Taryn was woken up by the sunlight streaming through a crack in the curtains. Rude! He thought as he glared at the offending aperture. Pulling himself up to lean against his headboard, he reached for his phone on the nightstand. It wasn’t there. Trying to recall where he might have left it, he suddenly realized he had no memory of coming home. In fact the last thing he could recall was Thorney smiling at him. Why was Thorney smiling again? The image of his giant paw holding an ice pack popped into his head. Ok but why was he holding an ice pack? The image of the ice pack in his mind’s eye was replaced by an inky black void. How much did I drink last night? Still nothing. Did I drink last night? The void deepened. Casting back further in his memory, he could recall leaving the shop the previous evening. Was that last night? Slowly, his recollection of events began to come together. His brain felt sluggish, thoughts flowing about as well as treacle.

Very eventually, he was replaying his ascent of the library stairs. The grand old building was the oldest structure on the university Campus. Only a few churches and manor houses in the area were older. Taryn remembered the rain and his eagerness to reach the top. He remembered Logan smirking at him from beside a table. A table which… The void returned. Taryn got out, discovering that he was still wearing his wet clothes, everything except his windbreaker. Definitely last night then. His phone was still in his pocket so he pulled it out to check the time. Rather than illuminating however, the display remained black. A large crack ran horizontally across the screen with smaller fractals branching off in many places. What the fuck happened?

Taryn changed and left his room. The house had been in the family for as long as anyone could remember. Every few generations the family would renovate or occasionally completely rebuild. The current iteration - quaint, three storey, Victorian era, red brick - was conservative and comfortable. There were three bedrooms and a bathroom on the top floor. The second storey was the most modern, having only two large rooms. One served as a living room, kitchen, and dining area. The other was mostly given over to storage but a small office area had been partitioned off from the rest of a room by a trio of judiciously placed bookshelves. The shop occupied about two thirds of the ground floor with the remaining space being split between a small kitchenette and the large well appointed drawing room and conservatory that opened onto the back patio and garden area.

The top two floors were quiet but as he descended to the ground floor, Taryn heard his two friends chatting in the kitchenette. He entered the room to find Logan sitting at the table while Thorney stood hunched over the sink doing some washing up.

“Morning sunshine” greeted Logan,

“What happened last night?”

“Rude.”

“Ugh.. fine. Good morning. What happened last night?”

“I can see you forgetting last night after your little tumble, but really you have no excuse for forgetting your manners.”

Taryn just glared at Logan who weathered the look with an air of affronted dignity. “Just fucking tell me you little prick.”

With a chuckle, Logan began to talk. “Basically it happened like this. You seemed to miss a step at the library. Apparently you're afraid of a little bit of lightning. One teeney flash and you're out cold on the floor. We woke you up and figured we'd take you to see coach at the quiz night for an H.I.A.” This made sense as concussion protocol calls for a head injury assessment any time a player is knocked out. The club staff did a great job with it. “You failed that miserably so we went to A&E but the line there was ridiculous and we were missing quiz night. So instead we went over to Georgie's and had him check you out.” Georgie was an orthopedic surgeon and one of the old boys. He hadn’t played in years but still spent all his free time with the club. “He gave us the green light to bring you home and send you to bed. Said you'd be all right but might not remember too much. Oh, and you're done for the rest of the season too. Sorry. So we brought you here and headed back to catch the end of the quiz and try and enjoy the evening you almost ruined.”

“Love you too you gobby little shit” Taryn had been watching Thorney throughout Logan’s tale. Although he hadn’t turned around, his massive back quivered every time he chuckled quietly to himself. He also tilted his head to the side at some of the more colourful explanations. Where Logan was all sarcasm, satire, and sardonicism, Mason was all kindness and compassion. At least he was until he got angry.

“Oh and then Thorney fell in love with a giantess.” Logan added, looking to get a rise from the big guy.

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Thorney froze. He had been halfway through setting a bowl on the drying rack. After a beat, he turned to face them, the bowl now dripping slowly onto the floor. Logan always knew exactly what to say to get under Thorney’s skin.The two had a unique relationship. On game days, Logan would start riling him up immediately. Like an engineer shoveling coal into a steam engine, Logan would keep fanning the flames. Unable to keep up with the banter, Thorney would internalize it all. By the time they hit pitch, Thorney would almost vibrate from pent up pressure percolating inside him. When he got properly angry, even Taryn was nervous around the normally gentle giant. Logan however seemed to revel in it, delighted by the reservoir of rage he was about to unleash on the other team.

