Fallon found herself on the balcony deck of their apartment. Despite the chilly weather, the outside air was helpful with clearing her head. Her phone had buzzed what felt like hundreds of times, but none of the messages had been from Matt. She had answered three from Sarah, two from her mom, and avoided answering five from Trent, who was still apologizing to her for that morning.

Every so often she'd get up and pace the small square, rail to rail, looking out towards the path, not sure what she was expecting to see. She checked her watch, 6:45pm, and slid the glass door to the living room open. Making her way to the kitchen, she pulled down a wine glass from one of the cabinet shelves, and opened the fridge to pull out a bottle of whatever white wine Sarah had stashed away. She wasn't much of a wine drinker, so pouring a glass of wine meant filling it almost to the top, and taste didn't matter much when it came down it.

She slid back through the glass door and into the chair that was parked in the corner of the small deck space. The sun had begun to set and the chill in the air was harsher now. She tossed the hood of her sweatshirt over her head and pulled her hands into her sleeves. She was bouncing her leg up and down, gnawing at her thumb nail, looking down the path again. She took a long sip from her wine glass and her face grimaced as she swallowed it. She had preferred liquor to wine and beer for as long as she could remember, back to her first taste of it all in high school.

She unlocked her phone and scrolled through her contacts until eventually she came to pause on her mom's name. She had neglected to call her still and hadn't been home in weeks. Going home was hard now. She felt like she was making it on her own since she was practically paying her own way through school and relying on her mom had become a thing of the past. But she still felt guilty, she needed to check in. Tapping the number that appeared under the contact name, the phone rang twice before there was a voice on the other end.

"Fally! Hi sweetheart!

She smiled and felt a sense of calm come over her, "hi mommy."

"How are you?"

"I'm okay, how are you doing?"

"We're doing just fine." The "we" she was implying was including Bubbles.

"That's good, I'm sorry I haven't called you, I've been so busy and I keep saying I'm going to come home, but I never get a chance."

"It's no big deal honey, I know you have things to do out there. How's school going?"

"It's good, doing pretty well in almost everything."

"We'll take 'pretty well'"

"How's bubbles?"

"Bubbles is good, keeps me busy! How's Trent doing? Do you see him much these days?"

"I do see him, he's going through a pretty crappy breakup right now."

"Oh that's too bad. I'm sure you're his shoulder to lean on"

Fallon cringed a little, "yeah, that's about right." She took a sip of her wine. "Mom, I have a date tomorrow!" She quickly tried to change the subject. Even though she hadn't heard from Matt yet, she was still hoping he would call.

"Oh exciting!" Her mom genuinely did sound excited for her, it had been awhile since Fallon had gone out with anyone. After her last relationship ended, it seemed like her mom felt she would never take an interest in anyone again. "Where are you going? What are you doing? What's their name?"

"I actually don't know where we're going yet, but I do know it's dinner. His name is Matt, he's actually one of Trent's housemates. I've known him for a little while, but never really got to know him. We talked at the party I texted you about the other night."

"Well that's exciting honey! I'm happy to hear you're out there in the field," her mom giggled.

"Thanks mom. I miss you."

"Oh I miss you too sweetie, come home when you have time, but don't make a special trip. Bubbles and I are okay here."

"I know you are."

"Do you need anything?"

"No, no, I'm okay. I'm working and whatever. I'm fine."

"Okay, well you let me know if you do okay?"

"I will mom."

"Be safe Fally, and have fun. Try and enjoy yourself. I know you want to be there for Trent, but you're allowed to have your own fun too."

"I'll try."

"Let me know how your date goes."

"Will do. I love you mom."

"I love you too sweetie, bye!"

"Bye."

Fallon hung up the phone and skimmed through the messages that she had been ignoring. Sarah texted her to let her know she was running to the grocery store and asking if they needed anything. She made a point to ask for chamomile tea. And Trent;

I wanted to just say I'm sorry again.

I know you said it's not you who I need to apologize to, I'll talk to Matt.

I know you're pissed.

I'll let you be.

I just don't want anything to happen to you.

Fallon sighed and shook her head. She was still angry about how Trent acted and wasn't ready to text him back yet. But, she was growing increasingly anxious over the fact that Matt hadn't confirmed their date yet.

"Ya know what, screw it." She opened a new text conversation and sent a message to him first.

Did you forget about me already? :)

Hoping the humor would translate over her text, she hit the send button. She tossed her phone back in her pocket and took her wine glass back into the apartment. Sitting on one end of the couch and tossing her phone to the opposite end, she went back to sipping her wine, trying to forget about it. She had almost succeeded, then her notification tone went off.

She reached quickly as her screen lit up, spilling some wine on the couch. "Crap," she put the glass down on the coffee table and unlocked her phone.

Who's this?

Her heart sank as she texted back.

It's Fallon...

She waited impatiently.

I know, I'm messing with you. Hang on a sec.

Next thing she knew her phone was ringing, alerting her to a Facetime request. Panicked, she tossed her hair a few times and rubbed her eyes to get rid of any makeup that may have survived her shower. She swiped to accept the call;

"Hey," she tried not to sound overly excited, despite the butterflies she felt in her stomach.

"Hey, I hope you don't mind, I hate texting, I'd rather look at someone while I talk to them, especially when they're pretty."

Fallon smiled, "no, it's fine. What's going on? You forget about our deal?"

