Mason Maloney

The restaurant Sam took me to was small and quaint. The walls were painted a deep red and there was a counter with round cushioned bar stools in front of where the wait-staff stood. Sam chose a booth in the corner for us. On the wall next to our table hung a picture of the restaurant from when it opened in 1953. The black and white photo showed the outside of the diner, looking much like it did now, with a man and a woman standing underneath the large "Patty's" sign, grinning happily.

"This is the best little diner in town," Sam said once we were seated comfortably.

"It's nice," I answered truthfully.

Sam smiled, this time a real smile and not one of his insolent smirks.

"My dad used to take me here for milkshakes all the time," he told me happily. I could feel the nostalgia radiating from him.

"What's the best milkshake to get?" I asked with a smile of my own.

It was nice to see Sam in this way. He wasn't being overly cool and smooth like he always was. He was just being natural, happy, and him.

"Classic chocolate," he said seriously. "Definitely chocolate with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top."

I looked at him in disgust. "Maraschino cherries are gross."

Sam gasped, holding his hand to his chest. "I'm sorry Mase, I don't think this friendship is going to work out."

I laughed and shook my head at his dramatic reaction. "How about we both get a milkshake and I give you my maraschino cherry."

Sam grinned and snapped his fingers. "Friendship restored."

When our waitress came around, the two of us ordered burgers and shakes. Sam assured me that I had to try their burgers since, along with the milkshakes, they were his favorite thing about the small diner. I wished we had a place like this on our side of the tracks. The closest thing I could think of was the bakery. Other than that, all we had were chain restaurants, nothing special. Why did a place like this belong in Knight territory?

"Do you come here a lot?" I asked Sam after our waitress walked away.

He nodded. "I come here with my friends quite a bit and the team has a tradition."

"A tradition?"

Sam nodded again. "We come here every year at the end of hell week."

I nearly groaned on the spot. "You seriously brought me to a Knight hang out spot?"

"Maybe I'm trying to convert you," Sam suggested with a smirk.

"Don't even bother. Nathan would kill me," I answered just before the waitress brought us our milkshakes.

After the waitress left our table with the promise that our burgers would be done soon, I took my cherry out of my milkshake and plopped it into Sam's like I told him I would. He looked at me gratefully before taking one of the cherries and placing it in his mouth, pulling it off the stem and munching on the cherry happily.

I grinned at him before taking my straw in my mouth and sipping on my milkshake. I was instantly consumed with delight on my tongue as the liquid entered my mouth. The milkshake was sweet, but not overbearingly so. This consistency was thick enough to almost resemble ice cream, but thin enough to be a creamy drink. It was the best milkshake I had ever tasted. It felt like a party on my taste buds.

"It's amazing, right?" Sam asked when he saw the look on my face.

I nodded excitedly, swallowing the shake. "It's so good."

"Everyone needs a Patty's milkshake at least once in their life," Sam replied. "It should be a law."

"Agreed," I answered with a nod.

Suddenly, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I pulled it out to check the caller I.D. Nathan. I debated on letting it go to voicemail, but decided on answering it.

"What?" I answered not too kindly.

"Where are you?" Nathan asked just as harshly. "I'm at the bakery now."

I could feel my anger building up at him. Did he think I was going to wait around all day for him.

"I got a ride," I told him. "Because you weren't there this morning to drive me."

I tried keeping my voice even and calm since I was out in public, but Nathan had a way of making me angry like no one else could.

"So you're home?" he wondered.

"I'm out at lunch," I responded, leaning back in my seat.

Sam gave me a knowing look as if telling me to refrain from telling Nathan who I was out with. However, at this point Nathan had made me so angry that I wanted him to know I was out with Sam.

"With who?" Nathan snapped like he already knew.

"Sam," I answered blandly.

Nathan was quiet for a moment before he started screaming at me. I could almost feel the heat from his voice through the phone.

"What did I tell you about hanging around with him?" Nathan spat harshly. "Where are you? I'm coming to get you."

"No, you're not," I snapped back quietly. "I'm going to finish my lunch and I'll see you later."

I hung up the phone without a second thought, putting it on silent and shoving it back into my pocket.

"Nathan seemed mad," Sam commented, sipping on his milkshake.

"I don't want to talk about him," I murmured. No matter how mad my brother made me, I didn't want to shit talk him to his enemy.

"I get why he doesn't want us hanging out," Sam said understandingly. "My friends were kinda pissed when they found out I was working with you."

"They were?" I asked, surprised.

Sam nodded. "This whole Knight versus Warrior thing gets kinda out of hand."

"Yeah, it does," I agreed.

I never really liked the rivalry between the two schools. It brought out the ugly side of Nathan that I preferred not to see.

"Why aren't you so worried about the rivalry?" I decided to ask. It seemed like everyone but us in our two schools were hellbent on hating each other.

Sam just shrugged. "I guess I am a little. I won't lie, I don't like your brother, but you're not him and we work together. It's best if at least the two of us get along."

I would be lying if I said his answer didn't somewhat disappoint me. Part of me was hoping that Sam was above the rivalry, that he didn't care about it the way Nathan did, but that wasn't the case. Sam was a football player, a Knight at that, and they all cared about defeating their enemy, proving themselves to be the better team. The rivalry was something he couldn't get rid of, so he had to embrace it.

I just wished that wasn't the case.

***

Nathan came barging into my room as I was sprawled across my bed, reading Pride and Prejudice. He knocked the book out of my hand, making it fall on the floor with a thud. I looked up at him with a dark scowl.

