"We still on for bowling tomorrow?" Candice prodded, resting her chin on my head as we sat waiting for our respective rides.

Pax settled down next to us, and answered for me, saying, "Of course, how else would we spend our time? Do you know who's is coming?"

Candice paused for a moment before responding. "Well, I know that you two are coming and Miki's bringing Loa. I talked to Isa and Bayu too. Oh yeah, and Gio practically proclaimed that he'd be coming once he heard you'd be there. Why is he still chasing after you?"

I scoffed, "I guess he thinks he'll change my mind. Normally, I wouldn't come if I knew Gio would be there, but since you're moving, it'll be worth it."

"I'd hope so," Candice chuckled. "Promise me you won't bring this bag of yours. I know you well enough to know that there's at least two more books in there. I want you to have fun."

"Don't worry," Pax assured her. "I'll watch her like a hawk. Plus, she'll be all booked out after tonight."

"Speaking of which." I stood up and pulled my backpack on, "There's your mom, Pax. Let's go. Bye, Candice! See you tomorrow." Pax hugged Candice before following me to the car. I just waved as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

"Try not to be so lofty, yeah?" Mrs. Greene laughed softly. "That poor girl looked like she was trying to get you to talk."

Pax giggled. "Thissy's still a little salty over that time Candice replaced her on the varsity team as spiker and she had to play libero, even though she's way better at that anyhow." She poked me in the side and I rolled my eyes back at her. I had to admit, it was satisfying to watch the rivaling teams' faces turn to shock whenever I saved a particularly nasty ball, but being striker was something I just preferred to play.

"Where's Eris?" Mrs. Greene checked the rearview mirror. "I thought she was supposed to come home with us?"

"She's got play rehearsal," Pax explained. "We figured you were gonna reward us for finishing May anyhow." The corner of her lips quirked up in a half smile.

"You girls..." Mrs. Greene trailed off. "I don't know what I'd do if both of you were mine." While the car was resting at a red light, she fished through her purse to find two gift cards. "That's fifteen bucks to each of you; I'll drop you off at the store." Pax and I shared glances full of mirth.

At the same time, we both called "Thank you!" as the car drove off into the distance. I trailed Pax into the bookstore, breathing in that scent of home.

"Weirdo," Pax smirked, raising an eyebrow at my frozen expression. "You're the only person I know that immediately goes for the smell of any place."

I straightened. "Hey, at least I don't care what people think about me when I do weird things." Slightly less enthused, I slunk toward the front desk, where a bored man stood with a puzzle cube in his hands.

"Hey, Whit," I greeted. "It's been a while, yeah?" He brightened up at the sound of my voice. As usual, Whit's cat leaped onto the counter and pushed his head under my hand.

"It's not my fault you guys don't come to visit," he pouted.

Rubbing the Preacher's fur, I gave Whit an incredulous stare before commenting, "Slow day today."

"Yeah," he replied. "I've got this kid in the back and a couple looking through some wedding books. Got any good news? Specifically for me?"

"Well, it's almost summer," Pax offered. "We're here for our monthly book shop."

"Almost summer," Whit groaned, throwing his head back. "More work for me."

"Doesn't involve me," I smirked. "We're heading in. Good luck with your prep for the summer work." Whit and I used to volunteer for the same hospital every summer, but this summer was the summer before senior year, so my parents agreed to cut me some slack to tackle college applications.

Whit stuck his tongue out at me and waved us off. I gave the cat one last scratch under his chin before making a beeline for the closest set of shelves.

"See you, Whit!" Pax linked her arm through mine as we ventured further into the store. Just as Whit had said, there was a couple crouched on the floor, surrounded by an array of thick books. As we passed them, Pax silently squealed. The girl was for anything sweet and cute, and weddings just happened to fit the criteria exactly.

I paused, letting Pax continue on her own, to look through titles that caught my eye. I gave a quiet squeal when I found a book I'd been searching for. Beaming to myself at the sight of the yellow edges, I fanned the pages to catch that familiar smell before tucking my half-read book from home into my bag.

Checking my phone sometime later, I realized it had been two hours since I'd arrived and I was on the other side of the store. I shrugged to myself and wandered to the back of the room where I knew a table was. Immersed in my newly acquired book, I took a seat and carefully set down my stack, trying my best not to drop any of the novels.

"Planning for a book outage?" On hearing that familiar snigger, I looked up reluctantly to come face to face with Gio.

"Better to be well prepared than dead." I shrugged, feigning a cool expression. Some days, it was all just fun and games, but other days, like today, I just wanted a moment to read.

"So now I'm dead to you," Gio said, unusually serious. I rose my head from my book to frown at Gio in concern. In the two years we'd spent together in classes and nine knowing each other, I had never heard him relatively close to being sincere, which was very odd.

