//Your POV//

—The Next Day—

It was my day off (after what had felt like forever) and I was sitting on the couch, watching South Park, listening to the ever so catchy theme song.

"Amble parking day or night, people spouting 'howdy neighbor!'," Cartman sang in his Nails-on-a-chalkboard voice

"Y/N! I crave assistance!!!" Blake screeched from the kitchen.

"Whaaaaaaat?"

"There's nothing to eaaaaaaat."

"Reallyyyyyyyyy?"

"Yeeeeeeehh."

"Oohhhhh nooooooo."

We continued talking in that format until Logan bonked Blake and me on the head, "Let's just go food shopping so you two can shut up."

"Okayyyy," I Said one last time before he growled at me and I stopped for good.

Marie decided to come with us and when we were about to leave when to our surprise, Celeryy came downstairs.

"I think I'll tag along with y'all," They smirked, obviously exhausted.

"Are you sure? You look, really, really tired," Allison asked concerned.

"This is me on a good day, Alli. Let's just go."

Celeryy had thrown her curly brunette (with blonde highlights) hair into a bun with some locks of hair flowing out

She was wearing a blue sweatshirt shirt that had the band Gorillaz on it and black jeans with black converse high tops.

She was shorter than the rest of us, but acted the most mature, though she could pull a really good prank and crack a few puns in a row.

If you caught her in a moment where she had enough energy, she could be just as hyper as I could be, which led us to become friends.

When I first met her, I swore to god that we met before, but she casually denied it, so I took her word for it.

We all got into what we liked to call "The Party Van" where all 6 of us (Celeryy, Blake, Marie, Logan, Allison, and Myself) jumped into our 7 seat van (there was a third row) and caused mayhem in our vehicle of doom.

Marie drove while the rest of us did our own thing in the car.

My phone did a little bleep! indicating I had a message.

It was from Max, the first text he ever sent me.

(Max is in underlined while you are not)

-hey its max.

-hi

-wyd?

-in the car. You?

-cool. I'm actually at work rn.

-on break?

-nope.

-oh so you're just being a rebel

-pretty much, lmao

-(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ

-lol at least I'm not texting and driving.

-Nah, one of my roommates is driving.

-oof my manager is heading over. ttyl, k?

-mkay. see ya max

-byeeeee

The way he texted made something in my heart have a burning desire to text him more but I didn't want to get him in trouble.

I couldn't help but smile reading over every message sent by him, and Allison caught me.

"Oooooh, who are you texting, N/n?? Is it a boy?" Allison leaned over my shoulder to read the messages.

I swiped my phone out of her line of sight, "it's just a friend, dum, dum."

"She's blushing! Who are they? I'm curious!" Blake ran his tongue as fast as the Road Runner on Looney Tunes.

"Well, first of all. We only..reunited, not really met, yesterday," I pointed out.

"Oh, so you knew them already? Spicy!" Celeryy laughed, "Did you meet again at that reunion yesterday?"

"Yeah, actually," I looked to Marie, "Marie has met him before."

"I have?? What's his name?"

"Max."

Thank god nobody else was behind us or in front of us, because Marie slammed the break so hard, I thought we were going to flip.

"Say what?! That Max?! The one you kissed at the end of Summer Camp?!" Marie questioned me, the car now sitting on the side of the road.

"Yeah."

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Blake, Celeryy and Allison hooted.

Marie started driving again, causing Logan to sigh in relief, "I think I'll drive back."

"Oh, Y/n, that is so sweet! Think we'll meet him?" Allison, put her hand on my shoulder.

"Maybe. He's at work right now."

"He sounds like a catch, uwu," Celeryy read the texts.

"Alright guys, listen. I'm not in love with him, we literally just met again yesterday, if anything, we should just take it slow," I told them, blushing.

"Okay~" Marie rolled her eyes.

After what had seemed like forever, we reached the grocery store.

Since there was none of the same company in our town (and this store had literally the best prices) we usually went to the town next to our town.

I then realized that this was the same town Max lived in.

We all walked into the store, Logan being the one who ran the cart since he had the grocery list and he didn't want me and Blake doing Shopping Cart Gladiators..again.

All I can say is, that did not end well.

We soon got all we needed (and a few extra things because c'mon, you can't go to the store without getting some not needed things) and as we were approaching the cash register, I noticed somebody familiar working at it.

//Max's POV//

"Have a nice day," I told the old lady as she walked off, ignoring what I just said.

"Why do I even fucking bother," I said under my breath.

There's one more guy and then a lady when I noticed behind then there was..   Y/n.

She stood patiently at the end of the line, talking and laughing with a group of people I could only assume was her roommates.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..I don't want her to see me like this," I thought out loud.

"Who do you not want to see you like this?" My Manager, Jared, walked up to me again.

"Did..I just say that out loud??"

"Yeah, you did. Who's this girl?"

I slightly pointed to the end of line so she didn't see me.

"Her? Oh yeah, she's cute," Jared nodded.

"Don't get any ideas, Jared."

It felt weird saying that, like I was her boyfriend.

I mean, I couldn't help but feel protective over her, just like when we were kids.

"Okay, just for assuming that I'd sneak up on your girl," He walked over to the mic for the loud speaker, "I'll just embarrass you."

"Don't you fucking dare."

"Attention Ladies And Gentleman, we may have to close register 3 since our cashier clerk seems to be in love and having a breakdown," Jared said in the most calm and professional voice.

Everyone, including Y/n, turned to look at me.

Jared was laughing his ass off.

I, on the other hand, wasn't laughing at all.

I wanted to punch him in the mouth.

"Who are you love with, Max?" Y/n startled me, "Also hi."

