LANCASTER AND MAXWELL ( ✔ )

chapter twenty-seven.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

SENIOR year begins with a mission — to resurrect his friendship and relationship with Arthur.

He knows he's gonna need help, and come the night before the first day of school, he calls up Chandler and asks for his help. 

"No." 

Sully groans into the telephone and flops back on the bed. "But why? I need to talk to him! It's been weeks since I've even seen his face." 

"Tell me the exact date. I bet you know it." 

"I don't." Twenty-two days, fifteen hours, and eight minutes— 

Shuffling on the other side of the phone, Chandler sighs into the phone. "Look," he says. "The timeline has changed, my friend; Arthur needs a little more time than projected. There's been ... complications." 

Sully furrows his eyebrows together and plays with the ends of his hair nervously. "What kind of complications are you talking about?" 

He replies, "We had summer practice the other day, and some things were said to him. Apparently, Walker Chernetsky told a few guys on the team." 

Sullivan has never trusted Walker, anyways — it's a known fact all Walkers are fucking idiots. "That snake," he hisses into the phone. "When I get my hands on him—"

"What? So Artie's boyfriend can come to the rescue and prove them all right?" 

The brunette snaps his mouth closed and all his ideas of how to maim Walker fly out the window. Sully knows that trying to fix the problem is only going to make it worse, but knowing Arthur is facing ridicule for something he didn't choose to do both hurts and enrages him. He'd tear down mountains for him, and it hurts his heart that right now he can't even turn over a stone.

Chandler says, "Listen, kid. Tomorrow is gonna be a weird day for both of y'all, and I don't want you to spend your whole first day of senior year worrying about this. We got him, alright? We won't let our king down." 

Chandler's promise only slightly eases his racing thoughts, and by the time his alarm clock goes off, Sullivan's already been up for a little more than an hour, tossing and turning in his bed. He doesn't think about what he's wearing or what classes he's wearing, he's only thinking about what possibly Walker and the others could have said to make the knights step in and try to handle it.

It couldn't have been that bad, right? 

He climbs out of bed and tugs on a clean black t-shirt and a dark pair of jeans out of his closet. Ruffling his hair around so that it looks mildly presentable, he snatches his backpack off of the chair and exits his room to head downstairs where he's greeted with the smell of eggs and french toast. 

"Hey, Jude. Hey, Ma," he greets and plants a kiss to his mother's cheek. 

Kitty responds, "Hey, baby. Get some breakfast on your way out." 

"Nah, I'm fine. I'm tryna get lean." 

With a mouth full of toast, Sadie replies, "You're already lean — leaning towards malnourishment." Sullivan acknowledges that she's probably picked that line off of Arthur, and the blonde girl only laughs when he flips her off. "Aren't you excited to be in the same school as me, big brother?"