Ella was at the café today and had to admit I missed seeing her face these past few days.

"Hey, beautiful," I said as she walked in.

A grin broke out on her face. "Hi, Mia!" She waved excitedly before walking over to the empty counter.

"How's the knee, kiddo?" I asked. She scraped it up a couple of days ago when she crashed into Grey on her skateboard.

She looked down at her exposed knee, which was still sporting a bandage, and shrugged. "It's not too bad. Healing pretty well for the most part."

I nodded. "That's good. What did your parents say about it?" I noticed she didn't come in here with her skateboard today.

Ella paused and diverted her eyes from mine. "Um, Nothing." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "My mom was kind of worried, and my dad doesn't like to see me get hurt. So I'm sure he was thinking about either placing me in a plastic bubble for the rest of my life or just locking in me the house period altogether." She sighed. "Glad, he came to his senses though because I would have rioted."

I laughed. "You don't strike me as the rebellious type," I told her.

She smiled. "I'm not. Up until the other day, I barely left the house. I still feel out of my element here. I miss South Korea, but the US is growing on me. And I've met some great people here too."

"I'm glad. You already know I haven't left the continent, but I can imagine the culture shock you must feel sometimes." I had visited Montreal with my dad a few years ago, and just being in a city that mainly spoke a different language was my version of culture shock.

"Yeah. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually," Ella said optimistically.

"What about your sister?" I asked randomly.

Something flashed across her eyes before she quickly masked it. "Hmm?"

"Is she transitioning okay?" I asked randomly. I knew Ella didn't talk about her sister much, and it sucked that she doesn't have her to lean on when they're on this new journey together.

Ella swayed her shoulders. "I think so."

"Oh, okay."

It was silent for a few beats, and I took the blame for that.

"So um, I wanted to stop by and ask you something." Ella bit the corner of her bottom lip anxiously.

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the counter. "Sure, what's up?"

"So my birthday is tomorrow..."

I smiled but didn't interrupt her.

"And I know you have the day off. So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out at the arcade tomorrow with me?" Her features pinched together as if she was bracing herself to hear me reject her.

"I would love to."

Her eyes widened, and she clapped her hand together. "Really? Like seriously? You don't mind?" She rushed to say. She almost looked like she was in a state of disbelief.

I didn't know why when it was no secret that I loved spending time with her.

I shook my head. "Of course not. I love arcades. But what about your family? Are they going to be there or..."

She cut me off. "My mom is flying in from overseas tomorrow afternoon. My dad is working most of the day, but he took the night off for me. He said it's alright if I want to go out and hang out with friends until we have dinner in the evening. He's cooking all my favorite Korean dishes, and he's also setting up one of those huge blow-up projectors in the backyard so we can watch Transformers." She made her hands into fists and shook them. "I'm so excited!"

"I can tell." I laughed. "Alright then. You, me, arcade tomorrow." I held up my hand for her to high five, effectively cementing our plans.

Ella slapped it enthusiastically.

"Here! Give me your number." She handed me her cellphone from her back pocket.

I put my number in then called myself so that I could get hers too.

"Thanks, Mia," she said sweetly.

"No problem." I winked. "So were you planning to leave after giving me that invite, or did you want to do something sweet?" I whispered the last few words conspiratorially.

Ella cupped her mouth with one hand and said, "I always want something sweet," she whispered back like it was a secret between just the two of us and then she winked.

"Don't worry. I got you." I gave her a thumbs up and went into the kitchen to grab the freshest batch of cherry cheese Danishes.

***

Later in the evening, Freya came over for a girl's night. We ordered pizza and watched The Matrix.

I was glad we had the same taste in movies because I wasn't about to watch the typical chick flick, like Mean girls. I cringed.

"Is it sad that I can't remember the last time I had a girl's night?" Freya asked me out of the blue while she continued to struggle with wrapping her hair in a messy bun.

I laughed and scooted closer to her on the couch to help her. "Nope. What's sad was that I've never had a girls' night. I was always hanging out with Greyson. When I got invited to a few sleepovers, I worried about Grey being alone that night, and I usually made my dad cancel for me last minute with some bs excuse."

"Wow," she muttered.

"Exactly." I wrapped her bun perfectly before bringing her scrunchie around it. "There," I said, sitting back to admire my work. Freya's hair was the prettiest shade of auburn, but it was long and sort of curly hair when she didn't apply products. I couldn't figure how she managed it, but I did know she preferred to wear it out most of the time rather than attempting to style it into something like a bun or ponytail.

Except for when she was at the bakery, of course.

"Thank you." She smiled up at me. "So you've been in love with Greyson since you guys were kids," Freya said.

I thought it sounded like a question, but I think it was a statement.

"Psh! No." That sounded like I was in denial, and it wasn't intentional. What Freya was saying could be true. Who knows exactly when I fell for Grey? All I knew was that one day I looked at him and everything he'd ever done, everything he'd said just came rushing to the forefront of my mind, and suddenly, it wasn't one thing I liked about Grey... it was everything. It was an overwhelming thought at first. It seemed to keep building up to the point where I wasn't sure what to do anymore.

I knew I was afraid of screwing up our friendship for something that felt one-sided. Then again, even when it didn't feel one-sided anymore, I was simply scared. I suppressed my feelings for a while in hopes that Grey wouldn't ever find out. Then I kind of screwed up last summer. Okay, maybe screwed up isn't the best phrase, considering I didn't regret what happened between us. I just regretted how I handled it.

Freya laughed, and it ripped me out of my train of thought. "You two fell in love with each other a while back. I don't think you guys realized until now."

I waved off her comment. "Yeah yeah." I tried not to blush.

I quickly changed the subject. "So you and Tobias..." I gave her the opportunity to finish that sentence for me.

"Just friends," Freya said straight-faced.

"That's how it always starts." I bumped her shoulder.

She giggled nervously like didn't know what else to do. "I don't think he's into me like that. And he doesn't date, so there's that."

I think I remembered Grey mentioning that to me once. "I wonder why?"

Freya shrugged. "It's a mystery to me too. He doesn't talk about it, and I don't push it."

I frowned.

She continued. "Other than that, he's pretty awesome. He's kind of sweet and funny in a sarcastic way." She gazed off for a few seconds and started to laugh about something in her head. "He's a good listener. He remembers everything I tell him. I could give him an "All about Freya" quiz, and I think he would get a 100," she said with absolute certainty.

I picked up the second to last slice of pizza. "He's one of the good ones."

Freya took her time answering. "Yeah."

Before I could reply, our phones vibrated at the same time. We both reached for them on the coffee table.

"It's Grey."

"It's Tobias." We both said at once.

"They made it safely after taking more than a few pit stops," I added.

"Tobias says he blames Dean."

"I'm not surprised by that."

"Me either. I don't know how they put up with him," Freya said.

"I think they're immune to his antics," I supplied.

"I think you're right."

We busted out into laughter.

"I can honestly say those guys are one of a kind," Freya told me.

"Definitely." Without a doubt.

"Just like us."

I dramatically flipped my hair over my shoulder. "Of course," I put on my preppy girl voice.

"Thanks for hanging out with me tonight," she said randomly. "This has been really fun."

I grinned. "Anytime."