Matt flashed his too white smile, "no way, you have to uphold your end now. I wanna take you to dinner, is that okay?" Fallon nodded. "Cool, is there anything you don't like that I should know about?"

"I don't eat fish, but I'm all about sushi. Other than that, no, I'm pretty open to anything."

Matt was laughing, "you don't eat fish, but like sushi? That doesn't make sense. You'll eat it raw but not cooked?"

Fallon nodded, "you got it, don't judge me."

"No judgment here."

"So I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I'll pick you up around 6?"

"Perfect, I live in the apartments past the football field. Tall brick building, you can't miss it."

"I know where those are, I'll see you then."

"I'll see you then."

"Bye Fallon."

"Bye!"

The call disconnected and the butterflies that Fallon had earlier were back again. She grabbed her glass of wine and went to her closet in hopes that she had something appropriate for a nice dinner. Was a dress too much? Leggings too little? She crossed her arms and huffed, taking a sip from her glass.

She was taken back when the doorbell rang. She wondered if Sarah had forgotten her key. She made her way to the door and looked through the peephole to see Trent standing outside. Confused, she opened the door to let him in.

"Hi?" She said questioningly.

"Hey, can I come in?"

"Uh yeah, sure, come on." She led him into the living room. "Is everything okay?" She leaned against the wall.

"You haven't texted me back."

"I've just been busy, Trent."

"You're mad."

She rolled her eyes, "okay, yeah I'm a little annoyed, but like, I just saw you this morning when I left, I just haven't texted you back."

"I just wanted to apologize again."

"Trent, enough, I don't want you to apologize anymore. It's just like, I dunno, everything was fine, I was there for you when you needed me, you fell asleep. I don't know what else you want me to say. Sorry I found somewhere to sleep?"

"It's just, Matt has a reputation, he's not like a one girl type of guy, I don't know what his intentions were, it just bothered me."

Before she could stop it, Fallon blurted out, "I have a date with Matt tomorrow."

Trent's face dropped, "you do?"

Fallon, suddenly feeling confident, nodded, "yeah, he asked if I'd want to get dinner with him, we had a nice time talking last night, I'm gonna go and just get to know him."

Trent ran his hand through his hair, "oh. Okay."

"Why are you being weird about this?"

"I'm not being weird."

"You are, you're acting like I can't handle going on a date with someone that might remotely have an interest in me."

"You just... don't know him."

"That's the point of the date Trent, I want to get to know him." Fallon crossed her arms. "He seems perfectly nice, I don't know what the issue is."

"I don't like the idea of the guys thinking you're like, free game in the house."

"Trent, what does that even mean?"

"They know who you are to me, they shouldn't be trying to date you."

"Who am I to you Trent? Why? Why, if one of them thought, 'hey she's cute, I wanna take her out' why is that a big deal?"

Trent shook his head and rubbed his eyes hard with his fingers, "there's nothing, nothing wrong with it, you can go out with whoever you want. I don't know why it bothers me."

The door knob rattled, signaling Sarah's return, "go in my room. I wanna finish this conversation." They moved away, avoiding Sarah, Fallon closing the door behind them. "I'm really trying here Trent, why is this such a big deal, what if it wasn't Matt? What if it was one of the other boys, would it still be a big deal?"

"Yes!" Trent shouted a little too loudly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. Fal, you can do whatever you want, I just don't want to see anyone hurt you, especially someone that I may be friends with."

Fallon gnawed at her thumbnail again, avoiding eye contact, "you were like this when I told you about my date with Dan too, you don't even know him."

"I was not."

"Why is me, dating, a problem for you?"

"It's not Fallon, stop."

"Just tell me, why, why is this such an issue? I want to understand."

Trent, clearly angry, clenched his fists and took a deep breath, "Fallon, go on your date, it's not a problem. I told you, I don't want to see you get hurt. That's it, end of story."

Fallon met his eyes and could tell there was something he wasn't telling her, "okay. Well, thank you for coming over to apologize for last night again." She wasn't going to push anymore.

"You're welcome, I'm sorry I got you angry again, I'm gonna go."

He made his way towards the door.

"Trent, don't be mad, please."

Trent's face softened as he looked back to Fallon, "I'm not mad Fally," he smiled "just be careful okay?" She nodded. "I'll see you later."

"I'll walk you out."

She followed him out the bedroom door and to the apartment door. "Bye." He stepped out and closed it behind him.

As Fallon made her way back into the living room, Sarah came out of her room.

"Hey, is everything okay?"

Fallon sighed, "yeah, everything is fine, he's all bent out of shape about this date I have with Matt tomorrow."

"Fal, don't worry about him, you should get to enjoy yourself, even if he's dealing with whatever he's got going on. If he's mad he's not gonna stay mad."

"I know, I'm just actually excited for once and want to enjoy it."

"You deserve to be excited. It is exciting! Getting to know someone new, hoping you click, it's all exciting."

Fallon nodded, "I know, I'm just always worrying about everyone else that I never think about myself."

"Just take one night to go on your date and worry about everyone else later." Sarah squeezed her shoulder.

"You're right, thank you Sarah."

"Anytime."

"So, when are you going out tomorrow?"

"Around six, he's going to pick me up."

"And do you want me here when you come back or...?

Fallon laughed, "I mean I'm not planning on sleeping with him!"

"Planning and doing are different my dear."

"Sarah," Fallon rolled her eyes, "can you be here just to make sure I'm back either alone and safe or here to protect me from him?"

"You got it!"