“To be honest, if I need to explain how it all went down, I have to go back to when I first met Ronnie. At the start of middle school.”

On the first day of seventh grade, a slightly younger Marcus Veridan is trying to find his way to class. His hair isn’t as messy as it is nowadays and he’s just wearing a plain t-shirt with shorts.

As he passes by some other students, he tries to make some small talk with them but most don’t give him the time of day.

“Back then I didn’t have a lot of friends, I guess compared to everyone else, I just fit right into the background.”

As Marcus continues to walk forward, however, he ends up bumping into someone causing the two of them to fall to the ground.

“At least until…”

“Oh my god, I am so sorry.” Marcus begins to apologize as he gets up.

“Hey don’t worry about it, I should’ve paid attention to where I was walking,” the other student chuckles as dusts himself off before standing up.

"I ran into him."

“I’m Ronnie by the way,” The student remarks, “You got any idea where the science classes are? I’m supposed to have a class there but this whole school is a maze.”

“I ran into Ronnie.”

“Oh uh-, I’m M-Marcus,” Marcus stammers out before calming down and replying, “I think the science classes are closer to the cafeteria.”

“Sweet well thanks, Marcus, you’re a lifesaver!” Ronnie begins to say as he starts to run away.

Though, as Ronnie runs through the hall he turns around to yell back at Marcus, “And hey just so you know, we’re friends now so don’t forget it!”

"O-okay!" Marcus replies confused.

"And just like that, I found myself a new friend."

______________________________

After school gets out on that day, Marcus is exiting through the front doors when he spots Ronnie sitting at the end of the stair’s stone guard railing. Though he seems to be busy chatting with someone else, Marcus decides to walk past him.

Though just as he does so, Marcus can hear Ronnie call out “Yo Marcus! Wait up!”

Marcus looks to see Ronnie hop off the railing and make his way towards him.

“What’s up?” Marcus questions.

“Just wanted to say thanks for helping me out earlier,” Ronnie states, “Thanks to you I just barely made it before the bell.”

“Oh, don’t mention it,” Marcus begins to say, “You have a club or something going on?”

“Oh no, I was just chatting with a classmate,” Ronnie remarks, “Do you walk back home?”

“Yeah,” Marcus remarks as he starts walking down a street, “It’s just a few blocks away.”

“Oh neat, my house is that way too,” Ronnie says as he also walks down the street before adding, “Wanna chat while we walk or are you more a fan of awkward silence?”

“I don’t mind chatting,” Marcus replies.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Back then I didn’t think much would come from our chance encounter…”

Marcus & Ronnie are walking down the street back to their homes. As they do so they chat about whatever is on their mind. They talk about their hobbies, their passions, their favorite shows, what games they’ve been playing, and anything else the two can conjure up.

“But before I knew it…”

As the days go by, Ronnie & Marcus keep on walking together on their walks from school. The two are both much more relaxed around one another than they were before.

“We ended up really getting along.”

“There’s no way that happened,” Marcus laughs.

“I’m telling you it did,” Ronnie remarks, “We may have gotten scolded for unscrewing the fence in the playground but it was worth it.”

“Why did you even help them with that?”

“Well they’re my friend, that’s really all the reason I needed,” Ronnie states.

As the two are walking, they eventually reach an intersection, the two look at each other as Ronnie has to go right to get home while Marcus has to go left.

"Well, I'll catch you later man!" Ronnie says.

"Yeah, see you around, Ronnie!" Marcus replies.

The two go their separate ways as Marcus heads back home. Marcus smiles to himself thinking about the conversation the two just had, however before he knows it he finds himself at his doorstep.

"It was nice to be able to talk to someone because when I got back home..."

Marcus unlocks the front door and opens it to see all the lights are off inside, he sighs as he enters the stale house and turns them on. The fluorescents flicker to life in the dull home. Everything in there is perfect.

Too perfect.

Everything in there is modern and slick, but there aren’t any blemishes one would expect to see in a house with a family. No family pictures hang up on the wall, there’s no indents in any of the furniture, the whole place looks like it was up for sale.

"It was always just me there."

