Young Writers Society

What had she done?

This was a bad idea.

Jerica paced the length of their apartment again and again and again, growing more anxious with each moment that passed. She was going on a date. With Bo.

She couldn't do this.

She didn't usually go on dates with people she actually liked. Just like. Kind of liked. That was date-able range. But like-like? No. What if she fucked it up? Like... bad? What if Bo hated her by the end of it? What if she'd just ruined the entire friend group by making it awkward by going on a date with someone who was gonna dump her?

Worse yet, what if this was a pity date?

Gods, Bo was taking her on a pity date.

She pressed her knuckles against her eyes, being careful not to smear her makeup.

What if that was a bad move too? Had Bo ever seen her in makeup? Would he even like it?

The door opened and Rek walked in with a broad smile. He furrowed his brow as he looked at her. "Stop it."

"Rek." She looked at him, anguished.

"Stop it," he repeated. "You are going to have a delightful time going on a date with a good man."

"He's too good." Jerica threw herself down on the couch, sprawling across it. She had on a floral spring dress that looked anything but feminine just then. She wore heels, too. That part of Bo was nice -- the fact that he'd still tower over her even if she wore heels. Well, that and everything else. Bo was nice through and through. And she was... gahhhhhhhh!



"I swear to god," Rek muttered, but he sat down next to her. "Look, it's gonna be okay, Jer. I promise. It's just a picnic with a good friend. That's it."

"I don't want to fuck it up," she groaned.

"You won't."

"Unless I do."

"You won't. Now stop it. Gotta get yourself in a positive headspace." Rek said. "Bo is great. And likes you. And you like him. And you've had hundreds of conversations with him by now. This is no different."

"It is tho--"

There was a rap on the door.

Rek instantly perked up, grinning broadly. "Get up!"

He popped to his feet and all but ran over to the door and pulled it open. Jerica got to her feet just as the door opened and smoothed down her dress, then patted down her hair and looked at the door.

Bo looked down at Jerica with a big smile, and for the first time since Jerica had known him, she saw Bo wearing something other than a tshirt and sweatpants. He had a nice pair of jeans that looked almost brand new and a sleek black tee that had the words: "this is my dress up shirt" in plain white text. Paired with it, though, was an unbuttoned collared shirt pulled over it that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and around his neck was a simple silver chain necklace. She noticed he replaced his normal black stud earrings with little watermelon ones.

"Bo!" It felt weird not calling him Bo-Bo, but that felt wrong just then. She didn't know why. But his smile eased some of the tension in her chest and she smiled at him. "I like your dress up shirt."

Bo laughed lightly and glanced down at his chest like he was reading the text for the first time. "Oh?" he laughed again. "Thanks. It's one of my favs."

As he said that, he moved his arms from behind his back, revealing a cutesy woven basket that was very clearly a picnic basket, complete with the little red and white checkered napkin sticking out of it.

"Are you hungry?" Bo asked.

"Always," she answered, still grinning. "Especially when it's your food."

Bo glanced behind her, probably looking at Rek, giving a smile and nod of acknowledgement.

"We'll catch ya later, Rek!" Bo said with a wave, taking a step back from the door so Jerica could walk out.

"Bye!" Rek was grinning with giddy excitement that he wasn't doing a particularly good job of hiding. "Have fun!"

Jerica glanced at him, then walked out into the hall after Bo. "We will!"

Bo gave one last quick wave before the door closed, and then he looked down to Jerica with another smile.

"So there's this park I went to with Elias one time," Bo said as he started walking down the hall. "It's right by a dog park, so we can also watch dogs. Dog watching and people watching. With food."

"Truly ideal," Jerica answered. "What'd you make?"

Bo hummed and looked down at the basket, then to Jerica.

"Can it be a surprise?" he asked.

"I like surprises," she answered with a smile. At least, surprises that seemed safe. Like this one did. She was still convinced that he was incapable of making food that wasn't heavenly.

Bo nodded, and while he seemed like he was excited, he also seemed a little nervous. That was good. It meant that she wasn't the only one... unless it was regret. Did he already regret this? Was she--

"You look really nice," Bo said a little shyly, looking to the side. "I like the dress."

"Thanks!" She flushed a bit, pleased at the compliment, and shoved her hands in the pockets, doing a little swish as they walked. "It has pockets!"

"As it should," Bo said. "Only the good dresses have pockets. Or so I hear. Uh, I was thinking of riding my motorcycle though. I don't know if that's too weird to do in a dress...?"

Before Jerica could reply, Bo added: "We could also just walk if you want! The park isn't too far."

"Oh, I, uh, don't know," Jerica admitted, still shoving her hands into both pockets. "I don't really wear dresses..." she thought for a moment. "I'm sure it'll be fine, though! I've... always kind of wanted to ride on your motorcycle." She flushed a bit more at admitting that.

"It is pretty fun!" Bo said with an eager nod. "As long as you don't mind helmet hair."

Jerica's entire world stopped for a second as her brain buffered. Helmet hair. On a date. Eeesh. She wasn't very good at being a girly girl but even she knew that wasn't a great look. "Heh, I mean, I guess as long as you don't mind me having helmet hair. Heh."

"I don't mind," Bo said quickly with a small, genuine smile. "Better to keep your head safe and all, anyway."

He reached over and tapped the side of her head with his knuckles lightly.

"I've got it easy with my hair buzzed," Bo said. "Not much changes how it looks."

"Jealous." Jerica ran a hand through the longer bit of hair on top of her own head, beside the undercut on either side. "This is a lot better than it used to be, though. Long-long hair and helmets are a nightmare."

"I can imagine," Bo commented. "I think the longest I've ever had my hair was uh..."

He paused, and then held his hand to his cheekbone.

"About here? Maybe a little longer," Bo said. "I had that uh, middle part in highschool and the swishies on either side of my face, haha."

"Oh my gosh." She grinned. "That's a look."

"I hear it's coming back in style or whatever," Bo said. "But I feel like when I had that cut it wasn't very cool. Not that I really cared about that much, anyways. I thought it was cool, so that's what matters."

"That is what matters," Jerica agreed. It struck her that not everyone cared about being one of the cool kids. Maybe that's why he was so nice. He didn't have to pretend. "It takes a lotta balls-- GUTS, I mean GUTS -- to be who you really are."

"I don't really know how to be any other way, I guess," Bo said with a shrug. "Like, people talk about trying to be like other people, but I guess I've never really known how to do that. I'm just... me. It's not too complicated, ya know?"

They reached the end of the hall, and Bo opened the door to the stairwell, letting Jerica go first. She started down the stairs very carefully, horrified by the thought of tripping down them in her heels.

"That's really admirable," Jerica said over her shoulder, meaning it. "I've always kind of let where I am kind of affect who I am... at least, how I act. You find the cool people that everyone likes and just act like them, you know?"

"Is that hard?" Bo asked. "Having to change how you act all the time, though? I dont know, it sounds tiring."

"Huh, I've never really thought about it like that." She supposed it did get tiring sometimes. "You just get used to it, I guess. Feels safer, you know?"

Bo hummed in what sounded like deep thought.

"I can see that," he mused. "That it would feel safer, I guess. But I don't know... I guess I just wonder how long that feeling of safeness lasts. Since it would always kind of feel like it's dependent on keeping up an act. Sounds like it could be scary, too. In the quiet, back-of-your-head sort of way."

"I mean... yeah." Jerica shrugged. He had a fair point. "Yeah."

"But I guess you get to choose who you be yourself with, though," Bo added. "If you don't feel safe being yourself with a group of people, I don't think you have to. It's just good that there's at least someone you can be yourself with, I think."

"I mean, yeah... that's Rek for me." Jerica shrugged again. "I think that that's--" Was she really talking about her cousin on a date? Ugh. "You know, we've known each other a long time. I know he's not gonna leave me if I, like, am super honest and stuff."

"That's awesome," Bo said. "I think it's really great that you guys are so close. I've always kind of wished I knew my cousins. I'm glad you and Rek have each other."

"Me too." She gave a small smile. "Rek is more like a brother to me, though. His dad raised us both... why don't you know your cousins?"

Bo looked over at her with a slightly raised brow, but he flicked his eyes away with a little shrug. They'd made it to the bottom of the stairwell and he held the door open for her again as they entered the main hall of the bottom floor.

"Well, I guess, it's not exactly a long story... just more of a sad one," Bo said. "My cousins are on my mom's side of the family, cause my dad was an only child like me. My mom died when I was a kid, though, and her family never really approved of her and my dad being together. So when she passed, they just kinda shut us out. Black sheep of the family kind of deal. But sometimes, I uh--"

He laughed a little and shook his head.

"I stalk my cousins on instagram sometimes, just to like, see what they're up to," he said quietly, and he looked away, like he was embarassed.

"Hey, that's valid," Jerica said, putting a hand on his arm. "It's super shitty they cut you off. Especially since you were just a kid."

"Yeaaaah," Bo said with another little laugh, scratching the back of his neck as he looked around the lobby. "It had more to do with my dad than anything. When I say they really didn't like him, I mean they really didn't like him. Didn't like his whole criminal record and you know. That whole... thing."

"Your dad is incredible," Jerica laughed.

Bo snorted, looking over to her with a surprised smile.

"You think so?" Bo asked. "I mean, I don't disagree. I just feel like people either love him or hate him. I don't know why he just has that vibe."

Jerica laughed again. "Well, I personally don't see how anyone could hate him. The Jar-Jar comment was on point. Grade A wit right there."

"I will say, the dad jokes were worse at one point," Bo said. "He uh, went through this phase where he read a ton of different parenting books, and I think a dad joke one got mixed in there, and I just remember for like, a few months... it was just, like, a lot of puns. Like, okay, I know my name is really easy to make puns about, but I legit think I've heard them all. Just from that period of time. Every possible pun."

"What I'm hearing is a challenge," Jerica said playfully.

"Oh my god," Bo said under his breath. "Please, have mercy."

Jerica laughed. "Well, since you asked so nicely..."

Bo paused at the front door of the plaza, with his hand on the door handle, and he looked back at Jerica expectantly, like he was waiting for her to finish her sentence.

Jerica felt awkward and shrugged. "I'll have mercy."

Bo laughed with a puff of air through his nose and he smiled, opening the door.

"Thanks," he said. "'Cause then I'd have to compensate and think of puns of your name too, and thinking of good puns takes so much brainpower. Would rather devote those braincells to chillin."

"Jerica's not a very punnable name," Jerica commented.

"Well now I feel challenged," Bo said with what was almost a pout, but it quickly disappeared with a goofy smile. "Good thing we're not punning though."

Jerica laughed lightly. "Good thing."

She was starting to forget the pressure of this being a date and instead was enjoying Bo's company. It was easy to remember what'd made her say yes in the first place.

They bantered back and forth a little bit with a few jokes as they walked down the street, and then she finally spotted Bo's motorcycle, and before she knew it they were both standing in front of it, and Bo was handing her a helmet.

"For your cranium, miss," he said in a hoity-toity voice.

"My cranium-iss?" she repeated with a playful grin.

"For thine head," Bo said, fighting back a smile as he slipped into something that sounded more shakespearian.

"My head thanketh thee," Jerica said, also trying to fight back a smile, but failing and laughing instead.

Bo snorted and grabbed his own helmet, plopping it on his head with a smile.

"Do you need help or do ya got it?" he asked.

"I got it." Jerica put the helmet on and got it fastened, then gave the cheesiest of grins. "How do I look?"

"Like you're ready to HIT THE ROAD," Bo said, patting his bike with what looked like it was going to be an aggressive slap, but turned into a gentle pat at the last second. "Imma hop on first," he said, practically narrating his actions as he did so.

He sat in the front seat and placed the picnic basket securely in his lap before turning to Jerica.

"Get on!" he said with a cheery smile.

She grinned at him and went to swing her leg over the bike. She wobbled as her balance was thrown off at being on high heels and only balancing on one foot. "Ooooop, them heels be high." She put her hands on Bo's shoulders to steady herself and awkwardly hopped over the bike to straddle it properly and put her feet on the rests.

"Would it be easier to toss the heels in the little compartment on the side?" Bo asked. "I don't know what's more comfy for ya."

"Uhhhh..." She looked down at the way her knees were awkwardly bent. She was a bit tall to have her feet up on the rests with the heels on. "Yeah, sure."

She leaned down and unfastened the heels, then looked around trying to figure out where to put them.

"Ah, I gotcha," Bo said as he turned to the side and reached around her to pop open the metal lid to a little compartment on the back of the bike. "There you go."

"Thanks!" Jerica tossed her heels into them. It clunked louder than she'd expected. She cringed. "Sorry!"

"Oh, you're good, you're good," Bo said with a little laugh as he reached around her again to push the lid down, and it clicked shut. He turned back around and put his hands on the handlebars, starting up the motorcycle and revving the engine.

"Don't forget to hold on!" Bo said over his shoulder.

Jerica wrapped her arms around him, her heart doing a little flutter as she did. It felt nice. She very narrowly avoided the urge to lean forward and rest her head against his back -- instead just holding on to him. "Crank it up!"

At that, Bo turned them into the street, entering into traffic and starting to weave through cars. With the wind rushing past their ears and helmets on, it was hard to say much to each other, so instead she just enjoyed the ride and tried to think of potential conversation topics for when they stopped.

They passed by a bunch of familiar buildings at first. A bunch of them were ones she walked by all the time on her way to classes, along with the dining hall.

They passed by Davey and a few other boys from the team. Ideal. They'd be so envious that she got a ride on a bike this cool. She grinned at them as they went by, but was too scared to let go to wave at them.

Eventually Bo took a turn down a street she didn't usually go down, and the buildings started looking a little less "college-town" and a little more mom&pop shops. When she saw a patch of green ahead and Bo started to slow down, the park came into clearer view.

It looked like a pretty big park with several parts to it. On one end, it looked like it had a public flower garden, and in the middle there was an open field with a playground at the far end, and just beside it was what looked to be the dog park. There were about a dozen owners with their dogs, all running around, and a few kids on the playground, but it didn't look too crowded.

Bo parked the bike by the sidewalk and looked back at her over his shoulder.

"How was it?" he asked with a big grin.

"Oh my goshhhhhh." She grinned at him, struggling to unfasten her helmet. "That was incredible!"

Bo chuckled and took of his helmet before twisting around, wordlessly asking if she wanted help by reaching out his hand. Her pride wanted to say no. But she didn't know how to get out. And instead she leaned forward slightly, sticking her chin out, wordlessly accepting his offer.

Bo smiled softly as he reached under her chin and easily unclipped the strap around her chin. Then he gently tugged upward and pulled it off her head.

"Boop," he said once it was off. "All free, now."

She smiled at him and started trying to smooth her hair down. It was probably a disaster. She ran her fingers through it several times. "Thanks... that was uhhh... harder than expected."

Bo laughed as he set the helmets aside and he swung his leg over the side of the bike, holding the picnic basket in one hand and keeping one hand on the bike, like he was holding it steady for her.

"You'll get the hang of it," he said.

"Oh yeah?" She looked at him playfully. "There another ride in my future?"

"Of course," Bo said with a playful smile. "The way back, silly."

He nudged her with his elbow.

"But we could go again, sometime too if you wanted," he said, though he sounded a little less confident and more shy. He reached into the back compartment and pulled out her heels, setting them atop the picnic basket.

"I'd like that," she murmured quickly, words running together as she flushed with embarrassment. "Or not. It's whatever."

"I'd like it too," Bo said, offering her a hand to hop off the bike.

Jerica took his hand, noticing she liked the way it felt to have hers in his, and swung her leg over the bike. She hopped the instant her feet landed on the asphalt. "Hot! Hot!" She skipped over to the grass.

Bo quickly followed, handing her shoes back to her.

"Ah! Sorry," Bo said with a little laugh. "Are you okay?"

"Never better." She rubbed the back of her neck, chagrined, but quickly plopped down to pull her shoes back on her now-sore feet. "Thanks."

Bo squatted down beside her, waiting for her to get her shoes back on.

"I didn't really think that through. The whole uh, get off the bike onto really hot concrete," he said.

Jerica laughed. "Yeah, me either... the shoes were a poor choice haha."

"They're cute, though," Bo defended. "Much respekt for being able to walk in them like a normal person."

"Thanks," she laughed. "It's actually really not so bad. Just takes a day or two to find your balance... day one I was not walking in them like a normal person."

"Sounds kinda like uh, what's it called when sailors get used to being on ships? Sea legs?" Bo said. "But heel legs. Or uh... highheel legs."

Jerica grinned at the goofiness. "Something like that."

"I've never been on a ship, though," Bo continued. "So I'd probably have wobbly legs. Or get seasick. I hear the back of the ship is the worst 'cause it goes up and down the most."

"Mm, I'd buy it," Jerica agreed. "I've never been on one either... though I like to kayak. Do you?"

"I've been kayaking before and it was really fun," Bo said. "But it was when I was uh, a little less tall. Do they have extra large kayaks for extra tall people?"

"'A little less tall'," Jerica mused. "I don't know... I've never had extra tall people problems. Except with jeans. You can not get jeans that fit me right."

"Is this exclusive to me or are you saying nobody can?" Bo asked straight-facedly, but she could hear in his tone he was joking.

Jerica laughed. "I meant me, but I guess I'm preaching to the choir here. You must have even more problems than I do. How do you even find clothes that fit right?"

"Special order," Bo said with a laugh. "Even those 'big and tall' stores can't handle me."

"Too big, too tall," Jerica said. "Or just right. Y'know."

"Too big for a small kayak, though," Bo said, pointing his finger at her with his eyebrows raised. "I could get stuck, and we can't have that."

"I don't know... that sounds like endless kayaking to me," Jerica said with mock seriousness.

"But I would also have to poop and pee in the kayak," Bo said. "Which could get very stinky very fast."

"Mm... that's a thought, huh?" Jerica said.

"Mmmm, yes, quite," Bo said, suppressing another grin as he started to stand up, offering her his hand again to get up off the ground now that her heels were back on.

She put her hands in his and let him pull her to her feet, but didn't let go right away. She hesitated a moment to see what he would do, then loosened her grasp on his but didn't pull it away. "Thanks."

Bo held her hand loosely, like he was waiting for her, but when she still didn't let go, he held her hand a little tighter and started leading her forward.

"So how often do you get to go kayaking?" Bo asked.

"Oh, I don't really go often," Jerica said with a shrug. Her face felt a bit warm but she was pleased that he'd taken her hint. She settled in step next to him. "I love it though. Get to be out in nature. See all the cool things... we should see if they do make big-and-tall kayaks. I bet you'd love it still."

"I think it would be really fun," Bo said. "I remember the last time I went was with my dad, and we raced across the lake. I won, and he said it was because my kayak was different than his, but it was definitely because I was better at paddling," Bo said with a little smug smile.

"Of course it was," Jerica agreed with a grin. "But, hey, if your dad found a kayak to fit him then that means they're out there, yeah?"

"Oh yeah," Bo hummed, looking up in thought. "You have a point."

Jerica noticed that Bo was leading them to an open spot in the field, where the grass was shaded under a few big trees. It seemed close enough to the dog park to see the dogs and people, but far enough away that they had some privacy.

He paused under a tree that was poofy and green, and looked down at her.

"You think here's a good spot?" he asked.

"I think so." She smiled, then nodded towards the tree and adopted her best Donkey voice. "I like that tree. That is a niiiice tree."

Bo looked down at her and his mouth spread into the biggest, goofiest grin.

"That'll do, donkeh, that'll do," he said in a Shrek voice.

Jerica burst out laughing. She looked around. It was a nice spot. "Have a blanket?"

Bo lifted up the lid to the basket, revealing a folded blanket underneath.

"Surprise, surprise, I do," he said as he ripped it out of the basket with a flourish, and shook it out. "Wanna take the other end and we'll lay it out?"

"Sounds good." Jerica grabbed the end of the blanket and stepped backward several times then laid her half down on the ground. Bo followed suit and did the same, and the blanket fluttered down nicely onto the grass.

Bo stepped forward and sat down onto the blanket, setting the basket down in the middle.

"Okay, okay!" he said with a sudden rush of excitement in his voice. "Food time!"

"Food time!" Jerica echoed. She knelt down on the blanket. "I'm excited!"

Bo bounced a little as he scooted closer to Jerica and the basket, looking up between her and the basket's lid.

"Okay, here we go," he said, lifting the lid. He reached in and pulled out a glass container with four croissants inside, and then another container with chicken salad. Next came a bag of utensils, and then a bag of chopped up watermelon in triangles, and then another bag of mixed melons in neat little cubes.

"Hey, you're twinning," Jerica commented, gesturing from the watermelon to Bo's earrings.

Bo grinned. "That was what I was going for."

He took out some paper plates and handed one to her, and grabbed her a knife and a spoon.

"I figured you could make your sandwich as big as you want. I made the croissants this morning so they should still be fresh, and you can cut em in half and put the chicken salad in 'em," he explained as he started opening containers and getting serving spoons set up. "But there's enough for us to have two each."

"I can't get over how you can just make all this incredible food," Jerica said, taking the knife to start cutting a croissant. "I thought you just had to buy croissants at the store and stuff if you wanted them."

Bo laughed, and grabbed a croissant for himself.

"Someone still makes the croissants at the store, you know," he said with a little grin.

"Could never be me," Jerica laughed. "What a job. Professional-Croissant-Maker."

"I mean, normally it's like, the store gets them from a bakery, or they have bakers and chefs that work in that section of the store," Bo said.

"Fair enough," Jerica said. "So, like, what do you wanna do? With your degree n stuff?"

"I mean, ideally, I wanna be a chef," Bo said. "At a nice restaurant. And make food people like."

"Well, you got that part down already," Jerica said with a smile, reaching for the spoon. "I bet you could open your own restaurant some day too. If you wanted."

"That would be nice," Bo said, looking down at the sandwich he was making with a wistful expression. "But for now I'm just content to work at one, I guess."

"Yeah, gotta make dat dough first." She hesitated then added, "Heh heh guess you gotta make more dough than just money too, huh? First step: croissant dough."

Bo laughed.

"Gotta get that bread," he joked.

"Do you have your eye on a specific restaurant, or just whatever?"

"Not at the moment, really," Bo said. "I mean, it's hard to say. I feel like I'm just going to apply to a bunch of places all over and just see who'll take me."

"Hopefully it'll be somewhere nearby," she murmured. "I still gots two years left here after this one."

"I'm not in a hurry to leave or anything," Bo said with a little smile as he held up his completed sandwich and took a bite.

"I cam shay aroumd," he said through his chews.

"You should," Jerica said with a smirk, then turned to her own sandwich. "Mmmmmm this is so good!"

Bo paused to swallow his food before answering.

"Oh good! I'm glad you like it!" he said with a big smile.

She quickly swallowed her own bite then returned the smile. "I appreciate the effort this took. I'm sure it took you a while."

Bo waved a hand dismissively.

"Eh, not that long," he said. "It was worth it."

Jerica smiled at him and took another bite, savoring it. They continued chatting throughout the meal about anything and everything. Time flew. Before long they'd finished their meal and Jerica convinced -- without it being difficult to do so -- Bo to get closer to the dogs so she could pet them. Finally, they headed back towards Bo's bike.

"Wow, that was a lot of doggos," Jerica said.

"You know, Elias got a puppy, and I'm basically the responsible puppy parent, so you could see even more doggos -- or like, just one, but more frequently. If you ever need puppy pets," Bo suggested.

"Oh my gosh you're the... dogfather," Jerica cracked up.

That sent Bo into a sudden fit of laughter.

"Oh gosh," he said between laughs. "Nonononono not like THAT."

Jerica cackled, pleased that Bo had been as entertained by her pun as she had. She took a deep breath, going back to focus on what he'd actually said. "I might have to take you up on that. Elias's puppy is awfully cute."

"And you'd also get to see me," Bo said innocently with a cheesy smile, putting his hand up to his chin as if to frame his face.

"Even better," Jerica said with a contented smile. "I've been having a really good time with you tonight."

Bo slowed in his steps a little, swinging the picnic basket in front of him from side to side as they inched closer to his bike.

"Oh, that's good," he said quickly. "Because I have too. With you, I mean. Not me."

Jerica chuckled softly. "I'm glad... I was a little bit nervous before we came."

"Really?" Bo said. "I mean, I was kind of nervous too. But not like, bad nervous. Just, you know..."

They stopped beside his bike, and Bo glanced at Jerica, then the seat.

"Excited nervous, I guess," he said with a little laugh.

"Yeah, good nervous," she agreed with a shy smile. "But it's been good. Really good."

"Do you, uh, need help with the helmet again?" Bo asked as he grabbed hers and offered it to her.

"I think I can get it on." She took it and crammed it on her head, then started feeling for the latch. "It's getting it off that's the struggle... Super safe."

"Well, I can help you again when we get back," Bo said with a little smile before he put his helmet on too, and got back on the bike, waiting for her to follow.

She wobbled on her heels again, but not as badly this time. She climbed on the bike again and wrapped her arms around Bo, letting her face rest against his back this time.

Bo started up the bike again with another rumble, and they made their way out onto the road as the sun was starting to set. The sky shifted from a warm blue, to orange, to pink and lavendar, and by the time they were pulling up to the plaza building it was hitting a deeper purple. Bo got off the bike first again, and he turned to her, once again wordlessly asking if she needed help with her helmet.

Jerica reached up, but once again was having trouble finding the latches without being able to see them. She sighed softly, but leaned forward. "I'm a toddler."

Bo laughed softly in the back of his throat as he leaned down and unhooked the chin strap again, gently pulling her helmet off.

"Good to know the helmets are toddler-safe," he said with a smirk.

Jerica laughed lightly. "I've heard that nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool... but maybe this helmet breaks that."

"Well, as long as you're still figuring it out, I don't mind helping," Bo said as he walked around to the back of the bike and stowed the helmets away in the back compartment. He then swung the picnic basket up to the crook of his arm and offered her his hand again.

"With shoes this time?" he said with a little smile.

She smirked at him and swung her leg over the bike, taking his hand. She wobbled a bit as she stood up on the heels. "Equally un-graceful, but not hot this time."

