"No woman wakes up saying, 'God, I hope I don't get swept off my feet today!"

***

"He's so cute and you guys, he has the best body and he did this thing-"

"Annie, I love you, but you are giving way too much information about Alex for me," Asami interrupted her over the phone before making a gagging noise. "I watched this kid pee in pants in the first grade. And the fourth grade. And the sixth grade. I cannot imagine him being that good in bed."

Annabel and I thought it would be best to call Asami to keep her cheered us. Though Asami kept insisting she was fine, we could see through the hollow smiles and dead eyes enough to know better.

"Sorry," Annabel sighed, her voice already makes her sound like she is daydreaming about him already. "I just like hanging out with him."

I snorted at the words "hanging out," but maybe I don't consider making out with someone at a party as hanging out. 

"Alex wants us to keep it quiet though so you can't tell anybody," Annabel request casually. 

She managed to keep it to herself but the minute one of us mentioned Alex, she immediately spilled the beans with a look I can only imagine a child about to eat ice cream gets.

"You're doing a great job on that front sweetie," Asami sarcastically praised her.

"Wait, why does he want it to be a secret?" I asked.

"He just doesn't want anyone else involved. I get that. Just to keep it in a bubble for a while when it's just the two of us," she responded. If she was in person, I can almost see hearts all around her.

"Look I'm just saying that it can be concerning that he's being so...secretive with you. I don't think the guys know. Asami what do you think?" I asked, sensing this conversation going south and silently requesting back up from Asami. 

"France has a point that it could be sketchy. You don't have to do anything about it, but just be aware because that could be a red flag. We trust you," Asami responded, wording it better than I could've.

"I appreciate your concern, but you guys don't have to worry. He's been so nice to me and treats me well," Annabel repeated. I could hear the hope in her voice, and I wanted to believe it. Maybe three years ago I would've.

But the cynic in me had doubts.

"At least one of us is happy now," Asami joked bitterly. 

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Annabel pressed again, something we both have been doing for the past. 

"Guys he broke up with me. There's nothing else that can be done," Asami said quietly. I swore I heard quiet sniffles in the background, but I knew better not to ask. 

"Asami, please let one of us come over," Annabel begged.

I heard Asami sigh through the phone.

"I can't rely on you guys like this. I have to just get over it," she insisted.

"What if I bring a tub of ice cream?" I suggested, knowing that is her weakness.

There was silence on the the other end.

"What kind?"

"Chocolate chip cookie dough," I repeated, knowing that her the only type of ice cream she eats.

"Okay fine. Only if  it's Ben and Jerrys," she reluctantly agreed.

Annabel made a noise of excitement. "I can come over tonight too," she said eagerly.

"I'll join after I have dinner with-, " I added.

"With who?" Annabel asked. "Why didn't you say that?"

"She was literally about to say who if you didn't interrupt her," Asami mentioned.

"It's with France," I finally managed to squeeze in their bickering.

They didn't say anything for a bit.

"Shut up," Annabel said loudly repeatedly over the phone that I had to pull it an inch away from my ear.

"You're on a date with France?" Asami repeated with surprise. "I also have seen this kid pee his pants. I don't know why I'm surrounded by them when they pee their pants."

I rolled my eyes, biting back the smile at the thought of France peeing his pants as a kid.

"It's not a date. He called out all freaked out and weird, so I'm just checking if he's okay," I groaned, looking at the restaurant in front of me. "Consider this a welfare check."

France called all panicky and asked to meet. I agreed when I heard the distress in his voice, which he said some other stuff quickly before saying he has to go and hung up the phone. He then texted me the information to the restaurant I was standing in front of her.

"Maybe he needs you to come over and calm him down if you're getting what I'm saying," Asami said in a suggestive tone.

"Ohh I get it," Annabel said, also eager to participate in the banter. "Maybe he needs you to make him feel better."

"By doing sexy stuff if I wasn't making that clear," Asami stated. "That was the joke." 

"Okay. Conversation over," I announced, deciding this is at the end of the conversation.

"I think someone has a crush," Annabel teased.

"She's into this guy. This is always how she gets," Asami said.

"I literally thought he was having a seizure when he called," I groaned, definitely not wanting to hear what Annabel is saying. My groan stopped when I saw the person in question. "I gotta go. I will see you all later."

Before they could say anything else, I hung up the phone. I looked up to France approaching me. He was dressed more casual today. He was wearing jeans, a graphic t-shirt, and a green jacket with fur lining on the inside. He smiled when he saw me and waved.

"Hey," I said out loud.

He stopped a few feet in front of me, and looked at me.

"Wow," was all he said.

I looked down at my outfit. I didn't change my clothes much from school, and was still in my jeans and sweatshirt, so I wasn't sure what he was looking at.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just surprised you're actually here," he greeted with me. His face appeared off guard, like he was actually surprised to see me here.

