The thing about Pan?

 

Roxanne didn't know if she could even explain it, but she knew she needed to talk to someone even if was just Nonnie and Weezer. Of course, they were happy to have her over to help eat the Girl Scout cookies that Dale kept bringing. 

"What's he done this time?" Nonnie looked at her as if she should just leave Pan.

"Oh, you know it's about him?" Rox looked at her as if she didn't know how Nonnie knew.

"Well, it couldn't be a cat problem." Weezer reminded her that all the kittens found homes now and Momma had been fixed.

Rox sighed. "He hasn't talked to me in forty-eight hours." She felt as if she was counting the minutes. "He's just being weird. He's not really eating." OK, she did think he finished off a jar of peanuts he hid next to his big mac of a computer, but still, that wasn't enough to suffice. "He's not drinking." of course, she'd filled his Candian Mist with water. Maybe he knew. But he was saying nothing.

"What do you think happened?" Weezer asked while munching on a handful of mint cookies.

"I wish I knew. I don't think it's me. Usually, I know when it's me." Yes, she was thinking out loud as she traced her steps of the past week. "He was playing a video game with Ari." She looked at both of them as to where the trouble started. "We were working on granny squares. He was having fun." She winced then. "You know, he's never had a guy friend before. Are you two guy friends?" She shot a look to Weezer.

"I..I..um..no." Weezer shook his head. "He's OK around me, it's just we really have nothing to talk about." 

"Yeah, that's his M O but not with Ari." Rox pressed her lips tight.

"What?" Nonnie wanted to know what she was thinking. She brought cups of instant coffee to go with the cookies.

"Maybe.."

"Maybe what?" Weezer looked at her blankly.

"You don't think Ari..could..could have come on to him, do you?"

Nonnie and Weezer both laughed at her.

"Oh, God, you are thinking the worst." Weezer's smile was open as he pulled his fingers through his curls. "I just don't see it."

"I mean, yeah, Pan is kind of a girl." Nonnie had noticed. "But he's complicated. I think you are truly the only one who gets him."

"His mom has a picture of him dressed like a girl," Rox told both of them. Nonnie coughed a laugh and Weezer just smiled. 

"See, you know everything about him," Weezer nodded.

"I don't know. What if I don't know everything about him?" Rox hugged herself. "I just hate this silence. He is such a stone, you know."

"I bet he is," Nonnie nodded, but Rox knew she was smiling. "You'll get to the bottom of this sooner or later." Nonnie scooted the cookies toward Rox. "Have a cookie, it'll make you feel better."