The next morning Marlene woke up feeling fresh and invigorated. Without a clear recollection of what happened last night, she stretched out her arms and smiled. But then an eerie feeling swept her mind, as she remembered the most unusual dream.

Marlene visualized that she was standing in a white rectangular room where she was all by herself. But then an unlocked door appeared before her, and as she went in, it led her to a hallway where some voices were heard. And as she went in to investigate further, the shadows passed her by. She didn't know who or what they actually were, but the fact that something was trying to communicate with her made Marlene tense.

But that was all that she could recall. Marlene's mind suddenly drew blank, as if her vision was giving her a warning sign not to continue. A presence in that ghastly vision of hers was mouthing something like an order to come forward. And these words sounded very familiar as if it came out of Robinaire's mouth, as if he were asking her for forgiveness.

She knew that she fell asleep after reading Owen's confession regarding the bribery, so the nightmare could have been connected to her insomnia.

But then again, Marlene took this illusion as a simple joke, as if her delusional mind was just playing tricks on her.

She wanted to believe that it never happened, yet Robin's presence seemed so real in her mind.

If her best friend and her love really did fight for her love, Paige never told her about it. And if Robin was totally honest with her, she wondered why he kept it hidden for so long.

There must have been a side of him that Marlene didn't quite see, but to think that Paige even held a deeper secret was quite shocking.

~~

Marlene thought this over, but even though it sounded ridiculous, there was only one way to prove that she was wrong, and that was to call her friend and ask for the juicy details. But she hesitated in doing that, because she knew Paige's husband would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation. Since the two just got married, she didn't want to be caught in the middle of an argument.

So, Marlene tried to brush that idea off; even the thought of Robin's spirit haunting her gave her the creeps.

"That dream must have been just a dream, and it was nothing worth getting nervous about," was what she told herself to brighten up her spirits.

She pulled off the covers off her bed and kept an open mind for today's errands.

After doing her morning roundabouts, she noticed that the red light flashing on her alarm clock indicated that it was 10:00 am. Blaming herself from oversleeping, she pouted. She also knew that her brother already left for work and that made her upset.

~~

Marlene decided to head downstairs to eat some breakfast, when she found a letter held by a magnet on the refrigerator. It was written in bold black letters by Joshua, and it was addressed to her.

It stated that he had to leave for work early due to a meeting.

Joshua tried to wake up his sister, but since Marlene didn't budge, he decided to leave her breakfast in the refrigerator, which could be heated in the toaster oven. Joshua also purchased a new alarm system after the last altercation, and repaired the old windows of the house with sturdy ones. So he made sure that Marlene was aware of that in his note.

Thus, his sister opened the fridge to find out what her brother had cooked. To her surprise, it happened to be pancakes, just like the ones that she had eaten with Owen on her college trip. She managed to let out a chuckle as she remembered that incident.

During that college trip, she was dubbed with the name as "Flat as a pancake" when her suitor teased her. Owen also left her a letter of an apology that day, and bought her food from the gift shop to repay for the damage he had done.

That was what she appreciated about the man she grew to love, Owen somehow had a caring heart hidden behind his chauvinistic approach.

So, she took out the food that her brother left her, and placed it in the toaster oven. As her pancakes were heating, she ran back upstairs to fetch Owen's journal. Marlene missed one of her 'favorite' guys and just had to continue reading it, while she ate.

But as Marlene took out the bookmark from the journal, her bad dream from last night haunted her again. The same words proved to her that she never hallucinated at all.

Robinaire really wanted Owen to date his sister!

So, just maybe Robin was trying to tell me that he was sorry for doing it.

She was astounded, but remained calm and figured Owen's attempts to woo Paige were just minor.

He loved me right? And only me. Not my sister or best friend.

She kept her fingers across every single word on the page, and recited them out loud in order to keep herself alert.

'Robinaire came up with the idea of taking you with him in a hot air balloon ride, but I wanted to be part of that excursion too. After several tries, Robin finally agreed, but only if I would date his sister. And if that was the only way I could get close to you on the trip, that's what I did'.

~~

I, Owen Thomas, did what it took to get you to notice me. And if that meant going on a hot air balloon ride, so be it.

Although, I was rather nervous that day when my aunt dropped me off in front of the Lewis's door. I never imagined that I would become Robin's rival for your love, but it indeed happened.

