Star didn’t jump as Adrian sat down, despite the fact that he’d come upon him blind. Star didn’t raise his head from where it hung between the arms crossed on his knees, either, and Adrian would’ve been worried if he didn’t already know. “So, seven years, huh?”

“Yeah,” the response was muffled and long in coming. Adrian tried to hear tears in that familiar voice, any emotion at all, but as always there was only his imagination.

“What’re you thinking, my man?”

When the silence drew into minutes, he took up the conversational slack, himself. This wasn’t a day to quibble over details. No, it was just one of those days.

“I remember like it was yesterday, us living here on this street. Man, things were different then.” But that wasn’t the point, was it? “She was a good woman, Bastian. She loved you very much.”

“No shit.”

Adrian nodded. Yeah, he had that coming.

“…I should’ve gone straight home from school. That’s what I was thinking.” What I’m ‘always’ thinking was heavily implied.

“So you could save her?” Adrian, already preparing logical dissent. “You were only fifteen.”

“No.” But Star already knew. They both knew. “I would’ve died, too.”