"You called me saying we have to talk, and then left a location and time before hanging up. You sounded like you were being held hostage," I clarified, pretending it wasn't more than just that. The memory of us at the halloween party has stayed with me every time I have thought about France. More than I would've preferred.

"Sorry about that," he apologized with a sheepish smile. "I swear I'm not crazy."

"No, you are a little crazy. All of you are," I said. "So why we are here? I'm a little scared where you are taking me." 

"This isn't a date if that is what you're worried about that. Just to prove it, you can pay for your self," France proposed optimistically. He reached out to hold the door open for me.

I rolled my eyes.

"Such a gentlemen," I muttered, entering the restaurant with France laughing behind me.

The restaurant with simple. The white walls suited the mahogany red couches that lined the entire restaurant. Despite it being a week night, the restaurant was filled with servers rushing with hot food that made my stomach rumble.

A short lady with a black apron rushed to the front and greeted us. France responded, speaking in quickly in a language that didn't sound like English. After they chatted, the lady directed us to an empty table deep in the restaurant.

"That wasn't English right?" I asked France as I took the seat by the wall.

He shook his head.

"Tagalog. Pretty common language in the Philippines," he responded, quickly saying something on the server when she placed the menus onto the table.

"Oh," I said, opening the menu.

As embarrassing as it was, I didn't know much about the Philippines. I heard of the country from history class but that was it. Just the name. If I was asked about the culture or history, I would come up with little to nothing. I looked at the words, trying to imagine the dish but I had no idea where to go with it.

This was definitely working against me. The menu was huge and I didn't know any of the food.

"You called me like it was an emergency to eat here with me?" I asked, hoping that talking would him that could lead to him telling me what he is getting.

He shook his head. "No. You are here for a reason," he explained, not once opening the menu besides an occasional glance. "I just wanted to have food while I do it. Makes me feel better when I'm stressed out."

Okay, so maybe my intuition wasn't wrong. He looked distressed, his hands absentmindedly touching his toussled hair from time to time. His eyes looked glossed over in thoughts, not particularly focusing on anything in particular.

"Well. I might need your help," I admitted, finally giving up after having no idea or any sense of direction with it. I closed the menu. "I have no clue what any of this is."

He took the menu from me. His fingers brushed against mine while doing so. It was an instant warmth that made my body tingle. I pulled my hand back quickly.

"Oh yeah, sorry. This is just a Filipino restaurant, so if the food is too weird looking for you-" he began to mumble quickly, flipping through the pages.

I immediately felt bad for asking. I put a hand over his to make him stop flipping the pages quickly. He stopped and looked up at me.

"No. I like trying new things. I just don't know what's good. Why don't you order something for me? I trust your tastes," I asked, pulling my hand away.

He smiled, his facial features appearing more relaxed instead of strained.

"Of course," he agreed. "You're not vegetarian right? Any diet restrictions? Any allergies?"

I shook my head no to all of them. Once he confirmed I was fine, he called for the waitress and started to speak. He was flipping through the menu, pointing at various items that the waitress scribbled down quickly. After he stopped pointing, they chatted for a minute longer before she left.

"Why does it sound like you ordered a lot of food?" I asked him.

"Don't worry about that. You should expand your palette anyways," he simply replied, seeming more concerned his straw to put it into his glass of water than the fact it looked like he ordered six dishes. "Anyways. The reason I called you is because I have to talk to you about something."

"Does this involve the reason none of you guys were at lunch today?"

I bit my tongue to prevent myself from saying anything else. His expression changed to surprise like I understood exactly why he called me.

I have looked over at their table from time to time. Usually, they are laughing or goofing around because that was just them. Sure, one or two of them wouldn't be at the table, but they always seemed happy.

Today was weird because none of them were there.

"Something like that," he confirmed vaguely. His eyes scanned the table before he placed his hands over his face and sighed.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

When he looked up, I saw stress etched into his brown eyes. His arms settled onto the table top and he leaned into the table.

"Did Alex and Annabelle hooked up at the party?" France asked randomly.

I froze for a moment. Annabelle requested to keep it quiet and I was not going to slip another thing about my friends. "What?" I tried to act surprised.

France's eyes narrowed. "Girls talk about everything, so I'm going to assume yes based on that response," he said. He almost sounded disappointed.

"If it is true...Annabel is a great girl. What's wrong with her?" I asked almost defensively.

"It's not that," France said. He leaned in. "It's just weird he didn't say anything and just went MIA."

"Not everyone kisses and tells," I told him. 

"Alex does," France insisted. "He even tells about his fucks up because let me tell you, there was a lot of those." 

"Okay," I said slowly. "So why does this bother you? Because he isn't tell you he is with Annabel."

