i'm sorry. i'm so behind on nano omg it's so late rn

to skye, thank you so much for reading my crap ily D': 

like who the hell is bucky anyway jeez

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Moss was a shaggy, dirty dark thing when we first found him in the garden. He was hidden behind some poppies and he blended in with the dirt and was small enough for us to completely look past him. It was only until he started barking that Mom saw him underneath the rosy red petals. He didn't stop barking until she carried him into the house. It was a long weekend, those first few days, of cleaning up after muddy paw prints and vacuuming up dusty fur.

He grew on us though, fitting in with the furniture, a furry dark mess, seemingly everywhere at once. He was warm and pulsing and alive, and sleeping in the same bed with him was the best feeling in the world. When he was happy, you could tell--his tail would wag a million times a minute and he wouldn't stop moving, like he had too much sleep. When he was sad, he wouldn't wail or howl like any other dog--he would hide in a corner and sit very, very still. His ears would move around and his eyes would too, searching for someone or something that I don't know.

Felix was the same, really, the first time I saw him, using up tissue after tissue. His nose was an unattractive swollen tomato, but at age twelve, you didn't worry about how attractive you were. Especially when you were at a funeral.

The other kids usually either turned away, embarrassed to be seen crying in front of another kid, or bawled openly and didn't care what anyone else thought. Felix doesn't fit into either category and made up one entirely of his own. He sat in a corner and sniffed by himself. He didn't seem to be embarrassed, but his eyes were very alert, unlike the kids that cried without restraint.

Felix's stare was fixed intently on the photo of his aunt. She looked like him, but she had dark green highlights hidden in swirls of black and her eyes were winged with liner. Her smile was wonky and she was staring goofily into the camera, and it didn't seem possible that she was dead. She looked no older than twenty-five. They had the same nose. I remember wondering whether her nose looked like a tomato when she cried or not too.

He never stopped looking at her face, not once during the entire service, other than to blow his nose. Maybe if I died before him he'd do the same for me.

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It is a very average Friday morning when Felix gets off his plane.

The twins offer to drive me, and I accept the offer gratefully, although I'm sure they're only doing this because they're curious and want a first glance at my infamous best friend. We stop at Mia's university to pick her up first, and I stay in the backseat with her just to protect her from the twins. Mostly Eden.

Mia picks at her jeans as we ascend slowly towards the airport, and the rhythmic sound of her nails clicking to some beat on the window is familiar, and it soothes me.

"So," Mia says at last, nudging me. "How's class?"

"Okay-ish."

"That's sad." Her bracelets bangle against her wrist and she glares at Eden looking at her through the rearview mirror. "I'm loving class--"

"Probably because there's a hot guy in there--"

"Shush," Mia smiles. "Okay, fine, maybe."

Eden clears his throat. "Our school has plenty of hot guys too." I hide a smile as Mia rolls her eyes. "Not interested in Arden boys."

"Not even in Dan over here?"

"I'm never ready to mingle, I say, straight-faced, and he tries another tactic. "How about Elijah over here?" He taps his brother on the head. "Good driver and good kisser."

"You don't get to flirt for me, idiot," Elijah replies, eyes fixed on the road. "I'm capable of getting hot chicks by myself."

"Leave the man to be," Mia chimes in, "he looks exactly like you anyway, so I think I'll pass all the same."

It was good to see Mia again.

Eden and Elijah stay in the car waiting, and Mia and I climb out of the car. Felix is twenty minutes away from me. We walk together towards the section Felix's flight lands, and Mia says wistfully, "I've missed you two. And the slide in your backyard." Felix is only a couple hundred feet away.

"You've never fit into that slide." Felix will friendzone me again and again and my heart will feel like crap.

"Daniel Pearce, you never tell a girl that she can't fit." He's gonna friendzone me so hard.

As we enter the waiting area, Mia taps my forehead. "You okay? You look like crap." She peers concernedly at me. "Did you catch a cold from those demon twins?"

"I'm fine." Felix Felix Felix.

"You can tell me anything, you know."

"I'm fine." Mia doesn't push it.

"Let's go catch us a wild Felix, then." She tugs my wrist, and she takes us running into a wild Felix that appears out of nowhere. Trust Mia to spy him first rather than me.

"'Sup, dude!" She's grinning widely, and Felix hugs her tightly. "Mia! How's Miley?" She flicks his forehead. "Heard you got a girlfriend anyway, you don't need Miley."

"Dan told you about Willow?" He comes to me and swings his arm around my shoulder and my heart skips a beat. I'm just less than an inch taller than him, and his head knocks gently on mine. "She's the best, isn't she?"

"She seems like a nice girl."

We go out of the waiting area together, Mia and Felix and me, the trio it's always been, and I can see Mia grinning slowly and widely past Felix's crazy airplane-curls and the rackety sound of his suitcase's wheels. "Felix Lee."

"Yeah?"

"I've missed you."

I finally cut in. "Haven't missed me?"

Mia reaches around Felix and whacks me on the head. "You're forty minutes away from me. And besides, I've missed hanging out with useless idiotic boys."

Felix ignores the jab. "What about you, Dan? Missed me?" His eyes glitter and his smile makes him look like an overgrown pixie. Like Moss.

"Unfortunately so."

"Since when have you been this annoying?"

"Since I met you."

Mia rolls her eyes. "Just wait until you meet the demon twins."

"What demon twins?"