Bo sucked in his lips like he was literally biting back a comment, and he held her hand steadily until she regained her balance.

"You're still pretty even when you're a little clumsy, though," he said, looking away shyly.

Jerica flushed but beamed at the compliment, and looked down at their hands. She gave them a slight squeeze, not looking up. "You too. Handsome, I mean. Not that you're clumsy, 'cause you're not. Just... wow, fucked that one up, didn't I?" Jerica reached up with her free hand and rubbed the back of her neck. "Oops."

Bo laughed and tugged on her hand, lightly pulling her onto the sidewalk.

"I don't think you did," Bo said. "I still get what you meant. That's what matters."

"Well... good." She offered a small smile, cheeks still burning a bit with embarrassment, but she looked up at him. "Because I did mean it. You're very... ... attractive."

Jerica wanted to face palm. This was it. What she'd been so nervous about. She could sit and chat with a friend for hours. But the moment she tried to start complimenting a date, all bets were off and her efforts went out the window.

Bo smiled, and he averted his eyes to the side as his cheeks started to go red as well.

"Is it the watermelon earrings?" he asked.

Jerica laughed. "An enhancer, no doubt. +10/10 style points."

Bo's smile grew.

"It was a toss-up between the watermelons and the egg ones. I'm glad i picked the right choice," he said, swinging their hands between them just a little.

"Wait, have I ever seen you in those?" Jerica asked. "I thought you just had the little ones that are like you."

"I got the egg ones from my dad when he was last here," Bo said. "I haven't really worn them yet. They're teeny tiny sunny-side-up eggs, though. Lil' dangly ones."

"Oh my gosh, that sounds adorable!"

"I think so too," Bo said with a little giggle. "I'll have to show you them sometime."

"I'd like that," Jerica answered. "Maybe when I'm playing with your dog-child."

Bo snorted.

"His name is Bugs," Bo said. "He's a pug. Pugbug. Goes well with Nugs, the chicken."

"But does he like warm hugs?"

"I think he does," Bo said. "Bugs and I have that in common."

"Oh, you do, huh?" Jerica asked with a grin.

"Mmmhmm," Bo said with a grin. He then slowly started holding out his arm, motioning for a hug.

Jerica turned loose of his hand and instead stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly, letting her head rest against his chest. "Good thing I do, too."

Bo held his arms firmly behind her shoulders, and then they both pulled away after a few seconds.

"Thanks," he said. "For uh, being cool and going on a picnic with me and all."

"Yeah!" Jerica smiled shyly. "Thanks for asking. It's been... good. This was good."

"Yeah," Bo said, looking off towards the building's entrance. "Do you want me to walk you back? We do live in the same hall, after all."

"Up to you!" Jerica answered. She hesitated and then added quietly, "But yeah."

"Let's go, then," Bo said with a little smile, taking a step and leading the way, letting her fall into step beside him.

Jerica felt a little sad that they were so close to being home. She wasn't ready for the night to end just yet.

"This is kind of random," Bo said, breaking the brief silence. "And I know you probably get a lot of praise for it, but just for the record, I think it's crazy awesome that you're on the football team. You're a really good addition, and from what I hear from all the other guys, they all really like you. It sounds like you're a really good fit, and it's been cool to keep up with all your guys' games."

Jerica beamed, wildly pleased at the compliment. It seemed to mean more coming from Bo than it usually did when she got praised. Probably because her compliments usually came from a good play, not actually being a good fit for the team. Or a reminder that she was part of a team. "Thank you. That means more than you know. I work really hard to make it look easy." She chuckled a bit. "But it's been good. And, uh, thanks again for having my back way back at the start of the semester when things weren't so smooth. You didn't even know me then. But I really appreciate it."

"Of course, Jer," Bo said. "You deserve to have people lookin' out for you."

Jerica smiled up at him. She hesitated a second then, "And, like, real talk, I think it's awesome how good at cooking and baking you are. I don't have the patience for it at all, and you make it look so easy, and spoil all of your friends with good food. It's a really cool niche to fill."

"What's nice is that everybody eats food," Bo said. "So I can always make something for my friends. I guess it's how I like to show people I care. Bake love into the food."

He drew a heart shape in the air in front of them, and then paused in his steps, since they'd reached the front of the building. He pulled out his keycard and swiped it in front of the door, then pulled it open for her.

Jerica walked in. "That's a cool way to look at it... do you know what your love language is? Would that be, like, acts of service or whatever is yours?"

"I mean, I guess...?" Bo said with a hum as he followed her in. "Is food a love language?"

"Food's my love language," Jerica joked with a chuckle.

"I do like helping people out though in general, so I guess that's acts of service. I know one of them is touch, and I guess I like that too. I can't remember what the others are, though," Bo said. "Something about... words. One is words, right?"

"Yeah, words of affirmation," Jerica said. "That's mine... even though I can't take a compliment. Really weird how that one works."

"But is that like, how you like to recieve it or give it? I feel like it can be different both ways," Bo mused.

"Hmm, that's fair," Jerica said, pondering it for a moment. "I guess both. Compliments do make me feel all nice inside, even if it embarrasses me to get them sometimes. And I tend to compliment people a lot... Especially when I'm drunk."

"It's good that it's the nice things that spill out when you're drunk, though," Bo said. "Some people just get mean."

"Yeah... I don't like mean drunks," Jerica said. "Derik always says that a drunk man's mouth speaks a sober man's heart... I don't like it when people have meanness bottled up inside."

"It can be kinda scary, for sure," Bo hummed as they started making their way up the stairwell. "People bottle up a lot of things inside, I think. Good and bad and the in-between."

"Yeah," Jerica agreed. "Guess alcohol reveals it all."

Bo snorted. "Kind of a shame that we need alcohol to reveal that stuff."

"Day-um, we getting deep," Jerica answered. "Is that why you don't drink? 'Cause you're already your authentic self?"

Bo looked over to Jerica with a warm smile.

"I mean, I do, a little bit here and there," he said. "But I guess I don't feel like I really need to. I don't know why other people like to drink, but I mostly do it for the taste. So like, I like certain wines when it goes with the dish I've made. But beer kinda just tastes like..."

Bo pursed his lips and shrugged.

"Meh," he said with a shrug.

"Yeah, beer's disgusting," Jerica agreed. "Definitely an acquired taste."

"Kind of like coffee," Bo said as they made it to the top of the stairwell, and he opened the door for the hallway. "And both of them make you have to pee."

Jerica laughed. "That they do. Diuretics for ya."

"Laxatives work a lot faster," Bo said with a silly grin. "And if you get the gummy-bear ones, they arguably taste better."

Jerica grinned. "But you miss all the fun with laxatives. No drunkly sharing your feelings with people, aha."

"Oh, right, right, I forgot about that part," Bo said with a little laugh. "Not as fun sharing feelings when you're on the toilet."

"Or on a kayak," she added mischievously.

Bo snorted and laughed, his face lighting up.

"Eyyyy," he said. "Good one."

She chuckled. "Thanks."

At that moment, she realized that they were slowing, only a few feet from her door. She felt a bit of sadness welling up in her that the evening was almost over. Bo fell quiet for a moment, glancing down the hall towards his door, and then looking back over to her.

"It feels weird to say goodbye when I'm just a few doors down," Bo said with a small smile.

"I'm all for avoiding awkward goodbyes," Jerica answered, also smiling.

"I mean, I don't think it's that awkward," Bo said, looking down for a moment. "Not that awkward equals bad, anyways."

"Well, as an awkward human, I gotta say that's good to hear," Jerica said.

"I think a lot of what people call awkward is just us being human," Bo said softly. "We just don't know what to do with it when you're always expected to talk like you're in a movie or something."

"Hmm, that's fair," Jerica said. "Are you saying that awkwardness is just a social construct?"

Bo laughed a little. "Maybe. I guess that's the word for it, huh. I won't make a blog post about it, though."

"Wait, do you have a blog?" Jerica asked.

Bo laughed again, this time a little louder.

"Oh, gosh, no, lol, I mean, that would-- I have a snapchat," he said.

"Ah, yes, ye olde snapchat," Jerica said. "But no blogspot."

"Please, blogspot would age me," Bo said. "The beard already adds like, five years."

"Hey, count yourself lucky to have the beard," Jerica said. "People always think I'm like twelve. Errrrrrywhere wanna card me."

Bo opened his mouth to say something, but squinted, and paused, narrowing his eyes at her.

"That's... I mean, that's 'cause you're not..." he trailed off, but she knew what he was going to say. She wasn't of legal drinking age. Yet.

"I mean... yeah," Jerica agreed. "But, see, if I had a beard to add five years..."

"Or you could just wear a cardigan and dress like a mom," Bo posed. "Though I don't think it'd really fit with your current, uh, look."

Jerica laughed. "Nah, I'm tryna out-frat-boi the frat bois. Can't add in soccer mom energy. The vibes would be all off."

"True, true," Bo said. "And the vibes you've got going right now are great."

"You know it." She winked and finger-gunned at him.

Bo stared at her for a moment, and she saw his face redden again as he looked to the side with a shy smile.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "So uh, I guess I'll catch ya later."

"Oh, uh, yeah," Jerica said, rubbing her arm with one of her hands. The vibes had changed between them quickly and she wasn't sure what she'd done wrong. "Thanks again for the lovely date. I had a good time."

"Me too," Bo said. "Really."

He turned, looking like he was about to go, but then swiveled back. Jerica felt her heart flutter a bit and she looked at him expectantly, waiting to see what he'd do. He only hesitated for a moment before he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

He pulled away, and offered her another shy smile.

"I, uh, hope that was okay," he said. "Thanks. Again."

He was so adorable. She couldn't even. Her emotions were running rampant just then and she wasn't sure what it was that she was feeling. It just felt good. "It was very okay." She smiled at him then darted forward and wrapped him in a hug.

Bo let out what sounded like a nervous but relieved laugh as he brought his arms around her in return.

"Okay," he echoed quietly. "Good."

"Good," she repeated, stepping back and giving him a small smile.

"I guess, uh, goodbye for real this time," he said with a little laugh. "I hope you sleep well."

"No, no, we're not doing the awkward goodbye, remember?" she said with a grin.

"Oh, right, right," Bo said, flushing and looking embarassed. "Uh, then I guess, uh--"

"Joking," Jerica cut in, endeared. "How about a goodnight instead?"

"Yeah!" Bo said quickly. "Perfect. Goodnight, then, Jer-Jer."

"Night-Night Bo-Bo."

And with that, Bo gave a small bow of his head and finally turned down the hall, and started walking back towards his apartment. He did look back at her, just for a moment, and she saw a small smile before he looked away. She returned the smile then turned and opened the door to her apartment.

Rek was standing just inside.

She scowled at him and shut the door, hoping he didn't run his mouth before Bo was out of the hallway. But, of course, he did. "'Hope that was okay'? Did he--? He--?"

"Shut up."

"Oh my god he did!" Rek rushed forward and wrapped Jerica in a tight hug. "Oh my gosh, that's-- ahhh, you gotta tell me all about it. Come, sit, sit."

He dragged her to the couch and she spent the next half hour gushing about how much fun she'd had.

Jerica was having too good of a day for it to end, yet. She'd rambled at Rek about how amazing Bo -- and even FaceTimed Uncle Derik for a bit to sing Bo's praises. They were both delighted to see her as happy as she was, but Rek was actually a big kid and had consistent wake-up and go-to-sleep times, and Derik had to work early in the morning.

Which left her to her own devices. And before long the giddiness had died down a bit, and she'd taken a shower, then opened up her philosophy book to read for Lordshire's class... and then decided she simply did not wish to read it. It was boring.

And it left her bored.

Which meant she was going to go make Carter entertain her. At least, she would if he was home. If he wasn't, then she'd just play his video games. It'd become a fun tradition for her to break in to play with his gadgets.

That didn't seem likely, though. Where would he even be? There were no parties to be had (she'd checked after she got back from the date). So she would challenge him to a good old fashioned Call of Duty match.

Jerica walked down the hall and rapped on the door softly.

No answer.

Jerica pulled her student ID from the back of her phone case and easily popped the door of their apartment open. She strode inside and shut the door behind her, looking down at the card as she slid it back in the case. Then she finally looked up.

Carter was passed out on the couch.

She looked down at the time on her phone. It was only 10 pm. Weak.

He was laying mostly on the couch, with his right foot on the ground and his right hand draped over the edge, hanging open. He looked just like one of those--

A thought struck her.

She could go wake him up. Or she could even just not wake him up and go play his games -- it's not like it would have been the first time he found her in his game room. But he was set up perfectly for that classic whipped-cream-in-the-hand prank. She wondered if he had any. She'd eaten all of it that Rek had brought home.

Although that might add insult to injury -- using his own whipped cream to prank him -- it was still the only option that she saw. So she strode over to the kitchen and pulled open the door. Sure enough, there was a can of whipped cream inside. She grabbed it and started shaking it as she walked back towards the couch.

She tipped the can back and squirted some into her own mouth as she walked. Then she stopped by the end of the couch and squirted more into his hand. She filled her mouth again and swallowed it as she set the can on the nearby coffee table. She looked around.

There were no feathers around.

Hmm.

She hesitated for a long moment, then remembered it kind of tickled when a soft burst of air hit your face, so she blew softly at his nose, hoping it'd work.

At first, it seemed like it didn't, because he didn't even flinch. But then, without even opening his eyes, his arms shot out and all of a sudden he was grabbing her, taking her to the ground in a wrestling hold.

Jerica yelped from surprise and fell backward, landing heavily on the ground. She grunted loudly and grabbed his wrists with her own then threw her weight forward, throwing him off her and rolling on top instead. She tried to pin his wrists to the ground, but he was too fast. It was like he'd expected her to do that with how quickly he slipped out from underneath her and threw his arms back around the crook of her elbows, pulling her arms out from underneath her and twisting them behind her back.

Jerica twisted in his arms and elbowed him in the side with her left arm, yanking that side of her body out of his grasp. She flipped over and threw her leg over his thighs, trying to pin him that way, even though he still had control of her right arm.

And he used that to his advantage.

He twisted her arm back further, pinning it behind her as he kicked his legs out of her grasp and leaned his weight on her back, pinning her one free arm between her own body and the ground. While still holding her arm, he brough his other arm around her neck, and tucked up his legs so he was sitting on her.

"Owww," she hissed as the position hurt her shoulder.

"Tap out," Carter said, and his voice was slurred. He didn't even sound fully awake.

"You fucker," she growled, getting angry. This was not how the prank was supposed to go.

"...Huh," Carter said, and a few uncomfortably quiet seconds passed as he continued to pin her to the ground before he abruptly let go and stood up. "Sorry. Didn't know it was you."

"'Sorry'?" she repeated angrily. There was no 'sorry' about that. That was humiliating. It was-- was -- it wasn't over, is what it was. She sprang to her feet and crashed into him, tackling him onto the couch. There was whipped cream everywhere -- on her face, in her hair, smeared on the side of the couch.

Carter grunted as he hit the couch, but it seemed that now that he was aware it was her, he wasn't interested. He pushed her away forcefully and pulled away, stepping back a few steps.

"Geez, Jer," he said, still sounding groggy. "The hell did this come from?"

He squinted down at his whipped-cream smeared hand in confusion, and then realization crossed over his face, and he looked up at Jerica with a look that said: 'are you serious?'

"You just fucking attack people the instant you wake up?" she growled, but she was starting to calm down. She roughly wiped at her own face, sour that it'd ended up on her instead of just on him.

Carter scoffed. "When they try to wake me up with the whipped cream prank, yeah," he muttered. "Listen. I really am sorry that was my knee-jerk reaction. I'm going to go..."

Carter stared down at his hand with a sigh, then his gaze travelled to the couch, and to Jerica's hair, and her face.

"I'll grab some paper towels," he said lowly as he trudged off to the kitchen.

She snorted some of the whipped cream out of her nose and rubbed at it with her knuckles. Now she felt like the asshole, since he'd apologized. And even offered to help clean it up. That wasn't like him at all. Usually he just tried to bribe her to clean for him. And by tried, she meant bribed. Because it always worked.

She rolled her shoulder, which was still aching, and grabbed the can of whipped cream off the table. She started towards the kitchen to put it back in the fridge. When she walked in Carter was pulling a whole string of paper towels off the roll, and he seemed a lot less coordinated than he had when wrestling, holding the layers of paper towels wrapped around his hand.

He ripped off a strip of three and handed it to Jerica.

"It's all over your face. Sorry about that," he said.

"It's my fault," she grumbled, but took the paper towels. She wet them in the sink then started resentfully wiping the whipped cream off her face, not meeting his gaze. It was her fault. "Sorry for being a dick."

"Eh, we were both kind of dickish," Carter said with a shrug as he leaned back on the kitchen counter. "It balances out."

"Yeah," she grunted, wiping the rest of the cream off her face. She resentfully started the much harder job of trying to work it out of her hair as she watched Carter washing his hands in the sink.

A minute later, she heard a door open down the hall. When she looked out of the kitchen, she could see James slowly emerging into the dull light of the kitchen. Well, fuck. He always seemed to be around when she was having her most embarrassing moments. His hair was sticking up in different directions and his eyes were barely open as he stopped at the kitchen's entryway and squinted at them with one eye closed.

"Did something break?" James asked, his voice low and croaky. "Is... Jerica? Everything okay?"

"Just my pride," she grumbled. She rolled her shoulder again. And my shoulder.

"We're fine, James," Carter added. "Nothing's broken. You can go back to sleep."

James nodded slowly, but he didn't move, and instead leaned on the side of the entryway.

"Jerica, did you want to play COD or something?" Carter said, looking to her. "Uh, after you're done with... well, you could just use the bathroom, if you need."

Jerica hesitated, the paper towel still wrapped around several strands of her hair. She pulled it out, somehow feeling even more humiliated at the prospects of having to get a mirror to fix the disaster that she created. "I'm fine... I'll go... clean... the couch." She turned back towards the living room to clean up the couch and also lick her wounded pride.

Silence followed as she left the kitchen, and behind her she could hear James and Carter exchange some hushed murmurs, but nothing she could make out. She bent down and wiped up the whipped cream from the couch and floor and the side of the end table. She probably missed some since it was kind of dark, but she got the worst of it.

The whispers from the kitchen started sounding more intense. She still couldn't quite make out what was being said, but it somehow seemed angrier now.

"I'm going back to bed," James suddenly announced, already walking back towards the hall.

"Sorry!" Jerica called after him. "This isn't what I meant to happen."

James seemed to hesitate in his fast-walk, pausing to look at her.

"You're fine, Jerica," he said, his tone much gentler, but still weary. "I'll just put in some earplugs. You guys can play games if you want."

At that, James disappeared down the hall, and Carter slowly inched back into the living room. He had another beer in hand, and popped it open. It looked like he was watching James for a second, but when he noticed she was watching, he turned his attention to her, taking a sip.

"What was that?" Jerica asked, nodding her head towards James' door but keeping her eyes on Carter. They'd clearly just had a moment of some kind.

"He's just tired of losing sleep is all," Carter said plainly.

"Oh." She felt bad. About everything. She'd broken in to play a game, and now she'd disturbed both of their sleep. And wrecked their apartment. Well, that one she at least cleaned up. But she'd still woken them both up. And it wasn't funny anymore how Carter'd woken up. She looked at Carter's beer then the fridge. "Can I...?"

"Go for it," Carter said with a shrug. "Are you hungry, too?"

Jerica hesitated. Yet another thing she hadn't planned on when she came in the apartment, but now that he mentioned it... "Yeah."

"There's a bunch of chips and shit in the cupboard by the fridge," Carter said with a wave of his hand. "Pick whatever you want."

"Thanks." She walked past him and grabbed a beer, then opened the cupboard. He always had the best snacks. "Want anything?"

"Takis," he said as he walked over to the couch and grabbed the controller off the coffee table, turning on the TV.

Jerica grabbed the Takis from the cupboard and also the bag of Cheetos then walked over to join him. She dumped the snacks on the table then sat down and cracked open her beer, taking a long drink before she sat back with a sigh. "Sorry again. That, uh... wasn't my best idea ever."

"You'll have a better idea someday," Carter said. He took the bag of Takis and opened up the bag, sticking one hand in while he held the TV remote in the other, selecting the right settings. "So, what do you feel like playing?"

"I'll make sure I'm out of reach for my next idea," she said dryly, taking another drink of the beer.

Carter laughed in the back of his throat with his mouth full, and he brought COD up on the screen with a few button clicks.

"I mean, I could take a page out of your book and go into hug mode instead," Carter joked. "No harm in that."

Jerica laughed, taking another drink. She leaned forward to grab the Cheetos. "Except James. We don't hug James."

"Yeah," Carter said, reaching over and clinking his can against Jerica's. "He's off limits."

"Priceless," she agreed, lifting her can towards him as he moved it towards her. "Cheers!"

She took another drink, cringing a bit as a little too much beer made its way down her throat. She looked over at Carter. "Were you already passed out, or just sleeping?"

Carter slowly drifted his eyes over to her, and it was hard to tell if he was hiding a smile or just narrowing his eyes.

"Mmm," he hummed. "Sleepy night."

"Boring night," she said. "I searched high and low. No parties anywhere."

"Sometimes you have to take the party with you," Carter said like it was meaningful, and then he took a big long drink before setting his can down on the coffee table and kicked his feet up on it. He grabbed two of the gaming controllers and handed her one.

"Well, I am the fun one at parties anyway," Jerica said, taking the controller and switching it on. "Never a dull moment with me around. At least that's what Derik says."

"He's right," Carter said. "Hasn't been dull since you walked in."

He looked over to her with a smirk.

"Ready?" he asked, lifting the controller.

She laughed a bit and nodded. "You ready to lose?"

"We'll see about that," Carter laughed back, pressing start.

Rek sat on the end of his bed with his arms crossed, listening as Bo played the piece he'd assigned to him the week before. Rek was impressed with how well Bo had taken to piano, and was thoroughly enjoying getting to watch him improve with each lesson. It was one of his favorite parts of music -- getting to watch others learning to love it. Maybe not as much as he did. But at least growing whatever appreciation they had to start with.

"You did so well!" Rek exclaimed as Bo finished. "Good job!"

Bo looked almost surprised that he'd managed to finish the piece all the way through, but at Rek's praise, his face lit up.

"Thanks!" Bo said with a warm smile. "I practiced a lot with a metronome, like you said. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's coming easier now."

"Good!" Rek said, returning the smile. "I'm glad to hear that. I can definitely tell you practiced that one a lot. It's a tricky piece and you only had a few tiny hiccups. You did great on the timing of the piece, but I want you to keep practicing it and this time pay more attention to these dynamic notations here. Piano, metzo piano, etc. I think you could push the dynamics a little more, especially now that you've mastered the time signature at this bpm."

Bo nodded slowly, and started taking notes in his notebook, where he usually wrote down things to remember for practice.

"Okay. Dy-na-mics," Bo mumbled slowly to himself as he jotted it down. "Okay. Will do."

"Alright, let's look at the next piece you practiced," Rek said, turning the page in the lesson book. As he did so, he noticed Bo's fingers already hovering over the keys to start, like he was rehearsing it in his head real quick. "Whenever you're ready."

Bo nodded and after glancing at the sheet music, looked down at his hands and started playing. It looked like he was mostly playing from memory, though he did reference the sheet music here and there. Rek noticed that even in this piece, Bo was a bit more intentional with the dynamics, and he was glad that he was being more mindful and learning quickly.

After Bo finished playing through the piece, Rek talked through a few spots where Bo could clean up his playing a little bit. Bo took some more notes and played it through another two times, improving with each next try. By the end of it, Rek decided they could move on from that song and to the next one in the lesson book. Rek talked through the next piece with him, playing a few parts so Bo could hear how it was supposed to sound, and then the lesson came to a close.

Bo finished jotting down his list of things to practice over the next week, and he was starting to pack up, tossing his notebook and the lesson book into his backpack.

Rek leaned back against the bed and crossed his arms again, watching as Bo packed up. Jerica wasn't home. He'd continued to strictly enforce the no-spectators-during-lessons policy he had to help people feel more at ease. And this time it was probably less distracting for them both, for Jerica to be elsewhere.

As Bo got to his feet and slung his backpack over his shoulder, it looked like he hesitated, thinking. He stood a few feet from the door, looking at it, and then back at Rek.

"Are you uh, do you have like, another lesson? Or..." Bo asked.

"Nah." Rek shook his head, then used it to gesture towards the living room. "You wanna hang out for a bit?"

"Yeah," Bo said with a small smile. "If that's chill."

"Super chill." Rek grinned at him and pushed himself to his feet to follow Bo into the living room. "Want any snacks? You may have to lower your standards," he laughed. "But I'm willing to share what I have."

Bo scoffed. "I'll never be too snobby for simple snacks," Bo said. "And if I am, I give you every right to put me in my place."

He pointed to Rek with a grin, and then headed out to the living room, plopping on the end of the couch and tossing his backpack at his feet.

"Whaddaya got?" Bo ask

"Uhhh..." Rek walked into the kitchen to take a look. There was a pan on the counter covered with a towel. "Jerica made some boxed brownies that actually turned out pretty okay this time..."

"Eyy, I like brownies," Bo said. "Think Jer will be cool with sharing?"

Rek smirked. Jerica would be absolutely mortified that Bo ate something that she baked. But he didn't need to share that. "Yeah, of course!" He pulled out two small plates and cut them both big pieces then walked to the couch and offered Bo one. "Brownies for everyone."

"Yesssss," Bo said, stretching out his hands to take the plate before drawing it close to his chin, like he was using the plate as a bib to catch crumbs.

Bo took a big bite out of the brownie, and Rek could see Bo's processing visibly on his face as he chewed and looked up and to the side, like he was discerning every little ingredient in the box-made-brownies. He then did a little pout and a nod of approval.

"Not terrible," he said after chewing. "For box brownies, ya know. Double chocolate chip?"

"I think so? Yeah," Rek answered. He hadn't bothered looking at the box when Jerica made the brownies, but she tended to like that kind so he wouldn't be surprised. "They're Jer's favorite."