"What the hell, Nathan?" I snapped angrily, sitting up.

"What did I tell you about Sam Knight?" Nathan belted loudly. He was lucky our parents weren't home to hear his yelling.

"I don't care what you told me," I answered him truthfully. "You don't control me."

"He's just using you to get to me!" he complained, throwing his hands in the air and leaning closer to me. "And I don't get how you don't see that."

"Maybe because I work with him and we never even talk about you?" I stretched the truth a bit. We rarely talked about Nathan, but it was a lie to say that we hadn't before.

"He wants to throw me off my game, Mason," Nathan responded, lowering his voice.

"It won't get to you if you don't let it," I consoled lightly.

"You don't get it!" he snapped again, sitting down on my bed. "Of course it's going to get to me. You're my brother, how can you hanging around with a Knight not get to me?"

"You seriously need to grow up," I told him with an eye roll. "Besides, Sam and I aren't even really friends. We just work together."

I wouldn't consider Sam one of my friends. We were friendly because we had to spend so much time together, but I couldn't see the two of us hanging out on a Saturday night even though we had grabbed lunch together.

Nathan lied down on my bed, resting his head on one of my pillows. I still sat up, looking down at his angry figure. His anger seemed to have simmered down a bit, but it was still there.

"He's going to pay for what he's trying to do," Nathan said lowly.

"Don't do anything to him," I said with a stern look. "It'll only get you in trouble. Plus, do you really want to start a war with the Knights this early in the season?"

Nathan stood up and walked toward my door. "He started it, not me."

"He's not messing with me, Nate," I told him seriously.

"No, he's messing with me and he's going to pay for it," he answered before leaving my room and slamming my door shut.

I shook my head at his antics, picking my book up off of the floor and placing it down on my bed. I just hoped whatever he decided to do to Sam wasn't too drastic. The last thing Nathan needed was to be getting into trouble just because he had pride issues.

***

I definitely wasn't the athletic twin and that was obvious in gym class on Monday when I was one of the last ones to finish the mile. Ross had stuck around with me for the first lap, but lapped me after that. He was one of the quickest guys in our class so I didn't expect him to wait around for me. He probably just stayed with me at first to warm up.

When I finished the lap, I stood hunched over with my hands resting on my knees. I was panting and could feel my shirt clinging to my body from my sweat. I was sure I looked so sexy like this.

"You weren't the last one," Ross commented, slapping a hand down on my shoulder.

I looked up at him, my panting slowing down. "I really need to get in shape."

Ross shrugged. "All you have to do is improve your mile time by the end of the semester."

I groaned, standing up straight. "I hate running."

Ross just rolled his eyes and slapped me on the shoulder again. "I'll help you."

Ross didn't have much room to improve his mile time since he was always one of the first to finish. I knew he goes slower than he needs to just so he can show improvement for our last mile at the end of the semester.

"What was your mile time?" I asked curiously as we started heading back into the gym.

"6:10," he answered. "But I jogged for a little while, I can probably get closer to five by the end of the semester."

"What was mine?" I hadn't even bothered to look.

Ross laughed and looked away from me. "11:22."

I groaned and threw my head back. An eight minute mile was considered mediocre. I needed to be more in the range of six and a half and under, but there was no way I could see myself doing that. I had to force myself to keep going today and ended up taking over eleven minutes. If I had taken breaks when I wanted to, I probably would have been closer to twelve.

It felt as thought the temperature increased when we stood in the gym. I headed over to the water fountain to get a drink. When the cold water met my throat, I instantly felt relieved. I didn't want to walk away until I felt someone nudge me on the back.

"Hurry up, Maloney," Rick, one of the kids on the football team, said.

I turned around to face him, stepping away from the water fountain. "You finished before me, you should have gotten water then."

After taking a sip, he looked up at me. "Shut up. I wouldn't be snippy with me when I heard that you've been hanging around with a Knight, no, the Knight."

I rolled my eyes and leaned against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest. "Nathan told you?"

Rick nodded. "Let's just say we have some things in store for your friend Sam."

I sighed and pushed myself off of the wall, walking away toward Ross. It was useless to talk to Rick about this. He would just do whatever Nathan wanted him to and I knew that. It was also useless to reiterate what I had been saying to Nathan ever since I started working with Sam. He would never understand it, just like he thought I would never understand his side.

The only thing I could think of to do was warn Sam, but I didn't know what to warn him about. I wouldn't see him today since Charlene had given us today off. I knew Nathan wouldn't do anything to physically harm Sam, he would just pull some stupid prank. Before I could go into the locker room to get my phone, our gym teacher blew his shrill whistle and told us we were going to be playing handball for the rest of class.

Warning Sam would have to wait.

***

As soon as I got into the locker room, I pulled out my phone and texted Sam.

I don't know what's going on, but I think Nathan's going to pull something so just be aware.

I didn't know what else I could say to him. Pranks weren't that big of a deal. Nathan and the team pulled them on each other all the time. He pulled them on me, it was just something he did. But pranks between the Warriors and Knights were different. One prank would inevitably start a war between the two teams and they wouldn't be harmless. Nathan and a few of his teammates had almost gotten suspended for their war with the Knights our sophomore year.

It became a problem when small pranks weren't good enough and they had to keep getting bigger and better. Vandalizing the Knights' locker room was a prank that went too far and they would have gotten in big trouble if the Knight hadn't done it to us. The schools decided each team would clean up their mess and that would be their punishment since neither school wanted to lose a chance at championships. It was obvious both schools favored the football team.

Sam was quick to reply to me and what he said left me curious and confused.

He already did