"You okay there, buddy? I never said that." I offered a nervous giggle. Gio gave me an I'm-not-sure-I-believe-you look. We stayed like that in silence for a few minutes, but I couldn't focus on my book anymore.

I sighed. "Do you remember how we met?" As much as he got on my nerve, I owed Gio for granting me a place in the school hierarchy when I'd finally transferred to an actual school.

Gio cocked his head to the side at me, with a confused look on his face. "Yeah, I think so. It was back in third grade, right? How did we meet? I kinda forgot." His smile was coming back and I was happy to see it.

"Right here. I had my big Harry Potter book and you came up to me and asked why Hermione's teeth were so big." I rolled my eyes in amusement. "Then, you told me your name and said you liked me. I think I ran away after that."

"Oh yeah!" Gio's eyes lit up. "The next day, your mom was at my house because she was helping my mom with Felix and your dad dropped you off cause he was on his way to work, right?" I nodded. He grinned with pride and I smiled at his child-like pleasure. We watched each other for a moment and began to laugh.

"I saw you and I decided that you were mean and scary," I added between giggles.

"I think that was the whole reason why I started to joke around," Gio glanced thoughtfully at my book. "I would talk to you any chance I got to try and prove how not scary I was." His voice trailed off at the end, and we faded into a silence filled with nostalgia.

Satisfied with a job well done, I flipped my book open, ready to dissolve into a different world once again. But just as I set my eyes on where I'd left off, a large crash sounded close to where I sat. Finding the noise suspicious, I stood up and pushed a few books aside on the shelf behind my chair. Sure enough, I found Pax sprawled on the floor surrounded by fallen books. What surprised me was that she'd been caged in by Daniel McGregor.

"What do you think you're doing?' I rounded the corner and raised an eyebrow. Pax's eyes snapped to me, the tips of her ears already a tell-tale red. Daniel offered me a smirk before hauling himself to his feet. Pax took his outstretched hand and pulled herself up to stand next to Daniel, body slightly leaning towards me.

"Well? Is there something I need to know?" I bit my lip to keep my smile from growing. While Pax was outgoing, something I wasn't, she had a hard time starting any sort of relationship with boys outside of the occasional classmate acquaintance. Seeing the hints of a grin on the corners of my mouth, Pax's eyes widened.

"I caught this little one spying on you," Daniel cut in. "And I might have surprised her too much. When I said hello, she jumped and knocked over some books. Case in point." He pointed to the chaotic display on the floor.

"Sounds like B.S. from what I'm hearing," Gio coughed, his head peeking from the other side of the shelf.

"Shut up, Gio," I rolled my eyes endearingly, and pushed his head away. "It does sound like B.S., but we have no proof." I could see Pax visibly loosen up so I added, "Detective tag team?" Pax's expression morphed into one of dread.

"This only happens once every blue moon!" Gio feigned falling down in shock from where he'd appeared at my side.

Daniel frowned. "Tag team?"

Pax sighed and answered, "Town inside joke. You only need to know that when Gio and Thisbe are a team, you stand no chance of survival."

The oldest members of our town had a running joke that everyone to everyone's grandparents were in on. When a situation called for it, a guy and girl could spontaneously team up to fulfill their objective. For me, it was to dig out the truth behind Pax's and Daniel's relationship. This was an ideal case because Gio and I were our generation's top duo, and the whole town knew it.

I nodded, and snickered as I said, "You can run, but we'll always find you."

"Challenge accepted," Daniel shot back.

"Aight," I shrugged. "Now that we've got that sorted out, I'm just gonna read my book now. Adios!"

Gio followed me through the shelves and to the checkout counter. I could feel his curious eyes boring into my back. Finally, I slapped my books into Whit's unsuspecting hands and dragged him outside.

"Ring those up please, Whit," I shouted through the swinging door. I didn't wait to hear or see his response as I turned to Gio, waiting expectantly.

"As much as I love the idea of tag team, you do realize that if it doesn't work, we might have another Silvering incident," Gio warned. "If we don't do it right, it'll turn out wrong."

"I know, I know!" I burst, pacing back and forth. "If we don't talk things out or agree, someone's gonna get majorly hurt." Gio hummed in agreement.

But at his words, I was reminded of the all the potential ways we could fail. "Can we pull this off?" I looked hesitantly at him.

"Sure," his eyes softened. "I'll do what I can for you." I broke our eye contact, choosing to stare at our shoes because I wasn't ready to face the reality of what was behind his eyes.

I don't get what that moment has anything to do with me being forgiven. If anything, it proves why I shouldn't be.

But for me, that was the start of it all.

Whatever. Let's just hear it.

[word count 1995]

[published 9:19 AM Monday, September 03, 2018 (GMT+9)]

cover by oceanwaved.