He gave me a quizzical look. “How are you so sure?”

“Well, I…. it’s just a one-day thing; Clara won’t mind it if they both get some time to spend together in the forest.”

“What about you?” He looked me in the eyes, and it was making me nervous. “Are you looking forward to it? He asked.

I furrowed my brows. Was he referring us spending time together—no or by us being in the forest area in general? “Kind of excited, just a little nervous about being in the forest. I am not like going outside person.”

“I prefer to stay mostly in the house rather than go outside.” I told him.

He puts his hand on mine and says, “You will be fine; you got me.” His looks away from me immediately, and he clears his throats and continues, “Even others, Steph is like a professional with that stuff, so don’t worry too much.”

“Yeah, okay.” I do my best to not focus on my hand, so instead I say, “I trust you with my life for this whole hiking thing.”

He looks at me and smiles, a smile that was squishing my heart. Wait, I am thinking too cheesy. What am I thinking? I am an idiot. This is not helping me.

He said, "Hmm, yeah, that’s good to hear.”

“And in case I get eaten by a bear or something in that forest, I will first come to haunt you and will probably haunt you forever.”

He chuckled and said, “I would not mind having a company of yours all the time.”

I smirked. He abruptly stopped laughing and tightened his grip on my hand.

"No, wait, I don’t want you to die. We will be  fine. Relax, Chris.”

“Ahh, okay, I was just joking, though.” I told him. I feel confused, but I don’t know what I am feeling anymore. Why is my mind going jittery? Did I make things awkward between him and me again? I just wanted to ask him that straight up, but what if it gets even more uneasy between us?

He was leaning on the couch with me when he sat straight up immediately and removed his hand from mine. “I .. I will get some more snacks; you want to drink something?” He asked.

“Just some water.”

“Okay.”

I wanted to ask him so many questions. Like, why was he hanging out with me? Had he invited his other friends over like this before too? Is it like his usual way to spend time on weekends? Does he like hanging around with me?

I looked around the living room. I did not have the courage to ask him these questions, but at the same time, I wanted to.  There were some pictures on the TV table of Michael, given that his smile did not change over the years from his time in junior school until now. He had a heart squish-able smile before and still has one now. Good for him. On the other picture, it was Brownie with Cole and Michael with a woman who looked old but was not as old as Cole and who had similar wavy red hair as Michael. Maybe it was her mother?

There was a painting on the wall in front of me, next to the window. It looked kind of old, given the way it was painted. There was a dense tree surrounding the two-story building. It had a small balcony with two figures standing on it. The sharp edges of buildings, the sparkling rails of balcony and the fresh-like paint of the building made it look as if the building was recently constructed when it was drawn. By the looks of building it was clear it was not for someone’s home. Next to the building, at a far distance from the building, there was an open patch of ground, but it was not clearly visible due to the glistening of that specific place in the painting. There was something written on one of its corners. I was about to get up to look closely at the painting when someone said something from behind me.

“The painting is serene, isn’t it?”

It was Cole. He settled next to me and said, “It was a gift from my grandpa to my father.”

Well, that’s really old, then. “So is this painting an inheritance?” I asked him.

He nodded his head. He asked, “Are you in Michael’s class?”

“No, I am not in his. My major is mass communication.”

“Hmm, very surprising of my grandson to befriend you, even though the possibility of you two meeting was not really possible.”

Alright, so Cole probably wants to know more about me. He is curious about his grandson’s life? I thought to myself. "Yes, it does sound like that. But well, we happen to take the same bus home after college.”

“Oh, yes, he mentioned that last night.”

“Hey grandpa, what brings you here?” Michael asked.

Cole said, “Getting to know the boy for whom you clean-“”

Michael puts the bowl of chips in front of the sofa table and grabs my hand. “Leave it aside, grandpa. We both are upstairs playing games. Call us when Mom comes back okay?”

Cole grumbles something, but before he can make it clear, Michael interjects, “Ok. Chris, come on.” He drags me upstairs in a hurry, while I do my best not to fall.

As I entered his room, he asked me to take a seat, and he went back to get some water for me. I glanced around his room. It was organized, with the desk against the wall and books kept in order on the shelf. His room was larger compared to mine. My feet brushed against something different compared to the texture of the wooden floor, I looked down, there was a rug. It had an illustration from an animation, I remembered Alex showing me it once, but I cannot recall the character’s name or the series. The rug picture of a boy with white hair and his eyes were covered by a black cloth, and the background was a city at night. He was swirled by red lines. I took a seat at his desk chair. There were some sticky notes on the wall indicating his pending work.

The door opened. “Here is the water you asked for.”

He switched on the console and motioned for me to sit on the bed, which was in the middle of the room, pressed against a wall whose window was open. I moved there. On the other side of the wall, he took out some games and asked me to select one, but me being me, I told him to select that one himself. He frowned about it, but I told him I did not mind at all and was more curious about the games he had with him.

He grinned in Mr. Grinch’s style. “I see. Be careful though, for you might have signed up for your defeat by giving me an upper hand in the first place.”

I smiled and said, “Don’t worry about me. After the game ends, we can argue over who has the upper hand.”

He stared at me for a moment, dazed. I tilted my head slightly, “So are we going to start?”

“Ah.. Y..Yeah, yes.” He tossed me his controller and set the game in. After having a tutorial from the pro player, none other than Michael (according to him) about the space game, we begin playing it. At first, I struggled with the part of dodging the laser or villain bots in first round and, at the same time, attacking the enemies. Michael kept nudging me every time I lost. I was going to get back to him about it. After some time, I found a way to clutch and catch up to him. He was beginning to get nervous. Well, now the fun has begun. I'm not sure how much time passed, but were enjoying the game.

“OK Ok, no fair, how did you catch up so fast?” He said this while trying to take the controller from me. I leaned away from his side and still continued to play the game.

“Well, you taught me.”

“That was just one or two basics.”

“Well, basics are the foundation.” I smirked

He jabbed his fingers into my shoulder and said, “This is it. You are mocking me.”

I did my best to keep a straight face and said, "No, I am not.” I shifted my focus back to the game. “Maybe you should focus back on the game.”

He looked toward the game screen. He was on the brink of losing the round, and then I would have won the majority of rounds. “Really?” He asked.

I shrugged, not even glancing at him. My vision darkened. “What?”

“Not today, Chris,” he said.

He had covered my eyes with his hand. I did my best to take his hand off my eyes, but I came to the realization that by the time I took his hand off my eyes, the controller was not in my hands but with him. I tried to get it back from him, but next thing, the game was paused, and we were fighting for the controller like 5-year-olds. Pushing and pulling. No Michael or Christopher were harmed in this fight. In the midst of this, we did not notice the door open, and something soft brushed against my leg.