It was afternoon and the next class was chemistry, where Miles was hopelessly behind after all the skipping he'd done to avoid Tristan, his lab partner, last year – and the general skipping he'd done in most of his classes this year. In short, there was no way he was going to that chemistry class. He was still high, but, in his opinion, not enough so. He'd run out of the pills he kept in his pen though; he needed to find Esme. Skipping without Esme might have been a bit boring anyway, but skipping without Esme and on his way down from a high? Didn't sound that appealing.

When he turned a corner, he didn't find himself face to face with Esme though; he had been about to walk into one Maya Matlin.

"Maya!" Miles said. "Well isn't this my lucky day!"

Maya rolled her eyes, looked up at him and did a double take.

"Miles…?" She said. "Are you… Are you high?!" Her voice went shrill, but she was smart enough to lower it.

Miles just laughed, which seemed to be all the confirmation Maya needed. She looked into his eyes searchingly, but he just looked away. Then she took his arm and led him outside. He let her.

"Please tell me what's going on?" She said, after they'd sat down at one of the benches outside.

"What's going on…" Miles chuckled. "What's going on is that I need more pills or I'll stop being high soon, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Maya just stared at him with a frown, shaking her head in disbelief, or maybe in disapproval. Probably the latter.

"Why?" Was all she responded and Miles sobered a bit.

"My mom's taking my dad back," he said, actually reasonably serious in tone and expression.

Maya stared at him. He didn't look at her.

"Oh," was all she said.

It was almost a week before he talked to Maya again. She walked up to him while he was standing at his locker, trying to figure out what he'd come here for.

"Hey, do you want to hang out at my house tonight?" She asked him. "My mom's out and Zig has other plans, so I thought we could just hang out… Winston and Tristan will be there as well."

Miles considered her for a moment, through a light haze of whatever drugs Esme had offered him. A part of him wanted to just decline and use the afternoon-evening-night getting high with Esme again, but… He missed Maya. He missed Winston. Some part of him even missed Tristan, if he was being honest with himself – the rest of him was still furious about the election though.

"No thank you," he said with a grin that had nothing to do with happiness and shut his locker, satisfied that he wouldn't be able to remember what he'd meant to get. "Really not in the mood for Tristan's bullshit."

"Come on," Maya pleaded. "I promise I'll whack him over the head if he's being an ass again, okay?"

Miles stilled and slowly turned to look Maya in the eyes.

"This isn't another intervention, is it?" He said, his tone dangerous.

"Inter…? No, not at all!" Maya looked genuinely confused and it dawned on Miles that she hadn't been involved in that whole thing last time. Didn't mean that wasn't what she was trying to do now, though.

"You sure?" He asked and Maya nodded vehemently.

"We just want to chill together, like we used to…"

Miles couldn't stop the flood of emotions that washed over him at those words. Maybe if he'd had no drugs jumping around in him, he could have, but as it was he was overwhelmed with the thought of things going back to how they'd been during his first time at Degrassi, and he found himself agreeing to Maya's offer in a sort of absent way that was nevertheless genuine.

Maya was saying something…

"…really can't be high though," Maya said. She was looking at her hands. "My mom's going to get home in the evening, and if she sees you like that she'll think we were all getting high…"

Maya looked up. "Please, Miles?"

He almost didn't show up at Maya's house. And when he did, he was a bit high, but not noticeably so, so he figured it'd be fine. Honestly, the fact that he wasn't higher was a miracle. Esme had kept offering him pills throughout the day, and he'd kept taking them. When he finally remembered his promise to Maya during last period, he hurried to the bathroom to throw up half of them up. He'd just left school after that.

He didn't want to go home on the off chance that his dad would be there, so he drove around mindlessly, bought and ate some ice cream, flirted with some guy who got mad at him because he "wasn't gay!", then drove around even more and almost took one of the pills Esme had given him but remembered his plans with Maya just before he could swallow it, only to check the time and find that he was going to be late no matter what he did.

Now he was sitting on Maya's couch next to Winston, staring at his hands as the awkward silence stretched on. He dared a discreet look around. Maya was looking at a bit of a loss, looking between them as if a magic way to make the awkward go away would appear. Tristan was staring at his nails with a grimace on his face – clearly as pleased about his presence as Miles was. Winston had a look on his face generally preserved for lying or flirting attempts; the one that Miles knew to mean he was desperately thinking of something to say. Maybe this had been a mistake.

"Well, Maya!" he heard himself say, clasping his hands together. "Have anything planned for this merry evening of no parental supervision?"

Maya met his eyes and opened her mouth slightly. A few moments passed before she said: "Well, I have some board games…"

"I love board games!" Winston exclaimed, having found something to say.

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Really, Maya?"

Maya shrugged and Tristan finally turned to look at Miles.

"She called us all here because she's worried about you, okay?"

"Tristan!" Maya glared at him.