"Oh! Speaking of," Bo said, turning to Rek, pointing at him with his brownie. "Okay. So like, she always says she likes anything I make, which is great, but like, I can never seem to get a favorite food out of her. Is there anything you know she really likes? Or is she really that easy to please?"

"She's really that easy to please," Rek answered with a smile. It was endearing to see that Bo genuinely wanted to do something nice for Jerica. "Her food standards are somewhat concerning." He laughed a bit.

Bo pursed his lips and let out a small sigh through his nose.

"Okay," Bo said a little more quietly, like he was thinking out loud, more to himself than anything. "So... just make something good. Raise her standards. Okay."

He started tapping his fingers on his knee with his free hand, still holding his half-eaten brownie as he stared off to the side, looking in deep thought.

"So I was thinking like, a picnic," Bo said. "You think she'd like that sort of thing? It's more lowkey, but also like, I get to make her food. Win-win... I think."

"She'd love that," Rek answered with a smile. "She's super excited to see what you pick, and I think she'd be into a picnic."

Bo looked a little relieved, but Rek could sense his anxiety as well. It was mostly visible in how Bo's nervous tapping of his fingers on his knee sped up a little.

"Okay," Bo said again. "Good. Good."

Rek watched him passively, trying to think of how he could try to relieve some of Bo's anxiety. Jerica had been alternating between giddiness and despair -- both of which, in his opinion, just drove home how excited she was for the date. But it was clear Bo was also at least a little nervous about it, too.

"How are you feeling about things?"

"Hm?" Bo said, and it seemed that he'd been a little caught up in his own head as he turned to Rek. It took him a second to process Rek's question. "Oh!"

Bo smiled, but it was a nervous smile, and he let out a little laugh.

"Well, I mean, I guess -- haha," Bo said, lifting his tapping fingers to scratch the back of his neck. "It all felt kind of sudden, I guess. Like, I'm happy and excited but also... I don't know, I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. It's been... gosh, I think, maybe two years since I've been on anything like a date."

That kind of surprised Rek a bit. Bo seemed like the kind of guy who would attract a lot of attention from girls. He was nice. Funny. Tall. Attractive, in a straight sort of way. But he supposed it would have to be a mutual attraction. Jerica also didn't go on dates often, even though she had offers piling up at her feet at any given moment.

"Oh. Really?" Rek asked gently, offering an encouraging smile.

Bo took another bite of his brownie, but it didn't seem like he was avoiding the question. He leaned back into the couch, setting the plate in his lap, like he was trying to relax.

"Well," Bo said. "I really haven't been on any dates since uh, well, my breakup with my ex. Which was two years ago. So, I mean, yeah. I guess it's kind of taken that long to recover, hah."

"Valid," Rek answered. "If it's any consolation, Jerica also hasn't been on many dates."

"I mean, I wouldn't -- like, I don't really care about, the count or anything," Bo said quickly. "She probably has more uh... I don't know."

Bo shook his head and laughed again, but it wasn't the most mirthful laugh. Rek hid the slight uneasiness that bubbled up in him at the thought of Jerica's 'count'. That was something he didn't know, and he had no desire to keep track of that sort of thing either.

"I guess, like, nothing's really happened," Bo said quietly. "Yet. I think I'm just overthinking it a lot. Afraid of ruining things before anything's happened yet. That sort of thing."

"Mm, that makes sense," Rek answered gently. "Is there anything specific you're worried about? Or just, like... everything?"

"I guess... I'm just worried like... like what if she finds out I'm not as great as she thinks I am, and then she doesn't like me anymore?" Bo asked, not quite making eye contact as he looked off to the side with his eyebrows drawn together.

It was almost humorous how much they were mirroring each other's anxieties. Almost.

"I don't think that'll happen," Rek answered. "You guys have known each other for months at this point. I think you've got a fairly accurate read on each other."

"Or what if I end up hurting her instead?" Bo asked. "I would be mortified."

Rek blinked at him, surprised by that comment. He supposed it was valid to be mindful of your impact on someone else. But what was Bo going to do? Nothing. He was far too gentle to hurt Jer. Unless... Rek wasn't even sure. Jer was insecure about Bo.

He shook the thought away. It wasn't helpful. "I think the fact that you're thinking about that is a pretty good indication that you won't."

Bo took another bite of the brownie, and he visibly deflated a little, sinking back into the couch. He was quiet for a moment, and took those passing seconds to finish off his brownie. Rek realized he hadn't really touched his own and took a bite, patiently waiting to see what Bo would have to say.

"The thing is," Bo said after he finished swallowing. "Jerica's like, a really great person. She's fun, she's funny, we get along. We have some similar interests. I really enjoy her being around. You know, all good things. And I know it's always a risk, you know... going on a date. It's not like anything serious yet, but I guess I'm just trying to be careful. For Jer. I don't want to mess this up."

"Mm... that makes sense," Rek answered. "I think that's a natural worry. But you are also a really great person, and..." He didn't even know what he wanted to say. "Well, I guess this does change the dynamic between the two of you a bit, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing? You both care about each other, and that's what matters."

Bo hummed softly, setting his hands on his stomach as he slouched back.

"Yeah," he said, his voice still low. "I guess so."

"I think..." Rek said, deciding to give an unsolicited opinion. "That you could hurt Jer if you wanted to, because she cares about you and cares about your friendship. Which I think is a good thing. But I think you'd be having to try to do so. You're not going to accidentally hurt her. She's pretty tough, you know? Not so fragile and easy-to-hurt. And you're not going to choose to hurt her, right? So, yeah... it'll all be okay. Promise."

It was mostly true. Jerica was complicated when it came to how difficult she was to hurt. Most of the time, she was completely unfazable by anything and anyone. But she was surprisingly sensitive when it came to people she cared about. Bo could completely destroy her if he wanted to. But Rek knew fully well that he wasn't going to.

"I mean, I would never try to hurt her," Bo said softly. "That would just be cruel. Even with... I don't want to do that."

"With?" Rek prompted gently.

"Jordan," Bo said quietly. "My ex."

"Ah," Rek answered. "But, I mean, exactly. You don't want to hurt her, so you won't."

"You make it sound so simple," Bo said with a sigh. He leaned forward this time, putting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palm. "But I'll try to be more optimistic and less oh-no-doomsday. I know there's no way to predict what the future holds. You just gotta take it day by day... which is all you can do, really. This stuff just lives in my head rent-free anyway, I guess."

"It's okay," Rek answered encouragingly. "You don't have to be optimistic if you don't feel optimistic. It's just... hard, to have uncertainty like this. I get it. I always get so nervous before dates, too... and Jer does, too."

"I would be worried if someone wasn't nervous," Bo said with a little laugh.

"Haha yeah," Rek agreed. "I know it sounds trite to say 'just be yourself' -- but, well, yourself is what Jerica..." He smirked, remembering the party. "Finds 'hot'."

Bo's worried expression broke into a smile, and he let out a loud snort before shaking his head, looking over to Rek.

"Bro, I was trying so hard to keep my cool when she said that," Bo said. "I felt like I was red as a tomato."

Rek laughed a bit. "Ah, well, at least you didn't run away afterwards."

"I felt so bad," Bo said. "I could tell she like, didn't mean to say it, and you know, for a moment I was like... I don't know. I was afraid to overthink it. People say lots of things when they're drunk, so I was like, is it just that? Or... haha. I mean, I guess I have to thank you for the little push to go after her. It kind of helped... confirm. That it was uh, mutual."

"I'm glad I could help," Rek answered with a little smile. "I could tell from her reaction that she meant it. If she was just running her mouth she would have doubled down, you know?"

"Huh," Bo mused. "You know what. Yeah. She probably would've. Good point."

"I'm just glad, for both of your sakes, that it was mutual," Rek said. "She's still worried that you feel awkward about it."

"I mean, I don't feel awkward in the: 'wow I wish she hadn't said that' sense, but in the: 'totally wasn't expecting that kind of comment from someone I actually like and didn't know she thought that about me' sort of way," Bo said.

"Fair enough." Rek nodded, taking another bite of his brownie. "I honestly didn't know either of you liked the other, but I'm glad she accidentally let that cat out of its bag."

"I guess we both kinda kept it on the downlow," Bo said with a shy smile, looking off to the side. "I know for me, at least, I'd just assumed that she just kind of thought of me like another one of the guys. Like, on the same level as all her football friends or something. I'd just kind of accepted that it would never happen, so I figured I'd just... you know. Keep doing things as usual. Didn't want to bother ruining a good friendship for something I didn't think I even had a chance in."

"That's fair," Rek said. He hesitated for a moment, trying to decide how much to share with Bo. Now that Jer knew that Rek knew, all the stops had been pulled and she'd shared all of her bottled up angst about Bo. But he couldn't very well abuse his place as a confidante. Even though he'd heard at least a dozen times about how Bo was out of Jerica's league, according to Jerica. "I think she thought the same about you."

Bo hummed faintly.

"Funny how that works," Bo commented.

"And all it took was a couple eyeball-shots for the truth to come out," Rek said with a small grin.

Bo smiled too, nodding to himself.

"The eyeball shots were Carter's idea, actually," Bo said. "He was joking at first, and then I was like no, we can actually make that a thing."

"It was a good thing," Rek said with a smile. "Super cool. You catered that party so well. I was impressed."

"Well, once I knew I was getting paid for it, I was like, oh! Now I can actually do this well and not on my college student budget, haha," Bo said with a bigger smile.

"That's awesome," Rek answered. "I didn't realize that they paid you, but you definitely earned every penny."

"Thanks!" Bo said, still smiling. "Carter's always good about that stuff. Making sure people get paid for their work and whatever."

"Yeah, that's good," Rek answered. He hesitated for a moment, letting a silence pass between them. The conversation had gotten light again, but he wasn't sure that Bo had actually gotten an adequate amount of support. He didn't want to just tell him not to be anxious. That wasn't helpful at all. "Well, listen, like... if you wanna talk about anything, I'm here, you know? If you're still feeling not-optimistic."

Bo's smile faded slowly, but his expression was still soft, and he nodded.

"Thanks, Rek," Bo said. "I think it was good just to put it out there. But I appreciate it."

"Of course." Rek nodded. "Always happy to listen. And try to offer my crack-brain advice."

"Hey man," Bo said firmly. "Your advice was solid. I didn't hear any crackbraining."

Rek laughed lightly. "Well... good."

Bo smiled again, and there was a small silence that passed before Bo broke it.

"So... you gonna finish that brownie?" he asked.

Rek laughed. "I am. But whole pan in there. Knock yourself out."

Bo's smile grew as he got to his feet and hurried into the kitchen to get more.

Jerica bit her lip, staring down at the event details on her phone. There was a Bioblitz organized for Sunday afternoon, and she fully intended to be there. It was always a fun time -- wandering around with random people, taking pictures of all the animals and plants that she could find. Besides, her vertebrate zoology professor was offering extra credit for it and while she had an A in the class, it felt precarious, especially since they were well past midterms at this point. So she was definitely going.

The only question was who she was going to go with.

Several of her friends in the class were planning to go, too, and she had an open invitation to join them if she wanted. It was probably the best option. But she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that it'd be more fun to go with Bo.

It was probably a stupid idea.

Did he even like nature?

She wasn't sure. It might be something he wasn't into at all, in which case she didn't want to invite him and make him feel compelled to go just because she was asking. But, then, what if he was into things like this and it'd be an easy excuse for date 2.0?

"I can hear you thinking over there."

Jerica shook her head and looked up when she heard Rek's voice. "What?"

"What's on your mind?" Rek leaned forward from where he was sitting on the other end of the couch and set his textbook on the coffee table. He tucked one leg under himself and turned to face her more fully, attention focused fully on her.

"Nothing." She hesitated. "I mean, well, there's this Bioblitz going on Sunday."

"Is that the thing you dragged me to last year?"

"Yeah." She nodded, clicking her phone off and putting it down on the couch beside her. She pulled both knees up and wrapped her arms around them, looking at him.

"You're gonna go?"

"Yeah," she repeated. "I'm just trying to figure out who to go with."

"When is it?" Rek asked.

"Sunday afternoon." She waved her hand dismissively, shooing away the thought of him joining her. She'd been visiting him last year when the Bioblitz was going on so she'd wanted to see him and also didn't have friends here to go with instead. This year, that wasn't the problem. "You've got that recital you're moderating."

"Yeah," Rek agreed. "Sorry."

"All good." Jerica took a deep breath then sighed. Then she smirked a bit. "I actually have friends here this time."

Rek returned the smile. "Who do you want to go with?"

Bo.

"There's some kids from my class going," Jerica answered. "Our prof is offering extra credit..."

A brief silence passed between them.

Jerica eventually glanced up and made eye contact with Rek.

He held her gaze for a moment, then, "Who do you want to go with?"

"I don't know." She dropped her gaze and shrugged.

"Which means... Bo?" Rek guessed.

She bit her lip, glancing up to meet his gaze again. "Is it a dumb idea?"

"I don't think so," Rek answered thoughtfully. "It was pretty fun last year, even for a non-science-person like me. I think Bo would like it."

Jerica hummed. That was good to hear, at least. Non-science-person approved. And also approved from a male-perspective. But it still didn't guarantee that Bo would like it.

"You should ask him to go with you," Rek said. "It's your turn to pick the date."

"I don't even know if he wants a second date," Jerica argued.

"No one kisses someone if--"

"On the cheek," she interjected.

"-- they don't want another date," Rek finished. "You told me yourself how well the date went, and he clearly thought so too. Don't make him be the person to find the courage to ask you twice. It's your turn."

"But what if he hates it?"

"What if he doesn't?" Rek countered. "You can't speak for him. Just ask."

"What if he doesn't want to go?"

"Then he'll say no."

"But what if he doesn't?" she pressed. "What if he doesn't want to go, but says yes because he feels bad saying no, and then he hates it?"

"Bo is a big boy," Rek said. "He can make his own choices."

"I don't want his choice to be to reject me, or do something he hates."

"His choice is to spend time with a girl he's clearly into, or politely decline a friendly invitation," Rek said. "It's not like you're asking him for a sacrifice. When I'm into a dude I don't even care what we're doing -- I just like being with him."

Jerica hesitated. He made a good point. "Yeah... me too."

"And Bo three," Rek said. "Most likely, anyway. I think most people are like that. And that's a fun, low-pressure environment for you guys to hang out with. I support it."

Jerica hesitated again. Rek was building a solid case for why she should, making her excuses seem a bit flimsy now that she thought about them more. Which clearly meant that she needed to find more excuses. "But I can't make myself pretty for a date like this."

"Oh shut up." Rek waved his hand dismissively. "You're pretty all the time. And it's not like he hasn't already seen you dressed down."

Another solid logic point.

"Just text him," Rek said. "Worst he can say is 'no'."

"Au contraire," Jerica countered.

"Stop it," Rek said. "Do you want to spend the afternoon with him?"

"I mean... yeah."

"Then ask him," Rek said. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Jerica took a deep breath then sighed, but nodded. He was right. As usual. Which meant that now she had to actually find the courage to ask Bo out on a date. Which was hard. But probably not as hard as asking her on the first one had been, since she had the benefit of knowing he liked her, instead of risking an outright rejection like he'd had to do at the party. "Yeah."

"Are you gonna text him?"

Jerica hummed then shook her head. "I'm going to get anxious if he doesn't answer right away..."

"Go see if he's home," Rek suggested.

Jerica hesitated a moment. It was the best option. She would get an immediate response. And would be able to see his face, so she could read his body language when he answered, to be sure that he wasn't lying about wanting to go. If he even said yes.

"Goooooo," Rek prodded.

"Fine." Jerica pushed herself to her feet and shoved her phone in her pocket. "But if this ruins my entire life, then that's on you."

Rek snorted. "I can live with that."

Jerica walked across the room and into the hall. Her anxiety spiked as she closed the door behind her. She was really doing this. For real. She strode towards his door, going over in her head how she was going to ask him.

'Hey Bo-Bo... Bo? Hey Bo... Hi, Bo... Hello... arghhhh. This was hopeless. She was hopeless. 'So there's this Bioblitz going on on Sunday and I was thinking, since, you know, we... well, I am going to be going... and I was thinking that maybe if you want to be going... then we could... both go... together?'

She rubbed her face and sighed. This was going to go so badly. She was awkward in her own mind and she hadn't even tried to say any of it aloud yet. It would be a disaster. But she was outside his door now, and she certainly didn't want the awkwardness of him or Elias potentially opening the door and finding her just standing outside their apartment, so she knocked, then stepped back and anxiously listened for a response.

There was a few second's delay, but she heard footsteps patter to the door, and also what sounded like the clicking of dog's nails against tile. When the door opened, she saw Bo standing there with Bugs, the pug puppy tucked under one arm. He looked a little sleepy for it being noon, as he was still wearing what looked like checkered pajama pants and a oversized t-shirt with a picture of that one meme with the crying woman screaming at a white cat.


Bo's eyes lit up when he saw her, and he looked like he tried to shake off some of his sleepyness.

"Hey, Jer!" he said with a smile. "What's up?"

"Bo! Hey!" She returned the smile. "I was just wondering, if, um, well, you know, um... what I mean is... how are you?"

This was already going poorly.

Bo blinked rapidly for a moment, like a visual representation of his brain rebooting.

"Oh! Haha, uh..." Bo trailed off for a moment, staring out into the hall. He started squinting. "I had a really stressful cake exam yesterday and I think I'm still like, decompressing, ya know? I also stayed up way too late binging episodes of Hot Ones on youtube where celebrities eat hot wings with progressively hotter hot sauce and now I'm craving hot sauce and my brain feels a little melted. But uh. Anyways. That's the long answer."

Bo pushed the door open a little more with his foot and shifted Bugs in his arms so that he was holding the puppy in front of him, like he was swaddling a baby. Bugs seemed to be relaxed, comfortably enjoying it.

"How's you?" Bo asked.

"Oh, haha, I'm good!" Jerica flashed a quick, nervous smile. There were so many emotions going on in her body just then. Endearment. Nervousness. Anxiety. "Sorry that your test was stressful. Seems borderline like a crime to make cake stressful."

"I mean, it's fine, you know," Bo said, bouncing Bugs in his arms a little. "Just like how regular tests are stressful. It's really not any different with baking tests. I mean -- you see all those cooking shows where people are timed and being judged for their food, right? Once something's being evalutated there's stress added in. But like, I'm cool, now. I slept in really late. Am rested. Did you uh, wanna come in?"

"Glad you at least got some sleep." She smiled at him, relaxing ever so slightly. Now that she was actually talking to him -- rather than just imagining talking to him -- it was less stressful. "And, uh, sure! Is now an okay time? Don't wanna, uh, intrude."

"Yeah, yeah, it's chill," Bo said, nodding with his head for her to come in as he backed in to make room for her. "Elias is out at work at the moment. He'll probably be back in an hour or two I think. I'm a little braindead still."

Jerica laughed a bit. "All good." She pet Bugs as she stepped past Bo. "Hi Bugs." She walked inside and glanced around. "I see you're dog-fathering."

"I'm a proud dog-parent... father... why can't I figure out how to translate that to dog?" Bo said, squinting in confusion and thought as he closed the door and followed her into the living room.

Jerica laughed and plopped down on the couch. "So, uh..." She hesitated, trying to work up the nerve to ask. She should have done this in the hallway. That way when he said no it would be easy to leave and make it less awkward. Now they were just going to sit awkwardly if he declined her offer.

Bo sat down on the floor in front of her and plopped Bugs down on the floor, where Bo proceeded to roll Bugs over on his side and pet his belly. Bugs was sticking out his tongue and wagging his tail happily.

"There's this Bioblitz on Sunday afternoon," Jerica said, deciding to just get it out there. "And I don't know if that's your thing, but, uh, it's my thing, and if it's both of our things then it could, uhh, be a thing?"

Bo slowly looked up at her, his eyes lit up again.

"Bio... yeah! Yeah I'll go with you!" he said eagerly with a smile. "What's uh-- what is it?"

"Really? Great!" Jerica gave a small nervous laugh, but grinned at him, pleased that he seemed genuinely interested. And that Rek was right. Bo agreed without even knowing what it was. "It's like, uh, a citizen science thing. You basically just go out and take as many pictures of plants and animals as you can and like, put it in this app, and it helps scientists or something."

"Oh! So it's kind of like a garden and a zoo, but you take pictures!" Bo said, grinning. "That sounds fun. I like looking at animals and plants and stuff. I could just stare at them..."

He looked down at Bugs, and laughed a little, patting Bugs' belly.

"Boop," he said, clearly to Bugs, and Bugs rolled over, looking like he was getting excited and wanting to play.

"Great!" Jerica felt the tension in her shoulders relax. The anxiety-inducing part of this conversation was over. Now she could just focus on enjoying her time with Bo-Bo. "And, uh, yeah! It's not quite a zoo because you just go out in nature to see what you can find. This one is at the local state park. I was thinking we could, uhh, go on one of the hiking trails? There's a nice one. It's like 3? miles? I think?"

"That sounds really nice," Bo said. "I like hiking. So like, ok, not quite a zoo, but instead it's like, you're looking for the creatures and stuff. Like a little nature adventure. Or uh, a treasure hunt except no hunting and the tresure is you look at cool stuff."

"Yeah! Exactly!" Jerica settled back into the couch. "I went last year with Rek and we found this huge beetle. Kinda psyched me out a bit."

"How big was it?" Bo asked, watching her with interest.

"It was like..." Jerica gestured with her hand, showing a circle about the size of a chicken egg. "And it had this little horn. It's called a, uh, rhinocerous beetle."

"OH!" Bo said with a bright smile. "I think I caught one of those in Animal Crossing! It would be so cool to see one in real life. Wack."

"Haha yeah it was pretty cool!" Jerica agreed. "Giant though. I think I still have the picture somewhere. And last year it was near the lake so we saw some tiny fishies, which, just..." She smiled, laying a hand over her heart. "I love them."

"Fishies are so cute," Bo said, still petting Bugs. "I had this betta fish when I was twelve and his name was Zoomy and he had these big spiky red and blue fins. He lived for like, three years and I would just stare at him a lot. He was so pretty, in a mezmerizing way."

"Aww, that sounds so cute," Jerica said. She wasn't sure whether she was talking about Zoomy or Bo at that point. "I had a blue betta for a while named Alexander Swamilton."

"That's a perfect name," Bo said. "Did you play him music from the uh -- there's the play, right? I actually only know like, three seconds of it. There's that bit that goes: ANGELICAAaaa. ELIIIIIIZA."

For that brief moment of singing, Bo somehow transitioned to a falsetto that, even though he was clearly just trying to be silly, didn't actually sound bad. He also waggled his finger as if it somehow helped him hit the notes.

"And then that's it," Bo said normally. "That's all I've got."

Jerica laughed, delighted at the effort. "Beautiful. And yeah, I used to be so obsessed with Hamilton. Obviously. Since I named my fish after it, heh. It's on Disney Plus now, you know."

"They put musicals on there too?" Bo asked. "Huh. Wild. Maybe I'll give it a watch. Could be fun if we had a little Hamilton watch... party... how to word that. You get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, for sure!" Jerica said with a grin. "I'd love that. I've watched it so many times. I have, like, the first half of it memorized."

"Bet," Bo said, smirking up at her.

"We're gucci until we get to..." Jerica thought for a moment, trying to think of the title of the song. "Oh, shoot, I can't remember. The one where they introduce George Washington. It's like... rap at that point. Can't sing that haha."

"Rap history battle. Sounds potentially epic," Bo mused.

"It's pretty amazing," Jerica laughed. "I am so awful at history. I actually learned a lot just from listening to the musical obsessively hahah."

"I sucked at history classes and I still do," Bo said. "There's a reason I never went that route. I don't know how people keep all that information in their head. I feel like my brain only has two compartments. One is recipes, and one is like, everything else. Like, people and friends and family stuff."

As he said that, he lifted his hands up to his head, making gestures like he was splitting it in two. For the few seconds his attention was off Bugs, Bugs turned his attention to Jerica, scrambling to her feet and jumping up at her legs.

"Hi Buggy-Boy," Jerica said, reaching down to scoop him up. She cradled him in her arms and stroked his head, then looked back at Bo. "Yeah, I'm basically good at sports and okay at science and that's it. History? Art? Rubbish at it all. It never did grab my attention and I have a really hard time focusing on stuff that doesn't interest me."

"Valid. And same," Bo agreed. "I do think, though, that I might've done more artsy stuff if given the chance. I think I just never had the courage to do so. But it's nice, now, to pick up piano playing and stuff with Rek. It's kind of always been a dream of mine to learn."

"I'm glad you guys are both enjoying that so much," Jerica said with a smile. "Rek has been bragging about how well you're doing. He's been having a good time teaching you."

Bo smiled widely.

"I'm glad. He still keeps refusing money payments, though. Which is why I keep giving him food instead."

"Giving us food," Jerica said with a wink.

"Oh, of course," Bo said with a wink in return. "Why do you think I portion everything so big?"

"Aww!" Jerica stopped petting Bugs to look down at Bo. "That's so thoughtful."

"I mean, I just figured, like, it would end up happening anyway, so why not account for it, ya know?" Bo said with a shrug.

Jerica smirked. "You know me well."

She meant it as a light comment, but now that she thought of it, it was true. He did know her well. And was still choosing to go on dates with her. It was flattering.

Bo smiled and looked down into her lap at Bugs the pug.

"So uh, I haven't eaten yet today," Bo said. "I was gonna go make something. Do you want to help?"

Jerica felt like a mechanic had just asked if she wanted to help replace a transmission. She had [i]no[i] idea how to do anything cooking-y. She was a terrible chef. But she certainly wasn't going to say no. This was the perfect excuse to spend more time with Bo.

"Sure! I, uh... don't know what I'm doing, though."

"That's okay," Bo said with a smile. "I do, and I can give you the easy tasks so it's less pressure. It's just fun to make stuff with people sometimes without the pressure of making it perfect."

"That sounds great!" Jerica grinned at him, relieved that he didn't seem to be expecting much from her. "Maybe I can learn some of your magic."

"Maybe so," Bo said with a little smirk as he sprung to his feet and plucked Bugs out of her lap. Bugs wiggled his legs for a moment until Bo set him down on his bed, which was beside the couch. But Bugs didn't seem interested in his bed, so he got up and started walking around instead.

