I eyed Reese with every ounce of skepticism that existed in the universe, brows knitting and the frown that settled on my face threatening to drop off entirely. I blinked a couple times, just to make sure that this wasn't some messed up dream where he would transform into a thousand pound squid with thirty different tentacles, because that was the type of possibility that existed when Reese asked for a truce.

Glancing down at my hands, I counted a solid ten, so at least I was pretty sure I wasn't in a dream.

Noting my doubt, Reese pushed forward the muffin in his hands. "Here, it's like a peace offering. It's chocolate chip, take it."

I scoffed. "Do you think that muffin will protect you?" I cracked my knuckles, the sound flooding between us with a threatening promise.

He eyed my warily. "What kind of monster would hurt a muffin?"

"The kind that is perfectly able to save said muffin while also ripping your intestines from your body and mummifying you with them."

Our eyes met, he was biting the inside of his cheek, and his confidence faltered. I smirked. Good.

"Okay," I snorted, disbelieving. "So you're trying to kill me via muffin poisoning now? There are lines we just don't cross, Powers. Like splashing me with puddles."

He took a tentative step closer. "It was a dick move, I know, I didn't mean it, but I panicked when you called me out. I'm hoping this doesn't change the whole Savannah thing." He punctuated his words with a sheepish shrug.

I fixed with him a deadpan stare. "You think that there's any chance in hell I'd help you? Say, how's the weather in the goddamn Twilight Zone?"

"I know, I know, it was a dumb move. But come on, there's gotta be a way. Just- what do you want? I know there's gotta be something I can help you with, so that you can help me with Savannah." A small smile found his face for reasons that were completely unbeknownst to me.

I laughed, hard and dry and bitter. "You talk as if there ever existed a possibility of that ever happening. Ever. In any dimension, on any planet, in any galaxy. Savannah literally has the pure heart of a golden retriever."

"Okay but-"

"A goddamn golden retriever, Powers," I interrupted, stare hard and denying any further argument from him. An intimidating hand was placed strategically on my hip.

He sighed in surrender, those amber eyes narrowed on me. "All right," he relented and shook his finger at me. "Just know that I'm going to find something that you need help with, and I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse."

I rolled my eyes. "All right, when you've got a lifetime supply of bacon and you've been exiled out of the continent- then maybe we can talk," I drawled, and swiped the muffin from his hand before turning on my heel.

"I thought you didn't want the muffin?"

I dismissed the question with a wave of my hand, not even bothering to look back. "I'm saving this muffin from Satan's clutches, it is my duty as the saviour of the muffins. Now let's never do this again, I wish you only the worst and goodbye forever."

Sinking my teeth into the gooey chocolate chip goodness, I could feel his intent stare fixed on my back, but brushed it off. I had more important things to worry about, like how much muffin I could stuff in my face before choking from lack of oxygen. Reese was easily pushed to the back of my mind, discarded and forgotten about without a care in the world.

                                                                                     ***

When I stepped inside my house, the shadows of twilight were beginning to grow and the only sound I could hear was the murmur of the television in the other room. I dropped my backpack in the closet, kicking off my shoes and feeling the peaceful sensation of home envelop me. Due to my brother's intense love for scented candles and his girlfriend's job at Bath and Body Works there was always a comforting aroma to greet me whenever I stepped inside, and today smelled something mint with hints of lemon.

I drifted towards the living room, where I found my brother lounging on the couch and a green candle flickering on the end table beside him. The light of the television poured onto his face and illuminated the room. At my entrance he looked up.

"Dad called." His face betrayed nothing.

I nodded, feeling an involuntary pang in my chest. "Did he say anything important?" I asked, dropping in the seat next to him, sinking into the soft grey couch cushions.

Chris shrugged, his eyes fixated on the television screen where some crime show was playing. Gory murder scene photos flashed before my eyes. "Nothing that important, the usual, be home soon, do your work, called me champ."

Swallowing, I quirked my mouth into a wry smile. "I missed out on some riveting stuff."

Chris scoffed, and the ghost of a smirk crossed his face "You did, actually, that Reese guy came by and was looking for you."

I emphasized my disgusted shivers at his name, mouth screwing into a revolted gape. "We need to move, I'm pretty sure that living so close to him is making me sick. Like asbestos or lead poisoning, something I could definitely win a law suit with." I coughed weakly.

