"You got a tattoo!?" Patrick exclaimed in a loud whisper as Ryan slid his shirt back over his head. The strawberry blond regarded Ryan with wide eyes.

"Technically two..." Ryan replied with a nervous smile.

"Ryan!"

"Shush! Our moms are downstairs, dude!" Ryan pressed a finger against his lips as he nervously glanced towards the door. "They cannot find out!"

"Y-you're gunna be in so much trouble!" The strawberry blond whispered, "What were you thinking!?"

Ryan threw his arms up in the air. "I don't know! I mean, I saw Brendon get his done, and he asked me what I was getting..."

"So because some g-guy from detention got a tattoo, you th-thought it would be a good idea!?"

"You're not exactly making my side of the argument very strong." Ryan attempted to joke. Patrick didn't find the attempt very amusing.

"W-what if your mom finds out?" He pressed.

Ryan shook his head. "She won't. Just be more chill about the situation, got it?" He shot Patrick a pleading look, "I'm helping with tutoring after school, nothing else."

Patrick bit his lip, nervously twisting the pale, purple shirt in his hands. "What happens w-when she g-gets the letter, Ryan?"

It was quiet for a moment.

"We'll cross that road when we get there."

"Boys! Would you come down for a minute?" Mrs. Stump's voice carried up stairs, causing both boys to look at each other with wide eyes. Neither had the highest hopes of what awaited them downstairs. Reluctantly, however, they made their way down, per Mrs. Stump's request. She was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a smile. "There's something we need to talk about, Ryan."

Ryan felt his heart drop at the mention of his name. They totally knew and now he was dead. He gulped with a nod.

Patrick attempted to backtrack up the stairs, but his mother caught him in her gaze. "You too, mister. It's important that both of you know what's about to be brought up."

His face flooded with red, but he nodded despite his distress. Both Ryan and Patrick were gestured to the living room. They exchanged unsure glances before following Mrs. Stump's lead.

Much to their surprise, there was a man in the room sitting on a chair next to Ryan's mom. He had dark, quiffed up hair, as well as, tattoos that consumed his arms. Well, one arm looked like it had been completely dunked in artistic ink, while the other had more blank spaces between the pieces.

"Boys, this is Pete." Mrs. Stump introduced, gesturing to the man. He turned to the group that had just entered and stood at the sound of his name. "He's who we need to talk about."

Pete stepped over to Ryan and Patrick, extending his hand. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hi." Patrick's word came out as a soft squeak that earned him a side glance from Ryan before Pete was standing in front of him.

"Nice to meet you." Ryan smiled, though he was unsure why he was being introduced to this man or why they needed to talk about him.

Once the introductions were done, Ryan moved to sit on the couch close to his mother. Patrick quickly followed behind, plopping down at Ryan's side. Ryan looked at his mother with question; she just gave him a weak smile in response.

"Pete is another nurse from my company." Mrs. Stump spoke, gesturing to Pete. "The only difference is that he works later shifts than I do."

"You're not quitting, are you?" Ryan blurted out, looking up at Mrs. Stump with uncertainty.

"No, honey." His mother responded, still maintaining her weak smile. "That's not what this is about."

Pete stepped forward with half a step. "Mrs. Stump will still come in the mornings and throughout most of the day, I'll just take over at night."

"With your tutoring really taking off, I need someone while you're gone." A shaky hand reached out to him, prompting him to lean forward so as not to cause her too much pain. Her hand cupped around his cheek, somewhat steadying. "My smart boy." She whispered with eyes full of pride.

Ryan's heart sank. If she really knew what he was doing after school... He had to fight back tears that threatened to spill in order to show her a weak smile of his own.

"I can stop." The words slipped out, despite how unrealistic they were. Sure, skip the detentions and earn double, if not suspension. Then again, he had ditched after just a short period of actually sitting through his punishment...

His mother shook her head. "You deserve to have some fun without having to worry about being here for me." Her thumb slid across Ryan's cheek, "I've kept you from that for so long already."

Ryan let out a soft laugh. "Honestly, it's okay, mom. Most of the people, besides Patrick, absolutely suck anyway."

"You just haven't gotten a chance to get to know them yet." His mother countered.

"Pete will take over when my shift is done, like he said." Mrs. Stump said, "He'll be relieved when I come in the morning."

"So n-not much changes?" Patrick was still flustered, but Ryan couldn't be sure if it was because of the lying about tattoos or the presence of this new nurse...

"Nope!" Mrs. Stump shook her head, "The only real change is that I might be able to pick you up from school on some days."

"I'm glad I'm done with those days." Pete attempted to joke, letting a grin play at his features.

