Without even excusing myself from the table that made itself comfortable in Chili's, I hop up and dash over to the familiar face studying me.

I wrap my arms around the man and hug him tight. Wow, his hoodie's soft. "Theo! It's so good to see you, man!" I say into his hoodie happily.

Theo chuckles and wraps his arms around me in return. "Good to see you too, (Y/N)."

Theo used to be my best friend. We were friends from kindergarten up until our senior year of high school. But towards the middle of said senior year, he moved away, not telling me why. All he said was:

"I'll always remember you, (Y/N). And I hope you'll always remember me."

   I said I would, and off he went with a smile. I haven't seen him since.

   Until right now.

   I squeeze Theo lovingly. "How's life, dude?"

   Theo squeezes me back. "It's been good. As good as life can be, I guess." He pulls apart with a shrug.

   I smile at my long-lost friend.

I notice Kristen smile as well. "I'll be back later," she says and walks away.

   Suddenly, I hear another familiar voice say, "Hey, I don't believe we've met."

   I turn around, and Dan is walking towards Theo, smiling that sweet smile that I know too well. I forgot that the Grumps were here.

Theo returns the smile and outstretches his hand. "I don't think we have, either. The name's Theo. I was (Y/N) best friend back in the day."

I can tell that Dan wants to know why he "was" my best friend, but he doesn't question it. Instead, he smiles. "I'm Dan. (Y/N)'s friend." Dan and Theo shake hands briefly. I ignore the slight pain in my heart of being referred to as Dan's friend and keep a smile on my face.

"Nice to meet you, man," Theo says, letting go of Dan's hand.

"You too!" Dan smiles.

Theo turns to the table full of the Grumps. "Are all these people your friends?" he says, seeming surprised.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah." I shove him playfully. "You seem surprised."

"Well, you aren't exactly the most social person," Theo teases, elbowing me.

"I've gotten better!" I defend myself, crossing my arms. "And these people," I gesture to the Grumps, "are actually my idols and popular YouTubers. I just met them one day, and something just clicked."

"Oh, I'd give anything to meet my idol," Theo whispers more to himself than to me. "I wanna be friends with Markiplier..."

"Markiplier?" Dan questions.

Theo nods. "Yep. He's the funniest guy ever."

Dan smirks. "Well, I happen to be friends with him. I could hook you up, man."

Theo's eyes light up. "I'd love that! Thank you!"

"Anytime!" Dan says.

"Grumps!" I say. "Be good people and introduce yourselves to Theo!"

The Grumps smile, get up, and do what they were told.

Theo seems to like all of the Grumps, but it's pretty obvious that Arin's his favorite. They seem to have a connection already.

"Well, it was nice to meet all of you," Theo says one the introductions are done, "but I gotta blast."

   "You're not gonna stay for lunch?" I say sadly.

   "I want to, (Y/N), I really do, but I gotta do...um...things..," he says, a nervous expression on his face.

   I notice his pauses in between words and his expression, immediately thinking that he's hiding something. But I don't wanna press him on it. "Okay...will you at least give me your number? I wanna keep in touch with you."

   "Oh, yeah! Definitely!" Theo says, whipping out his phone.

   We exchange numbers. When we're done, Theo flashes me a smile. The same smile that he showed me when I saw him last. "See you around, (Y/N)."

He's about to turn around and leave when Arin stops him. "Wait!" Arin says loudly. His loudness makes me and everyone else at the table jump.

   Theo turns to look at his favorite Grump. He smiles. "Yeah, Arin?"

Arin looks shy. Almost as if he's confessing to his crush or something. That thought makes me smirk to myself. Arin and Suzy make a great couple, but Arin and Theo would make a good couple too. I should write a fanfiction about that, come to think of it. The ship name should be Tharin. Anyway, Arin says, "Can I have your number too? I wanna keep in touch with you, man." He playfully slaps Theo's shoulder.

Theo laughs a little and nods. "Sure!"

Him and Arin exchange numbers, and I'm already thinking of plot ideas for the Arin x Theo fanfiction I'm planning to write. Maybe I'll even post it on Pattwad. (The Wattpad of this universe~)

"Tharin," I whisper quietly.

Arin rolls his eyes and playfully pushes me, knowing the meaning of that mysterious word I made up. "Dang. You can't contain your fangirl thoughts, huh?"

I shake my head. "No, sir."

It takes Theo a minute to find out what the word means. And when he does, he blushes, but keeps his cool other than that. Something you need to know about Theo is that he's very gay. And I love him for that. Who knows, maybe he actually likes Arin. But regardless if he does or not, Arin's off the market. "(Y/N)! Your fangirl tendencies are too much. Making up ship names between two guys that just met and crap."

"Ooh, maybe she'll write an Arin x Theo fanfiction!" Tucker says. "Since she's an author and whatnot!"

"You bet your sweet booty I will, Tucker!" I say, winking.

We all laugh.

"You know..," Allie says, smirking. "I can actually see that ship becoming a thing. If Theo is ever introduced to the channel, I'll bet the lovelies will ship him and Arin hardcore."

"I bet they will. The lovelies love themselves a gay ship," Ross says, smirking as well. Suzy nods in agreement. I find it amazing that Suzy's so chill about everything. She's not even salty about the ship called Tharin.

Dan nods. "They do indeed." He smiles. "And I enjoy one too from time to time."

"To time, to time, to time," Arin adds for Dan.

Dan pauses a minute before nodding. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Well, I gotta go now, guys," Theo says hurriedly, stepping away so that he won't get got up with talking to us. "I'll see you later?"

   "Most definitely!" Dan says, smiling and waving.

   Everyone else agrees in their own words, making Theo smile and walk out of Chili's.

   The Grumps and I all sit back down at our table.

   "So," I say to them, "what do you all think of Theo?"

   "I love him!" Arin says excitedly.

   Everyone snickers while he blinks stupidly at us, trying to figure out what we're laughing at. Then, after a few seconds, something clicks. He rolls his eyes. "Not like that, guys."

   "I liked him too!" Suzy says happily.

   "As far as people go, he's not bad," Ross says with a small smirk.

   "He's chill," Allie says with a small smile.

   "He seems like a decent human being," Tucker says, smiling.

   I notice that Dan hasn't answered. I look over at him, and he's staring at the table, lost in thought.

   "Dan?" I ask.

   Dan snaps himself out of whatever trance he was in. "Oh, I'm sorry. What did you say?" he asks.

   "I said, what do you think of Theo?" I repeat for him.

   Dan smiles. "I like him." He looks back at the table. "But...something's bothering me about him."

   When he doesn't continue, I say, "What is it?"

   "He seemed to be hiding something. Like, he was in such a big hurry to leave and only justified it by saying that he had to go and do 'things'," Dan says. "Who would say that if they weren't hiding something?"

   "I picked up on that too," I say, making Dan tear his eyes away from the table and look at me. "It was pretty obvious that he had something he didn't wanna tell us."

   "You know," Arin says, a thoughtful expression on his face, "I originally didn't pick up on that. But looking back on it, you guys are right."

   "Maybe he just wanted an excuse to leave and couldn't find a good one?" Allie suggests, shrugging.

   I shake my head. "No, Theo loves talking to people. And did you see the nervous expression on his face?"

"Yeah, I did," Tucker says.

"What could he be hiding?" I whisper to myself more than to the Grumps.

"I dunno..," Dan says.

And with that, we all shift our gaze to the table, lost in thought about what Theo may or may not be hiding from us.