It all started with a bet...

Chapter five

James's POV
We walk to school the next day slowly realized how many classes we had together which I hadn't realized until now, evidently he had. "I literally have all academic classes and band with you and you only noticed band!?"
"I wasn't really paying attention at that point in time!" He looks to the side and I see a slight bit of hurt in his eyes and say quickly, "S-sorry! That came out wrong! I just meant that I hadn't really thought about it because I had just been-"
           He laughs and says, "You really aren't helping your case here James,"
           I go to respond when someone says from behind us, "Mason? Are walking with James?"
           We turn around and see a girl, that I don't really know but I know her name is Zoey, walking up with a look of disbelief as Mason says, "Oh hey Z, yeah, I ended up staying the night with him because my mom was in the hospital." She gets a strange look and whispers something to Mason making him turn bright red. "Zoey!" She laughs at him and runs off to her boyfriend who isn't far in front of us. "She is such a jerk."
"She's still your friend though," I say, bumping him with my shoulder.
"Yeah, she is, she can see right though anyone. Which means you're good."
"Wait what?" He laughs then speeds up leaving me chasing after him saying, "Mason! What do you mean!?"

After school I'm walking home when I feel a tap on my shoulder, I turn and see mason who quickly stepped next to me while he was saying, "Do you trust me?"
With no hesitation I reply, "Yes."
He smiles and says, "Then follow me," I nod and he leads me across campus and into the woods. He starts to follow a small creek that winds through the thick woods, but eventually we reach a clearing that is full of large rocks, a winding creek, and lit by the sun that is slowly goes down in the west. "I miss this place," he walks over to and sits on a rock that is just on the edge of the creek.
I go and sit next to him and exclaim, "This place is beautiful!"
He looks at me and says, "I used to come here with my mom, she always called it, 'Η γη της ειρήνης και της ομορφιάς,' which means the land of peace beauty."
"I understand why she calls it that, it is almost like nothing bad has ever stepped foot here, like it is the perfect place,"
             His smile turns sad and he says, "If only that we're true..."
             "Huh?" He sighs, grabs my hand, stands, and leads to me to a small rock that is red which clearly isn't natural, "Is that..."
             He nods and mutters, "It happened a week ago... he got extremely drunk and didn't remember where we were, he cane here and threw my mom against the rock..."
I look at him and see a new person in his eyes, a young man who is scared in many ways, and who has never known the true love of a father... "Come on, let's let those memories go down this stream..." He looks confused but I pull him closer to the rock, I pick it up and put it in the creek, the blood washes off of it easily disappearing down the stream...
He looks at me smiling, tears in his eyes, and says, "Thank you..." We both realize that we're still hand in hand at the same time and drop each other's hands him saying, "S-sorry!"
I just smile and say, "It's fine," He don't look at me so I continue, "You're my friend Mason, you don't have to be sorry for anything,"
He smiles at me and nods then turns his head back to the creek.