michael sighed and sat at his desk chair. “Now we’re all here! College, Michael.” He ruffled his hair quickly and Michael put his head down on the desk hard enough to hurt. “This is going to be great.”

It sort of worked out, in the end. David took the guys to scope out somewhere to get rid of bodies, leaving Michael free to meet up with Star at the library. 

She was halfway through explaining what a GDP was and he was halfway in love when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. 

“Nice try, Michael,” David said, swinging into the chair next to him. 

“What?”

“Trying to distract me by luring me to the library, introducing me to someone new.”

“Hi,” Star said, looking confused. It was like looking in a mirror. “I’m Star.” 

“David,” he said, holding out a hand. She blushed as she took it and Michael was the closest he’d ever been to staking David, including when he’d tried to get him to eat his little brother. 

“You go here?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. 

“I do now.” 

“Please,” Michael said, putting his head in his hands. “Don’t do this to me.” 

“Relax, Michael, there’s room in my heart for both of you.”

“You two together?” Star asked. 

“We’re tied eternally by blood,” David said. 

“Oh. So you’re related?” 

“Please, god,” Michael groaned. 

“Funny!” David said. A table of seniors turned around and shushed them and Michael felt bad for their families, who might soon wonder where they went. “No. He drank mine.” 

“Okay,” Star said, drawing out the vowels. “Weird vibes, dude.” 

“I’m sorry,” Michael said into his palms. He looked up to see Star narrowing her eyes. David was smiling at her, head tilted.  

“We’re actually kind of in the middle of something,” she said. 

“Don’t mind me.” He leaned back against the chair and crossed his legs, hands behind his head. Star and Michael got through the notes slowly. David changed who he was staring at every few minutes. 

David made the other three sleep under Dane’s bed and took the rail under Michael’s for himself, even though Michael was going to be out all day. 

“Where does Star live?” he asked, right before the sun rose, as Michael changed his clothes behind the closet door. The guys were fast asleep already and David had tied his handkerchief around his wrist after offering it to Michael again. 

“I don’t know, man,” Michael said, slipping his Reeboks on. 

“Hmm,” David said. He lit a cigarette and smoked it upside down. Maybe he should warn her, Michael thought. What was there he could possibly say? 

“Can you just let me have this one thing?” he tried. “Please?” 

“I gave you everything, Michael.” He used that one a lot when they were arguing. “You’re the one who knocked my hand away.”

“Alright,” Michael said. “I’ll see you later.”

Later turned out to be five minutes after sunset, when David and the rest met him right outside the dining hall. He split from the group he was with without saying goodbye, for their general safety. 

“Michael!” David said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“The sun just went down.”

“David said you were gonna take us to a party,” Paul said. 

“What?” 

“Yeah,” Dwayne said. “A big college party.” 

“It’s a Wednesday.” 

“We’re not dumb, dude, we know what day it is.” Marko looked offended. 

“There aren’t really parties on Wednesdays.” 

They all looked really dejected. 

“Maybe tomorrow?” 

That helped. David put his arm around Michael. “We’ll make our own fun tonight then. What should we do?”

“I was gonna do some skating?” 

“Perfect! Star is going to come,” David said. 

“To skate?”

“No, to the party.” 

“Does she know that?” 

“So many questions, Michael.”

They grabbed their boards from the dorm and headed to the parking lot behind the gym, which was the best spot Michael had found so far. Pete was already there with a friend. 

“Thought the club only met during the day,” Dwayne said immediately, crossing his arms. 

“Oh!” Pete said, smiling. “Hello again! It does. We’re just having some fun.” 

“Not for long,” Paul said to Michael only, winking. 

“That’s the guy we were telling you about,” Marko whispered to David. He narrowed his eyes. 

“He’s done literally nothing wrong,” Michael said, and was ignored. 

“No need to get riled up, boys,” David said. “We can settle this another way.” He put his board down on the ground and skated six feet, then stopped. Everyone stared at him, mouths open. 

“Holy shit,” Pete said. “You’re really good.”