Ryan was helping to guide his mother's hand back to the chair as Pete spoke. He turned to look at the man standing next to Mrs. Stump. He didn't seem that much older than himself or Patrick. "You graduated?" Ryan inquired.

Pete nodded. "Yep. Just turned twenty one."

Ryan hoped that his glance towards Patrick went unnoticed. The strawberry blond was nervously twisting the hem of his shirt between his fingers and avoiding looking at anyone in the room.

"That's cool, having no school."

"I have online classes, but it's really flexible." Pete seemed nice. Patrick sure seemed to like him...

"He'll be starting tonight, so don't be freaked out if you come down in the middle of the night and see him down here." Mrs. Stump smiled.

Ryan nodded, "So I shouldn't call the cops; noted."

"This way someone will always be with me, so no one has to worry." Ryan's mom had grown softer in tone. When Ryan turned to her, she looked more tired than usual.

"I think what we need to worry about right now is you getting some rest." Ryan said, softly. He stood up and pulled the blankets covering her up over her torso.

"Thank you, baby..." She mumbled as her eyes began to drop closed.

Ryan looked over at Pete. "You got this?"

The dark haired man nodded. "You have my word. You can go work on homework or whatever you need to do."

Ryan nodded. He really should disappear to his room before he, or possibly Patrick, released the lies that he had been holding in. He felt like breaking down and confessing what he had done to get into detention and how he had just broken that punishment to run off with some random guy that made his heart flutter just to get tattoos.

He still couldn't see the upside of this bad behavior, like Brendon said there was. He only felt like he was hurting everyone around him.

---

Ryan was the first person to detention the next day. Despite his promise to not to be freaked out by Pete's presence in the house, he had ended up screaming at the sight of him after groggily waking up and traveling downstairs for some water. It was hard to get to sleep after that, so by this point in the day he was exhausted. He leaned on his arm as his eyes drooped. Maybe he could fall asleep here, but he didn't want to miss Brendon.

Why shouldn't he miss Brendon? He still had conflicting feelings about how he should react to what he had been dragged into. Was that the way to word it? He really didn't want to feel whatever the hell he was feeling anymore. It felt horrible.

During his thoughts, someone had pulled a chair up at the front of his desk. Ryan was blind to it until hands slammed down on his desk, causing him to jump and hit his knees on the desk's underside. "Ow!" He looked up to see the face of a stranger looking back at him.

It was a girl that Ryan didn't know. She had a shaved head that barely held a coating of dark hair. She also wore a tank top that exposed shoulder tattoos. "You've been coming in here a lot." she commented, looking Ryan up and down, "Didn't you get into the cafeteria fight a few days ago?"

Ryan frowned, but nodded. Great, this was what his quiet reputation had turned into?

She nodded. "Serious respect for standing up to that asshole." She held out her fist for Ryan to bump.

That was unexpected. Ryan hesitantly bumped his fist with his own as Brendon strolled down the nearby isle of chairs.

"You gunna take on my boy, Ashley?" Brendon laughed with the raise of an eyebrow.

His boy? His stomach was suddenly flipping. He was almost positive it meant nothing, but his body was betraying his brain. He could feel a heat already begin to burn his cheeks.

"I'll let him save it for the cafeteria." Ashley winked before standing upright, "I have my own fight to finish behind the library with Joseph. Later, losers." She flashed a peace sign by her eye before rushing from the room.

Brendon laughed, clapping his hands together while Ryan just looked at him with confusion. Brendon caught his gaze and grinned. "They rap battle." He explained, "Tyler's building his skills off the court and people like to challenge him."

"He any good?" Ryan asked as Mr. Howell stepped into the room.

"He's nuts sometimes." Brendon nodded. His grin grew more mischievous as he continued to look at Ryan, "Wanna see for yourself?"

Mr. Howell began to drone on with words that Ryan blocked out. Wanna ditch again had basically been Brendon's question. He absolutely would have denied it a conversation in his head before... But why did Brendon asking promp Ryan to accept?

The feelings that came after each dismissal of punishment were absolutely horrible, but those words that Brendon had teased during their first interaction kept crossing over his mind. It feels so good to be bad. Could it ever? Did it just take a few rounds of trying?

Brendon was looking at him, expectantly. Those eyes that made Ryan's heart flutter for just a second when they met his own. How could he say no to that?

Quite easily, honestly.

However, it didn't work out as easily as it seemed in theory.

"Show me." Ryan felt himself grin back at Brendon. Someone would be with his mother, so he had no need to continue his past worries, right? Things would be fine if he ran off with Brendon for just a little while...