To his great surprise, Taryn saw that Thorney was blushing. Thoughts and emotions flashed across his friend's face, warring with each other until an expression of embarrassed indignation won out. Logan tried to look nonchalant, meeting Mason’s mean mug with a smirk, however Taryn noticed him shying away, struggling to stay out of reach in the small room.

Instead of cuffing him across the ear, Thorney spoke. “You’re the one in love, Logey. That’s why you were at the library. That's why you wanted to get back to the quiz so badly.”

Silence reigned. Having mentally prepared for a good natured tussle, Logan was uncharacteristically tongue tied. Taryn was also taken aback. He had been curious about why Logan was at the library. He was also intrigued by the blossoming love lives of his two mates. Furthermore his brain was still a little foggy. Logan on the other hand had no excuse. Any other day he would have shot right back, always ready with the next quip. This time however, his brain appeared to have stalled. His mouth was moving, opening and closing like a salmon caught in a net.

The silence held long enough for Thorney to get his second thought out. “And she isn’t a giant. She barely comes up to my chin. Your girl towers over you. Either she’s the giant or you're the dwarf”

“Yeah well…. Shut up”

“Smooth” said Taryn. “Your silver tongue looks a little tarnished”, turning to ignore the icy glare directed his way. “How about you tell me what really happened while Mr. Frost here takes a minute to let his brain thaw.”

“Well..” began Thorney, then paused, “I don’t know why you fell, but there was lightning. You had your hands in your pockets so you couldn’t catch yourself. You landed badly. You landed on your leg first on one of the stairs then your face smacked forward onto the landing. You were out for about a minute. Logey knew the chick manning the display. T’was actually his new love. Got some ice from her cooler and woke you up. You were fried mate. Logey said you needed a propper going over so we went to see which of the trainers had showed up already. Obviously you failed the H.I.A. Never went to A&E though. Coach called Georgie right away and he said he’d meet us at your place. You kept going on about trying to translate something. Kept trying to borrow our phones cause you landed on yours. You never actually did anything with them. Just kept saying random words. Georgie said that physically you weren’t that bad. No signs of swelling. Said your confusion might last a bit but otherwise you’d be alright. We were gonna put you to bed but you seemed better and said you'd manage. Your mum was home so we left. Logey was pretty keen to get back to the quiz cause he had plans with his girl. She had a friend” the big guy grinned as he finished, just a hint of colour returning to his cheeks as he mentioned the women.

“I told it better.” Logan said, having found his voice.

“Who are these ladies you gents keep mentioning? And why were you at the library Logey?”

“So I met this girl at the gym the other day-” began Logan. He went on to explain that this girl, Sigourney, was on the varsity lacrosse team. Her room mate was a graduate student working on her masters in archeology. Workers had unearthed some interesting artifacts while excavating for a planned expansion of a power substation. The university had been asked to investigate and Sigourney’s room mate was part of the team administering the dig site. The university was offering credit to any students who helped out. To this end, Sigourney was manning the display that had been set up in the library. Logan had planned to meet her there before heading over to the quiz together as her lacrosse team had also signed up.

Taryn’s mind was racing as he tried to fit all the pieces together. It seemed that every answer only begged more questions. What dig site? What had been on that table? And what was I trying to translate? He felt the answers floating around inside. He saw glimpses of them through the fog but whenever he tried to zero in on a thought it turned back into mist and vanished. At least he knew how he’d broken his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket again and looked at the shattered screen.

“We came round this morning to get you a new phone but you slept in so late we’re out of time.”

“Oh?” taryn queried.

“We have a lunch date” said Logan

“I always knew you two had a special sort of bond”

“Oi. Not like that," Logan said, pointing at Taryn. “It's a double date. Sig and I already had plans but we felt sorry for this lug and his new beaux. Thorney would never have the balls to ask a girl out so I suggested he and Steph join us.” Mason flushed again and looked at his feet. Apparently he noticed the mess the bowl he was still holding had made because he finally set it on the drying rack and grabbed a cloth to wipe the floor.

“I would invite you but you need a shower. And you’d be a fifth wheel anyway. You're not a ladie’s like us two fine gents.” teased Logan.

“Whoa whoa whoa, that's a bit much” Taryn chortled

“I’m not a lady-man” Mason said a moment later. Taryn and Logan looked at Mason and then each other, unsure if their big friend was taking the piss.

“Right you are, big boy. Let's get going before you feel the need to demonstrate that fact, hey?” Logan was already moving to leave but looked back to Taryn “meet us at the library in a few yea? Say 2ish?”

Taryn nodded and with that his two mates made their exit.