France sighed loudly, clearly not happy with my question. "It's not just him. It's Devon. It's...all of them. All of them are acting differently. I can't explain it, but no one seems to be talking," he explained. "Like they talk sometimes, but it's not the same. It felt like something happened and now everyone is just acting strange."

I heard from Asami that they were friends since the beginning of time to the point they could be considered a clique. Not because they weren't welcoming of others but they had such a strong bond that it was impossible to bend. 

"It might be that people are changing senior year," I guessed. 

He took a sip of water with a strange look on his face.

"Senior year?" he repeated. "What does that have to do with anything?"

I shrugged, toying with the end of my straw.

"Someone from my old high school said that senior year changes people. They have a year to figure out who they want to be for college. Maybe that's why they are distant. They are trying to figure it all out," I explained, watching his reaction.

He nodded slowly, his eyes glazed over in thought.

The hardest lesson I learned was that people change. My mind drifted back to Joey and how we met. Our families were family friends so I have known him since the first grade. He asked me to the movies in the tenth grade. I thought about my friends who I knew since middle school, who quickly seemed happy to drop me when everything went down with Joey. 

"That would make sense," he stated. "But I think something is wrong besides that. Trust me. We have been friends for years. Suddenly, over the course of a couple of weeks everyone begins to act weird. Something must've happened."

From the distressed tone in his voice, I looked up to find his gaze glued to the wall behind me. His breathing was visible, his shoulders and chest moving up and down while his view glazed over for a certain amount of time.

"Okay. So what does all I have to do with it?"

Our conversation was interrupted when a waitress and a waiter arrived to the table, each holding multiple plates on each arm. The waitress took a plate and put it on the table.

"Chicken adobo, sinigang, sisig, lumpia, bulaloo, and two bowls of rice," she said out loud, placing each dish onto the table. The smell hit my nose and my stomach growled with excitement over eating.

I didn't know a single word she was saying besides chicken, and rice, but it all smelled divine. My hands grabbed an empty plate so district myself so I don't start devouring the food right off their hands.

"Okay. So what's good?" I asked, not caring about not being educated on the food and more concerned about eating.

He took my plate and a spoon the waitress provided.

"Let me put some stuff on your plate and explain it to you," he said. He used the spoons to scoop different items on my plate, explaining what they are made up of, fumbling through parts of it since he didn't entirely know himself, but it was nice of him to do regardless.

He put the plate back in front of me before starting to serve himself.

I took a bite of...I think it's the sisig? When I added it with rice, I was immediately greeted by strong flavors that just melted in my mouth.

"This is good," I said before taking couple of more bites of the other dishes. Each dish brought a unique combination of flavor that my tongue just savored in.

Filipino food was definitely on my list of cuisine to eat now.

France laughed out loud.

"Glad you like this," he said, his warm was voice with amusement. "Highly underrated compared to Italian food, but it's good."

I shook my head. "No. This is good trust me."

He smiled before taking a bite on his own. While eating, we started to have small talk. He expressed relief that I liked the food there, and mentioned that he only has taken his guy friends here. We talked about my high school before and our past love lives before we went on to even talk about our interests. We didn't have too many interests in common but it was interesting to hear about his interest in coding, martial arts, and also apparently loved hiking.

Sometimes we made jokes or tease each other. He was amused before but it was then I saw the biggest smile on France's face I have seen before he started to laugh.

I liked that.

His laugh was pleasing.

I hated that I thought about it. 

"Anyways, I think we got a little off topic about the real stuff. Why am I here?" I asked.

He sighed, pushing his empty plate away from him.

"I don't know why my friends are acting like this. You know more than I do, so I need your help," he stated bluntly like it was an obvious fact.

I blinked.

"I don't know any more than you do." 

He shook his head. "Not true. You knew that Devon and Asami broke up, and that Alex was hooking up with Annabel."

I thought about Asami and Annabel in our earlier phone call today, realizing how little I knew of either situation either. Normally, I believe in privacy and giving people time to heal and get better.

"That's different than if something is personally bothering any of the guys. I only knew that stuff because other people told me," I stated. "Seriously. It might just be in your head. You would know if there were serious issues better than I would."

"Well the issue is I don't," he bit harshly. He paused it, inhaling and exhaling loudly before he put his hands over hi face. "I'm sorry. It's just getting to me and I don't know who I can talk to about it."

He stopped eating his food. His hands were over his face before he let go it his face before he kept eating. "I've known Akito for over ten years. I've known Alex and Archy for about eight years. I've known Devon for seven years. We've been through so much together. They are...like my brothers. You could be right, but I'm just trying to understand what's happening to them. If you know anything...I want to know. They...are my family." 

He really cared about his friends I thought to myself. It wasn't until that moment until I felt really bad for him. His troubled expression made me watch him slowly. It was clear that something happened in the past based on the way his expression darkened, but I didn't ask. 

