"I love you," Rachel whispered in Lauren's ear so the boys wouldn't hear. "I fucking love you."

Lauren laughed at the obscenity even as she felt her heart flutter. She thought she would cry again. She wanted to kiss her like Al had kissed her, because she thought her lips would taste wonderful, but the boys were right there and she didn't want them to see. She wanted their love to be private like it was in her bedroom that night she'd slept over, when they'd touched each other in wonderful places, and the lingering hugs they shared today, their hands sliding below each other's waists, only reminded her of that night.

"I fucking love you too, Rachel," she said instead. "You better call me every day."

"I need your number. I don't know what my new one is yet."

Lauren pulled a slip of paper from her pocket and shoved it into Rachel's, letting her fingers linger down there long enough for Rachel to gasp before she removed it. "Don't lose that," she said.

The boys wrote their numbers on Rachel's palm. Then Rachel drove away with her family, and just like that she was gone.

This time it was Joe's turn to console her, and his arms were very strong and all enveloping, and he held her as she cried her eyes out. If she didn't have him she didn't know what she'd do, but her world was still collapsing.

"And then there were three," Sunny said. "Man, this sucks."

Lauren looked up at him, sniffed and wiped her nose on Joe's shirt. "I couldn't have put it better myself," she said.

The knock on the door a few weeks later surprised her. She hadn't been expecting anyone today. She'd been settling in for a day of homework and TV when the knock came.

Wondering if maybe it was a visitor for Mom or Dad, she opened the door, and to her utter astonishment, Al stood there.

"Al!" she cried, throwing her arms around him. "Oh my God, it's so good to see you!"

Al squeezed back, hard. "You too, Lauren. Man, I'm glad somebody's here."

"Sorry, no one knew you were coming. We haven't seen you in months!"

He unlocked and wiped a tear from his eye. "Yeah, I know, my mom and dad aren't as willing to make the trip out as often as they used to."

"Are they taking the dogs for a walk again?"

"Yeah, so we have some time to visit if you want."

"Sure, if you don't mind it just being me."

"No, you're my friend, why would I mind?"

"Let's go outside." Lauren grabbed her jacket and they headed back down the stairs. They had a quick look in the direction of Al's old house, demolished now, the land cleared and ready to be graded for the road, and then they walked up the street.

"So, where is everyone today?" Al asked.

"Joe's out with his dad getting equipment and seed for planting. Sunny is with his family at a Vaisakhi festival parade."

"Oh. And Rachel?"

She turned to him and said, "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"She moved away. She's somewhere in Burnaby now."

He stopped and blinked at her for a few seconds. "She moved?"

"Yeah. Her dad got a new job out there, and they managed to buy a place. It was just a few weeks ago."

He seemed to shrink in front of her. "I tried calling her recently, and the operator told me the number was no longer in service. No one answered at her door either. I should have put two and two together."

"Yeah, no one's rented her old place yet. It's just my family in the building, now."

It was a cloudy day, and the weather matched their mood.

"I guess she didn't leave a new number?" Al asked.

"She didn't have it yet when she left. I gave her mine, and the others gave her theirs, but she hasn't called yet. I don't know why."

He bowed his head and said, "I'm never going to see her again."

"That's not true!" Lauren protested. "She'll call me, and when she gives me her new number, I'll call you. Your number's still the same, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." he said uncertainly. "But even if I can call her again, how am I ever going to see her? It's enough for me to convince my parents to bring me to Queensborough. I can't ask them to take me to Burnaby, too."

"Well, in a few years you can learn to drive, and maybe you can drive out to see her yourself."

"A few years? It might as well be a few million."

She put a hand on his arm and said, "I know you have a crush on her."

He nodded, and his face crumpled. He put his hands over his face and sobbed.

"I'm sorry," she said, and hugged him again. "I love her too."

She didn't think he understood what that meant, and he didn't reply anyway. His grief was terrifying, and she was afraid she was going to have to hold him up, because his legs were giving out.

"Oh, Al, it's okay," she said. "I'll make it better."

She kissed him on the cheek, tasting his tears. She liked the saltiness of them. She kissed him on the other cheek. Her lips became moist with them. It was very interesting.

He looked at her in bewilderment, his eyes wet, his lips parted.

Suddenly she felt the need to see if his tears tasted differently from his lips. They were just inviting her to taste them.

She put her lips against his, and they were nice and moist, and she drank every last bit of them.

He didn't push her away.

When she finally unlocked her lips from his, and it had seemed like a long time, he looked at her in utter astonishment.

She smiled and patted his arms. "Huh."

"Huh," he said, nodding.

"See, I made it better," she said.

He chuckled. "You did. Thank you. I didn't know you liked me that way."

Now she chuckled. "I wouldn't go that far. I'm with Joe now, for real."

"Oh. Good for you. So, why did you kiss me? You didn't have to."

What could she tell him? That she liked drinking his tears? That didn't sound very nice; actually it sounded kind of mean, as if she enjoyed his sadness. No, what she felt when she kissed him was the same feeling of bliss she'd felt when she'd hugged Joe that first time and felt him go hard against her. If she were older she might have assessed it as getting off on consoling males, but she didn't have that kind of vocabulary yet. So, she said, "I guess I like being needed."

To Al's credit, he didn't say anything more about it, nor did he do her the disservice of telling her about the time Rachel had kissed him back at the Trybek house and trying to compare them (she knew the one she gave him was better, and although he didn't kiss as well as Joe, he wasn't bad, and to be fair, she and Joe had more practice.) He repaid her for her kindness by accepting it for what it was, an expression of comfort in his time of need.

They spent the rest of his visit catching up, and by the time Al's parents returned with the dogs, he was his happy, easygoing self again.

"I'll call you as soon as she calls me and give you her new number," she said, hugging him again.

"Thanks, Lauren," he said, "for everything."

Lauren winked at him and smiled.

She told Joe about Al's visit, but she never told him about the kiss. It would have just made things complicated when they didn't have to be, because it didn't matter, in the end. Al never came for another visit, and Rachel never called, and that was the worse thing, because it was as if she'd forgotten her already. Luckily, Joe was there to console her when it was her time to grieve, and he gave her all the kisses she ever needed.

When she reunited with Rachel and Al thirty years later, she didn't tell Rachel about the kiss, because by then she'd effectively forgotten about it, and if she'd told her it would have only complicated things between them, because by then she was trying to seduce Rachel herself.

Maybe Lauren and Al weren't completely out of the blue after all. Thanks for reading. Hit "Vote" if you like what you read, and leave a comment. To see what Al and Lauren are up to in the present day, hit "Continue reading."