"N-Nobody, My manager was just being a dick. So what are you doing here?" I changed the subject.

"Um, Grocery Shopping. What else would we be doing?" A shorter girl with her hair in a bun rolled her eyes.

I had a feeling I recognized her.

"I had no idea you worked here, Max. We go here at least every two weeks," Y/n smiled.

"Well, it depends on what day, because it might have been my off-day."

"We went on Thursdays, but today we literally had nothing in the fridge so we needed to come today, despite it being Tuesday," A tall guy with ginger hair and glasses explained.

"Makes sense, that's my off-day. So are these your roommates?" I asked Y/n.

"Yep! Everyone introduce yourselves!"

"Hey, Max. Remember me?" A girl with black hair with purple ends asked me.

She was wearing a My Chemical Romance T-shirt with a gray and black flannel over it with black jeans and checkered (black and white) Vans slip-ons.

"Wait..Marie?" I asked.

"Yep! It's great to see you!"

"You too," I smiled.

"Look, if you guys are gonna chat, Max,
You can take the rest of the day off," Jared interrupted.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah," He leaned in and whispered in my ear, "I'm trying to make it up to you."

"Doesn't mean I'm not still pissed off at you. Thanks though," I whispered back.

"C'mon slow poooke! We didn't even finish mandatory character introductions!" Y/n whined, waiting by the door.

"Alright, Alright," I chuckled.

We all walked out together.

"So, I suppose I should introduce my-"

"HI, I'M BLAKE!" A dude with dirty blonde hair interrupted the red head.

He was tall in the way that he was taller than Y/n, who was still a shortie, but not in the way on how I towered her and I was significantly taller than him.

He was also a little chubby, but not morbidly overweight.

He was wearing a black and yellow tee shirt advertising the band Jaiden was in, Axes and Dandelions.

He wore blue jeans and gray sanuks.

"Hey," I waved.

"Ahem- As I was saying, my name is Logan," The ginger held out his hand and I shook it.

He was taller than even me, his ginger long and in a swoosh across his face.

Glasses perched on his nose.

He wore a black and white adidas jacket with matching sweat pants and black sneakers.

"And I'm Allison, Hi!" The girl with black hair waved and I waved back.

Her hair was in a medium length braid.

She wore a beige sweat jacket and black stretch pants with black boots.

"Sup. Just call me Celeryy."

"Celeryy..?" I tilted my head.

"Yeah, have a problem with it?"

"No, I just..I dunno, I never met anyone with that name."

"Yeah, I don't think it's that common. It's not my real name though, heh."

"Oh."

As said before, she was shorter than everyone.

Her hair was dark brown with blonde streaks and fastened into a loose bun.

She was wearing a dark green leather jacket with fire on the sleeves and by the collar and under it was a T-shirt with some of the characters from a game called "Deltarune", I think.

She also wore black jeans and black converse high tops.

"Alright, *burp* are we gonna go or what? I still have 30 bucks to win from Blake in a game of Super Smash Brothers," Celeryy complained.

"Yeah, Yeah, we're going," Y/n rolled her eyes.

"We're gonna have to stop home first. Do you want to come along Max?" Logan asked me.

"Sure, why not?" I shrugged.

We all got into the van after packing all the food.

Logan was in the drivers seat and Marie was in the front passenger.

Blake sat towards the left window in the middle row, while Celeryy sat by the right window, with Allison squished between them both in the middle.

Y/n and I sat in back row.

"So, can we hear the story on how you two met?" Allison asked.

"Well, it's a long story. I don't think you'd want to hear-"

"Sure!" Y/n nodded excitedly, interrupting me.

"Okay so it was me and Jaiden's first day of camp, 20**, I think. And, uh..Max help me out here, it's kinda fuzzy."

"David was introducing you to everyone, or was it just Nikki and Neil?? I dunno, but I remember meeting you for the first time. You already knew the place was a scam, while Jaiden was more hopeful," I smiled, thinking of how we met.

"Yeah! We were talking and Nikki embarrassed you so you ran away. I found you in the forest and we talked a bit more, and we decided to try to run away from each other," Y/n recalled.

Blake doodled stick figures on the window with his breath, reenacting the scene.

Allison and Marie listened intently while Logan listened while driving.

Celeryy must've been invested because she took out popcorn..?

"Where'd you get that popcorn?" Blake asked her.

"My pocket."

"How??" I asked.

"Ey, Don't act like you haven't abused the pocket dimension before, chump," She rolled her eyes.

Since I had no idea what she was talking about, I continued the story.

"We ran off into the woods and got attacked by a bear. Y/n got bit and then David found us," I lied about the ending.

I felt the need to lie.

I just had to.

I didn't want to make it like I was boasting and that I was the hero, making me sound cocky and arrogant.

Of course, Y/n noticed.

"What?? No! That's not how it happened. After the bear bit me, you socked it in the mouth! That's why you have the scar on your hand."

"Why would you lie about that? That's so rad!" Blake tilted his head while still smiling brightly.

"Yeah, that's so wicked! I remember you telling us, the gang I mean, about that!" Marie pointed at Y/n.

"Noble," Logan nodded.

Now I felt a little dumb.

Why would I lie about something so stupid??

I needed a cigarette.

I started to sweat a bit, feeling embarrassed and like a loser.

Y/n must've noticed this while the others started to do their own thing again.

"Hey," She whispered to me and put her hand over my balled up fist, "It's okay."

Even after all this time, she was still able to calm me down.

I smiled back and nodded.

After 20 minutes of driving we reached a house that I could guess had 3 floors.

After how I fucked up in the car, I was a bit nervous to hang out with them.

Oh. Boy.