"Oh, so it is an intervention?" Miles said, smiling to himself and shaking his head. "Great."

He was contemplating just getting up and leaving immediately. What a fool he'd been to come here thinking they actually liked him and wanted to spend time with him, when it was clear not one of them was here for any other reason that a feeling of obligation and guilt. Esme really was the only one who cared.

"I promise it's not!" Maya turned her eyes on him, and wow, there really was no-one who could look quite as earnest as Maya.

He sighed. "Look, I'm fine, okay? I thought you were over the whole "worrying about me" thing…"

"Dude, you're not fine," Winston said and Miles rolled his eyes.

"I was!" Maya said. "Until... all of this. Your dad coming back, being high at school…"

Miles just chuckled humorlessly and refused to look at her. Man he wanted to leave. He wondered why he hadn't yet.

"Okay, I get that you think all of this," he gestured around him, mentally kicking himself to just stop, but as always, it was ineffective, "would help, normal hanging out with friends, some kind of stability away from my family or whatever… but what I don't get is why you think him," he nodded towards Tristan, "being here would do anyone any good."

"Agreed," Tristan said, glaring at him.

"You two were really close just six months ago!" Maya said, looking between them.

"Yeah, and me and my dad were really close when I was five. Doesn't mean shit now," Miles heard himself saying.

"Dude..." Winston said, but his utterance was drowned out by Tristan: "I can't believe you'd compare me to your dad. Wow, Miles. Wow."

"And why not, huh?" Miles said with a smile. "You're both biphobic fucks."

"I'm gay, Miles," Tristan said, clearly exasperated.

"Never said you were homophobic."

"Is this about the debate? What I said was true; you always said you were confused, I've literally never heard you call yourself bi."

Miles was laughing. "Give a guy some time to figure this stuff out, will you?"

"You did say some kind of terrible things, Tristan," Maya said.

Miles stopped laughing just to look at her in surprise.

"Okay, whatever, it was wrong, yadda yadda," Tristan said gesticulating wildly. "Now can we move on from you blaming your problems on me, because I'm clearly not the problem, mr. daddy issues here just can't get over that his dad isn't as perfect as the rest of his life."

At that Miles stood up and started walking towards the door. He knew coming here had been a bad idea; he couldn't fathom why doing so without fucking up had been so important to him. Maya was walking after him, saying his name repeatedly, but it wasn't till he heard Winston's voice he stopped in his tracks.

"What the hell, Tristan?" He heard him say, almost yell. "Don't you know what his dad is like?!"

"I was his boyfriend, Winston, I think I know," Tristan said, much, much calmer.

"You clearly don't!" Winston was definitely yelling now. "Maybe if you'd actually paid attention when you two were together, you'd know, but as it is, you clearly don't if you think saying something like that is even remotely okay!"

It'd been a very long time since anyone had stood up for Miles like that, and it was… strange to hear it from Winston, who was usually so quick to point out when Miles was making a mistake. This wasn't the first time it had happened, they'd been friends for a long time, after all, but it was equally odd every time.

No wait, actually, it might be even weirder this time because of how hard he'd been trying to push Winston away… Miles could hardly believe that Winston still cared about him after all of that.

Whether what Winston was saying was true was another matter though… Miles wasn't sure he could blame Tristan for his own inability to confide in others.

"Wow, I wasn't the problem in our relationship!" Tristan protested. "Maybe I wasn't the best boyfriend, but he was a shit boyfriend."

That much was true, Miles mused. He'd gotten very upset with Tristan over the intervention and had a hard time setting it aside, but as soon as he had…. Miles had still liked Tristan – whether romantically or not, he couldn't say, but he'd still liked him in some capacity. The intervention had been prove Tristan cared, Miles had just felt too humiliated to see that. Before the election, that had been the only reason Miles had to dislike Tristan, and it had been a misunderstanding more than anything. He supposed he could dislike Tristan for what he'd said afterwards, but he wasn't sure if it hadn't all been true, anyway.

"Look, if Miles didn't tell you enough about his dad to make you understand why he's fucked up – and yes, I know he is, I know he's difficult to be close to, I've been his best friend since we were five – then you were a shit boyfriend as well!"

Miles found himself back in the living room with Maya at his side. He was staring at Tristan and Winston, who had both gotten up from where they'd been seated and had been staring each other down until he stepped into the room. They both stared at him. Winston looked flushed the way he tended to do after an angry outburst, but his expression turned sheepish as he met Miles' eyes. He couldn't read Tristan's expression.

"Tell me now, then," Tristain said, calm, but his voice sharp.

Miles scoffed and looked away from Tristan. He shook his head and gesticulated vaguely. "I didn't come here to be interrogated."

Tristan rolled his eyes and sat down. "How is it my fault for not knowing when he would never talk to me about it?"