Bo met Jerica's eyes and nodded towards the kitchen, wordlessly beckoning her to follow.

Jerica stood up and followed him. "So what are we making?"

"I was thinking French toast," Bo said. "Sugary syrupy bready goodness."

"Ooooooo," Jerica smiled. "I love French toast so much."

"Perfect!" Bo said with a grin. "All the more reason to make it then."

James was sitting at his desk, working on an essay. He'd finished the outline and collected all of the points he wanted to make, along with all of his research, so in some ways, the hard part was over. Now he just had to compile all of it and make it sound convincing and well-written, as opposed to a bunch of scattered bullet points.

He found himself staring at his screen for some time, reading over the introduction to the essay over and over again. He'd finally smoothed out the thesis statement so that it was clear and succinct, but he felt the lull that always came after the introduction. There was always a lag in energy at this point, and he knew he had three more pages' worth of content to go.

Leaning back in his seat, he sighed, letting his mind drift and break from the intense focus he'd had for the past hour. The moment he did, he found his ear catching onto a song, muffled through the wall.

Rek was playing the piano.

Over the past few months, James had grown used to hearing Rek play different pieces over and over again. Sometimes it was nice to listen to, and it actually helped him focus. On the occasions James desired silence to be able to focus, he usually just put on his sound-canceling headphones, and that worked well enough. But most of the time, he liked to pause and actually enjoy Rek's skillful piano playing. There was also a quiet satisfaction he found in hearing Rek gradually improve in a piece throughout a week or a month. It was like he got to share in that progress since he heard it happen in real-time.

It wasn't like he ever shared that small feeling of pride with Rek, but he still felt it, and he enjoyed hearing Rek play through his current piece, even though there were a few hiccups. A few times, Rek would pause at a mistake and redo that part, or start from the beginning. Other times, he'd keep going, and finish all the way through.

James listened to the song about three times before his eyes drifted to the messaging app on his computer.

Curious, and admittedly a little bored with essay-writing, he shot Rek a text.

Do you know how to play Schumann's "Kinderszenen" Traumerei No.7?

He heard Rek keep playing, and then there was a sudden pause in the music.

Considering that James shared a wall with Rek's bedroom, he had to assume that meant Rek saw the text and was reading it.

A moment later he heard Rek laugh.

James looked at the wall, wondering if Rek was going to text back or just yell through the wall. The latter would feel out of character, though. Jerica would, but he didn't see Rek doing that.

There was a brief silence and Rek didn't answer the text, but a minute later he started playing the requested piece.



James softly smiled to himself. He liked the piece, and he closed his eyes, taking the moment to just enjoy it. When Rek finally finished, James quickly looked back at his computer and typed another message.

Thank you. Your rendition of it was beautiful. Sorry to interrupt your practice. You can continue, now.

Not at all! I'm happy to take requests

you got any more?

James hummed and pursed his lips in thought.

Erik Satie - Gymnopédies, 3

He didn't know if Rek knew it already, but he did ask for a request. He figured he'd give it a shot.

There was a longer pause this time like Rek was looking something up, but a minute later he started playing the piece. This one was slightly more hesitant, like he hadn't practiced this one, but he played it with only a few mistakes. Still, James enjoyed it.



James, again, typed up a response once the song was done.

Lovely. Thank you, again. Once again, you impress me with your skill.

You're too kind

thank you

and thanks for not asking me to figure out how to play Ke$ha lol

James laughed quietly at that.

I just picked classical pieces I enjoy. I don't listen to artists like that much, anyway.

Daniel was supposed to Benji about how he was feeling at the party, but then he didn't. Benji emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later. They talked a little bit, mingled with the other party guests and had Bo's delicious party snacks, and then went right back home afterwards. Which was awkward, seeing that they lived together, but Daniel tried his best to ignore how badly he needed to address what had gone on.

Benji was tired, he reasoned with himself. Benji hadn't brought it up when he came back from the bathroom, so why should Daniel make him uncomfortable by bringing up the elephant in the room?

But then his promises of talking with Benji about it the next day became promising to talk about it with him the next day, and then another day on top of that, and, before Daniel knew it, an entire week had gone by without addressing the very obvious elephant they were both tiptoeing around. It had to be on Benji's mind, too. He kept avoiding Daniel every chance he got. The Skeptic hadn't posted any new articles, either.

When Daniel woke up on the seventh day after the party, he stared at his ceiling and decided that he couldn't put this off any longer. If Benji wasn't comfortable living with him after that, he could just buy himself an apartment near campus. It was drastic, and technically they could just keep avoiding each other like they were doing now, but Daniel honestly wasn't sure he could handle living in the same dorm if the feeling wasn't mutual.

Which it probably wasn't.

Daniel got dressed, opened his door, and-

-immediately froze. Benji was standing in front of his door, fiddling with the necklace dangling over his chest. Why couldn't Daniel shake the feeling that necklace was important?

"Can we talk?" Benji asked.

"Right here?" Daniel asked, even though what he wanted to ask was Right now?

Benji thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"Somewhere else," Benji suggested. "Like a..."

"...coffee shop," Daniel said. Benji gave him a surprised look. Daniel couldn't figure out why going to a coffee shop with Benji felt so right. It wasn't just that it was a perfect place for (a completely platonic) date. It was more than that. It was like they had done this all before—like they were just playing out a script they had read a hundred times in the past, and the only reason Daniel couldn't remember was because he was so in the moment. He wasn't sure if he believed in fate, but this felt like it was.

"...I was thinking the same thing," Benji finally said.

Maybe Benji had read that script, too.



They walked to a coffee shop just a block away from campus. After getting their coffee and some breakfast, they found a table in the very back corner of the shop. Neither one said anything at first. They just ate their food and silently sipped their drinks. Now was the perfect time to admit the truth, but Daniel's brain suddenly decided it didn't want to make words work any more.

"I...want to talk about the party," Benji said.

Daniel took a sharp sip of coffee, still hot enough to burn his tongue. "...You do?"

Benji looked down at the table. "I...don't know how I didn't notice it before, but being with you feels...right. I started to realize it at the party. When Lordy made that comment, something just...clicked."

Daniel held his breath.

This could still be a platonic thing. He didn't want to get his hopes up. But the way that Benji was describing his feelings right now sounded decidedly not platonic, and Daniel couldn't stop himself from hoping his gut feeling really was right.

"At the start of the semester," Benji said, "you mentioned how you thought it was weird that we had the same classes with so many people. You said that it might have been fate then. I don't know if I agree with that. But being roommates with you and having the same classes does feel like that. It feels like we have something different tying us together, like there's a supernatural power out there in the universe keeping us from drifting apart. I-I know it sounds weird, but..."

Daniel quickly shook his head.

"No," he protested. "I understand."

Benji hesitated. "You do?"

Daniel nodded. "What we have feels different. Like it's a special kind of lov-connection. Our friendship wasn't forced, but it just feels..."

"Right," Benji finished.

"Yeah."

Benji looked back down at his coffee.

Daniel took a deep breath, realizing that this was his chance. "Would...Would it feel as right if we were more than friends?"

Benji's head shot up, brown eyes wide. For a moment, the lighting shifted so his eyes looked more red than brown.

"Would it feel as right to you?" Benji asked.

"...It would."

"Oh," Benji said.

"Yeah," Daniel said, looking down at his own coffee now. He wasn't sure he wanted to see Benji's face—that he wanted to see Benji's disapproval towards the suggestion. But when Daniel finally mustered the courage to see Benji's reaction, he looked up to see that Benji's hands were in front of his mouth. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were still wide, but he didn't look scared or upset.

He looked...happy. Relieved, even.

"I feel the same way," Benji said.

Now it was Daniel's eyes widened. "Oh. It's...it's mutual?"

Benji nodded.

And then they both let out relieved laughs, Daniel unable to fight the grin that stretched across his face. "I've been avoiding bringing it up for the past week because I was scared it wasn't."

"I was scared of the same thing," Benji admitted. He was smiling, too.

When their laughter finally died down, Daniel faltered. "...What next? Are we...a thing now? Or are we supposed to go on more dates before we can say we're a couple?"

Benji thought for a moment.

"...Saying we're a couple right now feels right," he said, with an almost mischevious smile dancing on his lips.

"You know," Daniel said, taking a sip of his coffee, "it does."

Rek flinched slightly as the last note he played was sour. He'd done... okay, with that run through, up to that point. But it would be just his luck to botch it at the very end. Oh well. He'd simply need to keep practicing. He could get it down if he worked at it hard enough. "I'll fix that before the exhibit." He meant it as a joke, but he wasn't sure his tone had conveyed it, so he offered a lame grin.

Evaline was standing next to him, slightly leaning on the piano but careful to not touch any keys. They had exchanged numbers during the Halloween party to arrange for this meeting, or maybe it was an audition. Rek didn't really know what this was. It wasn't even that clear if they were friends yet.

"I think it sounds good. What is there to fix?" she asked, peering down at him.

"This." He played the last few notes the way he'd just played them. "Is supposed to be..." Then he played the ending of the piece how it was supposed to sound. He was only a note off, but it was painful to his ear. "This."

Evaline slightly smiled, clearly amused. "I really don't think this audience will hear the difference. But if it's any consolation, I think it's admirable that you have an ear for intonation."

"Well, that's good to know." Rek smiled back at her, pleased at the compliment. "Always like having confirmation that I'm a harsher critic than my audience is."

Evaline paused. "That's not sarcasm... is it?"

"Um..." Rek blinked at her, the smile faltering a bit. "I mean... no? It's... a joke. But, I, um..." He cleared his throat, feeling awkwardness welling up in him again. He didn't know what it was about Evaline, but she threw him off any semblance of suave that he might otherwise have. "Anyway. I'll keep practicing, so it'll be a non-issue. Pinky promise."

Evaline had casually turned her head away from him, but Rek swore that he noticed her flushing from embarrassment as well.

"That's..." She stood up straighter until she no longer leaned on the piano. "Yeah. That's fine. No problem." She cleared her throat, awkwardly eyeing him and the door. "Do you, uh... do you have any questions or anything else you want to go over?"

"I mean..." Rek shrugged, also glancing towards the door. Did she want to leave? Rek didn't want her to feel like she had to stay if she didn't want to. But, they had met up for a reason, and he wasn't certain that she'd told him everything that he needed to know. "You just saw the entirety of what I have planned. Is there anything else I should know?"

"Oh... yes, let me send you the invitation," Evaline murmured as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. "One moment. I'll email you the calendar invite. It should have all the information you need, and I'll make sure you're on the guest list."

"Finally, an invitation I'm looking forward to receiving," Rek said with a playful grin.

Evaline glanced up with a hesitation. "Do you... not normally enjoy getting invited to events?" she asked.

"I..." Rek cleared his throat again, this smile also fading, as Evaline made things awkward. Again. "It was... a joke." He needed to stop trying those around Evaline. They clearly weren't going well. "You know, since the last time we -- I-- got an invite, it was to a frathouse... which is not... exactly... my... scene."

"Oh. Hah. Right. No, that's..." She awkwardly also cleared her throat and glanced up at the ceiling, clearly embarrassed. "I understand. I mean, that's not really my scene either. I thought I'd go and give it a try, but I don't think I'd go back. There's not really a reason to anymore. Why, uh..." She stole another glance at him. "Why did you end up going, then?"

"Oh, uh, you know -- Jer." Rek shrugged, leaning back a bit and crossing his arms. "It seemed to matter a lot to her. And Elias. So I agreed."

Evaline nodded vigorously. "Right, yeah. Elias sent me the invitation too. I mean, you probably got it from Jerica, and I don't know her too well, but I know what you mean. Same boat... Kind of."

"Heh." Rek smirked slightly. "Yeah... surprisingly enough, I actually got the invite from Elias -- but, like... Jerica was gonna make sure I was there, invite or not haha. It's just how she is." He thought for a moment. "The invitations were impressive, though. He was so proud of himself."

"I know," Evaline said with a sigh. "He made me Photoshop some of it. I don't know why he says he can Photoshop things. He uses MS Paint. Not even the new Paint. The old MS Paint."

Rek laughed, grinning. Somehow, that didn't surprise him. Even a little. "That tracks."

Evaline offered a little smile back, letting a short silence pass before she quickly filled it. "You, uh... Your piano skills are impressive, though. Thank you for offering to play." She paused for a second, wincing. "I mean, I guess I offered it to you, but you know what I mean."

"Oh, heh, thanks!" Rek dipped his head, feeling a bit of warmth creep into his face. He liked knowing he was good at what he did -- like, getting external validation for something he loved on such a personal level. But it also made him feel incredibly awkward to receive any sort of positive feedback whatsoever. "It'll be... fun. I'm, uh, glad you... asked. It'll be good."

"I agree," Evaline said, and let another short pause pass, but it must have felt like an eternity for her because she released an exasperated sigh and rubbed her face. "Okay, so, just so we're clear, I know we both got off on the wrong foot at the beginning, and we're trying to get past that, but I can't help but still feel a little awkward. It's not just me, is it?"

"Um, yeah, no..." Rek hesitated, clearing his throat, not quite sure what he'd just agreed to. Or what he should have agreed to.

"So it's pointless if I propose 'let's start over' because we are already doing that. Correct? Am I overthinking this?" she continued with barely any pause.

"Um..." Rek blinked at her.

"I mean, I'm fine with being friends, Rek. It's just..." She sharply turned towards him, frowning as she gestured up and down towards him. "Why are you making this weird?"

"Why am I making this weird?" he snapped before he had a chance to censor himself. "You--" he caught himself, belatedly. He took a deep breath.

"It's only weird because you're making this weird," Evaline shot back.

"No, it's weird because you're taking all my jokes seriously."

"It's not my fault you keep saying dry self-depreciating jokes!" she said hastily.

"Well it's not my fault that you have no sense of humor." Rek bit his fist. Why did Evaline bring out the worst in him? "Sorry... I..." He growled, frustrated.

Evaline squinted at him. Earlier she exhibited some signs of annoyance, but now she was just hard to read.

"Sorry for the self-depreciating jokes or the witty insult?" she asked more calmly.

"The... insult." He was flustered now. "I'm not sorry for-- I..." He sighed. "Or maybe I am. I don't know at this point. It's just........ awkward."

Evaline stared at him for another second before the edges of her lips started to turn into a smile, and she breathily laughed out of her nose, shaking her head. "Sounds like you're now the one who takes your jokes seriously. Who's making this weird now?"

"Still you." But he laughed a bit. "Or... us. We're destined to be awkward turtles."

"I prefer the term awkward duckling," she said with a smile. "Honestly, I think it's just an art student thing. Maybe that's why none of us have art friends."

Rek laughed a bit, raising his hands to do the awkward turtle. "But does the duckling have such an adorable accompanying motion?"

"Careful," she cooed. "This is giving me inspiration to draw the cursed image in my head. Strangely adorable, though."

"Hah!" He grinned at her, feeling some of the tension in his shoulders starting to relax. He did genuinely want to be Evaline's friend. So he was hopeful that maybe they could make it past this awkwardness. Figure out how to communicate like normal adults. "Do it. The world needs more cursed adorable awkward ducklings."

Bo knew that they were going on a hike, so that meant dressing the part. They were going to be outdoors for a few hours, and like a responsible conisseur of foods, he was going to come prepared with plenty of snacks and water. He packed up a backpack with sandwiches, fruit, and energy bars along with three water bottles for each of them. In the smaller pockets he stuck in sunscreen, bug spray, a little first-aid kid, anti-itch cream, and overall probably much more than they were likely to need, but at least he had it, right? Did he need a hunting knife and a flashlight? It wasn't like they were going monster hunting. It was just a hike.

But it was too late, now. He'd already packed it. Might as well come overprepared.

By the time Bo was ready, he felt like he looked like a very stereotypical dad, which was perfect. It was a look. He had a green tshirt that had a picture of a sea-bass on it, paired with khaki shorts and a white bucket hat. And of course, he had white ankle-socks with his clunky hiking shoes. And paired with the backpack? It was perfect.

To top it all off, he got one of those harnesses that held babies on your chest, except one for puppies, and he plopped Bugs in, making sure he was secure and comfortable. And because Bugs was coming, he also packed poop-bags and a little bowl for him to drink out of, as well as puppy food.

When he heard the knock at the door, he'd just finished strapping Bugs in, so it was perfect. He was ready!

On light feet he hopped to the door and opened it, smiling wide as he looked down at Jerica.

"I'm ready to take pictures of bugs and plants," he said.

"Aye! Glad to hear it!" Jerica smiled up at him, then she took a moment to look him up and down, and her smile turned more amused.

She was wearing a pair of black leggings and a light blue tank top that had the word 'Varsity' printed across it in cursive, along with a pair of black Nike sneakers. In her left hand she held her waterbottle by hooking her finger through the little loop at the top next to the lid. Her right hand was behind her back.

"Speaking of plants..." she said. "Flowers are nice... so I thought I'd bring you one."

With that, she pulled her right hand around to reveal a single white camellia.



"The lady at the store says this one means I think you're cute." She flushed a bit and smiled shyly as she held it out to him.

Bo felt his heart skip a beat as his face started to burn, and he couldn't help but smile as he took the flower, holding it up to give it a little sniff. It smelled nice, and he continued to hold it close to his nose until Bugs started taking interest in it and tried to nip at the stem. Then he held it out of Bugs's reach.

"Thanks," he said. "I should uh-- can I go put this in water real quick so it doesn't die?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Bo nodded and skipped back inside, leaving the front door open for Jerica to come in if she wanted as he hurried into the kitchen and grabbed a tall glass - because he didn't own a vase - and put water in it, and then the flower. Then he hurried across the apartment into his room, setting the flower safely on his desk by the window where it'd get sun and he could lock it away from curious chickens. AKA Nugs. He closed the door to his bedroom and then hurried back to the front door.

"Okay! The package is secure," he said. "I'm ready now!"

Jerica had stepped slightly inside, but stopped while she was still standing in the doorway. But when he approached, she nodded and then stepped back out into the hall. "Great! Mission success."

Bo followed her out and locked the door behind him, sticking his keys in his pocket.

"Ready for motorcyle ride part two?" he asked.

"Not gonna burn my feet this time," Jerica said, picking her right foot up to show off her sneakers rather than heels. "Better shoe choices have been made."

"Smart choice," Bo said. "So uh, will there be a lot of people on the trail we're going on?"

"I don't know," she answered. "It's a pretty easy trail, so maybe. Since it's the weekend and all."

"An easy trail sounds good, though," Bo said. "I can let Bugs walk some of it, probably. He likely won't walk the whole thing, though. He's just a baby."

At that, Bo patted Bugs's head.

"Lil bebe," Jerica said with a smile. "That sounds great. I'm glad you're bringing him."

"I'm glad you're cool with it," Bo said. "I figure it wouldn't hurt. Puppy gets more socialized with nature and people. Maybe other dogs on the trail, too."

"Yeah, for sure," Jerica agreed. "Plus, who doesn't love a good hike?"

"That's a good question. I actually know people who don't like hikes, but I am not one of them," Bo said with a little laugh. "I mean, it's just like, a slightly more intense walk in nature. Sometimes not even that intense."

"Yeah, this one's pretty mild," Jerica agreed. "But still fun. Have to see if we can find any creepy beetles for you this year."

"Who said they're creepy?" Bo asked. "I think they look sick."

"I did," she laughed. "That huge horn on top? Maaan."

"But it's just part of its head!" Bo said. "It didn't choose the horn life. The horn life chose it!"

"You make fair points," Jerica answered.

"Thank you. I am simply a cool-bug advocate," Bo said.

Jerica swung her water bottle as they walked. "A man of culture."

Bo grinned, and the two of them walked together down the stairwell and out the lobby. It was a short walk around the building to where Bo had parked his bike, and this time, when Bo handed Jerica the helmet he gave her a little smirk, remembering how much trouble she'd had getting it off last time.

"Here's your noggin shield," he said, grabbing his own helmet and putting it on.

"My old foe," she said playfully, grabbing it and pulling it on. She looked at the carrier. "No Bug-sized helmet, eh?"

"Unfortunately not," Bo said, putting his hands on either side of Bugs' head. "I will just drive especially carefully."

"Precious cargo," Jerica commented. "Gotta keep the puppy safe."

"Absolutely," Bo said as he glanced at the bike, and then Jerica. He hummed in thought for a moment.

"Proposition," he said, raising a finger. "If you're cool with it, could you wear the backpack so that you can actually hold onto me and not fall off? There's not really room for it in the lil compartments and whatnot."

"Ooh, I get the honors of the dad-backpack?" she teased, smiling at him. "Absolutely."

"I mean, when we get there I'll take it so you don't have to carry it around!" Bo said. "But just for the ride. Otherwise there's gonna be an awkward... backpack between you and me. Which will probably just make it uncomfortable for you."

"I kid," Jerica answered. "I'm happy to wear it. It's a smart move."

Bo nodded and slipped the backpack off, handing it over to Jerica.

"I hope it's not uh..." he paused, not quite finishing his sentence as he watched Jerica put it on. There was a lot in the bag, so he just hoped it wasn't uncomfortably heavy.

"I gots dis," Jerica said, tightening the straps to actually fit herself. "I am a football dude afterall."

"Football gal," Bo said with a small smile.

He patted Jerica on the shoulder before hopping on the bike. Jerica followed suit, getting on and wrapping her arms around him. She hesitated a bit, not quite sure where to put her hands since Bugs was on Bo's front. She settled for going low and wrapping her hands around Bo's abdomen instead.

Bo stuck the keys in the ignition and started it up, letting the engine rumble to life a little before he turned them out into the street. Jerica held on tightly, but not too-tight. Still, Bo wouldn't have minded it either way. It was like a big long hug. It was nice.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the park Jerica had in mind, and that was with Bo winding through traffic -- because what was the point of having a motorcycle if you didn't take advantage of being able to zoom past clunky cars? Bo had vaguely memorized the first few turns, but he had to follow signs to find the entrance for the hiking trail. Thankfully, the little parking lot wasn't too full. There were only five cars in the lot, and Bo was able to get a spot right next to the water and porta-potty station.

When they came to a stop he glanced over his shoulder at Jerica.

"You good?" he asked.

"All good," she answered. She swung her leg over the bike and stepped off, then started fighting with her helmet as she tried to get it off.

Bo tried to hold back a laugh, and before he even got his helmet off, he waved to her for her to come over as he still sat on the bike.

"I swear I'll get these figured out some day," she said, striding forward so he could help.

"I think it's kinda funny," Bo said as he reached under her chin, setting her free and pulling the helmet off. "There ya go."

"Thanks." She tucked it under her arm and tried to smooth her hair down with her free hand.

Bo hopped off the bike, quickly stashing the helmets away before he turned back to Jer.

"Backpack. Gimme," he said with his hands outstreched.

"What do you even have in here?" Jerica asked as she started to shrug it off.

Bo took the backpack to quickly relieve it from her and then slid it over his shoulders.

"I've got lots of water, which is contributing to most of the weight. Also snacks and puppy poopoo bags," Bo elaborated.

"Ahh," Jerica said. "Smart. Came prepared. Love to see it."

"If you get hungry or thirsty just let me know," Bo said, shifting his shoulders to get the backpack more comfortable. It was kind of nice. Bugs and the backpack balanced out.

"Will do." Jerica watched him for a moment. "Do you want me to carry something? I feel bad that you've got it all."

"Bro I literally brought all this stuff for me to carry," Bo said. "Not for you to carry. I'm good. This is all part of the experi-ahnce."

She didn't look fully sold, but she nodded anyway. "Okay, well, if you get tired or change your mind or whatever, I don't mind taking a turn. Work on that endurance, yo."

"Will do," Bo said. Except he probably wouldn't. He could handle it, but he appreciated the offer.

At that, the two of them turned towards the hiking trail-head, and Bo followed after Jerica, who started leading the way.

"So, I don't need like, a fancy camera, right? Just my phone will do?" Bo asked.

"Nah, I just brought my phone," Jerica said, pulling it out of her pocket and wagging it a bit. "There's this app. iNaturalist. We put things in there."

"Ooooooooh!" Bo said. "That's cool. Do you have it or should I download it?" Bo asked.

"I have it," Jerica said, flicking open her phone. "But you can also get it if you want. It's free. That way you can put in pics too, if you want."

"I think I won't just 'cuz it'll take a lot of data to download with no wifi," Bo said with a little laugh and a smile. "But you can have my pics for your app."

"Valid," Jerica answered. "Plus you got a lot going on anyway. Dad-backpack. Dog-father. Chef of many hats."

"I can't do it all," Bo said with a shrug. "You can be the nature cataloguer. Catalogue... yeah. It's a verb, now."

"I feel like that's a thing, yeah," Jerica agreed with a small smile. "But you gotta help me look."

"Can do," Bo said. "I'm not sure I know specific things to look for, but if I see anything cool I'll point it out. I assume this means we'll be walking at a slow pace so we can actually look at stuff."

"Yep," Jerica said. "No rush. We're here for a good time not a... or... both? A good time and a long time? I don't know. But we can take it easy."

"Long time is relative. What even is a long time, really?" Bo said with a hum, rubbing his chin dramatically in thought.

"True point," Jerica agreed. "Though they say time flies when you're having fun... and hopefully we'll have fun."

"Yeah!" Bo said with a little smile.

At that, the two of them were on their way. Thankfully, the weather was pretty pleasant. It was that happy medium -- cool enough that if you were really active it was perfect, and if you stayed still it was maybe just a little chilly, but not too bad. It was fall, but thankfully the falls in the area were pretty mild.

Bo and Jerica talked for a bit, but eventually their commentary became more spaced out as they walked side-by-side. The silences that passed between them were comfortable as the two of them slowly scanned the sides of the path, looking at the different plants and searching for anything of interest.

There were a few times where Jerica stopped to point out certain types of plants. Bo didn't really recognize them or know their names, but he enjoyed hearing Jerica talk about what made them special, and he felt like he was learning about them too, which was nice. But what he enjoyed more was learning about her too, in a way. She liked this stuff, and it made him happy to see her face light up when she found a little critter crawling over a leaf or a spider hiding in its web.

