“Jonathan? W-What’s that noise?” A boy looks up at Jonathan, eyes an oddly familiar shade of blue. He knows this boy, Jonathan realizes. He just can't quite remember a name… or a face.

“I don't know,” Jonathan says, body seeming to move on its own. He looks around, before pulling the other behind some bushes against the wall of the building. “Just.. Just stay close to me, okay? Evan will be here soon, and then we'll get out of here.”  

The boy nods, following Jonathan closely. When another rumble sounds, seeming to shake them to the very core, the boy whimpers and presses himself into Jon's side. Without thinking, Jonathan grabs onto the boy's trembling hands, holding them tightly.

There was another louder boom coming from above, another low rumble from somewhere deep in the earth, and then suddenly Jonathan's entire world is engulfed in flames as a ball of fire shoots straight at them, ripping the smaller right out of Jon's embrace.

Before Jonathan can reach out to him, though, his whole world goes black again.

Shooting up in a bed, Jonathan finds himself gasping for air. He digs his hands into the sheets, holding on tightly.

What the fuck kinda dream was that? What kind of drugs was he on?

“Holy shit dude, don't fucking do that!” Tyler gasps, getting up from a chair in the corner of the room. “You sat up so fast I thought you were fucking possessed, Jesus Christ!”

Jon gives an apologetic smile, sheepishly pulling at the sleeves of his hoodie. “Yeah, um… sorry. I scared me too,” he admits.

Looking around, Jonathan is met with some kind of doctor's office or something along those lines, with pale blue walls and a blindingly bright white floor. He looks down at himself, covered in plain old sheets, then back up at Tyler.

“Where the fuck am I? What the fuck happened?”

Tyler scoffs, coming to sit by Jon's side. “Evan grabbed you out of the air and then you passed out. Everyone just assumed it was from where I threw you. But then the doctor here just said you panicked or something, so they left you to sleep.”

“What? How long was I out?” Jonathan begins to frantically look around, trying to find a clock of any kind.

Tyler snickers. “Only a few hours, chill. Thanks for getting me out of class, by the way. I fucking hate history classes,” he laughs. “Now come on, let's go get lunch because you haven't eaten.”

Jonathan heistates slightly. “But what about you? And the nurses or whatever, aren't they gonna notice I left?”

“Nah. They told me to take you whenever you woke up. And yes, I did already eat. But since I'm such a good friend, I'll take you to go eat again, anyways, and I'll even finish whatever you don't eat if you want.” Tyler pulls Jonathan out of the bed, and begins to drag him out of the building.

They walk along for a while, before walking into a big, open building. Jonathan gets pulled up to a table, and calmly sits in a chair. Tyler goes off somewhere else. Jonathan can't really tell where, but he doesn't bother to go after him. He sighs quietly, resting his head on the table.

Today was weird.

Why had he passed out in Evan's arms? Why had Evan been staring at him for all of history? And where the fuck did Tyler go?

Before Jonathan could get up to go find Tyler, he returns to the table with a large tray of food. Jonathan's eyes widen at the sight of the food, and his stomach growls loudly.

“Is- is all this for me, or…?” Jonathan reaches out, grabbing a sandwich that looked especially nice. He didn't really care what it was, or what was in it. He just really wanted to eat.

“You can keep whatever you can eat,” Tyler snickers. “And by that, I mean you get whatever I don't eat.” With that, Tyler begins to dig in as well, stuffing his face with chips.

“Oh, and thank you for telling me where we are,” Jon remarks, taking a sip of whatever drink Tyler had brought.

Tyler's eyes widen in realization, and he pauses halfway through a taco to speak. “Shit, right! Welcome to the cafeteria, dude! Now stop hogging the fries, dickwad!”

-

By the time Jonathan got back to his dorm, he was beginning to regret eating so much. Jonathan already ate a lot to begin with, but for whatever reason he found it a good idea to challenge Tyler to a hot dog eating competition, which neither of them even won due to them running out of hot dogs.

He opens his door, and gratefully flops down onto his bed, whining loudly at the slight churning in his stomach. Not only did Jonathan faint in the middle of gym, but he also missed all of his other classes and managed to give himself a stomachache.

Thankfully, the warmth of his bed was comforting, making Jonathan roll onto his belly and hug a pillow close and quietly shut his eyes. The stillness of the room was making him slowly fall asleep.

And he would've fallen asleep, had it not been for Luke bursting into the room a few seconds later.

“Jonathan! Where in the god damn fuck were you?! It's your first day and you missed half your classes!” Luke folds his arms, giving Jonathan an almost motherly sort of glare.

“Uh… weird story, actually. I fainted in gym, and-”

“What? You fainted? How?! What- what- what did you do? Are you okay?!” Luke runs over to Jonathan, a warm hand pressing to his forehead. “You don't feel sick…”

Jonathan laughs at his friend's concern and gently pushes him away. “I'm not sick-”

“Then what the fuck you fainting for?!” Luke yells, hands balling up into fists and the tiniest bit of smoke beginning to come off of him.

Jonathan has to do his best to calm himself down, lest Luke set off some fire alarm from all of his rage.

He reaches over, patting Luke's arm. “Calm down, okay? I'll tell you everything, I promise. Just don't set the building on fire. Or my teddy bear, he doesn't like being on fire.”

Luke sighs, seeming defeated. “Fine. Sorry for flipping out on you, Jon. I get angry when I'm tired,” he laughs.

Jonathan rolls his eyes, snuggling further into his bed. “Yeah. I do too, dude, but I'm pretty sure I don't start smoking like some kinda cartoon character. Are you from a cartoon, mister?”

Luke smirks, little puffs of smoke coming from his head as he nods. “Yup. I am everyone's favorite character. Hey, wanna see a cool trick?”

Jonathan looks up curiously. “Yeah, what is it?”

Luke is about to say something, when something shoots straight through the window and hits the wall. Whatever it was hadn't scared Jonathan that much, if he was being honest.

What scared him more than anything was the painfully loud scream Luke lets out as he jumps back, nearly punching the wall where it landed. Jonathan flinches lightly at the noise, any pain in his stomach forgotten thanks to the way his ears were now ringing.

“I don't think I've ever heard a man scream like that before,” Jonathan gasps.

Luke is clutching his chest, gasping for breath. “What was that? What was that? God, I nearly shit myself,” he pants, flames flickering off his finger as he points at the object now lodged in the wall.

Jonathan goes over to it, trying to pull it out. To his surprise, the only thing to come off is a small piece of paper, a little folded up sticky note.

Jonathan, meet me by the lake tonight. Around nine. Please?

There's no signature or name on it besides his own, making Jon wonder who wrote it. Luke reads the note over his shoulder, though that's not very hard considering how tall Luke is.

“Aw, Jonny, you didn't even show up for a full day and you got yourself a love note. Ain't that just the cutest?” Luke snickers softly, patting Jon's back.

Jonathan huffs, feeling a small blush creep onto his face. “Shut the fuck up, Luke. How do I know this isn't someone trying to murder me?”

Luke points at the time written on the note. “See that right there? It says nine o’clock. Not midnight. Not three in the morning. Actually,” he snickers,” Nine is just before they close the main gates to the school. Whoever sent this is probably a little scaredy cat, afraid of being yelled at.”

“Well… good to know I'm not getting damn murdered today,” Jonathan sighs. “At least I've got that goin’ on for me.”