~ Adam ~

A spear of sunlight was beginning to cut through the storm clouds as Adam lead the way outside. Piper's green Volkswagen beetle waited in the driveway, which she'd insisted Adam borrow after learning he'd planned to get an Uber for his and Cole's date.

"Adam, do you know how expensive Uber's are? Especially where you're going?" Piper had demanded when he'd first raised the idea. "Not to mention how the wait time is up to two hours on the weekend in this town. No, you're borrowing my car, and that's the last I want to hear of it."

Adam had wanted to argue but there was no changing Piper's mind once it was made up. So, here he was, climbing into his best friend's car to take someone on a date for the first time.

"So, do I get to know where we're going?" Cole asked as he climbed into the passenger seat.

Adam twisted the key in the ignition and started the engine. "I suppose I could come up with a riddle to clue you in?"

Cole smirked. "Touché."

Adam backed out of the driveway and got them on the road. Technically, he didn't have a license seeing as it had finally expired three months ago. He'd be more concerned if police presence wasn't already known to mostly occupy the south side of town where illegal street racing was rumoured to take place in the outer farmlands.

The radio played quietly in the background as they drove. Cole had one leg kicked up against the dashboard, arm lounging along the open window as wind tousled his dark hair.

Adam glanced over at him discreetly a couple times. Truthfully, he didn't know the protocol here. Cole wouldn't be any of his typical firsts – kissing, flirting, having sex – but this was the first time Adam had let himself take enamour seriously. He truly liked Cole enough to want to venture past casual flirtation, and that was something unfamiliar in itself.

Adam paused at a stop sign and found himself turning the radio up slightly. People Watching by Conan Gray flooded the car.

Cole glanced down at the radio. "You like this kind of music?"

Adam shrugged. "It's easy to listen to."

Cole turned to watch out the window again. Adam knew he was trying to guess where they were going so he employed a distraction. "How are your classes going?"

Cole turned back to him, the corner of his mouth curled upward in a look that said he knew exactly what Adam was doing. He went along with it. "Kingpin's dragging me to every single class these days. He seems to think exams are important."

"Aren't they?"

Cole shrugged. "Maybe for people who don't have a Fortune 500 company founded by nepotism."

"A brazen claim for someone who doesn't want to be associated with his family's work."

"Anything to piss off my dear older brother."

Adam flicked a glance at him. "Brendon still not letting up?"

Cole scoffed. "He's had a stick up his ass since the day he was born."

Adam looked back to the road. He wanted to ask but wouldn't pry any further. He knew Cole well enough to know by now that the other boy only told people things when he wanted them to know.

Fortunately, Adam didn't have to come up with another topic because Cole asked, "I suppose you're taking to exam study with all the skill and aplomb?"

Adam chuckled. "You think you know me that well?"

"Well, I did see your binder at the library. You have coloured tabs for your coloured dividers. And that's after you've already highlighted the hell out of everything."

"Yeah, I-" Adam's hand tightened around the steering wheel, "-uh, my head gets a little messy sometimes. It's easier when things are ordered in a specific way."

"What do you mean?"

Adam risked a glance at Cole, prepared to face yet another look of revulsion on someone's face. What he saw next was not what he'd been expecting.

Cole's expression was inquisitive, unwavering in the sense of calm flowing beneath the surface. There was no hint of unkindness to be found. Adam had been on the receiving end of the latter many times, whether it be kids calling him a 'freak' for alphabetising the food in his lunch box, or teachers questioning whether his parents should seek a diagnosis every time he organised his pencils by order of the rainbow.

Adam didn't know what to do with the benevolent look on Cole's face, so he settled for, "There's a lot of things in life to keep track of. Things are easier when they're divided into a system in my head."

Cole nodded. "That's cool. I can't say I'm the same way but whatever works for you, man."

Adam let out a breath of relief and turned back to the road. He was so overwhelmed by the sincerity in the other boy's tone that he nearly missed the next turn.