“Good enough to join your little club?”

“Well yeah, it’s open to everyone.” 

“Hold on,” Michael said, grabbing David’s elbow. “Did you hypnotize everyone to think that was a really good trick?”

David cradled Michael’s jaw in his hand. “No, Michael. I hypnotized you, so you wouldn’t feel inadequate.” 

Michael jerked his face away. “Whatever.”

David turned his attention to Pete, and in seconds he had another jaw in his hand. “And you’ll meet at night?” 

“Yes,” Pete said, eyelids drooping. “We’ll meet at night.”

“Excellent.” David patted his cheek twice and returned to the guys. 

“Nice job, boss,” Dwayne said. 

“Yeah,” Marko nodded. “We can all join now.”

“Sorry boys,” David said, “Club’s full.”

Michael remembered he had two essays to write by Friday.

Star was at the party, which was held in a two story house off-campus inhabited by the marching band. Michael hadn’t been able to ferret out any others, having made no friends. It was unclear if she had come with or by David’s invitation, but when she saw Michael she gave him a big hug.  

“Hey, Moonbeam,” she said. Her voice felt really good in his ear. 

“What’s up,” he said, blushing. “You look really nice.” 

“Thanks! I ran into your, uh, friend? Over there?” 

David was standing in a corner by a large houseplant, watching them. 

“Is he good?” They turned to look at him and he waved strangely. “Like should I be worried?” 

“I don’t know,” Michael said honestly. “Just… maybe don’t drink anything he gives you?”

Star’s face fell and she looked down at the solo cup in her hands and back up to Michael. “Oh, fu-“

“It’s just beer, Michael,” David said from right next to them and they both jumped. 

“Well, from now on, maybe don’t.”

“Dance with me,” David said, holding out his hand. 

“Uh,” Michael looked down. The hand was perfectly in the middle of them both. “Me or her?”

“Why not both?”

“I’m good, man.”

“Well,” Star shrugged and held out her cup for Michael to hold. He sniffed it quickly and it did seem like just beer. “It is a party.” She took David’s hand and he pulled her away. Michael watched them for a bit. He drained his beer and Star’s, and then went out to the backyard. The moon was really pretty and he remembered he hadn’t started either essay. 

The next few weeks were strange and confusing. Which was actually sort of the status quo for Michael, but it still felt different. He didn’t see David all that much, he convinced Pete and the skate club to meet every other night and went most times. The guys also spent a lot of time practicing, and sometimes disappeared for a few days, ever since Michael had begged them on his knees to stop eating people on campus. 

He started going to classes consistently, and doing his homework. He studied with Star most evenings. She teased him a lot. Honestly she was kind of mean sometimes, and he liked it. One time she let him hold her hand as they walked to get afternoon coffees. He referred to her as his girlfriend by accident when calling home from the dorm phone, and liked the way it sounded. 

Except apparently she was hanging out with David, too. It came up one night when David was tucking Michael into bed. He had to use Dane’s comforter after getting blood on Michael’s from offering his wrist again. 

“Does she know that?” Michael asked, after David spent ten minutes waxing poetically about their blossoming love. 

He just laughed and kissed Michael on the forehead. 

Michael asked Star about it a few days later, when they were sitting on some bleachers and she was rolling them a joint. 

“I dunno,” she said, shrugging. “He’s really fucking weird.”

Michael nodded, trying not to cough. 

“But he just gets it. Like, the dark shit. I can talk to him about anything. Or sometimes not talk, it’s like he can read my mind.”

“He can read minds,” Michael said, nodding. 

“See? You get it.” He did get it, but also needed to clarify. 

“No,” he said. “He can literally read minds.” 

She stared at him for a few seconds and then started laughing. He did too. They had their first kiss that night. 

“Wake up!” 

Michael woke up to three sets of hands all shaking him. Dwayne, Paul and Marko were all standing a few inches off the ground, jostling his body around. 

“What time is it?” he mumbled. 

“Early, dude, get up,” Dwayne smacked him hard on the back of the head. 

