Jaxsen couldn’t believe how amazing this place was. Never before had he ever seen anything like this. Sebastian smiled, sharing a glance with Nizhoni, both thrilled at Jaxsen’s open amazement and excitability over this place.

“Daddy, this is so cool! What are we gonna do first?” Sebastian took their shoes and placed them in a locker along with his wallet and keys before shutting and locking the small, metal door.

“We can do whatever you want. We can go free jump for a while first. Kinda warm up our legs. Or there’s the ‘Foam Zone’” 

“What’s the ‘Foam Zone’?” he queried with a curious frown. 

“It’s where you jump into a giant foam pit. Whatcha say?”

Jaxsen grinned, the smile splitting his face. “Yeah! Let’s do that.” He jumped up and down in his excitement before taking both their hands and dragging them toward the foam pit, his giggles making Nizhoni and Sebastian smile over his head. 

They were engaged in Sky Zone’s activities most of the day, Jaxsen dragging them from the ‘Foam Zone’ to where they were about to begin the ultimate game of dodge ball. Jaxsen had confessed to having never played, but quickly decided on his strategy and subsequently won the game. Surprised, Jaxsen smiled and was presented with a season pass to the whole facility. Finally after slamming some basketballs into the baskets and tiring themselves out after the free jump, hunger got the better of them. 

“How about some ‘Cheddars’, beautiful? We haven’t been there in ages.” Nizhoni smiled and it electrified him.

“That does sound good, actually.” The wind was brisk against their faces and Sebastian opened both doors and ushered them into the car. He kissed her with a smile after starting the engine and drove toward one of the pair’s favorite restaurants.  

When they arrived it was almost eight. Jaxsen, having expended all his energy at ‘Sky Zone’, fell asleep in transit. Sebastian smiled when he noticed after he parked the car. 

“I’ll get him,” Sebastian said as they got out of the car. Jaxsen cracked his eyes open when Sebastian picked him up.

“Huh?” he said as he was lifted.

“It’s okay, Jack. It’s time for dinner.” Jaxsen nodded and placed his head on Sebastian’s shoulder. He woke up a bit more when Sebastian set him next to him at their booth and handed him a menu. By the time they made it home, their bellies were full and eyes droopy, exhausted by the day’s events. It was only half past nine and all three were in bed before the next sixty minutes were spent. 

“Basil!” Jaxsen called, running to catch up with his friend. Basil turned and smiled, his right thumb hooked under one of the straps of his backpack. 

“Hey. I was just on my way to meet you by the cougar.” Jaxsen smiled as he caught up to where Basil stood waiting. 

“Yeah. Mrs. Crabtree wanted to talk to me about my history project that’s due in a few months.” They walked outside to be greeted with bright sunshine reflecting off freshly fallen snow. Squinting they glanced to the left toward the stone cougar. Jaxsen let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. It didn’t happen near as often as it used to, and he didn’t know why it still happened; just that when it did happen the terror that gripped him squeezed his heart, pushing oxygen from his lungs, and made his blood run cold. 

It passed before the anxiety became overwhelming, but not before Basil noticed. “Hey, you okay?” Basil asked, lightly grasping his upper arm. 

“Yeah, it’s just…s-something that happens.”

“What happened?” Jaxsen stopped walking and didn’t meet Basil’s eyes.

“N-not here…please?” The look he had was pleading and Basil relented with a nod.

Sebastian watched behind his sunglasses as they came out of the school building. He saw Jaxsen stop and look toward where he usually stood at the head of the school mascot, saw his face pale before frantic eyes finally found him standing by the animal’s hindquarters. Does he still think that I’m not going to show up and abandon him here? I would hope that by now…

The thought trailed off as the boys approached. “Hey, guys,” Sebastian greeted them, slinging an arm around both their shoulders. Sebastian did not miss how Basil’s face lit up at the action, nor did he miss Jaxsen’s momentary scowl. He smiled lightly to himself and ushered the kids to the car and headed home.

“Daddy, where’s Zhoni?” Jaxsen asked when he noticed the other car absent. 

“She’ll be back later tonight, bud. She just had a few things to do this afternoon.” Sebastian wondered as well what she was up to, as she’d left this morning with quite an air of mystery around her. 

“You boy’s hungry? Dinner might be a little late tonight.” Jaxsen grabbed his usual after-school snack, a goblet of rice pudding and an apple Snapple, along with some for Basil, and the two sat down at the kitchen table. 

“No, it’s okay, Dad. This will suffice. If we get hungry before dinner, I’ll make some sandwiches or something.”

Sebastian nodded. “Alright. Well, it’s supposed to snow more tonight and into tomorrow, so I’m gonna go throw some salt down before it starts. If I wait anymore we’ll have a place where everyone on the block can ice skate!”

They all laughed at this obvious over-exaggeration before Sebastian kissed the top of Jaxsen’s blond locks and made his way to the backyard. Several years prior he had built a sizable shed that housed his tools, the Ice Melt, and his snow blower and it still looked brand new. He opened it and pulled out the snow blower and the salt before taking it around to the front of the house.