There was a moment where the two of them started walking under a large arch of overgrown trees. Bo had to duck his head a bit so that his head didn't get clipped by any branches or vines, but since he was so up-in-the-face of nature, he did notice something that he thought was pretty cool.

Up in one of the trees, there was an isolated cluster of branches and leaves that was bound up by thick layers of a spider's web. It almost looked like a nest.

"Oooooh," he said softly as he paused in his steps, getting on his tippy-toes to look at it closer.

Then he saw it.

A big, brown spider with long legs slowly crawling out of the little nest. For a moment, he and the spider stared at each other, and he felt like they reached a mutual understanding. They were just going to look at each other from afar.

Carefully as not to spook it, he pulled out his phone and lifted it up, letting the camera focus before snapping a pic.

"Hello Mr.Spee-ider," Bo said softly. "Please pose for your unsolicited photoshoot."

"Ohhhh, dude!" Jerica whirled back around to take a look. "Wait, where's the spider?"

"It's up high in the tree," Bo said, pointing. "Can you see from where you're at?"

"No." She pouted, getting on her tip toes and craning her neck. She huffed a sigh and went back to being flat-footed. "I too smol."

Bo pouted for a moment, and then pocketed his phone away. He looked down at Bugs, who he had leashed at the moment. He slipped the loop of the leash around his wrist.

"Okay," he said, squatting down a little. "I'll lift you up."

"I..." she laughed. "I'm too heavy."

"Bet," he said as he quickly scooped her up, with his hands under her arms. He paused for a moment to heave her up, letting her feet land just above his knees to distribute the weight more but still give her a few extra inches of height.

"There!" he said. "Can you see it now? It's a big brown spider. Looks like a polite little guy."

Jerica squealed at first but started laughing. She put her feet gently on his knees to steady herself then poked her head up. "Ooh! Cool! It's a Fishing Spider!"



"Does he have a little fishing pole too?" Bo joked, still focusing mostly on keeping Jerica steady.

"Ha! Oh my gosh he's so cute!" Jerica grinned as she she admired the spider. "Did you already get a good picture of it?"

"I think so!" Bo said. "Do you want to try getting a shot or are you good with mine?"

"Yours is good," Jerica answered. She looked at the spider for another moment, then, "Okay, you can put me down. You proved your point haha."

Bo smiled to himself as he lifted Jerica up off his knees and then plopped her down on the ground, pulling his hands away and tugging on Bugs' leash. He'd started wandering too far off the trail, and Bo didn't want to have to be plucking tics off him later. He'd still check, anyway, though.

"Thank you," Jerica said, giving him a charming grin. "There's some tent caterpillars up there, too. Did you see them?"

"There's caterpillars?!" Bo asked, immediately shooting his eyes back up into the trees, searching. "What do they look like?"

"See back there behind the spiderweb?" Jerica asked, pointing vaguely even though she clearly couldn't see anymore. "It looks like another web? It's got caterpillars inside."



"Woahhhh," Bo said, finding what she was describing after a few more seconds of narrowing it down. "Omg. Look at those little guys. Just little dudes... chillin. Wow. I love them."

Jerica smiled at him. "Yeah! They're the uhhh... larvae? Of some moths or something."

Bo lifted up his camera and got on the tips of his toes again, shooting the best picture he could as he quietly got as close as possible without disturbing them. Then he slowly lowered back to the ground and showed Jerica.

"Does this work?" he asked.

"It's perfect," she answered. "I love them. So cute, building their own little house."

"They're doing such a good job, too," Bo said, staring down at the picture. "Teamwork."

He then swiped to show the picture of the spider, getting a closer look at it. It kind of felt like the spider really was looking into the camera. He felt lucky.

"And here's the fisherman," Bo said.

"Whoa," Jerica said admiringly. "You got such a good picture of it! Look at it! Oh my gosh. Love it."

"This is the best photo I have ever taken," Bo said with a little laugh. "I'm going to print it and frame it. Spider on my wall."

"I'm sure it's honored," Jerica said with a grin. "Do you like bugs slash arachnids slash creepy crawlies?"

"I just think they're neat," Bo said with a soft smile, looking down at the spider picture with pride.


"I love watching spiders spin webs," Jerica said. "So intricate."

"They're just out here, pooping out a pretty pattern," Bo said. "Wish that were me."

Jerica laughed. "Don't we all?"

Bo laughed with her, turning to her with a bright smile as he tucked his phone back away and tugged on the leash, drawing Bugs near. He leaned over and picked Bugs up, holding the little puppy to his chest for a moment. Thankfully, Bugs was a very relaxed little baby pug who enjoyed being held, so he didn't fight it.

"If you were a spider, what kind would you want to be?" Bo asked.

"I'd be Lucas," Jerica said without hesitation, giving a playful grin. "Have you seen that cartoon?"

"Are those the ones on Youtube with the fuzzy little animated spider? I think I have seen them."

"Yep!" Jerica said. "So cute."

"Lucas is adorable," Bo said with a smile. "That's perfect for you."

Jerica blushed but smiled, giving a cute little giggle. "What about you?"

"I think I'd wanna be a big tarantula," Bo said. "One that's really fuzzy and one of the brown ones I think. I feel like it makes sense. Big person, big spider. Also, tarantulas are cool and they move super fast and you can pet them."

Jerica shuddered a bit. "Oh, gosh, you like tarantulas? They psyche me out."

"But have you ever held one?" Bo asked with pleading eyes. "They're just chill little dudes. They don't hurt you as long as you're chill. Just like with most animals, honestly."

"I have, actually," Jerica answered. "I had one sit on my lap, and then someone scared it and it went running straight up my shirt towards my face. I was... not chill about that."

"Awhh," Bo said with more empathy and understanding this time. "Okay, that's scary. I'm sorry your tarantula experience went so poorly."

He reached over and patted her gently on the shoulder.

"If we run into any tarantulas I'll just keep it to myself, then," Bo said.

"Wait, do tarantulas--?" She looked at him with wide eyes, clearly horrified by the possibility.

"I actually have no idea," Bo said. "I would google it but I don't think I have service. I think the answer's no, though."

"I will fully sacrifice Bugs as tarantula bait if we run into one," she joked.

Bo did a fake gasp, putting his hand over Bug's ears.

"I would never," he said playfully. "Buggy baby, I'd protect you from the big spider."

Bugs, of course, didn't really reply apart from shaking his head out of Bo's grasp and licking Bo's hand.

Jerica laughed and reached over, giving Bugs a pat. "Okay, maybe I wouldn't... but I would run away. Spiders should not be bigger than my head."

"Rude of you to put that limitation of them," Bo countered. "But understandable. You're faster than me anyway, so in a race where we're both running from a tarantula, it'd get me first."

"Ah, but you're one of them," Jerica countered. "A tarantula-friend. So it wouldn't try to eat your face off."

"I... don't think spiders are even capable of that unless you're like, already dead," Bo said, squinting his eyes. "Except for maybe Shelob, but she's like, fictional."

"SHELOB!" Jerica shouted. Her eyes went wide and she put a hand over her mouth, flushing in embarrassment. "Oh my gosh, that was really loud, sorry."

Bo only laughed.

"Excited?" he asked jokingly.

"That was such a... a..." Jerica shook her head with a smile. "I love that movie."

"I dont remember what's all in which movie super clearly," Bo said. "But I clearly remember the Shelob scene. And also the part where they talk about potatoes."

"Boil 'em, mash 'em, put 'em in a stew," Jerica said.

"PUT EM IN A STEW," Bo said almost-in-unison with her.

Jerica laughed.

"You can also fry them," Bo said. "And bake them. But I guess they don't have potato chips in Lord of the Rings."

"Sad!" Jerica commented. "Hey, have you ever made like homemade potato chip? Rek did that once. It was super good."

"I did like, once," Bo said. "It was for an assignment. They turned out alright but I think I just... got lazy. It's a lot of work. Good, but I'll just eat regular potato chips."

"Valid," Jerica answered. "He only made them once. And some were too thick so it was more like fried potatoes than potato chips. But was still an experience."

"An experimental experience," Bo said. The alliteration made him happy to say.

"An excellent one at that," Jerica added with a grin. "I also made funnel cake once. It actually came out pretty okay."

"Ooooh, nice!" Bo said, slowly setting Bugs back on the ground. "Funnel cake is so pleasing."

"It was satisfying to make," Jerica agreed. "It was not satisfying to clean up. I had powdered sugar everywhere."

"That's why bakers wear aprons," Bo said.

"Smort," Jerica answered. "Do you have a cute one?"

"I have one that my dad gave me," Bo said. "And it says: 'A legend in the baking,' on it."

Jerica laughed. "That's amazing."

"I feel very 'walked-out-of-a-magazine-catalogue' when wearing it," Bo said.

"'A magazine catalogue'?" Jerica mused, smirking a bit.

"I don't know I guess I just don't know anyone who actually wears stuff like that besides me, so I feel like..." Bo trailed off for a second before laughing. "Well, I guess it's real, so nevermind."

Jerica put her hand on his arm and smiled up at him. "I like your puns."

Bo looked down at her, and all of a sudden his stomach was bursting with butterflies, and he froze for a moment. It was such a simple little comment, and he didn't know why it was making him feel so flustered. A small, genuine smile came to his face as he felt his cheeks burn.

"Oh," he said softly. "Hah. I... thanks."

Jerica also flushed a bit and pulled her hand away, but smiled shyly. "Of course."

Bo felt like his mind was empty -- only full of fuzzy, happy feelings stirring in both his head and his gut. He felt the pause between them buzzing, and he found himself scrambling for words.

"Uh. Should we, like, keep looking for bugs?" he asked. "I mean actually bugs. Not Bugs the pug."

After hearing his name so many times, Bugs had started licking Bo's shirt.

"Oh, yeah!" Jerica said. "We totes should. We are finding a bunch of cool stuff. +10/10 good blitz-ing."

"Do you get a good grade for all of this? Or is it just for like, participation?" Bo asked.

"Oh, I only get three points extra credit for coming," Jerica answered with a shrug. "I just thought it'd be fun."

"You were right," Bo said with a smile.

Jerica beamed up at him. "I'm so glad you're having a good time... I am too. It's a... a good time."

"Yeah," Bo said, holding her gaze for just a second before he looked away, down the path.

"Maybe we could walk a bit and find a place to sit down and snack?" Bo suggested.

"Ohhhh, right! You came prepared, I forgot," Jerica said. "I'm down for snacking. Maybe up there next to the log? I think I see shade."

"Sounds perfect," Bo said with another smile.

Jerica smiled at him but didn't say anything. They walked side by side, chitchatting about nothing, until they got to the spot that Jerica had pointed out. When they got there they sat down and Jerica entertained Bugs the pug while Bo started pulling the food out of his backpack and setting it on the grassy patch in between them.

"What'd'ya make?" Jerica asked. She had Bugs scooped up in her left arm like a baby and was scratching his belly with her right hand.

"Nothing too fancy today," Bo said, offering her a sandwich. "Just some BLT sandwiches and chopped up some honeydew melon. And brought baby wipes since melons can get sticky."

"Can't wait," she said with a smile. "Sounds delicious."

Bo nodded and let Jerica take her sandwich as he pulled out his own, unwrapping the saran wrap around it. He took out a big bite, finding himself hungry the moment he did.

As he started eating, Bugs wandered over, staring at him with big puppy eyes. He didn't give in, of course. Instead, he dug into his backpack and pulled out Bugs's puppy bowl and poured some dog food into it from the little bag he brought. He placed the bowl on the ground and Bugs started eating, tail wagging.

"Man, you really thought of everything," Jerica commented past a mouthful of sandwich as she watched.

"Sometimes I manage to think of things," Bo said with his mouth half-full. "It's great when it works out."

"Big brain," Jerica answered. They sat in a comfortable silence, enjoying one another's company and also the food. After a while, Jerica broke it. "So... what's your thing? Like, the one thing that makes you happier than anything else?"

Bo was midway through a bite in his sandwich, and he paused for a moment, choosing to finish the bite and start chewing as he thought about the question and hummed in the back of his throat. He pursed his lips and scrunched them to the side as he squinted up at the sky, trying not to make the question more complicated than it was. It was simple, really.

When he finished chewing, he answered.

"I think the people I love and care about make me happier than anything else," he said. "Second to that is making food and eating food with said people. What about you?"

"I mean, same for the first part," Jerica answered. "I think my second though is feeling strong, like, physically. Football, lifting, other sports... you know? Just like feeling like I'm powerful." She shrugged. "I dunno."

"I like that," Bo mused. "It feels good to be strong. I'm glad that you enjoy it."

"Do you?" she asked, looking at him curiously. "I know you can lift a crazy amount. Does it make you feel good?"

Bo hummed again, looking down at his sandwich in his hands.

"I mean, I don't know that it's like, 'wow I really enjoy being strong,'" Bo said. "Like, of course I'm thankful for it and it's helpful and it's nice to exercise for health reasons, and I do like to get exercise, but more for like, the social aspect of it. I'm not really into just... maxxing out my strength for the sake of being strong, if that makes sense. At least, personally."

"Hmm, yeah." She looked at him thoughtfully and cocked her head to the side, clearly thinking. "I think for me, I like knowing that I can be safe. And keep the people I care about safe. I've... been in a lot of fights," she admitted sheepishly, although he already knew that from having to pull her off the guy at the party.

Bo hummed softly in understanding.

"So have I," he said quietly. "At least, I used to."

"Oh?" she asked gently.

"I had a lot of uh... how to say... pent up emotions when I was a kid," Bo said with a little laugh. "And didn't know how to express them. I guess it runs in the family, though. It was mostly in highschool, really. I actually got expelled and held back a year. Kind of a wild time."

Jerica's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but there was no judgement in it. "Wow, I never would have guessed that from you. You're so mellow now."

"I mean, I've actually kind of always--" Bo started to say, and then he squinted, cocking his head to the side. "Well. Okay. Nevermind. It would feel wrong to say I've always been like that. It would be more correct to say I was like that as a kid, but something just... I don't know, happened in my teen years."

What he wanted to say was that he was actually following in the footsteps of his father, but to say so felt like digging up dirt on his dad, and he didn't really want to do that. Jerica seemed to think pretty good things about his dad, and he didn't want to ruin that at the moment.

"Mm, that's fair," Jerica answered. "High schoolers are dicks. That was a lot of my fights, too. We grew up in a small town... and Rek... well..."

"Did you end up defending him a lot?" Bo asked, already doing the math.

"Oh, I knocked some heads together," Jerica confirmed. She laughed a bit, but it seemed more nervous than anything -- like she was actively trying to put humor into the situation. "The HPU football team isn't the first one that I've taken on, heh."

"Were those guys threatening you in the beginning?" Bo asked more gently. "I mean, I know they were being all intimidating and overall jerks, but... that's not cool. I'm sorry you went through all that."

"It's okay." Jerica shrugged. "I literally asked for it, joining the team and all. They would have left me alone if I hadn't pushed my luck and tried out. I think -- at first -- some of them felt a little threatened by me being on the team." She shrugged again. "Don't really know why though."

"Some guys are just a little more insecure, I think," Bo said. "They might not even have been aware of it, but they probably had believed that it wasn't a space for women to join 'cause of wack stuff... at what point did it feel like they started treating you like an equal, though?"

"It actually wasn't too long after J.R. got expelled," Jerica answered. "Davey told me that most of the team liked that I was there, but were scared of J.R. and he..." She laughed nervously. "He definitely was going to give me a thrashing if Lordshire hadn't stepped in. Right there in the hallway before Morri's class that first day, if you remember how humiliating that was for me."

"Oh gosh," Bo said quietly. "That feels like forever ago, but yeah. That was a bad day, huh."

"That was a bad week," Jerica agreed. "But, hey, it's when we met, so something good came out of it all."

Bo smiled softly at Jerica, realizing he hadn't touched his sandwich since the first bite. But that was okay. They weren't in a hurry.

"I guess so," he said. "And it all started with us talking gyms and lifting, I think."

"Oh goshhhhh," Jerica said, brightening. "I forgot all about that. I really started the friendship by shittalking, didn't I?" She laughed a bit.

"I mean, I thought you were just being funny, to be honest," Bo said with a little laugh. "I wasn't taking it too seriously."

"Same," she answered. "I run my mouth a lot... which you know."

Bo grinned. "Yeah. I know."

Jerica laughed a bit. "Yeahhh."

"Have you had much trouble since J.R.'s been gone?" Bo asked.

"No, actually!" Jerica said with a smile. "I now have the entirety of the football team on my side. It's a pretty sick place to be, not gonna lie."

"I'm glad," Bo said with a smile.

"Thanks, me too," Jerica said. "What about you, though? What changed after high school for you?"

"Therapy," Bo said with a little laugh. "And uh, getting expelled was a bit of a reality check for me. My dad like, sat me down and we had a real serious talk about my future, and who I want to be, and what path I was going down. It was really hard at first, but good. I think without him, it would've been a lot harder. He was really supportive and like, went out of his way to really be there for me. He's a really good dad."

She smiled at him. "I'm glad to hear that. And glad that you have him. A good father-like figure makes all the difference, doesn't it? Helps a lot."

"It really does," Bo agreed, finally taking another bite of his sandwich. There was a small pause before he spoke through his mouthful of food.

"Your uncle -- he was that for you, yeah?" Bo asked.

"Yeah," Jerica agreed with a small smile. "Derik is great. He 'is extremely concerned about my methods'" She did air quotes. "But was proud of me for standing up for people, I think. He wanted me to stop fighting, but I never got in trouble for it when I was doing it to protect Rek or anyone else. As long as I was stopping a bully he... well, he never really condoned it. But he understood." She nodded once. "I think that's the best way to put it. Derik understands. Me. Life. Everything."

"That's good," Bo said softly. "That he understands."

"Did your dad?" Jerica asked.

"Oh, yeah," Bo said with a little laugh. "He actually uh -- well, he condoned the fighting. The ones where it was me vs. bully, anyways. He always told me not to go seek the fights out but if I saw something, you know, you should do something if I could."

"And you still do," Jerica noted. "I do appreciate that, by the way."

"I mean, most of the time these days I don't even have to throw a punch. I just have to show up, looking the way I do, and suddenly everything deescalates," Bo said with a little laugh. "But that time with you though --"

He found himself smiling big, looking down at the ground.

"I mean, I didn't expect to have to hold you back, but, it happened," he said.

"Oh, haha! I meant with J.R. at the party and you rescuing me from him," she said. "But hah, yeah, that guy."

"Oh! Right, right," Bo laughed a little.

"I'll fite people for you, too," she said with a grin. "Ain't no one gonna pick on my Bo-Bo."

"Thankfully, not a lot of people have the uh..." Bo paused, trying to find a word a little less like 'balls' and a little more potent than 'guts,' but nothing came to him. "It's not like I have a line of people coming to beat me up. So you won't have to worry about that."

Jerica cracked her knuckles. "Good." She smirked and added playfully. "For them, I mean."

"Of course," Bo said, reciprocating the smirk.

Bo and Jerica continued to chat in-between eating their food, and eventually their finished off their sandwiches and decimated the tupperware box of melon. Bugs was happy with his portion at first, but as his food quickly dwindled, he started to beg again with his big-eyed stare. Bo, however, encouraged Jerica not to give in as to not encourage the bad habit. Puppies weren't meant to eat human food, nor were they meant to eat human amounts.

Eventually, they cleaned up and got back on the trail, walking in and out of shade and stopping to take pictures of a few more plants, a lizard, a few birds, and a cool purple flower with a name Bo forgot. The trail ended up being a three-mile loop, so when they reached the end they were back at the parkinglot. Fortunately, on the way back, the backpack was a lot lighter. They'd gone through all of the waterbottles and food, so it was just full of empty containers for the most part.

They rode back with the same setup as before, with Jerica wearing the backpack and Bugs riding in the harness strapped to Bo's chest while Jerica held around his waist. It was a nice ride back, and the cool breeze brushing past them was a nice relief. They'd left around 10am, and by the time they returned to the plaza, it was close to 2pm. When they hopped off his bike, Jerica didn't even try to get her helmet off, and instead just turned to him for him to take it off.

Before they knew it, they were heading back into the building with Bo walking Pugs on his leash, taking off the harness (mostly because it was making him sweaty) and chucking it into his backpack instead. They were slowly walking up the stairwell, mostly for Bugs' pace, since he had to hop up every step, but they finally made it into their hall. It was a little empty at the moment, with it being midday. Most people were either out doing something, with it being a Sunday.

Bo found his steps dragging a little bit as they came closer to Jerica's door.

"What was your favorite thing we found today?" Bo asked. Was he stalling? Maybe. A little bit. Yes.

"I liked the little skink," Jerica answered. "He was so cute!"



"I liked him too," Bo said with a smile. "He had such a cool little tail."

"Did you have a different favorite?" she asked, returning the smile.

"Oh, you already know what my favorite was," Bo said playfully. "The fisherman spidey."

"A solid choice." She nodded and pretended to stroke an invisible beard. "I see you know a quality animal when you see it."

"And quality people too," Bo said, honestly surprised by how quick he was to say that. Did that work? Did it make sense? She knew he was talking about her, right?

Jerica blushed a bit. "The company was the best part."

"Agreed," Bo said. He was unable to completely ignore Bugs, who had decided to sit on his foot. He looked down.

"You too, Buggy boy," he said.

"A solid third-wheel," Jerica commented, also looking down at Bugs.

Bo snorted at that.

"And a cute one," Bo said with a little laugh.

"I know you are but what am I?" Jerica said playfully. Almost immediately her cheeks flushed red and she looked a bit flustered, not meeting his gaze.

Bo snapped his eyes back up to her, finding his face burning as well as he stared at her for a moment. He felt his mind lag for a moment in the temporary surprise.

"Sorry," she murmured quickly.

"No," Bo said, just as quick. "I... I mean, I think it's worth answering."

He paused, but only for a split second as he summoned courage to just be honest.

"I think you're really beautiful, Jer," he said softly. "And cute, too."

Jerica's face flushed an even deeper shade of red. "I..." she laughed nervously. "Thank you. I'm... glad you think so. And, uh, I mean... you... too? I... am bad at compliments," she added. "But I appreciate it."

Bo smiled. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Me too."

"I don't think you are." She was recovering, and smiled a bit as she finally looked at him. "You make me feel all nice inside. You're very kind."

"Right back atchya," Bo said with a small smile, looking down at the ground.

He couldn't help that he felt so nervous. He didn't normally feel very nervous. It was only with Jerica, really. His stomach kept fluttering like a big butterfly party.

A brief silence passed between them.

Then, "So... I'd say date 2.0 was a success?"

"10/10 would date again--" flew out of Bo's mouth before he realized how dumb it probably sounded. He let out a nervous little laugh.

"I mean, uh," he corrected. "Yes."

Jerica laughed, grinning at him. "I mean if that's the case...date... 3.0?"

"I'd like that," Bo said with a smile. "When are you free next week?"

"Uhh, I have a game next Friday," Jerica answered. "Otherwise I'm free. We're moving into exam season which means out of party season. Sadly. But happy for date-ability!"

"I feel that," Bo said. "Less parties, but it's easier to make space for people who are really special."

He paused, but then nervously kept talking before they could start throwing compliments back and forth again.

"So, uh, what about... next Thursday?" he asked.

"Sounds perfect to me." She smiled up at him. "Your turn to pick the date."

"Well, I mean, I know I cook for you all the time..." Bo said, holding his hands together in front of him. "But, like, maybe I could make something really nice this time. Like, fancy? If you'd like that. You could come over and maybe we could eat out on the porch."

"I'd love that," she said, putting her hand on his arm. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"I suggested it because I want to," Bo said, leaving out the 'impress you' that almost came out at the end of that sentence.

"Then it's a date."

Bo felt a boost of giddy excitement spring up in his chest, and he couldn't help but smile.

"Great," he said, unable to stop smiling wide. "I'm excited."

Jerica mirrored the smile. "Me too! It'll be great."

"Well," Bo said. "I guess... no awkward goodbyes, right? So I'll see ya later?"

Jerica flushed red and hesitated a moment, looking like she had something she really wanted to say but couldn't quite spit out. She finally asked, "No kiss this time?"

The butterfly party in Bo's stomach decided now was the time to have a rave, and he felt his face start to burn.

"Would you like one?" Bo asked, his voice coming out quieter than he'd anticipated.

Jerica nodded. Then she hesitated, rubbing her arm like she was suddenly unsure of herself. "I mean... would you like that?"

Bo also nodded, and before he could chicken out, he reached out to gently put his hand behind Jerica's head and he went in for a kiss on the lips. Jerica puckered her lips and closed her eyes, leaning in.

Bo let it linger for a few seconds before pulling away, with his hand resting on her cheek. He was trying to think of something to say that wasn't dumb. Something that wouldn't ruin the moment.

"I could get behind kisses goodbye instead of awkward goodbyes," he said.

Jerica laughed nervously, but there was a genuine happiness in her eyes as she smiled at him. "I'm in." She stepped forward and wrapped him in a tight hug, pressing her head against his chest. "And a hug too, for good measure."

Bo hugged back, and he found himself holding the back of her head until the two of them pulled away.

"Well--" was all he got out before Bugs let out a little yap, and started jumping up on his legs, between him and Jerica. He looked down at Bugs, and it took him a second before he realized Bugs wanted in on the hug too.

Bo laughed and bent down to scoop him up, giving Bugs a big hug and a little kiss on his squishy pug head.

"There," he said to Bugs. "Happy now?"

Bugs was panting, and jerked up to lick Bo's chin, narrowly avoiding Bo's mouth. Bo tilted his head away.

"You're getting all the kisses today," Jerica joked with a laugh.

"Lucky me," Bo said, finally taking a small step back. "Well, what I was going to say was, I'll catch ya later."

He flashed her a big smile.

"And I have to go print out my spider picture so I can frame it, obviously," Bo said with a little laugh before he turned and started almost-skipping down the hall.