Traffic on a Sunday morning was minimal. Adam drove them through the main part of town before continuing along the main road toward the highway.

Cole raised an eyebrow at the 'Now Exiting Spring Creek' sign and turned to Adam. "Is this part of your genius plan to kidnap me?"

"Please," Adam rolled his eyes. "If I were to kidnap you then it would mean you'd get to miss class. I don't think you would be complaining."

Cole huffed a deep laugh. "You've got me there. The company wouldn't be half bad either."

Cole's wandering gaze never eased as the next twenty minutes passed by. Adam tapped one finger rhythmically against the steering wheel as he thought of ways to throw the other boy off.

They worked their way through various topics of light conversation: school, the weather, Spring Creek's Annual Winter Festival that was coming up in a few weeks' time. Cole never attended, but Adam was dragged there every year by Piper for the sake of hot chocolate and raffle tickets.

Surprisingly, the small talk came easily to Adam. There may have been a small part of him that wondered if things between himself and Cole would change after their kiss but they'd only grown closer. If he wasn't in class, he was with Cole at the café. If he wasn't studying, he was helping Cole prepare for his Foundational Mathematics units. If he wasn't working, he was texting Cole until four in the morning. His neighbour hadn't been disrupting the neighbourhood at ungodly hours of the morning for two weeks now so Adam wasn't as tired as usual.

A small silence had fallen over the car, so Cole offered, "James is planning on introducing Piper to his family as their next fundraising auction."

"Really?" Adam raised an eyebrow. "Wow, that's a big step."

Cole shrugged. "A formality, I guess. Meeting the parents is overrated in my opinion."

"Not for Piper." Adam laughed. "Parents adored her. I remember one time she kicked a boy who was bullying me in fifth grade – Jeremy, I think his name was – in the leg and they called her parents. Jeremy's parents came to pick him up and were completely charmed by the end of the meeting in the principal's office. They even insisted that Piper shouldn't be punished because she was standing up for her friend. She has that effect on people."

Cole watched Adam as he smiled at the memory. "You two really are close."

Adam shrugged, the smile lingering. "She's been my best friend for as long as I can remember. Though I suppose you and James are the same way."

"Yeah," Cole laughed under his breath, "the Devil's Incarnate and the Patron Saint."

"You're not the Devil." Adam said, a twinkle in his eye as he grinned at the other boy across the console. "He's far more handsome."

"You're referring to Lucifer, aren't you?"

"Blame Piper."

"I have a feeling I could blame Nightmare Moon for a lot of the things in your life."

"That's probably accurate."

Finally, the highway converged with the entry road to a small mountain town forty-five minutes out of Spring Creek. Adam drove straight through, taking a sharp right which turned onto a gravel road. He snuck a glance over at Cole, who was openly trying to decipher where Adam was taking him. He'd sat up straighter, watching as great pine and redwood trees passed by in shades of green and russet out the window.

Adam smiled quietly to himself. He didn't know he could be so entertained by trapping Cole Decker in a conundrum.

The gravel road continued on but Adam soon pulled off to the left. A smaller road paved the way through a thick horde of trees, eventually opening up to the gaping maw of a large and overgrown property.

At the entrance, a set of iron gates hung off their brackets, wiry plants springing up from the ground and rooting the metal in place. But what interested Adam was the house enclosed behind them.

Two storeys of brick and mortar stood upon a crumbling foundation. The roof of the house had long-since caved in, exposed planks of wood jutting out like a ribcage from torn flesh. Presumed to have once been white, the yellowed weatherboards had chipped and faded over time. The house was nothing but bones now, angular and skeletal like it had suffocated in a hurricane's wind.

More than a dozen potholes littered the unkept driveway as Adam bulldozed right past a 'No Trespassing' sign. Cole raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Okay," Adam said, shifting the car into park as they came to a stop before the house. "We're here."

Cole frowned and looked between the house and Adam, clearly trying to work out if the latter was joking or not. 'And where is 'here' exactly?"

Adam grinned and threw open the car door. "Our date."

***

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