Marcus walks over to the kitchen counter and sees a printed note left by his parents. The note reads 'we went to the store and got some more groceries in the fridge.' Marcus sighs as he takes the note and then walks into the living room.

"My parents were always busy at work and they'd never be at home, in fact, they'd usually get home really late so I'd rarely if ever see them. So most of the time the only way we communicated was with..."

Marcus places the note in a trash can, a trash can filled with notes that say the exact same thing as the one he just had.

"Small pieces of paper that were always so cold whenever I picked them up. That was how I figured most parents talked to their kids."

As Marcus sits in the living room, he starts to hear some knocking coming from the front door. Curious to see who it is, he walks over and opens the door. He looks to see Ronnie standing there.

"Ronnie?!" Marcus says befuddled, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just talking to my mom about you and she wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner with us today. If your parents are okay with it." Ronnie begins to say before he notices just how empty the inside of Marcus' house is.

"Oh, uh, sure, if that isn't a bother," Marcus stammers.

"Dude you're not a bother," Ronnie replies, "besides we were the ones who invited you."

"I guess you're right," Marcus says while smiling.

_________________________________________

That night, Marcus is sitting at a wooden dining table in the middle of The Everst Family Home. In front of him is a plate of fried chicken, corn, mac & cheese, and some cornbread. He looks to see that Ronnie & his mother, Sally Everst, are already eating. Misses Everst is wearing baggy blue jeans, a black tank top underneath a gray jacket, and brown boots. Marcus looks around to see several pictures hanging on the walls of the home, pictures of Ronnie spending time with his mother. There’s some of Ronnie with his father but that was when Ronnie was a young baby.

"You don't like the food?" Misses Everst asks bluntly while drinking some water.

"Oh sorry, I was just looking around at your house, it looks really good," Marcus said.

"Well I'm glad you like the house but you need to eat your food before it gets cold."

"Oh okay," Marcus says as he takes a bite of the fried chicken.

As he does so, flavors and spices he's never really had before start to hit his taste buds, but not only that, but he could feel the passion that the food had. A passion that all the food he ever made for himself never had.

"This is really good!" Marcus says as he continues to eat.

"Aw shucks, I'm glad that somebody likes my cooking," Mrs. Everst says with a smile on her face while glaring at Ronnie.

"What! I never said I didn't like your food, I just said I'm not a big fan of soul food," Ronnie says.

Mrs. Everst's glare at Ronnie becomes more intimidating causing Ronnie to be quiet. Marcus continues to eat his food.

"You have to give me the recipe," Marcus exclaims.

"Sure thing sweetie," Mrs. Everst replies.

"Though I do have one question," Marcus begins to ask, "why are their two main dishes?"

"What do you mean?" Ronnie asks.

"Well there's fried chicken and then there's mac n cheese," Marcus answers.

"Wait, you think mac n cheese is a main dish?" Ronnie questions.

"Isn't it?"

Ronnie laughs while Misses Everst just shakes her head.

"As the dinner went on, I started to feel like I was truly able to get the feeling I was missing out on for most of my life..."

As Marcus debates with Ronnie & Mrs. Everst if mac & cheese counts as a main dish or side dish, Marcus can't help but smile and laugh during most of the conversation.

"The feeling of being a part of a family."

_____________________

"But of course, Ronnie wasn't the only friend I had at the time."

One day at Starlight Middle School, Marcus is walking to class when a kid with a red hoodie and black sweatpants runs over and puts his arm around Marcus. The kid has short brown hair, brown eyes, and a bandage on his cheek.

"There was another person I was friends with back then."

"Hey Marcus, you ready for that math quiz?" the kid in the red hoodie asks.

"Wait, we have a test today?!" Marcus panics.

"Nah I'm just messing with you, besides even if there was you'd probably ace it."

"True," Marcus says.

"And that person was..."

"Wait hold on, I forgot to get something," The kid in the red hoodie says as he goes to his locker.

The locker happens to have his name on it, and that name is 'Hunter Huntingson.'

"Hunter Huntingson. And he was my best friend."

Hunter grabs the extra pen from his locker and closes the door, he then looks over to Marcus and says with a smirk on his face, "So you ready for another boring class, Buddy?"

See You Next Chapter!~