It would also be my first time flying the friendly skies without my dad lecturing me, so I didn't anticipate the fact that I was supposed to wear the proper clothes for the cool, windy day. I just had a t-shirt and some jeans on. Therefore, I felt stupid, since no one told me to wear a sweater over my shirt. But in the end, Robin loaned me one of his jackets for the trip, so he was helpful.

As Robin opened the door for me, I remember seeing two beautiful girls giggling in the living room. I recall you were wearing this rose cardigan sweater matched with black jeans. Paige was wearing our high school sweatshirt and some jeans, but I wasn't really interested in knowing that. I was wondering if you were going to be cold and wanted to embrace you that day, but then remembered that my date was supposed to be your best friend.

You looked stunning that day as you were chit chatting with Paige. But your smile only lasted for a minute, because when you looked up at me, you frowned. If I only knew how to do it, I wanted to turn that frown upside down.

Even though our first meeting in school didn't turn out to be perfect, I wanted to learn more about you, your family and friends, for I had none that could embrace me like my Aunt Tess did. I didn't mean to become too nosy, but couldn't help being you're trouble maker.

~~

So when we arrived at the station, I got out of Robin's car with sweaty palms after feeling some apprehension. I wanted to back out of Robin's plan, because I wanted to be with you, not Paige. But it was too late to say anything to Robinaire. If I didn't go on the ride, he would've won you over up in the skies, and leave me rotting on the ground with Paige.

I had to show my pride and had to face my rival no matter what it took.

When we were in the car, he had one arm around you as he drove, and just the sight of this drove a bit of jealousy burning in my flesh.

Do you know how it feels when you force your toes to sink deeper within your socks or shoes due to an irritation? Well, that's exactly how I felt.

Of course, I didn't want to be rude to Paige, so that is why I had a meaningful conversation with her. But I never touched or kissed her; there wasn't even a single connection that I felt between us. So, please don't be mad at her

I don't know what was clicking in your mind as we boarded the balloon, but I kind of panicked.

I knew that I was about to climb into an over-sized picnic basket that's going to whisk me hundreds of meters above the earth without a seat belt, a life jacket or a parachute on hand.

That's when I just realized that I was about to step into a hot air balloon.

What was I thinking?

I don't have a fear of heights, but I do not like it when I'm up in the air without any safety equipment on hand; but as our former rope course instructor once said, 'Life is not worthwhile, if we do not learn who to trust."

~~

Robin entered the balloon first before all the other patrons, since he was the one who actually paid for the ride. But as a proper gentleman, he came back out, winked at his sister and smiled. "After you my dear ladies.'

You were rather flattered with his statement, and laughed.  That annoyed me, with all the heat I was feeling by then.

"Oh, Robin please stop kidding around, you know I have been your friend for so long. Just call me by my nickname", Marlene replied.

"Of course Mae. I was just checking the basket out ... seems sturdy enough." I assume he pretended to know how sturdy a hot air balloon basket would be; so instead of agreeing with him, I just smirked. But he did not pay any attention to my glare and continued on with his ramblings.

"I know that you are afraid of heights; so just stay with me Marlene, and you'll be all right."

~~

Hearing this made Marlene feel much better after she told her friends she refused to fly up with them.

However, Owen was not aware that the siblings hatched up a plan to make Marlene feel at ease. They wanted her to forget her own troubles by making her laugh until the flight took off.

Paige was also now aware that her brother wanted to be more than friends with Marlene, and tried to pair them together, even though there was another person who wanted to interfere with that judgement.

Even though she was still mad at Mae for considering the fact that Gretel was going to be a major problem, Paige would do anything for her twin to make him happy. Even if that meant 'pretending' to be interested in Owen and being sweet to Marlene.

~~

A bald man in his forties greeted the four friends once everyone got on the basket.

"Hello, my name is Mr. Swanson, I will be your pilot for today's balloon ride. Can I have everybody's names please for attendance purposes?"

Robin was the first one to speak and shook hands with the pilot.

"Robinaire sir, but please call me Robin for short."

His sister was next in line, followed by you.

Last, but not least, I introduced myself as I felt that the twins were going to exclude him from their group.