I ate the food in front me, watching France caught in his own thoughts. He looked like a lost by, wandering alone.

And that made me feel things I didn't want to.

"Maybe something did happen," I conceded, wanting to comfort him. "But you can't go tell them things that I told you. If I say anything, keep it to yourself."

He chuckled and took a deep breath before laughing quietly. "Now that I'm saying it out loud, it sounds like I'm overreacting. This is just important to me. My dad... died when I was little, so my mom is a single mom. I had an older brother who died while I was in middle school. I just live with my mom and my grandma. As sad and fucking sappy as this sounds, those guys are the only family I have. God this sounds so fucking sappy-"

"It doesn't," I interrupted him. 

France stopped talking. He took another deep breath before shaking his head. I saw the visible pain in his eyes. I didn't know any of that. He never spoke about it and he seemed like a normal person. Someone who was just...happy.

When I was dealing with the Joey stuff and the anxiety, it was my family that supported me. The idea of not them being there seemed crazy. I would've been lost without them there to ground me.

I wonder if he's feeling that? 

"Sorry for that cheesy comment. That is embarrassing of me. I hope the food is good. You should have some more," he said, pushing some of the dishes close to me. I took a little bit more rice, the chicken, and the soup that was nearby and placed it on my plate to eat.

"The food is really great. The synagogue one is my favorite so far," I said, eating another bite of the food.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Sinigang?" he corrected me.

My cheeks started to burn from embarrassment when I realized what I just said.

"You know what I meant. If you are going to call me out like that, then I won't help you," I jokingly threatened him.

His eyes widened.

"You are going to help?" he asked with more enthusiasm.

"Let's just first get through this food first. I'm so full, I don't think I can eat another bite," I said, feeling my stomach about to burst through my jeans. I looked at the lefter food that was still there in each plate, not sure how to finish it. "If you are full, we can take the stuff home."

He shook his head, switching out the empty plate for the chicken platter in front of him.

"You are about to watch something beautiful," was the last thing he said was before he started to eat everything off all the dishes. We still spoke in the middle but watching him finish the food was definitely something.

"Well that was...something," I commented after he managed to finish off almost everything off his plate. The waitress immediately came and took the empty plates off from the table and dropped the check at the center.

Before I could take it, France grabbed it.

"At least let me pay for eating most it," he insisted.

Before I could say anything else he took off to pay at the front. I watched him go to pay, watching him talk to the waitress, pulling out his wallet to pay. His hair, usually styled, was messy, which suited him better. I knew his voice was pleasant, and I knew that it was with kindness.

He was different than my initial thoughts the day he tried to steal something. He was not anything that I imagined.

He was better than that.

I gathered my things and left the table to where he was standing.

"Let me at least you pay you back," I insisted.

He shook his head and stuck his hands up in the air.

"Don't worry about it. It's the least I can for making you come here, watch me eat, and act like a moron about my friends."

"I think it's nice that you care about your friends well being that much. I would like to be of any help whenever I can," I said with full honesty.  I knew I didn't have to but I wanted to. I really wanted to be there for him.

And the reaction he gave me of relief made it worth it.

"Thank you. Hopefully you're right and it's my paranoia," he said with a faint smile. He shoved his hands into his pocket and sighed. "Anyways, I know you are busy, so I should let you get going. Let me walk you to your parked car."

We walked silently to the car. I didn't mind the silence that much. It didn't feel as awkward as I thought it would've been. Usually I tried to talk through the silence, but standing silently was soothing.

Out of the corner or my eye, his hands were still in his pocket, trying to protect them from the frigid November air. I kept my head low to conserve the heat leaving my body, but the only thing my body felt was the presence of him next to me.

I tried to focus on moving my feet towards the direction of the car rather than him. I didn't know why he was so occupied in my thoughts, and I definitely did not like how my body warms at the thought of him. Luckily, the walk was only a few minutes before we reached my car.

I pulled out the keys to unlock the car, and turned to face him. His cheeks were tinged pink from the cold that almost matched the color of his lips.

Lips again?

"This is my car," I told him. He nodded, watching me open the car door. "Do you need a ride?"

He shook his head.

"I'm good, thanks. My house isn't too far from here," he said. I ignored the disappointment that was in my body and focused on the conversation. "Anyways, I will talk to you soon. Have a goodnight."

With one final look, he turned around and started walking away.

"Bye," I said too softly, watching his figure disappear around the corner.

I entered the drivers seat and shut the door. I turned on the engine, but I was preoccupied by dinner. My mind couldn't comprehend how warm my body felt. Not externally, but internally. It did not want to leave the restaurant, and rather spend the evening talking over food rather than be alone.

Then I was hit with the stark realization that I wanted to get to know him better.

Author's Note: Honestly, I'm not fully set on this chapter. I will definitely come back to revise it. 

Vote + comment if you are interested in the story!