One month had passed since the Halloween party. All things considered, life was going pretty well for Evaline. Inspiration was hitting her every day to create more pieces, and it was reflected in her classes as well. She was also able to branch out and make more friends, even if the friendships at her university felt a little superficial. At the very least, Evaline was able to mend her friendship with Elias and Mel.

Maybe mend wasn't the right word. Instead she discovered how to adapt with them, and enjoy life as is. Living in the present was something her therapist was recommending she do, and everyday she was getting closer to living it.

It was easier with James, too. Weirdly, it should've been harder since they were technically long distance, but it just felt right. He was able to ground her and bring her to the present, and she enjoyed his company. They were able to communicate and compromise in a healthy manner, and if there was ever a disagreement, they always worked it out.

It was her weekend to stay at HPU again. They agreed to take turns commuting to see each other, and if it ever became too much, they'd meet in the middle. But since she had a sponsorship in HPU, it was more convenient to see him. Plus she knew he wouldn't voice a complaint like that, and that they were comfortable using FaceTime or phone calls as needed.

James told her that he had a surprise for when she visited today. Little did he know, she did too. And she was nervous to tell him.

Evaline leaned forward on the bench some more in anticipation, waiting for James to come out of the plaza building since neither of them wanted to meet in his apartment and potentially face Carter. When she heard the door open and saw the first hints of his outline, she quickly stood up and brushed herself down.

"Hey, there you are," she said with a smile, trying not to sound too nervous. A quick look at him revealed that he was looking more cowboyish than usual. He also requested that she wear outdoorsy clothes, so that couldn't be a coincidence. "So, what's this surprise you're hiding? It's not another costume party now, is it?"

"Costume party?" James said with a little grin. "No. I'd need my hat for that."

"Oh, my fault," Evaline said with a smirk. "Let me keep guessing. A square dance?"

"That would be fun, but you can keep guessing though," he said, his grin widening as he stopped in front of her, tilting his head to the side. "Follow me?"

Evaline grinned back, nodding her head towards the parking lot, but keeping her eyes on him. "Lead the way, cowboy."

They bantered back and forth as they made their way towards his car, with Evaline guessing silly answers and more somewhat serious ones until she found out that they were, indeed, going to a ranch. But not just any ranch. They were going to the one he worked at, where she could finally see Elliot in person, and all of the other stuff that he talked to her about.

It was a bit of a drive, but she didn't mind it since it was still quality time spent together. And when they finally reached the destination, the dust from the old road settled down and she could see acres of green land. Cattle littered the open field, munching on the wide pasture. There was a barn with horses, and another smaller barn with other animals like chickens and goats. The land was relatively flat and Evaline could just barely make out the fence on the otherside of the big grassy field.

She hummed after she finally closed the passenger side door, taking a deep brerath in. Evaline didn't mind city life, and she also didn't mind the peace and quiet of nature, but she never really took the time to appreciate the calm of rural areas. Maybe that was why James wanted to show her.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be," she said. "Quiet, too."

"Well, considering the next nearest house is several acres away, there's not a lot of noise out here," he said. "Except for the roosters in the morning, I guess. And the occasional bleating from goats. If you hear a scream it's probably a goat, so, don't worry about it."

Evaline chuckled. "Sounds promising. Will I see that in action today?"

"If you get lucky," James said with a little smile, pulling the car to a stop.

James showed her the fields first. They walked peacefully along the fenceline, first passing dozens of lines of hay bales rolled up from drying grass, and then open fields of cattle, all mowing about in the distance. James made some comments on specific cows, how some were easier to work with than others. Though they all looked the same to Evaline, it was still nice to hear James talk about it, since he clearly enjoyed working with the animals.

Eventually she got introduced to some smaller barn animals, including a bunch of chattering chickens in a coop and some energetic goats. She did, in fact, get to hear them bleat and yell, but she also got to meet a few baby goats, who were undeniably adorable and fun to play with. It was around that time when she also got to meet the Ranch owners as well - James's employers. They were an old couple, Kaleb and Laura, and both very sweet to talk to. They seemed happy to meet her, and mentioned more than once that James had bragged about her to them, which she couldn't help but notice made James blush a little.

Finally, James brought her around to the barn where the horses were boarded, and she got to meet Elliot. Though she'd already seen pictures and videos of him, it was different seeing the horse in person. James commented, though, that Elliot took to her surprisingly well. Almost like he knew her already.

"Maybe it's because you like me," Evaline half-joked.

"Or maybe you're just a natural with horses," James seemed to half-joke in return.

"Or -- and hear me out -- horses are more natural with me," she said back, obviously a joke, but said in a more serious voice to add on to the humor.

"Why not both?" James asked in return.

Elliot snorted through his nose, which made Evaline slyly smile as she patted his snout. "Fair point. Elliot agrees."

Before it could get too dark, they finally headed back towards the car to go back to HPU. The day was filled with wonder and goofy laughs, and although this was an atypical date, Evaline was glad that James wanted to show her all of this. She wanted to be closer to him, and that meant learning all sides of him, even if she was unfamiliar or uncomfortable with it. They could grow together this way.

At least, that was what she told herself the entire ride back. Or maybe it didn't and shouldn't mean anything. Maybe this was just a trip to see cute animals.

A comfortable silence fell when dusk fell and they were winding their way back towards the city, to a small park that had become a common meeting place, now. But then the silence started to sound loud, and the familiar feeling of being stuck in her own head returned, and she just had to say something.

"Was there a reason you wanted to take me to the ranch?" she asked, then hesitated. "Just curious."

James glanced at her before turning his eyes back to the road.

"I thought it could be fun, and I wanted you to see what I do in person," he said with a small smile. "So you could feel more like you're a part of it."

Evaline sighed a small breath of relief. She didn't really know why she was relieved. She half-expected this answer.

"Well... you're right on both accounts. It was fun, and it was nice to see this part of your life." She offered a little smile. "Thanks for taking me."

"Of couse," James said. "Thanks for coming along for the surprise. Though I'm sure you figured it out 20 minutes into the drive."

Evaline smirked. "It became more obvious when I saw what you were wearing. That and telling me to dress in outdoorsy clothes gave it away, but I wanted to entertain the idea with you that it could be something else. So, thank you for that as well."

James smirked, looking at her out of the side of his eyes for just a moment.

"Well, I wanted you to be comfortable since it would be a few hours outside," he said. "I had a feeling it might give it away, but who's to say I didn't try?"

Evaline's smile widened as she took advantage of him driving by lingering her gaze on him longer than usual. "You tried plenty. More than enough, really. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said softly. "I'm glad you had a good time."

She wanted to ask him if this truly was enough, but she decided to wait until they reached the park and sat on the they usually chatted on while the night became darker and they could more clearly see the stars.

And so she did exactly that, waiting until they reached their destination and climbed up a hill hand-in-hand, sitting on the bench where too many teenagers had scribbled their initials on it. What Evaline and James seemed to value most was peace, quiet, and privacy. They seemed to have that tonight, but the quiet didn't last too long since Evaline once again felt the need to blurt her racing thoughts.

"So, I have a couple more semesters of school, but I know you're graduating this spring," she said as calmly as she could, turning towards him. She wanted this to be a normal conversation like all others. "Do you have any plans?"

James turned to look at her, and it almost felt like he saw right through her question before she had a chance to break the news. That only made Evaline panic more than usual.

"I thought I'd ask because, well, I know our relationship is still new, and there's still a lot left to explore, but it's good to prepare. And, um, talk it through." She had no idea where she was going with this and felt the anxiety mix with embarrassment. "Your plans... my plans... you know?" she offered sheepishly, forcing herself to stop talking.

"I understand," James said, his voice gentle and calm. "I haven't landed on anything concrete yet post-graduation. I'm still considering my options. What about you?"

"I mean, I'll still be in school, and whatever direction you decide to take, I'll support you," she said instead. "You know that. Right?"

James seemed to focus his gaze on her more closely, and she couldn't help but feel like she was under some kind of microscope. He tilted his head to the side ever so slightly.

"I know," he said. "And I'll support you too, whichever direction you decide to take."

The last words seemed genuine but deliberate. Like he was asking her to just let it out already.

Evaline took in a deep breath. Just like how she was playing along pretending not to know where they were going today, James was entertaining her narrative even though she knew he knew. Or at least suspected, since he was sharp.

She tore her gaze away and peered up at the sky and the half-moon, letting a short silence fall between them so she could gather her thoughts first.

"Even if the direction I take ends up putting many more miles between us?" she asked softly.

He set his hand over hers, and she didn't hesitate to sandwich his hand between hers.

"We'll make it work," he said softly. "Now, what is it you've been trying to tell me?"

"I think you already know," she said with little sad smile as she squeezed his hand. "But I was accepted into the university I applied to in Paris. If I accept, I transfer next semester. I've been meaning to tell you earlier but... we've both been busy, and I didn't want to just spring this on you."

"Hey," James said, meeting her eyes. "I'm proud of you. Of course you got accepted - and I know this is something you've really wanted for a while. This is an opportunity you should take. You know, I'll still be here for you. I'm willing to figure this out."

"I know," Evaline said without hesitation between bites of her lip. "I know you are, and will be. I didn't doubt that. It's just..."

She sighed deeply, giving him a weak squeeze. She was already tired thinking about this future path, but knew she'd be more tired if she didn't think about it.

"Wouldn't it be difficult?" she finished.

"Yeah," James said with a small, gentle smile. "But just because something's difficult doesn't mean it's bad. We'll have to be more intentional, and trust each other even more. We'll have to grow in a lot of ways - ways we probably won't discover until it comes, but I'm willing to do it for you. I think you're worth it."

Evaline let his words hang in the air for a moment, not quite absorbing it just yet. She wanted to savor it, letting the weight of his words fall on her one-by-one. Yes, she was afraid - not of James, but of the uncertain future.

But whenever she was with him, suddenly the future seemed less scary.

There were words she wanted to say, words she was afraid to say, and words she didn't have the courage to say. But for now, she knew that all she had to do was agree to this uncertain future.

And that was enough.

With a smile, Evaline leaned in and kissed James on the cheek.

"I think you're worth it too," she said with a mixture of shyness and giddiness in her voice. "And I'll also try my best to make it work. Whatever it takes."

It was weird. She didn't think she'd fall for the romantic gentleman type again. Maybe she was bound to repeat history.

But honestly, she didn't care.

Things were looking up. Stressful, but still looking up.

Evaline had too much planning to do. It was almost fall break, and somehow she had managed to get ahead of her classes. She even managed to finish the horrid portrait of Lordshire, but she didn't plan on giving it to him until the end of the semester anyways. Classes may have been finished, but she had so much to do for next semester... Brush up on her French, look up places to stay, find roommates, budget, apply for the visa...

Despite all of this, Evaline made it her priority to take the bus to HPU so she can surprise James with a visit. Since her university was in the quarter system instead of semesters, it was perfectly aligned for her to spend as much time with him as possible. Not that she needed to, but... it'd just be nice to take advantage of it now while they were close.

By this time, she had memorized his class schedule and figured he was in his apartment by now. If he wasn't, he may have been in the library or another studying spot. Carter might be in the apartment, but she didn't care and would rather take her chances seeing him anyways.

There was also something satisfying about seeing Carter's smugness wear thin whenever she was around. It was like she was "stealing" James away, which sounded ridiculous, but considering she didn't really like Carter and James shouldn't either, Evaline took secret pleasure in seeing him mildly annoyed whenever she was around.

It took too many minutes waiting outside in the cold for someone to open the key-card-only door, but when she finally managed to get in, she rushed up the stairs until she was facing the familiar door. With one final deep breath, Evaline pushed her hair back and stood up straighter, firmly knocking on the door with her knuckles and waiting.

She heard silence for a beat, and then footsteps coming to the door. It felt like there was a pause - someone peeking through the peephole, perhaps - until the door opened.

It was... Carter.

He looked like he'd just rolled out of bed (which was entirely possible). His man-bun was a messy knot on top of his head and his t-shirt and sweats reeked of just-slept in. And also booze.

He had just the slightest hint of a smirk as he looked her up and down, casually leaning on the door, not quite holding it all the way open.

"James is in the shower," Carter said, barely hiding a smile. "Care to join him?"

"Funny," she said back without missing a bear, mirroring his faint smile. "I'm surprised you answered the door and didn't join him yourself."

Carter's eyebrows shot up, but his smirk grew.

"Don't mind if I do," he said, turning to close the door.

Before he could, though, Evaline quickly rammed her shoe against the doorframe so he couldn't close it yet.

"What?" Carter said, holding the door on her foot. "Want a threesome?"

"Why are you so annoyed all the time?" she asked, ripping the band aid off and not even bothering to ease into the question. "I found it amusing at first, but now it's just annoying. What did I ever do to you? Are you truly that petty if it's because I'm with James?"

Carter slowly opened the door again, revealing his face, on which his smirk had entirely disappeared and he looked her dead in the eyes.

"What gave you the impression I'm annoyed?" he said, his words clearly laced with venom.

"Is annoyed not the right word?" Evaline asked innocently, throwing the mockery back in his face as she pulled her foot back. "Sorry. Resentful."

Carter pressed his lips into a pursed frown.

"Hmm," he said. "Resentful, maybe. But not of you."

At that, he flashed a very brief smile that didn't even come close to meeting his eyes.

"Then of what?" she spat back, letting herself getting annoyed this time. "Are you sad that you don't have other friends? Is that it?"

Carter scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"You know, I thought if James fell for you, you'd be a little quicker than this," he muttered. "How disappointing. But I guess we all settle for something eventually."

Evaline rolled her eyes. At this point, Carter was trying too hard to get under her skin. He didn't even have to say anything mean. His laughable attempts were enough to irritate her.

"Ouch, I'm crushed," she said monotonously. "Is this what you do all day? Pick people apart and tear them down? You tell other people you're disappointed but you are the true disappointment. What a sad, sad life you live."

Carter pursed his lips together again and shrugged.

"You know," he said slowly, reaching into his pocket. Of all things she expected him to pull out, it wasn't a can of beer. But then again, maybe that was predictable for him at this point. Because of James, she already knew about his alcoholism.

He popped it open and took a sip before finishing his thought. Evaline simply shook her head, trying not to roll her eyes.

"You don't really hang around me often, so maybe you don't know. But I only reserve my insults for people I don't like whose reputations are already a fragile thread, but I pick my fights carefully. Burning a bridge with you means nothing to me in the long run, but I'd be a little more careful about yourself..."

He paused, glancing back into the apartment.

"Or maybe you'd be more motivated to protect your boyfriend," he said, looking back to meet her eyes. "All I'm saying is, it'd be wise for you to tread carefully."

Evaline kept her icy glare on his, feeling especially prickled by his thinly-veiled threat. She wouldn't go as far to say that she hated Carter, but for a second there, it sure felt like it.

"Is that a threat?" she asked cooly.

"Do you need everything spelled out for you?" Carter shot back quickly.

For a few seconds, the air was thick with tension as they glared at each other. It was almost laughable how she had to look down at him like a beer-drinking child, but that barely even registered to her. She didn't care if he was threatening her.

But she did care if he was using James to threaten her.

"I've met people like you before," she said hollowly, carefully selecting her wordrs. "People like you think they're invincible. Untouchable. Whatever you say, you don't face the consequences. Whatever you do, it's never your fault. People like you think you own the world, and people like you believe that everyone else is an asset. A tool to push your agenda. You've lived your entire life believing you are better than everyone else, but..."

She slightly tilted her head, smirking while keeping her eyes dead set on him.

"But you're not invincible. People like you have weaknesses. You have weaknesses. And you're trying so hard to hide it, but one of these days--"

She suddenly smacked her hand on the door for extra effect, the noise being far louder than she expected, but she didn't flinch nor pried her eyes away.

"--it'll overwhelm you, and you'll realize that you're not special. Once exposed, everyone will hate you. And then you'll be all alone in the world. You're just like everyone else. Sad. Lonely. And most of all, pathetic."

Carter kept his face an emotionless wall, but when she was done, he narrowed his eyes, and the most evil, wicked grin grew on his face.

"And on that day, I guess it'll be like looking in a mirror," he said lowly. "For you."

"What's wrong?" Evaline cooed, standing her ground. "Did my words cut so deep that you can only think of that sorry one-liner? Oh, you poor thing."

"No," Carter said, pulling back from the door. "I just... know something you don't. That's all."

As he took a few more steps away, he left the door open behind him.

"It was good to see you, Evaline," he said quietly, walking out of view.

This honestly felt like a trap, but Evaline wasn't scared of Carter. She had already reached a rock bottom of her life already, so whatever he did or said couldn't be so bad. And to be honest, a vigilante side of her wanted to crawl out and show him his place.

"Ominous," she replied blandly, stepping into the apartment and closing the door behind her. "So glad we can be friends."

She didn't even know if he heard her, but she didn't care. She'd been in this apartment plenty of times to invite herself in, and right now, she only wanted to talk to James. For all she knew, he could be lying.

Without hesitating, she walked down the hall towards the bathroom to meet James there, far too tired to be more polite and wait for him.

But before she even made it to the door, instead she saw Carter, walking down the hall to his room. And just a doorway down stood James, shirtless, with a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair still wet. She watched as James's eyes tracked with Carter, making eye contact with his roommate before he looked at Evaline, his eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. He had a toothbrush in his mouth, and he froze to a stop mid-brush, letting out a muffled noise from the back of his throat that made it sound like he almost choked on his toothbrush.

At the back of Evaline's mind, she knew how awkward this was. This was supposed to be a surprise, but no doubt Carter walking away and the pissed off look of her face gave away that something happened. Still, she didn't want to be in this apartment any longer or give Carter the satisfaction that her run-in with him meant anything.

So she immediately rushed in front of James, grabbed his free hand, and angrily stormed out of their apartment, basically having to push him out so that the door can slam.

James was silent as the air settled in the hallway, and to Evaline that moment felt like it stretched on for far too long, but it was only a split second before she huffed away still holding his hand, marching towards Elias's and Bo's apartment.

She'd rather they talk outside, but considering James was still shirtless, wet, wearing a towel, and holding a toothbrush, she didn't have too many options. Venting in front of Elias or other people wasn't exactly what she wanted to do right now, but she also knew James could finish his business in peace, and they didn't have to talk in the hallway where Carter could hear.

Immediately Evaline loudly knocked on the door. "Elias, Bo, it's Evaline. Can you let us in?" she asked hastily.

She was mostly hoping Bo would answer and Elias was at work, but the universe had to taunt her when the door opened and she saw Elias peering over them, hair a mess like he just woke up.

He looked confused at first, but when his eyes gravitated towards James, he grinned and leaned on the doorway, crossing his arms.

"Hubba bubba, what do we have here?" he said with a laugh and a smirk. "What brings ye ole couple to--"

Evaline's patience already wore then, and she nudged him out of the way.

"Can we come in? We're coming in," she announced, expecting James to follow.

She knew he had to be embarrassed, and just because of that, she was embarrassed too. But she was far too angry and annoyed to care about it right now.

Under normal circumstances, James would be more than happy to have Evaline show up at his door as a surprise. He'd surprised her in the same way some weekends, coming to visit her in return, but this had caught him by surprise in an entirely different way.

Fatefully and very unfortunately, he had been in the shower when Evaline presumably showed up, leaving Carter to answer the door. All he knew from the look on her face was that, evidently, something went very wrong. But with Carter, he really had no idea what it could've been. It could've been a number of things really, but instead of getting any answers, he was dragged into the hall in nothing but a towel by his clearly upset girlfriend and honestly, far too confused and embarassed to form words until they reached Elias's door.

And then Elias's comment made it worse. James felt his entire face burn as Evaline finally let go of her iron grip from his wrist and pushed her way into Elias's apartment, abandoning James in the hallway.

James wished he'd had the capacity to respond with more than a solid five-second delay. But he stood frozen, only staring after Evaline.

"Nice toothbrush," Elias said, resuming his spot back against the doorway with the toothy grin still plastered across his face.

It was still in his mouth. Right.

James slowly opened his mouth and grabbed the toothbrush, holding it in his hand.

"Sorry about this," James said, not quite feeling like he was in his body, or even on this planet. "I think it best to tell you I don't know what's going on, but--"

"James!" Evaline interrupted, pacing in the room but sharply looking back to glare at Elias. "Elias, let him in."

"Aye, aye, captain," Elias said playfully as he stood back and swooped his arm in front of him to gesture for James to come in. "The toweled man may come in."

At this rate, it didn't matter how much attention was brought to the towel, the toothbrush, or his near-nakedness. The damage was done, and James was already embarassed beyond recovery. At the very least, Elias hadn't made any suggestive jokes.

James walked in, wishing that he could in any way shrink or disappear, or both at the same time.

"I'm sorry, James," Evaline said while pinching the bridge of her nose, hiding her distressed face. "This was badly timed. I thought I could surprise you, but then..." She sighed, trailing off and not finishing her sentence.

"James. Evaline," Bo's voice came from the hall.

James looked over to see Bo, standing at the edge of the living room. He watched as Bo's eyes jumped between all of them, like he was trying to do the math, and eventually landed on nothing.

"You uh-- you guys okay?" Bo asked.

"Yeah, like... do you both need me and Bo to leave for some privacy, or...?" Elias added in, leaving it at that as he eyed the two of them expectedly.

"A shirt," James cut in before anyone else could speak. "I'd like a shirt."

"Hey, I gotchu my man," Elias said, then paused to frown. "Except, all my shirts are dirty right now. Do you want one that smells like feet?"

"I'll get one," Bo said with a small nod, quickly turning around and running into his room.

"Thanks," James said stiffly, shooting Elias a tense look that he hoped said: for the love of god, don't suggest anything even in the slightest again.

"Soooo..." Elias drew out with a whistle. "What's the, uh-- what's the story here, huh? Should I grab us some snacks?"

"Thank you for letting us in," Evaline said instead, hand still over her face, but it was more of a facepalm. "I don't really want to get into it too much. Do you mind if James can freshen up first? We'll be out of your way afterwards."

"Oh yeah, for sure," Elias said with a wave of his hand. "What else do you need, James? Unless you want to just wear Bo's shirt?"

James blinked blankly, his dignity flashing before his eyes.

"Pants," he said. "Belt."

Elias nodded profusely. "Yeah, yeah. All important. All my clothes are dirty right now though, except..."

And just like that, Elias suddenly pulled down his pants.

James instinctively pinched his eyes shut and turned away.

"ELIAS-- no. You know what, it's fine. I'm fine. Keep your damned pants on," he said hurriedly.

"Nah, bro, it's all good!" Elias said and chucked the sweatpants over to him so it landed on his face. "It's just compression shorts. It was getting kind of hot anyways. I've walked around the apartment with these booty shorts before. Ask Bo."

"True," Bo's voice came from the hall again, and James turned to look at him just in time to catch the shirt being thrown at him. He did not hesitate to throw it over his head, already realizing that the shirt, on him, was dramatically oversized and looked more like a smock than a shirt.

Still better than being naked, though.

"And since it's sweats, you don't even need a belt! It's got loopies," Elias exclaimed.

James dared to turn to look at Elias, frankly relieved that he hadn't been lying about the shorts.

"Ah-ha," James said emptily, taking the sweats extended to him. He thought about stepping into the bathroom for a moment, but Bo's shirt quite literally hung down past his mid-thighs. He sighed and quickly let the towel drop and stepped into the sweats, pulling them up and hoping and praying nothing showed.

"So, what else do you need? Undies? They might smell kinda bad though," Elias went on.

"Elias, I will wash these for you," James said tersely. "But I will not wear your smelly underwear--"

He saw Bo open his mouth to speak but James cut him off before he could.

"Bo. Don't," he said.

Bo's mouth closed into a small pout, but both of them knew without saying that James would drown just in much in Bo's borrowed underwear as he was his shirt, and James didn't want to have that conversation. Not today. Not ever.

"Jeez, Ev. Kind of mean that you didn't let your man fully dress up before you leave," Elias joked, but neither Evaline nor James found it funny.

She was embarrassed and had been facepalming the entire time, but she revealed her rosy face to shoot Elias a glare.

"Are you done?" she asked tiredly. It took some moments for James to realize that she was talking to him.

He cleared his throat, slowly picking up his damp towl off the floor.

"Yes," he said, awkwardly folding it under his arm.

"Do you need some shoes?" Elias asked, then gestured to the shoe rack. "I have some flops if you want to borrow them."

James let out a heavy sigh, and walked over to Evaline, setting a hand gently on her shoulder.

"I'm good, Elias. Thank you," he said, looking Evaline in the face.

"Now do you want to talk about what got you so flustered that you had to drag me out of my apartment without warning?" he asked quietly, though loud enough for Elias and Bo to hear.

"Elias. Bo," Evaline said instead, turning to face them. They were clearly intrigued by the drama that may unfold. "Can we use your porch?"

Elias shrugged. "Fine by me. Just keep the door closed." He glanced down at his bare legs. "It's chilly out there."

"One moment!" Bo said before running back into his room. Only a few seconds passed before he came running out with one of his hoodies. However, instead of tossing it to James, he came over and pulled it over James's head with no resistance, seeing as, just like the shirt, the hoodie swallowed him.

He looked like a child drowning in their parent's clothes.

Resigned to looking and feeling ridiculous, and frankly more concerned with whatever upset Evaline past the point of reason, James simply slid his arms into the sleeves and held out his arms. The sleeves hung loosely and several inches past his hands.

He looked to Evaline, who was still dressed in her jacket, like she'd just come inside. Because, well, she had.

He reached out for her hand, though his hand was hidden in layers over oversized hoodie sleeve, and took it.

"We're just going to borrow your porch for a little while," he said. "Apologies again for imposing, but we'll explain when we're done if you're both willing to be patient."

"It's okay, man," Bo said.

"If you need anything, like socks or shoes or more shirts--" Elias began.

"Oh!" Bo interrupted, grabbing a throw blanket off the couch, shoving it in James's hands. "Here."

James blinked, and gave another quick faint thanks before he hurried towards the porch with Evaline, eager to escape all of the awkward interactions in exchange for an uncertain conversation in the cold.

He opened the door and Evaline stepped out first. James felt the piercing cold on his head first, chilling his wet hair. He pulled the hood up over his head, drawing the strings a little so less cold air was let in, and then he laid out the blanket, sitting down on it. He took a corner of the blanket and buried his feet in it.