"Very well then folks, we will gently be ascending and floating between 500 to 2,000 feet. We will be traveling wherever the wind takes us. We might fly above treetops and below the clouds for about an hour, covering five to ten miles. On landing we celebrate with a fruit juice toast, which is an old ballooning tradition. How does that sound?"

Robinaire smiled and quickly agreed with the pilot before anyone could speak up, not noticing that you were  about to become nauseated. You were just inches away from him, but Robin's eyes were glued to what the pilot was doing instead. Therefore, I came to your rescue and patted your back.

"Mae, are you okay?" Owen asked.

"No, I just need to rest for a bit. I just got my phobia anxieties back. Can I lean on someone for a bit?"

But before he could say anything, Robin jumped in and took action. He whispered in my ear and said, "Thanks Owen, but I think I can handle it from here. I'll take care of her."

He even secretly nudged me to go stand next to his sister, but kept his pretty face on when Marlene looked at him.

At the sound of the commotion, the pilot asked them what was going on. But this time, instead of waiting for Robin to speak up, I beat him to it.

"Marlene has acrophobia Mr. Swanson".

Thus, the pilot asked if the frightened girl wanted to leave.

She refused to do so and just took in a big gulp, leaning on Robin's chest.

Of course, since this was Robinaire's plan, he was delighted. Since he was her friend, he was able to touch Marlene's hair, but did it a comforting way that Marlene would remain clueless of his strategies.

At this time, the basket was now floating in the air around 500 feet. The wind was breezy and the atmosphere was supposedly clear.

But just then the basket rocked back and forth as a few birds bumped into it.

"Hold on tight folks! Some birds hit us," alerted the pilot.

The shaking caused Marlene to bump into Paige, who was already angry, since I was not entertaining her as she would have liked.

With her arms crossed she exclaimed, "Don't push me Mae!"

"I'm not trying to Paige, it's just this sudden movement!"

But then the beginning of an argument began to unfold.

"I wish you could just get rid of your stupid phobia, Mae and move on!

"Wait, what! Are you still mad at me because I said something about Gretel?"

Paige stomped her foot and was ready to retaliate against her friend, when the pilot stopped them.

"Ladies please! I don't know who are arguing about. But please stay still!"

I wanted to embrace Marlene, but couldn't because a promise was a promise. I had to obey Robin's rules.

But since the pilot had intervened, the girls remained quiet until the landing toast ended.

~~

When the ride was over, Paige discreetly took me aside.

She asked me with what's wrong with me, since I spoiled the sibling's plan. I admitted my feelings for you, and that was when she laughed at my face. She couldn't believe the fact that two guys were actually fighting for your love.

And during my confession, she also went ballistics on me! Paige told me that the girl you two were fighting about was the same Gretel I knew about in my history class. But I knew this was just going to be one of the crazy girl's antics. I tried to warn Paige about Gretel, but she told me that I was out of my mind.

I don't know how, but Gretel was able to make a connection between me, the Lewis siblings and you.

If Paige never told you this secret, I'm sorry that I blurted it out.

~~

A/N

Hello dear readers,

Thank you for being patient with this update. I wrote this chapter in a narrator's point of view at first, but as Marlene read Owen's book I changed it to his voice. .

I thought of a hot air balloon ride since I entered a one shot contest last year with that idea. Unfortunately, I did not win, but that author gave me a few tips on how to make the story better. Even though I did delete my short story, I made this one as my own creation of a somewhat friendly hot air balloon ride ... that is if Paige and Marlene weren't so angry at each other.

I dedicate this page to fellow Wattpad reader Kit_Kat_Player. I like your username, reminds of the Kit Kat Chocolate Bar. I wish I could write my sentences in all Tagalog words, but let's just say I'm not cut out for it ... LOL! But I still know my Filipino Heritage and studied it, so I'm quite familiar with it, so I welcome all my Filipino Wattpad compadres!

The song for this chapter is "Why don't you and I" by Alex Band and my favorite guitarist Carlos Santana. The video was done when Alex was still young and when he had his original blonde hair, but he now dyed it brown. From the start, Robin had 'ogling eyes' for his friend, and I don't think I made that quite clear in my first book. But that's how the story goes!

And have you ever tried the limbo dance? It's seen in the YouTube video. It's quite fun, especially if you can win! Enjoy the song!