Reaching for the Stars

Chapter 31: Not a Graduation Party

Small note about last chapter and Lucas: I named the city he came from as Hampstertown, which I THOUGHT meant "the place of hemp (as in small plants, not THAT hemp)" + town (in analogy with Hampshire in southern England). Apparently, it means village (hamtun) + shire. So, Hampstertown means "villager's town" and is pronounced HAMP-ster-ton.

No, not "hamster's town" XD

Note about this chapter: I feel pretty bad for Martin because he's Tom's bestie since chapter one but I never told anything about him, so here's a chapter from his perspective... well, mostly.

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All things considered, this wasn't really a graduation party.

Martin drank his juice and looked over the living room. Andy's house was even more crowded tonight. He was throwing a party celebrating their graduation, but not his own. All the attendees knew that Andy was not going to graduate this year.

That made him laugh. Andy really was the personification of going-with-the-flow.

Besides, it was more like a... uh... well, people weren't going crazy tonight. The lion didn't serve any alcohol, and the music was calm and soothing. Ideal, he thought, since tomorrow was the graduation ceremony and it wasn't a good idea to be drunk tonight.

His eyes landed on Tom who was talking to Andy and Nathan with Max beside him. The wolf seemed happy, although Martin noticed that the wolf might be going into his "mood". That was one thing about the wolf that he learnt; Tom had depression.

Lately, the grey wolf had been even more silent and sulky. His eyes were even more faded, but at least there was an honest smile on his face right now. Tom told him about it, but he did not elaborate further. Martin respected him for that. Fortunately, although he helped the wolf through a session sometimes, Tom still knew how to keep himself safe... relatively.

He missed hanging out with the wolf. He was a great friend, really. They balance each other; he was the crazy one while Tom was the cautious one. Yet lately, he seemed to prefer spending time with the football guys plus Kevin instead of with him.

Leaning on the table, he drank his beverage again. "Hey, tigre, you think Tom's been hanging out too much with the big guys lately?" he asked James in front of him.

The tiger shrugged. "Yeah, but he's the main character anyway, so he gets to do whatever he wants."

Martin rolled his eyes. "You think we're in a story or something?"

"What I want to say is, whoever he chose to spend time with is none of our business."

"Thanks, Mr Grumpy Tiger." He then grinned. "Or should I say, Mr Jealous Tiger?"

James looked at him, furrowing his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Well, considering you and Octo are close, and Octo's been spending time with Tom..." he trailed off, raising his eyebrows teasingly.

The tiger turned annoyed. "What the hell, I'm not jealous!"

"Pfft, sure. Your sharp response says no, right?"

James looked angry.

"Well, if Mr Jealous Tiger doesn't want to admit it, it's fine." He shrugged and looked back at the wolf.

"I'm not gay if that's what you're thinking."

The fox took a sip from his glass. "Mon pote, you don't need to be gay just to be close to a guy. Ever heard about 'friendship'?"