He was freezing. But it could be worse. He could still be in a towel.

He let out a deep sigh, looking up at Evaline expectantly. She spoke first.

Evaline thought she had everything under control. She really did. She had managed to tear Carter down, or so she thought. She thought she outwit him. But now, after bursting into Elias's and Bo's apartment all the while trying to retain a calm composure as James waded through the humiliation of being wet and nearly naked... it was like all the insecurities flooded at once.

What kind of threat did Carter have in mind? What threat did she have in mind for him? Why did this make her feel so paranoid? It was like a panic button inside of her was pressed, but it wasn't Carter who pressed it. It was her.

"I'm really, really sorry, James. I panicked," she blurted out as soon as it felt safe to say. The air was chilly and her hot breath turned to condensate in front of her, but she felt hot from embarrassment and could barely even face James who was still drowning in Bo's clothes. "I wanted to surprise you, but I ran into Carter. We talked, and it wasn't pleasant, and -- I don't know what came over me. He made me so angry that I couldn't take it, I had to leave. We had to leave."

Evaline sighed deeply, sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. She wanted to give him time to digest some of her words, but since James didn't respond right away, it only made her want to panic and say more.

"I've never liked Carter anyways ever since you told me about him the first day we met. So I always kept my distance. But I just -- I don't understand how you can live with someone like that. How can you be so kind and him so selfish? Manipulative? Hateful? I'm not trying to get between you two so I didn't want to bring you into the conversation, but it was like he knew that and led me to walk into you. It was like he knew that I would --"

Evaline faltered, suddenly feeling the most paranoid she had ever felt in her life. Was this all planned? Was this not a series of unfortunate coincidences? Was Carter playing her? Was he playing her right now? Did he anticipate her coming to this apartment? Did he know they'd be discussing this right now? Was he listening? Oh god, his balcony is close by too, right?

Evaline didn't want to look like a paranoid person, but she just had to whip around and glance back to make sure there was nobody around the neighboring porches. It was embarrassing to admit that the emptiness brought her more peace of mind than it should have, and she swallowed down the panic and tried to regain herself, finally having enough courage to face James again. The concern in his stare sparked more panic, but she shoved it down.

"Surprises are impulsive, but this was just stupid. I'm sorry," she said more slowly, trying to be more deliberate in her words.

"I forgive you," he said after a small pause. "For dragging me out into the hall and the cold like this. And I'm sorry I wasn't around to answer the door and you had to put up with Carter. I think over the years I've grown used to him... in the same way that people can adjust to anything when they have to. You already know that he's been a blind spot of mine for some time, and it hasn't been until recently that I've really been able to think more critically about our interactions and see past our history to what he's really like."

He paused again, glancing out at the street below, then back up at her.

"Do you want to sit down with me? So I don't have to crane my neck," he said, pulling the blanket a little tighter around his hands and arms.

Until she looked down, Evaline didn't realize she had gripped on the railing with an iron fist. The cold metal stole the warmth from her fingers, but that was the least of her problems.

Get yourself together, she yelled in her mind. She had to have a better grip on herself. Figure out why she was so shaken later.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

"Yeah," she said quietly, finally tearing herself away from the edge to gently sit down next to James. "Yeah."

Evaline sat with her legs folded under her, her fingers fidgeting with the fuzzy bottom hem of her jacket. She couldn't help but continue to feel antsy.

"Do want to share the blanket?" James offered. "If you're cold."

"Oh... sure," she said as she eyed the blanket on him and under him. "I mean, you need it more than me, since you didn't have much time to change."

Or put on shoes. But she didn't feel like saying that since she felt the shame behind the words.

James pulled the blanket out to readjust it, throwing it over both of their legs as they sat side-by-side.

"I'll be alright," he said. "Besides, this way I can steal your body heat. So it's mutually beneficial."

"Not if I steal your body heat first," Evaline muttered flatly.

James inched closer to her, so that their legs were touching and the blanket was bunched up more snugly around them.

"I guess we'll just find out," James said with a faint smile in his eyes, but she noticed that it faded quickly as he looked down into his lap, and when he met her eyes again his concern returned.

"What exactly did Carter say?" he asked softly. "I know he can be insensitive sometimes..."

"I don't think he's insensitive. Insensitive implies you can sense feelings. I think he's a sociopath with no remorse or sensitivity to how others feel," Evaline snapped, furrowing her brows together. She only realized a second later that she had inadvertently lashed out at James, so she tried to backpedal. "But I know. You may not have seen that. I'm just letting you know what I think."

James stared at her blankly for a moment, then let out a faint huff of a laugh, and she could see his breath come out like a little cloud.

"I... I mean, I don't necessarily disagree. I think he picks up on people's emotions but just chooses to ignore them or manipulate them. He can tell when people are feeling a certain way, he just doesn't often... care," he said quietly, looking back down into his lap. "Or, so I've been discovering."

"And you just put up with this?" Evaline asked, desperation in her voice. "Why? That is so exhausting. How have you put up with it so long?"

James let out a long sigh.

"Sometimes, when you're close to someone and really care about them, you find yourself willing to overlook a lot of things," James said, his voice low and sober. "I always chose to believe that deep down, Carter's intentions were pure. I didn't think there was any reason not to believe the best about him, or hope for the best, or hope that he could change. I've always thought... or used to think, that he was worth enduring because one day, it might all be worth it, and he'd come around. But I... I was wrong. I don't think he wants to be a better person, and I don't know if he ever will. And if anyone's going to get through to him, I don't think it'll ever be me."

"Do you still try? Are you still trying to help him?" Evaline asked. "You said it yourself. Some people are lost causes. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is let them go."

James was quiet for a moment, and the seconds dragged out as his steady breaths made little clouds around his nose.

And, predictably, Evaline found herself filling in the silent gaps.

"I think you should move out," she said, cutting right to the chase.

"I know," James cut in quickly, though his voice was still quiet.

"You can't let someone go like that while living with them," she went on anyways. "I know you only have a semester left, but that's no reason to continue putting up with his nonsense. The sooner you move out, the better. We can even look into it today if you want. It doesn't have to be an official lease. You have many supportive friends who would take you in."

"I just..." James started to say, pausing to take in a deep breath, closing his eyes. "What exactly did he say to you?"

Evaline sighed. She didn't want to let go of this topic yet, but James had already asked her this question twice, and he had the right to know.

"He told me to tread carefully," she said. "He was vague, but it sounded like a thinly-disguised threat to me, and also to you because..."

Because he knew that hurting James would hurt her just as much, if not more.

Evaline quickly shook her head. "It was a threat. About information I don't know, or something else, I'm not sure. I know he doesn't like me, and I don't care, but I do care if this will hurt you, or hurt us. And, James, I think it will. This isn't about you and Carter anymore. I'm now involved, and so are your friends. His actions and words have consequences, and I fear he will never learn to face it. That's why the sooner you separate him from you, the better."

James's shoulders slouched, and in the hoodie that was already swallowing him, it looked like he was shrinking inside of it. He looked down into his lap, his expression sad, but sober.

"I guess it's time to actually do it," he said quietly.

Evaline wanted to vigorously agree, but she hesitated, knowing that James likely already got the message and already agreed with her. He didn't need to hear any more speeches or reasons to why he needed to move. Now, it was about taking action.

And she was here to help.

Gently, she rested her hand on his shoulder, rubbing her thumb against the blanket to comfort him.

"And you're not alone in this, you know," she said with a much calmer demeanor this time. "You have me, and you have others who will help you in a heartbeat. Change is always difficult, but you have support. I'm here for you."

James let out another long sigh, and he stared down into his lap with his eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he looked to her, offering a very small smile.

"Thank you, Evaline," he said softly, leaning over and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Of course," she said with a smile, scrunching her nose and closing her eye from the unexpected kiss. "It'll only get better from here. I know you need time to digest all this, but since it's fresh in your mind... do you have an idea of where you could go next? A new lease may be infeasible. Perhaps you have a friend who may move out soon, or have an extra room?"

There was also that random room Lordy gave her that she hardly used, but she was definitely not going to offer that. If she didn't feel comfortable staying there, James didn't either.

"I know... Benji and Daniel have an extra room," James said. "They're just a floor below me."

Evaline nodded slowly, imagining the possibility. "Okay. That's good. Do you think they're open to taking a new roommate?"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask," James said quietly. "It would make moving easier if I stayed in the same building, and lived with people I know."

"Let's ask them today, then," Evaline said with confidence. "And then depending on their answer, we'll create a moving plan. You don't have many items, so you could theoretically move out tomorrow if it all works out."

"Tomorrow... would be very soon," James said in almost a whisper. "I would... I'd have to tell Carter--"

"No," Evaline cut in firmly. "Don't tell Carter. He'll say and do anything to get you to stay. It's a risk we shouldn't take. He's an adult and will find out about the move on his own. You are under no obligation to tell him anything, especially since you are moving because of him, and have already tried to work out the animosity in the past."

"If I don't tell him, I'd prefer to move out when he's not home," he said quietly. "It seems that would be the path of least resistance."

"Agreed. Do you know if he will be in the apartment all day tomorrow?"

"Monday would be best," James said. "He should be out most of the day, at least until the afternoon. So that gives us two days. For me to pack, and figure out the details."

"For us to pack and figure out the details," she corrected.

James looked to her with a timid smile, but nodded.

"Right. Time for us to figure out details," he echoed.

Evaline smiled back, scooting closer so that their shoulders were touching. She reached under the blanket and held his hand.

She was paranoid just moments ago, but for some reason, she felt elated now. She couldn't quite place it. Evaline knew the paranoia and anger stemmed from Carter, but imagining the quiet revenge on taking James away from him... she knew that it was the best for James anyways, but imagining Carter's face upon his realization that James had secretly slipped away gave her more motivation than she cared to admit.

"You know... I hate to ruin this moment," James said after a long pause. "But I'm getting really cold, and I can't feel my feet. I think I'm ready to go inside now, and I can do the talking if you don't feel like explaining what all of that was to Elias and Bo. I'll need to ask them for help moving, anyway."

"No, that's okay, I can do the talking," she said with a brisk nod, looking over her shoulder towards the glass door. Comically, the chicken was on the other side, staring back at them. "Don't worry about explaining yourself."

Because just taking James away from Carter wasn't enough. She knew Elias and Bo were Carter's friends too, so it was an opportune time to demonize Carter and show them his true colors. She wanted the seed of distrust to grow not only to James, but to all Carter's friends.

"Okay," James said softly as he slowly pulled away from her, stiffly getting to his feet.

"And since you're... you know," she added, gesturing towards his outfit.

"What, dressed like a tent?" James asked.

Evaline smirked. "That's a good way to put it, yes. I was thinking, afterwards, we go back to your apartment, with or without Carter there, so you can change and gather your items. You can stay with me for the next few nights if you'd like, though."

"I'd want to, but I worry that doing so might... alert Carter that something's going on," James said slowly, setting his hand on the door.

"Then -- proposal -- I stay with you for the next few nights," she said.

Evaline felt a smidge of embarrassment from the sudden confidence, but she did mean it. To stay with James, but also to observe Carter more. See what he's up to.

Maybe even mess with him a little. Continue the tease.

He deserved it.

Carter had told her that he knew something she didn't. Now it was her turn to say that same line.

James stared at her for a moment, his eyes widened just a little.

"Would you be able to bear being under the same roof with Carter for that long?" James asked.

"As long as we're together, I can bear anything." She paused. "Well, most things. I probably wouldn't be able to eat most of the items in your fridge right now."

"I'm embarrassed to say there's very little in the fridge right now," James said flatly.

"It sounds like we'll add grocery shopping to the to-do list then," Evaline said with a smile as she got up on her feet and brushed herself off. "Sound like a plan?"

"It's a plan," James said with a smile and a nod, finally opening the door and escaping back inside.

And Evaline couldn't wait to see how it all played out.

As discussed, Evaline and James went back in the apartment and explained the situation to Bo and Elias. It was a little strange to do so since James was awkwardly standing with the giant hoodie still on him, and Elias was also wearing one of Bo's giant sweaters while cradling the chicken and the pug. The sweater was just long enough that it went past his too-short compression shorts, which certainly didn't help the weirdness of it all.

But Evaline decided she wasn't going to get embarrassed and annoyed, and instead power through it, explaining Carter's behavior at the apartment and even at the Halloween party. She highlighted that he was manipulative and hostile towards her, perhaps exaggerating it a little with examples, but it was enough for Bo to be surprised and eventually believe her with James's support. Elias was more quiet and seemed more disturbed and surprised, but he eventually also thanked her for sharing and agreed that moving was the best choice. It was nice to hear him say it in a mature manner as well.

It took a lot longer than anticipated to explain everything since Bo and Elias had a lot of questions and suggestions about the move, and they even offered their own apartment (or rather, a couch) as temporary lodging if James needed it. Eventually they said their goodbyes, and Bo said that James could give back his clothes whenever he wanted.

Carter was still in the apartment when they walked in, sitting on the couch facing the TV, which was playing some zombie show on low volume.

"I see you've returned with clothes," Carter commented. "Not what I was expecting."

"Life can be unpredictable like that," Evaline replied with a straight face, unzipping her jacket to hang against the wall.

"Evaline will be staying here for the weekend while she visits," James said, getting right to it.

Carter raised his eyebrows, looking from James, to Evaline, and back again.

"Well," he said with a smirk. "Make yourself at home."

"Thank you for your hospitality," she said with a fake smile. "It'll only be a few days."

At that, Evaline and James headed towards his room and closed the door behind them. About an hour passed as James finally changed into more fitting clothes, and they started to outline a plan for the next few days. He also texted Benji and Daniel asking to meet since James wanted to ask them the question in person.

And that was exactly what happened, and everything fell into place.

They met with Daniel and Benji in a coffee shop, weirdly feeling like a double date even though that was not the intent. They were happy to let James be their third roommate, and Daniel insisted that he live rent-free, much to James's own insistence that he be no burden. And from there, they were able to add detail to their outline of a plan until it finally felt official.

It was a productive day. They even went grocery shopping and picked up all the items they planned together. Everything felt planned. From the moving outline, to the grocery list, to Carter's (and thereby her own) deliberate ignorance, everything was carefully articulated and accounted for.

Except for the very specific oil she used to cook food with. Turns out, James used one with animal products, and even though she wasn't as strict of her diet as she used to be, Evaline had extra free time while James worked the next day, so she decided to pick a bottle up at the grocery store so she could surprise James with a dinner after a long day.

And something else that wasn't planned for was an unknown woman who was waiting by the doors of their apartment.

After Evaline had walked up the four flights of stairs with the one grocery bag in one hand and the spare apartment key with the other, she was about to sift through the keys and unlock the door when suddenly the woman nearby called out to her.

"No one's home," she said as she leaned on the wall by the door. She'd previously been idly scrolling through her phone, but as Evaline walked up she tucked her phone away, scanning Evaline up and down like she was assessing her. Evaline found herself doing the same in return.

The woman was at least two inches taller than her, and she was pretty, by society's standards. She was the idealized lean-kind-of-curvy that all the instagram influencers seemed to be aiming for nowadays. She had the passing thought, wondering if that's what this woman was. Maybe a friend of Carter's? She had a similar energy: the rich kid who had everything handed to them and felt entitled to everything energy. And she was dressed like it too. What kind of college student casually wore a pantsuit and stiletto height heels?

Evaline had no clue who this woman was, but a little voice inside her head whispered that she looked familiar. Maybe she had passed by her before? Perhaps she worked for the modeling agency? Or she had sketched her for a still-pose in class? What was she doing here, though?

"Who are you?" she asked with furrowed brows, her mind racing to put together the why's and the how's.

"I could ask you the same question," the woman retorted. "I'm a friend of the boys who live here. I was just stopping by."

So, a friend of Carter's. But she said boys. Did James know her too? She didn't seem to fit his friend standards, but she didn't judge.

"And stuck around even though no one is home," Evaline added, waiting for her to elaborate.

"I have some time to burn," the woman said with a shrug. "Besides, I texted Carter. He should be home soon."

Evaline continued to stare at her, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Red flags were raised but this woman still didn't answer the burning question in her mind: who really was she, why was she here, and what was so important that she had to wait here for who knows how long just so she could see Carter?

"The name's Eliza," the woman finally said. "Yours?"

"I haven't heard your name before," Evaline said instead. "Do you go to school here?"

Eliza pursed her lips. "Don't need to," she said. "You?"

Yeah, okay, whatever that means.

"I guess we have that in common," she said with a fake smile. "If you said Carter will be here, then I'm sure he'll be up soon, and you don't have to wait any longer."

With that, she turned away and rifled through her keys, choosing to ignore Eliza's piercing stare.

"You have a key, don't you?" Eliza asked. "I'll just wait inside."

"It's nothing personal, Eliza," Evaline said calmly, fitting the key in the lock as she glanced up at her. "I don't feel comfortable letting--"

"Elizaaaaaaaaaa!" Carter's voice dragged out from down the hall. "Been a second since I last saw you. I'm glad you stopped by."

Eliza turned to watch Carter approaching down the hall, and Evaline watched as the two of them shared a hug, like they were old friends. Carter patted Eliza's back as he pulled away and looked to Evaline.

Evaline rolled her eyes. This, too, felt planned. It was too immaculate not to. What, was she supposed to believe this was a coincidence? If this was Carter's doing, two can play this game.

He was likely trying to get under her skin. She didn't know what Eliza had to do with it, but whatever it was, she couldn't let it show.

"Looks like you two already got acquainted," Carter said. "Eliza, Evaline. Evaline, Eliza."

"Wow, our names are so similar, we are practically twinning. We have so much in common," Evaline said with fake enthusiasm, turning the key and letting herself in.

Yes, she was allowed to feel annoyed by this.

As Evaline walked into the apartment, Eliza and Carter followed in behind her, with Carter closing and locking the door. Carter seemed to quickly excuse himself to his room for "a moment," leaving Eliza lingering in the living room.

Predictable.

So Evaline quickly hung up her coat and set the bag on the kitchen counter, briskly putting items away. She wanted to minimize her time in the open space so she didn't have to talk to Eliza.

That didn't stop Eliza from talking to her, though.

"So you're James's girlfriend, right?" Eliza asked from the kitchen doorway.

"Mmmhmm," Evaline simply hummed, opening the cabinet to put items away.

"Must be going pretty well if he's letting you stay with him," Eliza continued. "He's pretty slow to warm up, usually."

"How observant of you," she replied flatly.

"Well I've known him for years," Eliza said casually. "You'd think I would've picked up on some things by now."

Evaline pause to to stare at her for a moment. Two things ran through her mind. One, if this was a game Carter was trying to play with her, then she had to be strategic and not give that much information away, or be naive. And two, she suddenly remembered who this woman was.

She had not only seen her, but James had mentioned her too. This was after the Halloween party. Eliza was wearing a giant dress and a mask, and she had a talk with James. Evaline realized only afterwards who she was when James told her.

He had told her that he and Eliza used to be friends in childhood, but they drifted when she expressed a romantic interest in him multiple times despite him repeatedly declining. Even after all these years, she was still interested. How sad. How pathetic.

The even more pathetic part was that Eliza showed up in the party because Carter invited her. He was doing the same thing to her now, and Evaline refused to let this get to her.

She would rather turn this game of manipulation into her favor instead.

"Funny," Evaline began innocently. "James never mentioned you to me before."

"I don't see why he would," Eliza said. "He likes to keep his secrets anyways."

Evaline shrugged. "Maybe. That hasn't stopped him from telling me about his family and other friends before."

"He probably just wants you to think that, but sure," Eliza said dismissively.

"No need to get defensive. I'm just stating the facts," Evaline said innocently. She closed the drawer of the cabinet, perhaps a little too loudly.

"Uh huh," Eliza said, the condescenscion thick in her tone. "Just the facts."

"What, you don't believe me?"

Eliza huffed a little laugh, leaning her shoudler on the doorway, effectively blocking the exit to the kitchen - at least, if Evaline wasn't beyond shoving. She hadn't ruled it out yet.

"Here's a fact," Eliza said. "James has a type. He attracts people who are manipulative because he's easily manipulated, and I think you're no exception. You and Carter - and even you and I - are more alike than you and your self-righteous self would prefer to believe."

Eliza's words hung in the air and rung in Evaline's ears, over and over as she glared at her. She admit that it hurt a nerve, but not in a painful way. It brought out her own defenses, and with that, hostility.

Evaline knew she wasn't perfect. She knew that with her upbringing, she was the product of her environment. And maybe there was some truth to Eliza's words in that there were similarities between Carter, Eliza, and Evaline.

But Evaline was not them. She didn't want to be, and vowed to not be. She was trying to be better, and she'd like to think her own intent was good-natured.

Evaline stepped forward as she spoke, slowly drawing closer and closer to Eliza and not letting her expression say any more than irritation.

"What a bold statement to make, especially since I don't know you, and you don't know me. What prompted you to bring this up? You don't have a silly crush on James, do you? Does he know about it? Did he turn you down? How strange, since we are so alike, yet I am with him, and you are not important enough to him to be mentioned."

She was close now, close enough that she was inches away from her face. It'd be easy to just shove her and be done with it, but Evaline wanted to tease this moment out as long as she could.

"That's the difference between you, and I, and Carter," she hissed, eyes still pierced on hers. "You both obsess and can't let go. You may look desirable on the outside, but inside, you will always be ugly."

"Look in the mirror, girl," Eliza snapped back.

Evaline scoffed. She said all she wanted to say, and clearly Eliza was resorting to weak (and vain - though that wasn't surprising) comebacks. She squeezed past her, lightly shoving her to get out of the way so she could retreat to James's room - the one place Eliza will leave her alone, or so she would think.

But she barely took a step in before Eliza sprung to grab her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

"Look. I don't like you, and I'm not going to pretend to," Eliza said. "But don't bet on this - you and James - lasting very long. Woman to woman? You don't deserve him, and neither do I, but one day he'll wake up and realize that. Better to get out while you can."

At that, she let Evaline go, shaking her hand like she'd just touched something filthy. Evaline snatched her hand away from her anyways, glaring at her.

"You'd be saving both yourselves the heartache," Eliza finished.

"Is that why you came here? To tell us we won't last? That's so pathetic," Evaline said with a smirk. "Sorry to disappoint you that James and I are in a serious relationship and have already talked about the future. My advice to you is to get a life. You are telling your opinions on our relationship when you don't even know us. Do something less pathetic in your freetime."

Eliza stared at her for a moment, eyes narrowed, but then stood up straight and took in a deep breath.

"Sorry to disappoint you," she said. "But I am that petty, and will continue to be so."

She turned towards the door, but walked slowly, not like she was ready to leave.

"So get used to running into me," she said.

Evaline laughed -- a mirthless, mocking laugh that felt fitting of this ridiculous conversation. At first she was annoyed at all this, but now she almost felt pity for her. She leaned back against the wall of the kitchen entrance that Eliza was just at moments ago, crossing her arms as she peered at her with a smirk.

"Oh, yes, feel free. You can third-wheel us on our dates. Hell, why not bring Carter into it and make it a double-date. What do you think?" she asked, saying the last question louder for Carter to hear in his room. It was obvious at this point that he was purposefully giving them privacy to argue.

"Can we all make out afterwards?" Carter shouted from his room.

Eliza rolled her eyes and shot a look of disgust down the hall.

"Too racy for your tastes?" Evaline added on effortlessly, not skipping a beat with her eyes still on Eliza. "That's okay. James and I can do that instead, and you can watch us 'not deserve each other.'"

"You know what," Eliza said. "Maybe I'll take you up on that. Another time."

At that, she turned and actually strode for the door.

Evaline lifted a hand to wave even though Eliza's back was turned towards her.

"Oh, you didn't want to talk to Carter? I'm sure he'll come out any moment now," she sneered.

Eliza stopped at the door, with her hand already turning the knob.

"Unlikely," Eliza said, opening the door.

As she stepped out, she noticed Eliza's head turn in what looked like recognition, and she saw James had paused a few feet from the door, keys in hand.

For a very uncomfortable second, Eliza and James stared at each other without moving or saying anything. Evaline could feel the tension, but gripped her arms against each other and waited to see if they'd say or do anything first.

James moved first, dipping his head as he made a bee-line for the door. Eliza got out of the way only just enough for him to slip past her, but she lingered her gaze on him as he rushed in, closing the door behind him.

After locking the door, James looked over to Evaline, then glanced down the hall, wordlessly asking if Carter was home. Evaline nodded once, relaxing her posture when she realized she was stiff.

James let out a small sigh and glanced back at the door, then down the hall.

"Was she here long?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

"Let's get some fresh air," Evaline said instead, gesturing towards the patio door with her head.

Naturally, James had many questions. But since Carter was still in his room listening to the whole conversation, she didn't want to give him the pleasure of listening in. At the same time, they couldn't exactly leave the apartment since Eliza may still be in the hall.

James wordlessly took her coat off the rack and handed it to her as they headed towards the balcony, sliding the doors to step into the cold. Evaline slid the door back in a slam to make sure it was really shut, then took a deep breath out to ease her nerves as she put on her coat and patted it down.

"Not long," she finally answered. "Maybe a couple of minutes. But she was in the hallway when I came in, so I don't know how long she truly stuck around. My guess is that Carter invited her." She clicked her tongue. "Typical."

James looked back through the screen doors with his eyebrows pinched together. He looked uncomfortable at the thought.

"He's... getting desperate," James said. "I think he can tell something's going on."

Evaline shook her head, crossing her arms as she tapped her forefinger against her arm. "Maybe. But I don't think that's wrong. Let him think something is going on, and let him play these stupid mind games, but don't confirm it. Doing so would only enable him."

"Eliza likes to play mind games too," James said, still looking inside - like he might've been keeping an eye out for Carter. She didn't blame him. "It's tiring."

For a brief second, Evaline let her guard down and let her insecurites get the best of her. She already knew that Carter liked to play mind games, and she could tell Eliza did too, so what James said wasn't new to her. But Eliza's words rung in her mind: "You and Carter - and even you and I - are more alike than you and your self-righteous self would prefer to believe."