He sat up and looked at the clock. It was 12:14 AM and he had a morning class the next day. 

“What’s going on?” he asked, and they all echoed him in an increasingly high-pitched series of baby voices. 

“Skate-off, dude,” Paul said finally. 

“Yeah, our skate club versus David’s.”

He was pretty sure it was Pete’s skate club, and Michael hadn’t even touched his board in a week and a half. He let them pull him out of the hall and to the main lawn, where David and Pete were waiting with a few other guys. Star was there too, sitting cross legged on the ground. There was also a very structurally unsound looking half-pipe that hadn’t been there that morning. 

“Michael!” David said, walking over to him. He stopped briefly to kiss Star’s hand. “Ready for the competition?”

“Are you actually going to skate?” Michael asked, crossing his arms. “Or just make everyone think you did.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” he asked, running a quick hand down Michael’s cheek. He shivered. “You first.”

“What? No way. I’ve never done a half pipe before.” 

“Don’t be afraid.” 

“I’m not afraid, I’m just not an idiot.” 

“Fine! I’ll go first.” 

Michael sat on the grass next to Star and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. He wasn’t sure he would ever understand anything ever again. David climbed the half pipe and stood on one side for about sixty seconds, and then everyone cheered and clapped. Including Star. Michael groaned and got to his feet. 

“Impressed?” David asked after floating down and landing right in front of him. 

“No, dude. I’m not.” 

“Intimidated?” 

“God,” Michael ran a rough hand over his face. “This is actually insane.”

“Michael-“

“No. Nope. I’m done, I’m so done. Look, I appreciate you killling your dad for us and I appreciate you not killing me and I’m down to hang out once in a while but this- this is too much. I just wanted to go to college. Just- can’t you just leave me alone? For like a few months?”

David frowned and tilted his head. 

“You killed your own dad?” Star asked, but Michael stormed off before he could hear the answer. 

The next night he learned that David had headed back to Santa Carla. 

“Yeah,” Star said, as they worked through some wilted dining hall salads. “He seemed pretty sad.” 

Michael let his fork clatter loudly to the table and put his head in his hands. 

“I remember lettuce tasting wet,” Dwayne said. “Does it still taste wet?” 

“Yeah!” Star said, smiling at him kindly. “Sort of!” 

“Maybe I should transfer,” Michael said to his plate. “Like all the way east.” 

“What?” Marko looked upset. “Why? I like it here.”

“By myself,” he clarified, but it was ignored. 

“So what does blood taste like?” Star asked Dwayne. Apparently he’d missed a lot last night after he’d stormed off. 

“Also wet,” Dwayne said, picking a leaf of lettuce off of Michael’s plate and holding it up to the light. 

“Bad,” Michael said from experience. 

“Don’t transfer,” Star said, and put a hand on his knee. 

“Okay. Yeah, no, I won’t.” 

Even though David was gone the skate club kept meeting at night. Michael and the guys all joined up, finally, and it was fun. Star came along to watch but mostly read books or the long hand-written letters David sent her. They met four times over two weeks before he came back. 

Star had been sitting with her head on Michael’s shoulder when he showed up and got up immediately to say hello. David pulled her into a hug and smiled at Michael over her head, waving him over to join. He rolled his eyes and stayed where he was. He did the same thing again as he embraced Dwayne, then Paul, then Marko, but Michael didn’t budge. 

“Hey, man,” Pete went for an embrace but David swerved him, coming to sit on the grass next to Michael. He started playing with the curls on the back of his neck immediately and Michael batted his hand away. 

Everyone gathered in a half circle around him, like they were waiting for a pronouncement. He obliged. “Rematch,” he said. “Tomorrow night.” 

“Rematch for what?” Michael asked. 

“The skate-off.” 

“None of us want to do that,” Michael said. 

The guys erupted into a chorus again. 

“I mean-“ “I kinda do.” “Why not?” “Sounds fun!”

“I’d be down,” Pete said. David looked up at him sharply and glared. 

“Nine p.m.,” he said, after about thirty seconds of scary eye contact. 

