The Mask That They Wore

Questions

“Hey Jere?”, asked Michael the next day as he went to visit Jeremy at his locker at school.

“What's wrong buddy?”, said Jeremy with a concerned expression in his face.

“Nothing really, it's just that, have you heard from the others lately?”, said Michael as he laid against the other locker.

“What do you mean?”, answered Jeremy as he closed his locker. They walked together to their morning class.

“Most of the time by now we would be bombarded with messages and stuff in our friend group.”

“They were just probably busy Micah.”

“All of them, at the same time?”, Michael stopped Jeremy as a realization came to mind. “What if they were abducted by aliens and we're probed. They probably blanked out until today.”

“Michael you should seriously stop watching conspiracies at night.”

“No can do Jere, both moms love it, if it's not from me its from them.”, they walked in silence for a while.

Jeremy decided to add with a saddened tone. “Do you think that maybe they are bored of us?”

“I don't think so, we just hanged out yesterday, I know I was acting a bit paranoid before, but I doubt that they would leave without a reason.”

“Yeah probably, at least you're still by my side.”

“It's a two player game.”, they laughed together and entered class.

***

“So… what's the first step in our plan again?”, asked Rich as they got together behind the school to not gain the attention from the other boys.

“We have to find a way to get Jeremy to ask Michael about if he was the stranger.”, Chloe answered.

“So we have to figure out a way to put that idea in his head without us telling him straight on.”, Christine added.

“Ha ha ha, straight on, nothing straight about this, well us actually.”, Rich said laughing.

“C'mon guys, maybe we should just each take turns trying to get Jeremy to realize this fact.”, said Brooke.

“How would we distract Michael though?”, asked Jake.

“Maybe we could go in pairs, you know, one distracts other acts.”, said Jenna.

“I think that it might work actually, let's do this.”, said Christine excitedly.

***

It was finally lunch time for the squad. Once Jeremy and Michael arrived, the table was quite empty, or, at least it was until Rich and Jake entered through the doors and headed straight there.

“Sup bros.”, Rich said as he sat down, Jake joining his side.

“Hey guys, where have you been? Haven't seen or heard from you for almost 24 hours.”, Michael said.

“Our phones ran out if battery yesterday and I guess we just haven't crossed paths today.”, Jake explained as he looked at Rich to see if they should take their turn.

“Oh ok.”, Jeremy said.

“Hey Mike?”, said Rich. “Could you take me to buy a snack or something? I'm not feeling like cafeteria food today.”

Michael looked a bit confused as he said, “Why don't you ask Jake?”

“Don't get me wrong man, I love Jake, being his boyfriend and all, but there's only so much Sbarro that one can eat in his lifetime.”