And in that brief second when James reaffirmed that Carter and Eliza were the same, Evaline believed she was too.

But only for a second.

She leaned against the railing, tilting her head up to look up at the gray sky. She didn't want to fester in these thoughts and would prefer that James knew too. She knew he'd prefer that anyways.

"You know... Eliza said that too," she said softly, eyes still focused on the sky. "That she and Carter are similar." She paused for a moment. "She also said that I am similar, too."

James finally tore his eyes away from the living room, looking at her with his eyebrows arched upward.

Only a second passed, but that was a second too long, and Evaline was dying to fill the gap. She clenched her arms a little tighter as she continued.

"I can see why she'd say that. She said you had a 'type' - as in, you attract certain personality types more than others. And she claimed that because you are easily manipulated, you attract those who manipulate you. It's a bold statement, and maybe even a stretch, but I do wonder how much truth it holds."

James pressed his lips together into an almost disgusted looking frown as he looked away, shaking his head.

"Just because I have basic human empathy doesn't mean I'm a narcissist magnet," James said firmly. "You're not Eliza or Carter. They might want you to think that because they want to sabotage our relationship and hurt me by hurting you, but trust me. They wouldn't do half of the actual kind things you've done and mean it in the way that you do."

"I -- I know," Evaline stammered, all of a sudden feeling nervous.

She had maintained her cool just a minute ago, but now she felt like she was one snap away from losing it. This was supposed to be about Eliza and Carter, not herself. But now she felt the need to justify why she was feeling this way... and she was feeling this way because of the words and actions of Carter and Eliza. Did this mean they had won? Was this what they wanted?

"But... I know, it's not wise to think about the theoreticals that Eliza made up. But I can't help but feel there's a shred of truth to it. Isn't it true that you were childhood friends with them? And you truly thought the best of them? I know we're adults now, and things are different, but I've done similar things in the past, and --"

She sighed, taking a deep breath out in frustration.

"I don't even know what I'm saying," she mumbled. "I guess I fear that history could repeat itself with you and me, and I wouldn't know it until it's over."

"Your history, or mine?" James asked.

"What difference does it make?" Evaline said with a little exasperated laugh.

James turned to face her, visibly taking in a deep breath as he reached out and took one of her hands, sandwiching it between both of his.

"Evaline," James said. "All we can do - all anyone can do moving forward is try our best. And if that means we learn things about ourselves that need to change, we'll take it as it comes. We're going to learn, and keep learning, and unlearning old habits. That's how we don't repeat history. And just in the time I've known you I've seen you make leaps and bounds in learning how to grow, and that gives me hope that you'll continue to do so. You've been doing so much better than you realize. Stop trying to evaluate yourself based on a few bitter comments from my two narcissistic friends who just want to watch the world burn. That's not a good way to measure your progress, and their testimony isn't worth trusting anyway."

At the end of his spiel, Evaline dropped her eyes down to his hands holding hers, her brows furrowed in thought. She appreciated James's words, and she knew he was right, but...

"This isn't about me," she said softly. "This is about us. You're not my therapist, and it's not your responsbility to ensure I grow. I will do my best, but that's the path I take myself. Likewise with you."

She gently squeezed his hand as she continued.

"There will be days that our patience may run thin, or maybe I get too difficult, or maybe it gets hard, especially when we'll be in different countries. I want you to know that you're under no obligation to stay like you did with Carter."

It was just yesterday that James told her why he stuck around with Carter. James always sought out the best in people, and just because he saw the best of Carter once, didn't mean he would see him like that again.

Deep down, Evaline knew that that same story could be applied to her.

She took another deep breath, continuing on while gripping his hands a little tighter.

"You don't have to stay because you believe that, deep down, my intentions are pure, and that I'm worth enduring simply because you think I can come around, and that I'll be worth it, and I'll be a better person. I want you stay because..."

Evaline trailed off, suddenly abandoning the train of thought, and for once she couldn't find the words in the silence that ensued.

"Because I actually like you, which I do?" he offered after several seconds passed.

"That's not enough," Evaline continued, feeling desperate to get her thought across and forcibly blurting the next mess of sentences. "I want you stay because you truly and sincerely want to stay. You don't just like the idea of me. You like me as a person: strengths, flaws, quirks, and all. I am not an obligation or duty, but a living breathing person you want to discover. And even if it gets hard, even if I seem like a lost cause, I want you to stay not because you empathize with me, but because you... truly... sincerely..."

With a quivering lip, she closed her eyes tightly and sighed, piecing the last remnants of words in her mind.

"Yes. Actually like me," she finished.

"Evaline," James said. As he paused she sensed that he was waiting for her to look up and meet his eyes, which she eventually did hesitantly.

Still holding her hand with one of his, he drew the other away to gently rest it on her cheek, brushing it with his thumb.

"You have never been my obligation," he said softly, with a faint, tender smile. "I chose you because I want to, and I want you. You are not my charity case, or my burden I feel I must bear. At the end of the day the root of my commitment comes down to this: I love you. I really do. Okay?"

Evaline didn't know how much time had passed, but she knew she had been staring at James with wide eyes for probably far too much time than comfortable, trying to process what he said. It was like there was a lag or disconnect between her body and her mind, and she couldn't react or move.

That was, until the words slowly started to ring in her ears and she felt her face go hot red.

After what felt like an eternity, but might've only been just a few seconds, James broke the silence.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked quietly.

With a shaky hand, she lifted it up to his hand on her cheek. It felt almost ice cold, but she didn't know if it was because of the weather, her face, or both.

With her eyes still on his, she blinked once, twice, and he was blurry. Or, no, she was teary. Why was she teary?

"I-- I didn't mean to-- did you really mean—?" she stuttered out, but then instead aggressively nodded and nearly lunged forward, arms wrapped around his body for a quick squeeze until she lightly let go.

And initiated the kiss herself.

She probably looked silly, but she didn't care. Hand rested at the back of his head, she poured all the pent-up passion into the kiss, but at the same time, still felt the tear prick along her closed eyes.

It was like James somehow reignited a fire she thought was permanently a flame, and she didn't even know what to do with herself.

Maybe this was also love.

If so, she wanted more of it.

Eventually James pulled his face away a little, though he still held her close in a hug. He rested his forehead against hers for a moment, and then gave her a small kiss on her nose, which unexpectedly sent her in a fit of giggles.

"You okay?" he asked.

Still laughing, she pulled away and squeezed his hand, longingly looking down at it.

"Oh, James," she said with a happy smile. "What did I do to deserve you? And I don't mean that in a self-pity way. I'm just... happy. With you." She looked back up to meet his eyes. "I love you too."

At that moment, she saw that his eyes were tearing up a little too. He smiled and sniffed, shooting a sudden nervous glance back into the apartment.

"Forget about Carter, and forget about Eliza," Evaline said while he glanced back. "They're not important right now. What is important is that you'll be moving out, graduating, and starting a new life, as will I. The future is uncertain, but I know that we can figure it out together, and Carter and Eliza will be people in the past."

Though James was looking back and still on guard, he smiled.

"I look forward to that."

And so did Evaline.

Initially, she wanted to prove ELiza wrong because she deserved to be put in her place. She wanted to show that she and James were happy, despite her sullen prediction that they wouldn't last, and that she didn't deserve him because eventually James would see who Evaline really was.

But Evaline knew now that that was silly. Proving their love shouldn't be to one-up another person, or to be used as leverage.

Like she had told James, she should maintain the relationship because she truly and sincerely liked him. Loved him. Nothing else mattered.

And she would show him.

Not for Carter. Not for Eliza.

For James.

Everything had been planned out to the minute.

James knew when Carter had wrestling practice, and then class, and on every third Monday of the month,a required meeting for the fraternity that always went to at least 3 in the afternoon. It was consistently and dependably Carter's longest day and his most significant block of hours spent away from home.

The plan was simple. James didn't really have that much to move, when it came down to it. The majority of furniture and decor in the apartment belonged to Carter, and anything James owned was isolated to his room, so that left only a few key pieces of furniture that were significant: his bed, dresser, and desk. Everything else was easily put away into boxes that he'd hidden in his closet so that Carter would be none the wiser.

Packing ahead of time helped calm his nerves, and it was comforting to know that he wasn't going to have to move very far either.

After a final push from Evaline he finally reached out to Benji. With less than a semester remaining, it didn't make sense for James to find a new place and sign a new lease, but he knew that Daniel and Benji had always had a spare room in their apartment just a floor down, and he and Benji had become good enough friends over the past year that James felt he could ask.

Fortunately, Benji was happy to offer up the extra room, especially after he was pressed for more details on why.

It didn't make him happy to have to explain his living situation with Carter, but thankfully, everyone seemed to be supportive and understanding. It still was awkward, and uncomfortable, and he was still bracing himself for what was now the very inevitable fallout, but he just hoped that he could at least get through the moving day quickly and talk to Carter once it was done.

And he'd intentionally planned it that way because he knew if he tried to talk to Carter before moving out that Carter would be likely to try and screw him over one way or another, making it harder to leave.

But things were going smoothly so far. Bo, Elias, Benji, Daniel, and Evaline had all come together to help him move his things. It made getting his furnitue out very easy with them all helping with all the heavy lifting (not that his furniture was even that heavy, since it was all cheap and pressed wood). The most tiresome thing to travel with ended up being his several boxes of books, but he made sure to put the books in several small boxes instead of one big one. He learned that trick a long time ago.

After finally getting everything settled in his new room, everyone gathered in the living room of Daniel and Benji's (and now his) apartment, waiting on an incoming pizza order that James put in as a thank-you to everyone for helping. When people help you move, you feed them. At least, that's what his family always taught him.

Moving went faster than he'd anticipated, and they finished up just a little after noon, and it felt like the air was already clearer. James felt like he could breathe, and there was no more rush to get everything out.

He decided to go back up just for one last look around, just to make sure he didn't miss anything. That, and he wanted to leave the keys in the apartment, since he wouldn't be needing them anymore.

James briefly excused himself while the others waited for the pizzas to come, and though Evaline offered to come with him, James wanted to go alone. He wasn't going to be gone long... he just wanted a minute to let it all sink in. To breathe.

So he made the trek back up the stairwell to the floor above, and pushed open the apartment door for what would be the last time - because he didn't anticipate coming back. Not after this.

As he walked down the hallway to his bedroom he started unhooking the key from his keyring, holding the loose key in his hand as he stuck the other keys back in his pocket. He paused in his steps by the bathroom, poking his head in and doing a quick scan for his things.

The cabinet was clear, so was the sink, and the shower. Everything remaining was Carter's.

He wandered into his room, standing in the doorway as he stared into the now-empty room.

It felt strange, seeing the ghosts of his furniture in the imprints in the carpet, where the legs had been planted for almost four years. The room felt hollow, and yet somehow smaller, now that it was clear, and the closet doors hung open like an empty casket, the only things remaining being some lingering dust.

If he'd really wanted to be thorough, he would've deep-cleaned before leaving. But that required more time and more energy than he had to spare at the moment.

Giving his room one last look, he let out a long, deep sigh, and turned around to leave.

Passing through the living room, he set his key on the coffee table, looking down at it with his lips pursed before shaking his head. It was time to--

The front door opened with a creak, and Carter stood there for a moment, frozen as the two of them met each other's eyes. Even though Carter looked like he did every day in his polo with his man-bun atop his head, something felt off.

He couldn't place it.

James blinked, feeling every vein in his body go cold as he watched Carter's gaze casually travel to the key on the table, sitting there like a meager offering for a friendship that had died long ago. The heavy silence between them grew into a buzzing tension, and James felt the pressure to explain himself before Carter could twist this around and make James feel like the bad guy.

"I wanted to tell you before--" was all he got out before Carter stepped in, closing the door behind him stiffly, in a controlled manner. He locked the door behind him.

"You were just going to move out without telling me?" Carter snapped. "We've been friends for how long, and you'd just blindside me like this? Without even giving me a chance to talk to you first? Are you serious, James?"

James took in a deep breath, standing up a little straighter.

"I was afraid of how you'd react," he said. "And lately it's been difficult to catch you sober, and I didn't want to have the conversation with you while you were drunk."

"Oh, so you don't trust me, and you think I can't handle the truth," Carter said. "You've always been so judgemental of me ever since I started drinking. Not once have you ever really cared - you just keep acting like you're better than me. Instead of I don't know, maybe being a good friend and just trying to be understanding for once."

"Carter, it's not just about the drinking--"

"Of course it's not!" Carter cut in, slowly pacing closer, staring up into James's face. "Because for you I've always just been the ten-ton burden you carry so you can feel better about yourself. What, you thought maybe if you could fix me, that you could be some sort of hero? Well no one asked you to be anyone's hero. And so now you're just giving up on me, right? You're going to leave, just like everybody else?"

James didn't move, but his eyes did flick to the door. He could feel the tension building in the room. He could see it in Carter's face, and his fists. And as Carter closed the distance between them, he caught a whiff of Carter's breath.

"Carter," James said slowly. "Have you been... drinking?"

"Holy hell you never let it go, do you?" Carter answered with a deep, unsettling laugh. "Listen, I don't need you. I don't need your fake tears and your pop psychology trying to figure me out. You want to leave so bad? Just go! I know you've hated me for years now. Don't you lie to my face."

James took a small step back.

"Look, Carter," he said again, still speaking slowly and steadily. He'd been in this situation dozens of times before. Carter would get worked up, and he'd lash out, and say anything to try to hurt him. But James had normally been able to deescalate it.

"No," Carter shot back before James could try to say anything else. "I'm tired of this. I'm tired of you. I'm tired of you stealing all my friends. I'm tired of you acting like you're better than everything, and everyone, and still being so sad about everything all of the time. You have everything you ever wanted, and you're still unhappy. And me? I've had to claw my way to some semblance of independence and individuality for years. What's your excuse?"

James inched back another step.

"Carter, I want to talk to you. I really do. But not like this, and not now. You're drunk, and I'm leaving. Okay?" James said, meeting Carter's eyes pointedly.

He could see Carter's chest heaving with heavy breaths, like he was ready to charge, but as they both stood just a few feet apart, Carter seemed to calm down, and he took in a deep breath. Carter stepped to the side, scowling at the ground, silent.

James took that as his window to go.

He started to walk past Carter, but he should've predicted that it wouldn't end there.

Carter grabbed James's arm and started to twist it behind his back, and James leaned forward and down, trying to wriggle away from his hold. Normally, when Carter tried to instigate something, he didn't do anything too serious. But the moment James got his arm free, Carter flung himself on James's back, bringing his arms around James's neck.

They fell to the floor with a loud thud.

"You should've kept your mouth shut!" Carter hissed in his ear. "You should learn to mind your own f***ing business!"

It felt like there was something splitting in James's brain. He knew what Carter was talking about, and yet he didn't. He understood, somewhere, deep down, without explanation, but in the front of his mind he was still confused.

They ended up rolling on the floor, with James fighting against Carter's hold and kicking to try to get to his feet. James ended up flipping Carter forward, and Carter hit the edge of the coffee table with another thunk, sending the key, along with several empty beer cans, clattering to the floor.

Just as James got to his feet, ready to dart for the door, Carter's hand grabbed for his ankle.

"Oh, that's it!" Carter yelled, his voice rising. "I've been waiting for this!"

As James turned to face Carter, trying to kick free, Carter was already up on his feet, and in the split second they made eye contact, Carter punched James square in the gut.

Okay, so it was going to be more than just wrestling.

As James brought his hands and arms forward to shield himself, Carter leaped up again, digging his hands into James's hair, yanking on it hard. James let out a pained "gah" as his head was dragged to the side and he reached out, trying to pry Carter off of him.

But before he knew it, they were falling to the floor again.

Jerica had her feet kicked up on the couch, a plate of taquitos on her lap. Rek was in the kitchen, preparing a lunch that involved a vegetable. And Derik was on speakerphone on the coffee table.

"So, yeah, things are going great with Bo," Jerica rambled past her mouthful. "We've been going on lots of walks and picnics and shit. I think he might, like, actually like me, and shit."

"Wow, in a shocking turn of events," Rek said sarcastically. "Imagine your boyfriend actually liking you."

"We're not--" Jerica didn't actually know what they were. She waved him away, still holding on to a taquito. "Shoo."

"I'm glad things are going well for you, Jer," Derik said, a smile in his voice. "I want to meet him the next time I'm up that way."

"Yeah!" Jerica grinned at the thought. "You'll love him."

A loud thump from next door caught her attention, and Rek turned to look as well. They exchanged a glance. There was another thump.

"Are they fighting?" Jerica asked, looking at Rek.

A muffled 'Mind your own f***king business!' made it through the wall. It sounded like Carter.

Jerica raised an eyebrow, setting the plate of taquitos on the coffee table next to the phone. "I'll make it my business."

"Jer." Rek shook his head, but he sent another glance towards the wall they shared with Carter and James, anxiety creeping into his gut. It didn't sound good, whatever was happening. But Jerica would just make things worse. That much was certain. "Don't."

"Jerica," Derik said warningly. "I don't know what's going on, but stay out of it."

Jerica sat upright, narrowing her eyes at the wall. She wanted to go over. To make sure things were alright. James wasn't the kind of person to be getting into altercations with anyone. But, then, maybe it didn't have anything to do with him. It had sounded like Carter. Was one of the frat boys acting up? Did he need her help?

"Alright," Jerica scoffed. Outvoted by her babysitters. Again. But she still shoved her feet into sneakers. Just in case.

"... Someone's fighting?" Derik asked hesitantly.

"Sounds like it," Rek agreed, coming over to sit down next to Jerica. He noted she was putting her shoes on. She was about to go be in the middle of it. And he thought all three of them knew it, deep in their gut. He sighed and also slipped his own shoes on, in case he had to chase her down. Or, he supposed, when he had to go chase her down. "And we are not getting in the middle of it, right? Jer?" He said pointedly.

'Oh, that's it!' Carter screamed through the wall. 'I've been waiting for this!'

Jerica was on her feet in an instant. Rek stood a moment later. "Jer, no--"

"Jerica!" Derik said over the phone. "Don't--"

There were more crashes and the general sound of a scuffle. Jerica was to the door in an instant.

"We'll have to call you back, Dad," Rek said, scooping up the phone and starting after Jerica.

"You--" Derik started, but Rek hung up the phone and slipped it in his pocket.

"Jer, think before you do anything," Rek pleaded, rushing down the hall after her. She was about to get in the middle of whatever the hell was going on next door. And, he supposed that meant that he'd need to be ready to either help her or pull her off. Or both. "We don't know what's--"

He had gotten to the door at the same time as Jerica, and managed to get himself between her and it.

Jerica tried the handle. Locked.

"See? That means it doesn't concern us--" Rek started.

Jerica shouldered him out of the way and pulled her student ID out of her pocket and popped the door open. It was almost disturbing to Rek to watch how easy that had been for her. She clearly had practiced that many, many times at this point.

When the door swung open, they saw James and Carter on the floor of the apartment. For a moment it was difficult to tell what exactly was going on, but a beat after standing in the doorway, Carter managed to get on top of James's back, pinning him down. He'd brought his arms around James's neck and was very quickly tightening his hold.

James's face was turning red as he tried to push Carter off.

Jerica darted in without a second thought, rage seething through her. Rek was nearly as quick, but he put his hand on her back and gave her a swift shove to the side. He knew that look in her eye. That meant she was about to hurt someone. It'd be better to get her off the scent so that he could go mediate.

Jerica staggered forward, towards the kitchen, enraged. At Carter. And Rek -- for interfering. But mostly at Carter for attacking James.

"Stay out of it, Ainsleys!" Carter spat, his voice filled with rage.

"Fucking try me!" Jerica snarled, turning back towards the fight. Her eyes landed on a knife laying on the counter, and she grabbed it before she fully processed what she was doing. But seeing James getting hurt made her see red.

Rek glanced at Jerica -- and his eyes went wide as he saw she had a knife. Well, this was escalating. He threw himself between her and the fight, grabbing her wrist. "No!"

Jerica looked up at him angrily, jerking on her arm.

"No," he said firmly. "Give me that."

"I'm gonna give him--"

"Do it," Rek cut her off, despite his better sense. He probably shouldn't be sanctioning Jerica getting in -- yet another -- fist fight. But it was clear Carter was hurting James, and something needed to be done. And he wasn't sure whether he'd be able to take Carter himself, if he was being honest. Besides, he also wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Jerica, if he was mid-fight. He gestured at Carter with his head. "You don't need help. You can take his ass fair, and you know it."

Jerica considered it quickly, then nodded. He was right. She could take Carter's little bitch ass. Especially if she was actually fighting, not trying to obey the rules of his stupid little wrestling match. She let Rek have the knife, then turned towards the scuffle, diving in without another moment of thought or hesitation.

She kicked Carter's shoulder, hard, to knock him off James.

Carter grunted as his hold around James's neck finally relented some - enough for James to rip his head away and let out a gasp. Carter backpedaled, putting James between him and Jerica.

"Ah, no ya don't," Jerica snarled, starting around the side of James to get to Carter again. "You done stepped in it, you son of a bitch! Get back here!"

"I told you to stay out of it!" Carter shot back as he started down the hall, barreling into his room.

Jerica sprinted after him. He made it to his room and started to close the door behind him. Jerica kicked the door open so hard it flew out of Carter's grasp, and slammed into the wall -- hard. She was on him a moment later, grabbing his shoulder with her left hand as she slammed her right fist into his face as hard as she could.

It split open her knuckle; but also split his lip, as well. She yanked her fist away, both of them bleeding now -- then slammed it into his face again. He staggered to the side, then whirled around on her and grabbed her torso, slamming her into the wall as he tackled her and got her on the floor.

Jerica rolled the instant she landed, breaking free from Carter before he could get a solid grasp on her. She drove her right elbow into the center of her back as she staggered to her feet, making him fall forward into the very same wall he'd just thrown her into.

Rek stared down the hall after them helplessly, not sure whether to go help Jerica or to stay here and help James.

"Get up, you little bitch!" Jerica screamed, and then there was another thump.

Ah, so James needed his help more, then. He walked over to him and crouched down. "Hey, man, are you okay?"

James's breathing was heavy but ragged, and as Rek leaned closer he could see hints of bruising already around James's neck. It was evident that Carter's chokehold wasn't just with the intention of holding James still. Rek felt a stab of rage within himself, and he glanced down the hall once more. Maybe he shouldn't have called Jerica off. And, maybe, he'd go get in a few blows of his own, after he was sure James was okay. No one treated one of his friends like this. And certainly not some stuck up rich asshole.

"I'm..." James rasped, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "...Okay."

Rek put out his hand to help steady him. "Are you sure? What happened?"

James's face was clearly pinched with pain, but Rek noticed James seemed distracted by the noises down the hall coming from Carter and Jerica.

"He's drunk," was all James said, his voice still thin and strained.

"Not surprised," Rek huffed a sigh. If anyone's alcoholism was worse than Jerica's, it was Carter's. But, then, he supposed that wasn't quite true. Jerica went hard -- but only when she chose to. It didn't get in the way of her day-to-day. He wasn't sure the same could be said of Carter. But he also couldn't care less either way. He glanced back at James, not sure if he was concerned about Carter or Jerica. "Jer can hold her own; and Carter has this beating coming."

That didn't seem to put James at ease. He continued to stare off down the hall in concern. James started to push himself up to his feet, though he faltered for a moment before steadying himself.

Without a word, he started walking towards Carter's room.

"Hey," Rek tried to get between James and the door. "Just let it--"

He flinched at a loud bang come from behind him.

Carter managed to get back on his feet before Jerica could properly kick his teeth in. He lunged towards her, getting his hand across her throat and squeezing -- hard. She slammed her shoulder into Carter's gut as hard as she could, flipping him over her shoulder and throwing him squarely into his bookshelf.

He got to his hands and knees.

Jerica grabbed the edge of his bookshelf and threw it on top of him. "Bastard!"

Carter grunted loudly, cursing, as he scrambled to get free. She kicked him in the side as hard as she could. He grunted and staggered to the side, getting away from her, then whirled around without warning and slammed his fist into Jerica's face so hard she fell back onto his bed, head ringing.

He advanced.

She lifted both feet and kicked him in the gut as hard as she could, throwing him backward. She sat up. He'd grabbed one of his bookends and was swinging it at her before she had time to stop him.

It struck her squarely on the temple, making her vision go white and splotchy, as she fell across the bed with a yelp. Her head struck the footboard, and her eyes wouldn't focus to tell what Carter planned to do next. She threw her left arm up, trying to fend off whatever blow he might be going for next.

Rek and James got to the doorway just in time to see. The bottom dropped out of Rek's stomach when he saw Carter standing over Jerica brandishing his weapon. He started forward, but James moved faster.

One moment, James was next to Rek, and the next he was at Carter's side. Before Carter could turn to react, James swung a punch straight for Carter's jaw. Rek could hear the hard crack of Carter's teeth clapping together, and as James followed through with the swing, Carter's body went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head.

The bookend he was holding fell dangerously close to Jerica, just missing her as it thunked to the floor, and Carter fell a second after, even heavier.

Jerica's entire head was ringing and she still couldn't really tell what was going on. But she heard a loud crash and saw someone standing by where the last place Carter had been, and kicked at it, but kept both hands clutching her head. "Go die, you fuckhead!"

"He's out," came a weak, raspy voice from the person above her.

Jerica was bleeding. How bad and where from, she wasn't sure. She just could feel her left hand getting sticky and hot. She also couldn't tell who spoke. "Get away from me!"

Rek looked between all three of them helplessly. Where the hell had a blow like that come from? Rek shook the thought away. That was the least of his concerns just then. He rushed forward to the bedside, feeling sick as he saw the blood on Jer's face.

"It's me!" he said as he approached. It didn't stop her from taking a swing at him, but he'd been expecting it and knocked it aside. "It's Rek. We don't fight Rek."

It was childish -- but he'd learned that repeating her mantras helped unbreak her brain when it got stuck in place. And it worked. She stopped fighting, but kept her hands pressed against her temple. "Go help James. Carter hurt him. Help him."

"Not as bad as he hurt you. Calm down," Rek muttered. "Let me see."