Michael turned to Freddy and began to talk.
“We have to discuss what happened at Sofya’s place. Now.”
“We can’t do it now, Michael. Didn’t you notice something?”
Freddy pointed at the empty door frame as Michael turned to look at it.
“We don’t have any privacy anymore” Freddy continued. “We can’t risk my brother overhearing our conversation. We’ll have to talk about it later.”
“But if we don’t talk about it now, you’ll lose important memories from the encounter. It’s better to go over it now while it’s still fresh in your head.”
“I’ll tell you what.”
Freddy got up from the bed, before noticing his indecency. He quietly grabbed a pair of underwear to put on and then proceeded to grab a notepad and pen from his desk.
“I’m going to write down everything that happened and hand it to you to look at. The first moment we can find alone time, we’ll discuss it together. By writing it down now while it’s still fresh in my mind, I can tell you everything I remember without risking Josh overhearing us. If you have any questions, you can ask them to me later.”
“But what if you don’t remember the answer to the questions I may have later?”
Freddy took a moment to think about this, but he didn’t really have a good answer.
“I’ll just have to do my best to recall” he finally responded.
Michael felt unsure about this, but realistically, he knew Freddy was right. Michael internally agreed that there wasn’t any other choice in the matter. They couldn’t risk Josh overhearing their conversation. More than that, he also realized as Freddy was writing his thoughts down that Michael couldn’t risk Freddy’s parents hearing them either. Michael didn’t want them getting involved with taking on the wizard. If they found out about what happened today, they might try to insert themselves and it could put them in grave danger. Not a risk worth taking, even if he had to forego getting Freddy’s immediate thoughts on today’s events.
After a little while, Freddy ripped off the pages and handed them to Michael. Michael looked them over briefly before putting them in his knapsack. He gave Freddy a kiss on the lips before turning to leave. Before he left, Michael turned to Freddy and asked:
“Freddy, where is the ring?”
Freddy thought for a moment and felt a sense of dread.
“Uh, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Michael asked sharply. “I thought you said you were going to take care of it and keep an eye on it while I was in school. What happened to that?”
“Let me retrace my steps” Freddy replied, trying to reassure Michael.
Freddy gathered his thoughts from yesterday, having trouble remembering certain details. He realized as he was doing this that maybe he should take the risk and tell Michael about what happened today in case he forgot things overnight. Before he could make a decision on that, he had a eureka moment.
“Aha! I remember now!”
Freddy went through his pile of laundry and dug in to find a worn out pair of jeans. Sifting through the pockets, Freddy pulled out the ring.
“Found it!”
As Freddy began to get up and look it over, Michael snatched it out of his hands.
“Hey!” Freddy called out.
“Obviously” Michael responded “the old man wasn’t right about you taking possession of the ring. If I hadn’t asked you about it, I doubt you would have remembered it was in there. Your mom would have taken your laundry to the laundromat where it would have been exposed in public. The wizard, or anyone else, really, could have taken it and then we’d be in big trouble.”
Michael began to look over the glowing ring.
“It’d be best if I held onto it again from now on. Besides, this ring doesn’t always have the best judgement. It did choose you to bestow its power unto, after all.”
The ring zapped Michael and he yelped as it slipped out of his hand. Michael went to pick it up and put it in his knapsack.
“I don’t think the ring liked you talking about it that way” Freddy said. “Or me, for that matter.”
“I’m sorry Freddy” Michael said as he went to give him a hug. “But I’m not going to apologize to an inanimate object.”
“It’s alive, Michael.”
“It’s not alive, Freddy, it’s sentient. It may feel things, but it doesn’t live or breath or talk. It’s different.”
After a quick pat on the shoulders, Michael released himself from Freddy’s embrace and waved him goodbye. Feeling a sense of sadness, Freddy got back into bed and pulled the covers over himself once more before taking a quick nap.
The rest of the day proceeded in a sleepy, almost normal sort of way. Michael made it home where he kept to himself in his room while doing homework. He studied the notes that Freddy gave him and jotted down some questions to ask him tomorrow. Freddy watched as his father fixed his door in the evening time, putting it back to normal. Although Freddy wanted to talk about how his father had been treating him, it seemed his father was in no mood to discuss it with him.
The night passed without any incident as both Freddy and Michael slept in their respective beds. One day, they hoped, they wouldn’t have to be so far apart. If they could get over this hurdle in their relationship, they hoped that, one day, they could move in together and share a bed. That was the dream as they sifted off the sleep.
The next day….