Miles sank something. Tristan was right. As always, Miles was at fault for fucking it all up. Tristan's asshole behavior lately had no bearing on that. Like Winston said, he always did hurt the people he cared about… and yet. Miles laughed as he sat down.

"Remember when…" Miles smiled at the floor. "After that article came out, when you called me manipulative?"

Tristan nodded, his frown softening a bit.

"Well, he'd just spent the whole day manipulating me to benefit his stupid campaign and ended it all with shoving me into a wall, so it kind ofsucked when you called me manipulative and wouldn't talk to me."

A few moments passed in complete silence. Maya was gaping at him. Tristan was looking torn, like he couldn't decide if he was feeling apologetic or defensive. Winston didn't look surprised, merely sad, though Miles wasn't sure if someone who didn't know him as well as Miles did would have been able to tell.

Tristan finally broke the silence: "Why didn't you tell me later? After we made up?"

Miles shrugged. "Didn't seem to matter," he said.

"How could that not matter?!" Maya demanded.

"I don't know, Maya, okay?" Miles said. "It's like… as soon as something is over, or I calm down, it doesn't feel like it matters anymore. It doesn't feel like anything. I don't know. I just hate ripping up in something that's done."

"It wasn't done Miles, you were living with him for months after that!" Maya said. "We could have done something!"

Miles laughed in her face.

"Oh yeah? What would you have been able to do, Maya?"

That shut Maya up; she frowned in contemplation and looked at him helplessly for a few moments.

"I… Well… you should have told someone!

"Why? It's not like my family would have had my back anyway, later when I told my mom he hit me, she asked what I'd done to provoke him."

"He hit you too?!" Maya exclaimed, her voice going shrill. Now Tristan was the one gaping.

Miles rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he's a grade A asshole, okay? This is not news." He laughed. "I feel like I'm going to have a panic attack every time I see him, unless I'm on something, like why did you guys think I'm on all of these pills, anyway?!"

Everyone was quiet for a long while after that outburst. No-one really seemed to know what to say or do. It was driving Miles crazy – crazier than he already was, anyway. He was being a burden to people who barely cared about him, forcing them into some kind of obligatory pity fest when he didn't even want their pity anyway. Yet again, he contemplated leaving, but then someone sad down next to him. He looked up and his eyes widened a bit. Tristan. The last person he would have expected.

Tristan made an awkward expression that seemed to convey both a sense of apology and ironic distance from what he was doing. The he laid an arm around Miles, slowly brushing his hand up and down his back and Miles relaxed into his hold. He noticed someone on his other side, and found himself looking into Winston's face. He was currently pulling the awkward expression he tended to pull whenever they were affectionate with each other, and without thinking further about it Miles put his head down on Winston's shoulder. Miles hadn't felt this calm without the help of pills for months, and he hadn't felt this…. warm since before he and Tristan broke up. He was reminded of boarding school before… before he'd fucked that up too.

It was a long while before any of them moved or said something, Miles couldn't say how long. Then Maya, who had cuddled up next to Tristan, broke the spell.

"How about that board game, then?" She asked and all of them chuckled in response as they began disentangling themselves from each other.

When Maya's mom got home, they were still sitting in the living room. The board game had been abandoned for idle talk, from Winston trying to convince Miles to go see some superhero movie with him – "I'm pretty sure you'll like it. Deadpool is a really comedic take on the whole thing. Oh and he's pansexual, which is basically the same as bi, right?" – to Tristan complaining about his duties as school president, to Maya letting out some air about sexist assholes at her concerts. It was… nice. Relaxing. Miles felt like himself again for the first time in months. He hardly noticed how Maya took a bit longer greeting her mother than seemed necessary until she got back.

"My mom wants us to wrap up soon," she said and the others agreed easily.

As they started putting the board game back and getting their things, Maya locked eyes with Miles.

"Can I talk to you privately for a moment?" She asked, and though his chest clenched with anxiety he just nodded.

She led him to the kitchen, but he had to prompt her before she'd say whatever she'd brought him here to say.

"Don't be mad, but I told my mom," she admitted.

Miles clenched his teeth slightly.

"Not everything!" Maya quickly added. "Just that it's been tough with your dad lately. I convinced her to let you borrow Zig's old room whenever you want…"

Miles clenched his teeth further at the mention of Zig, but then what Maya was offering started to dawn on him. That… might not be an entirely horrible prospect. If he could avoid fucking it up, that was. But after tonight… After tonight, that actually seemed somewhat doable.

"I just want you to have that option," she ended meekly.

Miles didn't look at her. He felt a bit humiliated, pitied, and he didn't like that one bit, nor did he like the thought of Maya offering him something Zig had had first, but… He had to admit, having somewhere to go that wasn't out in the town to get high with Esme… it sounded nice. Not that getting high with Esme didn't sound nice too, because it definitely still did, but…

"Thank you," was all Miles said.

He met Maya's eyes quickly before he turned around and fled.