“Okay,” Pete said, swallowing nervously. 

“Come on, Michael, let’s go home.” He stood and brushed some grass off his leather pants. 

“You mean my dorm?” Michael said. 

David held a heart over his hand and looked wounded. “You mean our dorm,” he said, gesturing around to the guys. 

Michael sighed and let David help him up, then followed him back to their dorm. 

“He’s going to cheat,” David said the next night, while Michael was tying his shoelaces and he was putting a little pressure on his bleeding wrist. 

“What?” 

“Pete. He’s going to cheat tonight in the skate-off.”

“That makes literally no sense. Why would he cheat in the skate-off that you made up?” 

“Don’t worry,” David said, tapping two fingers under Michael’s chin. “I’ll protect you.” 

“From what? You set this up?” 

“Let’s go, Star is meeting us downstairs.” 

“Why did you come back?” Michael asked, trailing after him. 

“I need to finish college, Michael.”

“You’re not even enrolled.”

David stopped answering questions after that.

The half-pipe was inexplicably set up on the main lawn again. 

“Loser gets eaten?” Paul asked hopefully. 

David glanced at Michael, also hopefully. He shook his head. 

“Not tonight,” he decided.

“Funny?” Pete said. 

Michael sat next to Star on the grass and David kneeled a few inches behind them, putting a hand on both of their shoulders. He leaned his face between theirs. “Beautiful night,” he said, “isn’t it?” They made eye contact and both shrugged. 

Paul went first and wiped out really bad. One of Pete’s two friends went next and did okay. Then Marko wiped out too. Pete’s next friend did slightly less okay. None of them had really moved past kick-flips and tic-tacs. Dwayne managed to do a kind of cool trick but Michael could tell he was using his vampire powers. Then Pete went. He was by far the best skater and actually looked pretty impressive. 

Then, apparently, it was Michael’s turn. 

“No way,” he said, as David pushed him towards the half pipe. 

“You’ll be fine, Michael! I’ve got you!”

“What does that even mean?” 

He glanced back at Star. It would be cool for her to see him do really well. 

“Fine,” he acquiesced, and climbed to the top. He was about to skate down when David called out to him. 

“Michael,” he said, in that sing-song voice. “Check your wheels.” 

“What?” 

David gestured to his board. He flipped it over. One of the wheels was actually loose. “Oh, shit.” 

David handed him another board. 

He took a deep breath and rode down and up to the other side. 

“There you go!” David said, clapping twice.

Michael climbed back down. He did feel proud, especially as Star hugged him. He hugged her back for as long as he could. 

“Cool,” he said, when the guys were done congratulating him. “Can we go now? I have a test tomorrow.”

“Ah ah,” David said. “Not so fast.” 

“Jesus christ,” Michael said. “What now?” 

“Pete,” David said. “He cheated. I’m going to kill him, I’ll be quick.” 

“How the hell did Pete cheat?” He glanced over his shoulder. Pete was talking and laughing with his two friends. 

“He’s the one who loosened your wheel, Michael.”

“That, again, makes no sense. Why the hell-“

“He did,” Star said, biting her lip. “I saw him do it.”

“What-“

“I thought he was helping you,” she said. “Fixing your board.”

Michael glanced back at Pete again. Their eyes met and he looked away quickly. 

“I told you I’d protect you, Michael, I always will.” It was nice to hear, and he did believe it. “I’ll be right back,” David said. Michael grabbed his arm. 

“Could you maybe not?” he asked, frowning. “Please?” 

David tilted his head and smiled fondly at Michael. “If you insist.” 

There was an awful crash. Dwayne, Marko and Paul were lying in a heap on the remains of what had been a structurally unsound half-pipe. Michael shook his head and closed his eyes. 

“Come on,” David said in his ear. “Let’s go home.” 

“You looked cool up there, Moonbeam,” Star said in his other ear. 

They started walking in the direction of Michael’s dorm. Star took his left hand and he let David take his right. “It is a nice night,” Michael admitted, looking up at the full moon.