My second detention was held in the same classroom as before. Room D19. The furthest room down the hall on the fourth floor. It was probably one of the oldest rooms as well. With chalkboards, tables, chairs older than my grandpa Nick, and a smell of musty wood floors, it must have been the oldest room on campus. During the day, most of my classes were held in rooms with tablets and computers, but D19 hadn't seen an upgrade since the early 2000s.

"Duke! You're back," a familiar face greeted me as I walked into the room.

"Have to be," I said while taking a seat further from Don than the day before.

Mr.Henry was sitting behind the teacher's desk in the front of the room doing something on his phone. For a teacher, he appeared to be relatively young. He couldn't have been much older than Don or me.

"No talking, no phones, no leaving the room until 3:30. Understood?" Henry said before standing up from his table, and, like before, he left the room with little to no warning.

I hadn't even settled into my seat yet, and already Don and I were alone again.

"How many weeks did they give you," Don asked from across the room.

I tried to ignore him; I really did. I kept my eyes straight and blocked out any sound that wasn't my own.

"How many weeks did they give you," Don repeated.

He yelled so loudly, Mr.Henry could probably hear him down the hall.

When I didn't respond, he started to yell again, so I finally turned to answer, "two weeks. They gave me two weeks."

"So ten days or 14?" he asked, but in a quieter voice.

"14," I said.

Don was silent for a while after that, but only because he checked his phone.

"You can't do anything fun around here without getting detention," he said without raising his eyes from the screen in his hands.

"Right," I muttered.

As minutes ticked by, I began to believe detention would be just that. Don was less intrusive than before. I glanced over at his side of the room several times, but he didn't seem focused on me at all.

It was annoying.

While I didn't want him to be an abrasive oddball, I couldn't deny how boring detention was without his voice. It wasn't like we were friends. Far from it. But I could have used something to pass the time. As I yawned, my focus wavered just enough to miss the moment when he stood up from his seat.

Don walked over to the classroom door, and I asked, "Where are you going?"

I tried to hide my interest behind lazy uninterested eyes, but I'm sure my question had enough energy behind it to reveal how curious I was.

"To get something to eat," he said, walking out of the classroom like it was nothing.

Needless to say, I was shocked. I sprang from my seat to catch the door and peeked my head out to speak before Don got too far down the hallway.

"But detention?" I argued.

“What about it ?”

"We have another hour and ten minutes," I said.

He turned back to me, and I remained with one foot in class and one foot in the hallway.

"I'll let you in on a little secret. Every detention is long enough to go almost anywhere off-campus and back. Sometimes, if I'm fast, I can even hit two places. Besides, Henry hates Detention duty, so he's never here, and even if he catches us, what can he do? Give us more detention?" Don said.

The logic was sound enough, but risks were risks.

"So you're just gonna go get something to eat?" I questioned further.

"I can bring you back something," he offered sarcastically.

I took off my glasses and put them in my pocket before saying, "I...I think I'll go with you.

Don's expression lit up, and he pulled me from the classroom to put an arm around my shoulder.

"Duke Stout has balls after all," he joked while we went on our way, and I said, "If we get in trouble, I'm blaming you."

Since Cook Academy was a boarding school, people were always around. To the South was the Boy's House Building, to the North was the Girl's House Building. Between the two were a collection of buildings meant for teaching. During the day, anyone could be in any area, but after hours, boys had to be in the boy's building, and girls had to be in the girl's building.

It wasn't late into the evening yet. While there weren't many people wandering around the building, Don and I still had to be careful not to be seen on our way outside. He may not have cared, but had we been caught, we both would have earned another week of detention.

In any case, Massachusetts was nothing like Seattle. The sky was brighter and vibrant. The sun was hot. There was so much color to everything. Cook Academy was surrounded by grass and what felt like the true wilderness, but it only took 15 minutes to walk to the nearby town.

"So you're adopted, right?" Don asked as we transitioned from grass to pavement under our shoes.

"Yeah, why?" I said, a little confused.

"You don't look anything like your dads

"That's how adoption kinda works, Is there something wrong with that," I said.

"Not at all. I'm into the hot nerdy thing you got going on," he joked; at least I thought it was a joke at the time.

Don led me to believe, or tried to convince me, we had time to go somewhere and make it back without being found out. Sadly as we walked through the red brick town, I couldn't help but watch the clock.

"Will you relax," he said, but I had to ask,

"where are we going?"

"You'll know it when you see it," Don answered smugly.

We were taking too long. My feet didn't want to take another step forward, but I didn't know the area well enough to navigate back to school without Don. As I started to sweat, I could see him grinning. What was so funny, I wondered, until we turned down a corner and it was there.

Beef Babies. It came a long way from the unhealthy burger joint it started as. It used to be famous for ceiling-high burgers and secret sauce, but somehow it turned into health food that tried to mimic junk food.

"My grandpa used to work for one of the first beef Babies," I told Don after we ordered our food and stood waiting for it to come out of the kitchen.

"My grandparents are all dead," Don said, killing the mood until he added, " but they were doctors."

Our food came out faster than expected, but Don's mother was an executive over the food chain after all. I thought we'd take our meal to go, but my red-haired detention buddy sat at a table. Giving in to peer pressure, I followed his lead.

"What kind of doctors?" I asked.

The kind that fuck with your head," he laughed while taking something from his pocket.

It was a pill bottle. I watched as he took two of the drugs in front of me. Again it was hard not to judge, but I did my best not to. Either way, I still asked, "What are those?"

"They make sure I don't hurt myself again," he answered.

"Again?"

"I forgot you weren't here last year," Don chuckled before continuing to explain, "It's a long story, a long melodramatic story I'd rather not get into right now."

At least he had a reason. Had he not, I might have made greater and worse assumptions.

"We should probably start heading back," I suggested.

"We just sat down," Don argued.

"Yeah, well, I don't want to get in trouble."

I started to leave the table. The way back to school wouldn't be easy to find by myself, but I was too anxious to wait any longer.

"Hang on," he said, following behind me with our bag of burgers.

He caught up to me outside and blocked me from going any further.

"I brought you here, paid for the food and everything, I think you owe me," he suggested.

"I can pay you back for my food. Just show me how to get back to school," I said.

"I don't want that."

"Then what do you want?"

He smiled and took his time, saying, "A kiss."

I couldn't believe I let an idiot talk me into leaving school and getting lost.

"Just one," he added as I stepped around him.

I was probably going the wrong way, but I refused to look at his face after he tried to make such an unfunny joke. But then I had to ask myself, was it a joke?

"Are you even gay?" I asked, turning back around.

"I'm gay enough," he answered.

He was serious. How was he serious?

"No," I answered, but he repeated, "Just one."

The ask was so ridiculous; I had to say,

"Why?"

"Because if we kiss, that'll make this like a date," he said shamelessly.