Swooped | ✓

Mein Täubchen 2: Milo's POV

Part VI - The Birthday

I had never had to do this before. I mean, I had bought people birthday presents before, mainly for Felix and Mama, using... Mama's money, but still. I've bought presents before, but I've never bought one for my best friend.

Because that's what Culver was. My best friend.

For a while, he had been my only friend, until one day our lunch of two became a lunch of three. The one-armed-hand-stand-head-lock boy had a name - Geoff - and he and Culver had known each other for a few years when Geoff moved to the primary division in this school, but they had only become proper friends earlier this year.

Somehow, I had gone from sitting alone, to having two friends. Actual friends. Not people who were friends with each other and let me tag along. Real friends, that looked at me for my opinions and answers, instead of talking amongst themselves and then asking me things as a side thought.

It was strange. Now that almost a year had gone by, I could barely remember the time when I didn't have Culver and Geoff beside me. It first hit me when Culver went on an overseas holiday after the term one holidays. It was only for two weeks, but after having him basically plastered to my side for a whole term, quitting him cold turkey had been disorientating. It reminded me of how things used to be, and I had hated every second of it.

This was all thanks to Culver, really, as obnoxious and annoying that he was. If he hadn't been such a pain in my ass, I never would have known how amazing it was to have what I had now. Friends. Real, true friends.

I didn't think Culver really understood how much this meant to me. I only had two friends in this world, family not included, but he had so many more. It wasn't that I had thought that I was somehow inferior to all of his other friends, since he spent more time with me than any one else, from what I could tell. It wasn't hard to see that Culver was popular amongst most of the students in our year, always making people laugh with his dumbass tendencies and easy-going nature.

I had asked him about it, part way through term two. I had noticed that he hadn't hung out with his other friends as much lately, even though he would still joke and chat to them when they were together. He never sat with them in class any more, and the thought of having lunch with them instead of me and Geoff never seemed to cross his mind.

"You never hang out with those guys any more," I said casually, sliding over my large container of Rouladen, Culver grinning like a toddler whose parent had finally given into his temper tantrum and spoiled him rotten. He grabbed my fork and shovelled a disgustingly large amount of my lunch into his mouth with a moan.

Chewing, he handed my fork back to me, talking as he ate.

"Which guys? We go to an all boys school, dude. You need to be more specific. And bloody hell, please tell Ada that this is the best thing I've tasted in my life," Culver said, and my lip quirked at the glossy-eyed look he gave Mama's Rouladen.

"You know. Aaron and the other guys," I said, shrugging. "You used to hang out with them a lot more. You seemed really close with them on the first day of school."

"I wouldn't say I'm close to them," Culver said pensively, taking a sip of his overpriced peach iced tea from the cafeteria. "I've been at this school since I was six or something, so I pretty much know everyone who came since then. And anyway, they..."

Culver drifted off, sighing and shrugging. That was weird. Culver not talking was always weird. Him talking so much was annoying, but him not talking was worrying.

"Culver?"

The boy sitting in front of me sighed again, dropping his chin to the table and hunching over. He blew at the brown paper bag that had held his toasted sandwich, the paper fluttering with every breath as he thought over his words.