The boys sat quietly side by side a top Jaxsen’s bed, eyes fixed on the small flat-screen mounted on his wall across the room. They were watching ‘Stepbrothers’, starring Will Ferral, a favored for them both, but Jaxsen paused it when he noticed Basil not laughing along with him. Basil did not meet Jaxsen’s gaze, but closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

“Basil, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting weird all week and you haven’t laughed, or even cracked a smile this whole movie. What’s going on? Does it have something to do with whatever happened over Christmas break?”

Basil bit his bottom lip and nodded. “Yeah. My uncle said a bunch of things about…about my dad. My mom got really upset.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why she cares so much…she pretty much says the same stuff they were saying. Why does it matter so much that he’s gay? Even if he had left us for another woman…isn’t the important thing that he left us?” He looked at Jaxsen then, his eyes shining with unshed tears. “Shouldn’t that be the ‘terrible sin’? Why does anything else matter?”

Basil swiped at his eyes with the heel of his hand and sniffled. “Why wasn’t I important, Jax? Why…” He sniffled and laughed a dry, humorless laugh as his pain marked its way down his face. “Why wasn’t I good enough for him? H-how could I mean so little to him that-that-that h-he would just leave me?”

Jaxsen shrugged, wishing there was something he could do. “I don’t know, Basil. I can’t justify the motives of an act such as that. I can’t pretend to know what he was thinking to cause him to leave you. I’m sorry he did ‘cause he’s missing out on a wonderful son.” Jaxsen faintly blushed at making the comment and looked down.

Basil smiled, his cheeks instantly flushing at the compliment. “Hey, Basil?” Jaxsen broke the silence that momentarily lapsed.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t ever have to worry about me, okay? I won’t ever leave you.”

Basil smiled softly. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Jax.”

Jaxsen frowned. “I don’t make promises to everyone, Basil. And I don’t make them dismissively, either. You’re stuck with me, now.”

Basil smiled. “Thanks. That means a lot, Jax. A whole lot.”

Jaxsen smiled an infectious smile that spread to Basil. “You’re my best friend, Basil. There’s not much that would make me turn my back on you.” There was a stretch of silence before Basil broke it.

“I…I lost my family this Christmas, Jaxsen. They kicked us out during the family dinner.”

Jaxsen frowned. “Why would they do that?”

“They started saying really bad things about my mom and dad. Bashing my dad ‘cause he was gay, and my mom “falling victim to his lies.” How she was stupid for loving him and how he would burn in hell for being a sodomite. I stood up then and just…screamed everyone else into silence. I started defending my dad…and my mom…loudly. My uncle slapped me. Hard. He said “faggots and faggot lovers” aren’t welcome in the family and to never come back. So we left.”

Jaxsen shook his head. “I’m sorry, Basil.” He nodded and wiped his eyes. He sighed frustrated with his stuffy nose.

“I didn’t have much family, Jaxsen. Just them and my mom, you know? Now I guess it’s just she and I.” He paused, looked at his hands and looked back at him. “Can I tell you a secret?” 

Jaxsen nodded. “You can tell me anything-and at any time.”

Basil nodded and when he spoke again his voice was soft and choppy, as if he were doing everything to not show how hurt he actually was. “I feel that…I don’t really have her at all. There’s always been a distance since my dad left. I look like him and I think she resents me for it. And that one day I’ll lose her like I lost him. And when that happens…who will I have then?”

Jaxsen slung his arm around Basil’s shoulder and pulled him a bit closer, leaning his head against his friend’s. “You’ll always have me, Basil.”

“Promise?”

“I know what it’s like to lose everything you’ve ever known. What it’s like to be alone and scared and unsure of your whole being. I know about being shoved aside…I wouldn’t do that to you. I know how being abandoned feels…I won’t abandon you, too, Basil. That’s what happened at school today. When I didn’t see my dad right away. I had foster parents that would just make me wait for them for hours to come pick me up. They made me wait by a park so that the school didn’t know and they wouldn’t get in trouble. Sometimes they didn’t show up till it was dark. And I was always scared that they wouldn’t show up at all. And sometimes I still get scared that one day he won’t show up either. I know that he will, but sometimes, I still get scared.”

They were quiet for several moments before Basil broke it. “Jax?” Jaxsen leaned back to look at him.

“Yeah?”

“You can always talk to me, too, you know. If you ever want to.” 

Jaxsen smiled, breaking eye contact. “Thanks, Basil.” He didn’t know for sure if he’d ever tell his friend the horrors he’d suffered, but the gesture meant the world to him. Jaxsen smiled brightly at Basil who smiled in return. “Wanna finish the movie?” Basil acquiesced with a nod and conversation paused as the movie finished playing out.

Dinner was much later than normal; Nizhoni finally arrived home half past seven looking worn and tired. Yet there was a shine in her eyes that Jaxsen could have sworn wasn’t there this morning. The conversation was kept light, sharing laughs as together they broke bread around the table. The whole time Jaxsen found himself gazing at Nizhoni’s face. No doubt about it, he thought as he watched her, she was glowing.