He scoffed. "You're so childish."

"You're so childish," I mimicked in a high soprano, and Chris retaliated with a glare.

When he opened his mouth, the doorbell resonated through the air and I grinned at him. "There should be an expression for this, let's regroup about it later." Then I bounced out of the room, leaving a very unimpressed Chris in my wake.

The touches of my grin were still present on my face when I pulled the door open, immediately being wiped off when I discovered who was on the other end.

"Am I going to have to call To Catch a Predator? This is basically stalking now."

Reese was unfazed by this, his grin never faltering and unnervingly cheeky for someone who was so defeated mere hours ago. I didn't like it. At all.

"Stella, Stella, Stella," he sighed, shaking his head with the smile still plastered on his face. "I knew this day would come."

"I'm giving you ten seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't slam this door in your face, and believe me, I really, really want to." I crossed my arms over my chest, shifting my weight and arching a brow.

The first occurrence was an unfortunate event, but now patterns of Reese in my life were emerging and that was the sort of thing that led to zombie apocalypses, probably. Nothing good could come from Reese standing at my door, impish grin illuminated by the porch light and the last hints of evening painted behind him.

"Tyler McMaster."

I swallowed, but remained nonchalant. "And?"

"And," he stretched out the word, a smirk digging into his face. "You're practically in love with him."

My head shot back as I glared at Reese, narrowed eyes swimming in skepticism. My fists clenched against my ribs and I could feel a heat begin to creep up my neck.

"I'm practically what?"

"You've totally been obsessed with him since the eighth grade. I mean, it's kind of cute, how you've never spoken to him but you think he's like a gift from the heavens. I didn't think that people actually did that sort of thing passed middle school, and yet, here you are." He gestured to me with one hand, his face absolutely glowing in this moment.

I noticed that there were papers in his other.

"Ha-ha," I drawled dryly. "Whatever, go away Reese, this was your worst attempt yet."

A saccharine smile crept on his face as he brought the papers higher, eyes falling onto the typed words. "March 18th, Tyler was wearing that one red shirt I like, the one that's a little short so whenever he stretches I can see-"

I slapped a hand over his mouth to stop the awful but uncannily familiar words that were pouring from his lips. "What kind of witchcraft is this!?" I demanded, eyes wide and wild, my cheeks now heating to the temperature of the sun and most likely imitating the perfect tomato.

He shamelessly licked at the palm of my hand, to which I quickly retracted with a sneer. "You're disgusting."

He grinned. "And I found out what I can finally help you with."

Harshly wiping my hand off on my jeans, a sour look remaining on my face, I looked up at him. "Explain."

"I asked your brother for some help, and he said you had a diary. I know, I thought he was lying, but you literally still keep a diary. I didn't think people still did that," he mused, amusement dancing in his eyes.

I scowled. "It's for when I'm older, okay? It's a perfectly normal thing to do and I do not have to explain myself to you. Tell me how you got it! Now!" I pressed, the burn of humiliation only growing brighter on my face.

"So, I got your brother to steal your diary for thirty bucks-"

I blinked. "Okay, you're a terrible person."

"And-"

"That's a total invasion of privacy."

"If you jus-"

"Also, I swear that has to be illegal in some way. There has to be some law about this."

"Okay but-"

"How'd you even read it, it's locked?" I asked with my hand on my hip, eyebrows furrowed.

He sighed, the following silence finally allowing for a complete answer. "I can break the lock of a diary, come on." He arched a questioning eyebrow at me.

I raised my hands in mock innocence. "Sorry, I forgot you were a criminal, my bad," I drawled, a palpable sarcasm dripping from my words.

"Whatever," he dismissed me, "Point is, I have copies of a diary that I have now hidden at my house that show that you are in love with Tyler, and as a friend of Tyler, I can help you get with him. The same way that you can help me with Savannah. It's a win-win situation, come on Stella, don't be stubborn."

I bristled at his choice of words, a scowl still twisting my mouth. He was looking at me with a strangely earnest look in his eyes that unnerved me. A part of me realised that he actually thought this was a good idea.

"Except for Savannah, she loses, and me for being around you," I corrected him.

Reese heaved a sigh, flapping the papers in front of me. "Come on, I was thinking of blackmailing you but then I thought that this was even better."

I slapped a hand over my chest, a gasp falling from my lips as I blinked at him in imitation awe. "Something better than blackmail? Can it be?"

