Do I look lonely? I see the shadows on my face. People have told me I don't look the same. 

--Death of a bachelor; Panic! At The Disco

Chase

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"Harder!"

"Yesss!"

"Faster, Nate. C'mon."

"Ugh."

"My grandpa can hit harder than that."

With another grunt, I raise my hand and bring it down hard, creating a loud smacking sound as the small plastic hammer hits the head of the mole.

"There he is!" Sophie shrieks as she points to the hole on the upper right corner and sure enough, the small pink plastic animal's head is jutting out so I whack it as quick as I can. I've been holding back a little though, can't have all these people suspecting if I did use my werewolf reflexes.

Arcade music is blaring in the background, the sound of arcade gunshots, engines revving, and numerous victory music can be heard. I don't know what I'm doing here, with Sophie of all people.

Sophie collects the tickets streaming out of the whack a mole machine and grins at me. I just shake my head.

"Let's go, I'm hungry." I tell her before heading towards the exit.

"Wait!" She grabs my arm and heads over to the little store at the corner where they hang up prizes which you can buy with the tickets you won from the games. Sophie hands her tickets over and chooses a big fluffy panda stuffed toy.

"You're such a child." I mumble as I walk towards the nearest fast food place, with her trailing behind me and grinning like an idiot.

"I can't believe you won every game in the arcade." She muses.

"Thanks to me." My wolf brags in my head.

I've been having conversations with him lately. Now that I understand that the voice inside my head isn't some symptom of me losing my mind and is actually just my wolf, I've been more welcoming.

I feel my pocket vibrating and hear the shrill ringing of my phone.

"Wait a sec." I tell Sophie before I pull the small rectangular device out of my pocket. I check the caller ID and am pleasantly surprised to see who's calling.

"Chase." I answer, glad to finally hear from him again. He's a close friend of mine from New York.

"Excuse me for a second." I tell him before covering the phone to tell Sophie to just go ahead and order something for her to eat. She nods and gets inside, straight into the queue.

"Hey man, how are you?" Chase' voice flitters through the phone. A slight pang in my chest indicates just how much I miss my friends.

"I'm doing good, thanks. What about you?"

"I'm good, too. Still dropping women's panties wherever I go."

Chuckling, I shake my head.

"Listen man, are you busy?" He asks.

"Why? You planning to ask me out?" I grin.

"Ha, you wish. I'm actually in Cambridge right now." I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm planning to go to MIT and check out the exhibit. I was wondering if you could come with me. But if you're busy, then I can understand if you can't." He explains.

"Actually, I'm not busy. Are you going right now?"

"I'm about to leave, yeah. You coming?" He asks as I make my way towards Sophie. I pull out my wallet and pay for the food. I can see that she also ordered from me.

"I'm having lunch right now, so I'll meet you at 2?" I ask him as I take a seat across Sophie. She looks at me curiously but stays silent.

"Yeah, I'll meet you at the entrance of the university at 2." He confirms and hangs up.

"Who was that?" Sophie asks before she takes a bite of her burger.

"A friend." I tell her and her eyes narrow angrily at me.

"What?" I ask, confused. I will never understand this woman. I unwrap the burger and dig in.

We stay silent and I can't help but sigh in frustration as I can feel her glaring daggers at me.

"What the heck is your problem?" I ask her when I finish my food.

She just closes her eyes and shakes her head.

Confusing.

"Let's go, I'll get you a cab." I tell her and we stop so I could call a cab.

"Where are you going?" She asks.

"Massachusetts Institute of Technology." She raises her eyebrows and asks what I'm going to do there.

"I'm accompanying a friend to watch the exhibits." I say and I feel my mouth spreading into a smile. I can't wait to catch up.

I kind of cut my friends off when I got back from Greece. I ignored their calls, and because I was holed up in my apartment for weeks, I didn't hang out with them that much either. We only saw each other before I left for Harvard.

She looks at my face before she frowns and looks hurt.

"Are you okay?" I ask her. She may just be a friend with benefits, but c'mon, I'm not really that heartless.

"Nothing." She mumbles dejectedly. As the cab stops in front of us, she starts walking towards it. I wait for her to get in before raising my hand to say good bye.

I put my hands in my pockets and start walking towards the parking lot where my car is.

"Nate!"

I turn around and look expectantly at Sophie. She's leaning out of the window of the cab and has a look of indecision on her face.

It's like she's weighing something in her mind before she shakes her head and looks sadly at me.

"Be careful." She yells and before I could tell her the same, the cab speeds away.

I shrug, she's been acting strange lately.

         I grip Chase' hand with my right, pull him to me and give his back a rough pat with my left hand. He does the same before pulling away and grins at me.

"It's good to see you, man." I tell him and he says the same thing to me.

He takes a step back to look at me and a worried frown appears on his face.

"Dude, I know it's rude of me to say this but you look tired and you look like you've lost quite a lot of weight. You're eating a box of pizza per meal starting now." He points a finger at me.

"Do I look that ugly now?" I ask him, although what he said is true. I did lose weight and there are dark bags under my eyes.

"You've always been ugly. You're just uglier now. Don't know what those ladies have seen in you." He says with a smile, to indicate that he's just teasing.

This is what I like about Chase, he's blunt.

Rude sometimes, but still. He doesn't sugarcoat facts. He tells things the way he sees it. This is why he's been my closest friend for the longest time.

"How's life back in New York?" I ask him as we stroll into the visual arts center.

"Same old New York, bustling with life," He stops and looks at me seriously.

"It's not the same without you though." He says before trying to lighten up the atmosphere by saying "In a good way."

"I guess the ladies won't hesitate choosing you now, since I'm out of the way." I jest.

Chase throws his head back and laughs aloud.

"Dude, you have to come back and visit." He says before taking a small notebook and a pen. We make small, almost inaudible remarks about the pieces displayed in the exhibit.

I leave Chase for a bit, so he could do what he came here for and not disturb him. I am so amazed with the talent and effort the people in this University puts in their work.

You can tell how they absolutely love their craft and it's so nice to know that in this generation obsessed with convenience, there are still people out there who would use their time and great effort to create pieces like this.

"Nate, you're blocking the view." Chase says behind me.

"I am the view."

"I've seen better." Chase says as he stands beside me.

"Sure you have." I say before elbowing his side non too gently.

Minutes pass and Chase finally closes his notebook and puts it away.

"Let's get out of here." He says and we hit the exit.

When we get to the parking lot, Chase puts his arms in to the sky and stretches with a groan. In my peripheral vision, I see a pair of girls who stopped to look.

Chase must've seen them too because he's stretching his arms a little bit longer than normal.

"Now you're just showing off." I mumble before doing the same.

I stretch my arms up into the sky and see that three more girls have stopped to look.

"We're gathering quite an audience." Chase remarks smugly before walking towards my car.

"By the way, how is your mom doing? I'm so sorry man, I just heard about it last week."

I stop in my tracks.

"What do you mean?" I ask him, confused.

"You don't know?" He asks and he has a baffled look on his face.

"We haven't talked since my 16th birthday." I tell him, and I try to ignore the lingering pain in my chest at that fact.

"I'm sorry dude, I thought someone already told you." He says and I'm starting to lose my patience as numerous worse case scenarios play in my head.

"Just tell me, Chase."

"She's in the hospital near here. I thought you knew since she was admitted so close to Cambridge."

"Was she in an accident? What happened?" I ask and feel disgusted with my self. I've been so hung up on my own suffering; I didn't even know my mother has been in a hospital near me.

"Chase?" I ask, when he stays quiet.

"It's not what you're thinking, Nate." Chase says sadly.

"She's in a Psychiatric hospital."