Now it was Reese's turn to deadpan. "How about this," he proposed, "You don't even have to help me with Savannah until you get progress with Tyler. So that if I can't help you, you don't have to tell me anything. You can't lose in this, Stella."

I felt a frustrated groan sound in my throat, and the hurricane of conflicted emotions continued to run rampant in my mind. The sun was now dipping below the horizon, and the nip of the summer breeze kissed my exposed skin. My eyes met Reese amber one's, and I felt every argument I could ever begin to breathe life into evaporate on my tongue.

"Why do you even need my help?" I whined, scowling at the papers that were still in his hand.

The last thing I needed were all of my secrets plastered around school, and I expected nothing less from Satan himself. It was ridiculous how thorough he'd been to get them photocopied, even slipped into laminate sleeves. There was an unwavering determination sparked in his eyes that even made me lose my balance.

"Because, Savannah's basically on a different level. And I like her, there's just... something about her, okay?" He looked at up me, his face uncharacteristically sober for Reese, and it kindled an uncomfortable flicker in my stomach. Those amber eyes were shining considerably puppy-dog like in ways that had to be the result of intensive black magic, I was sure. And I felt myself waver to the occult.

"But there's still blackmail on the line?" I clarified.

He shrugged, a questioning frown on his face but I was acutely aware of the fact that the word 'no' never left his mouth.

"And you're going to spend the rest of your days tirelessly trying to make up for the fact that you drenched me in dirty rain water, basically a trespass against all humanity?" I cast him a hard stare.

"I promise, whatever you want, I'll do it."

I sized him up. "Buy me lunch at least three times a week for however long this is going on."

"Once," he bargained.

I scoffed. "As if. Twice, and that's my final answer."

A smirk crept onto his face, and he nodded. "Fine, twice, deal."

I mimicked his nod with approval, my calculating gaze still rolling over him and trying it's best to process the ridiculous nature of this situation. After a beat of silence, a sigh climbed up my throat, and my body slumped in defeat. "Okay, fine. You've got a deal. We can try a trial run, and I swear, this is not going to be an equal playing field. You're not getting anything until I see concrete results."

"You've got it!" he exclaimed, his face immediately brightening with a vast grin stretching across his face almost reaching 360 degrees.

He captured me into a hug, muscled arms tight around me, and a noise emitted from my body that sounded not very human at all. I tensed and crossed my wrists over my chest, my mouth gaping into a face of shock.

"No way!" I shook my head vigorously, eyeing him when he finally pulled away after what felt like a millenium. "We don't do that," I blurted out, my frown facing his grin. "That is not happening. Ever. Again. We are not friends. We do not hug. Ever."

Reese shrugged, but his smile never faltered. "But we're partners, and I'll get to you one day, Sandavol."

I rolled my eyes, and turned on my heel, slamming the door behind me. I hadn't even began the inevitably arduous task of processing what I had just done, because there was still one very bright truth burning in the pit of my stomach that I needed to deal with first.

Ambling back into the living room, I found Chris had barely moved, and he looked up at me with a lazy grin on his face. "That was Reese, I'm guessing?"

I stole the seat next to him, mouth curved in a polite smile, as I nodded my head. "Oh yeah, we just had a nice chat about things, you know," I said, keeping my voice light and airy. "Although, he did mention some really interesting stuff. Hey, is Monica working today?" I asked, referring to my brother's current girlfriend.

Chris eyed me, skepticism drowning in his gaze. "Yeah," he answered slowly, "She is."

"Cool!" I chirped, digging my phone out of my back pocket. Chris' eyes never strayed as I swiped through my contact list, a grin devouring my face as I got to the M section.

The ringing warbled in my ear until I heard a feminine voice greet me on the other end of the line. "Monica? This is me, Stella, yeah, hey! I just wanted to call to tell you that Chris periodically wet the bed until he was nine years old and the other week when he cancelled last minute on meeting your parents, he lied, he wasn't sick, the new Call of Duty just came out. That's all I wanted to say, hope you have a nice night!"

As I clicked off, Chris gaped at me in horror. "Stella, no!"

I cast him a sickeningly sweet smile. "Use that thirty dollars to buy yourself some medicinal cream for that burn, bitch!"

***

Oh my god, these are just getting longer and longer! But I was inspired by your guys' lovely thoughts and for getting #89 in humour!