"Say it Parker."

"Do I really have to?"

"Yes, now say it."

"Really, right now? Can't it wait?"

"It's only three words and eight letters."

"That's a lot of combinations. It could be anything."

"Parker, just say it and I'm yours."

He looked at me in the eyes making me stop breathing. Time seemed to stop between the both of us. It was as if this moment could have lasted for an eternity when really it was mere seconds. Then he said it.

"I buy food."

I sighed. "You know me so well. Now c'mon, I'm starving."

I grabbed his hand and we began to walk towards the food trucks. After we ditched the car, and no we didn't go on a police car chase and had to ditch the car and go on foot. It was close though with Bennett and his Mercedes-Benz but we lost him. No, Parker parked the car and paid the parking meter for a couple hours and then we were off. We've been walking for a while until I got pretty hungry given I slept until noon and skipped breakfast. It wasn't until we found a whole line of food trucks for lunch time.

"So what do you want to eat?" Parker asked me. "There are a lot of choices."

"I know," I said. "It's so awesome!"

He grinned at me. "Well, it's on me. So pick to your heart's desire."

"You mean stomach's desire."

"Same thing."

"Yeah, that's true."

We wandered around, hopping from one food truck to other, looking at the menus and prices. Finally I decided to have roast beef sandwich with a triple cheese chili fries and some soda.

"Huh, a big order for a small girl," the cook noted as he took my order.

I snorted. "This is nothing. I've been banned to two buffets for a whole month. I guess even buffets have a limit."

The cook winked at Parker. "You got some girlfriend over there, boy."

"S-she's not my girlfriend."

"Oh? Well, I hope that'll change because you two-"

"Here's a twenty," I said as I took out my own money, interrupting him. "You can keep the change if you go make my order now."

Cook shook his head. "Whatever you say miss." He took the money and went to make my order.

Parker frowned. "I thought you wanted me to pay."

"Nah, it's alright." I told him as I grabbed myself a can of soda. "I was just kidding anyway, I could pay for myself."

"But I wanted to pay."

"Yeah, I wanted to pay too." I raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong? Shouldn't you be happy you're not a couple bucks poorer?"

"Naomi, I wanted to pay for your food, you should have let me."

"Parker, you don't have to. And besides, it's not like you're my boyfriend."

"Yeah but-"

"Here ya go miss, a roast beef sandwich and triple cheese chili fries. I put in some extra chili just for you."

I grinned. "Thanks!"

I took my order as Parker got his own roast beef sandwich. I couldn't wait any longer and I took a big bite of the sandwich and used the fork to get some of the fries. It's magically delicious!

"You want to sit down and eat?" Parker asked me.

"I don't know, do you?" I said between bites.

"Kinda," he admitted. "Eating while standing up makes you gassy."

"Well then let's sit down." I said immediately, not wanting that.

The last thing I want is for people to call the police for smelling some stink bomb unleashing or something. I had to wait a bit as we walked, looking for a place to sit down and eat. Soon we walked into a small park that had a fountain in it. We sat at the edge of the fountain and ate out sandwiches, we shared the fries. The two of us talked as we ate and even after we finished eating. But we reluctantly got up, dusted the crumbs off our pants and walked on.

You're probably thinking that a walk around some boring city you grew up in must be really boring and that I regret ever suggesting that. But I'm not. Sure, it sounds boring, if you're boring yourself. To really enjoy this, you just have to be pretty creative.

We took pictures, lots of pictures. We took pictures of places, buildings, and each other.

"Say cheese!" Parker sang as he leaned next to me, holding up his phone in front of us.

"Cheese!" The both of said in unison before hearing the click camera.

"Let me see! Let me see!" I said excitedly as I peered over his shoulder.

"That's a keeper!" Parker said, showing me the picture.

"Send it to me," I asked him, showing him my phone.

"Yeah su-" he paused and frowned. "How do you know that we traded numbers?"

I smiled. "Of course-" I caught myself. I'm not supposed to know this. Parker had us trade numbers last night when I was drunk, meaning I shouldn't remember. What I should have done was ask for his number to then send it to me. But it's too late for that.

"Of course I did, silly," I finished.

"How? That was last night, you couldn't have remembered."

"I don't," I corrected him. "It was just I saw your name in my contact list having me know that we must have traded numbers last night."

Parker reddened at his mistake. "Oh right, yeah, of course."

I looked around the streets and my eyes landed on something.

"Parker, look!"

He looked up from his phone as he was sending me that picture. The both of us shared a look, wearing the same matching smiles then took off running.

"Welcome to iCandy!" The store clerk told us as we entered the shop.

Parker and I marveled at the shop. It was like candy wonderland, candy paradise. The shop itself was pretty big, having a bit of a vintage look with bright colors. There were candies of all kinds, of all flavors, of all brands here in one place. My mouth watered at the sight of this paradise.

"I want to work here," I muttered.

"I want to live here," Parker muttered.

 "I think I'm going to cry," I muttered.

"I'd cry too, but I'm a guy. So I'll just comfort you."

"Nah, the chocolates will comfort me."

"Yeah, I'd choose chocolates over me too."

I looked at the store clerk. "Is this really a free sample day?" I asked her in disbelief.

"Yup," she said cheerfully. "We just opened and we came up with this to reel in some customers."

The both of us shared the same mischievous smile. We're going to make them regret ever coming up with this. We can't do this right in front of her, but in our minds we're rubbing our hands together as if we're coming up with an evil plan and laughing evilly.

"Well you did," I told her with a straight face, hiding my dark intentions.

Parker and I walked around the shop out of the store clerk's earshot as we drooled over the candy.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked me in a low voice.

"If what you're thinking is to rob them off their candy, then yes, that's what I'm thinking."

He sighed. "You know me so well. Now c'mon, the candy is waiting for us."

He grabbed my hand and led me towards the candies. We let the kids in us out to have fun. The two of us were like little kids again (well, not really again, we still are) being unleashed in a toy shop, only its better, a candy shop. We grabbed plastic bags and fill them all with candies of all kinds. Of course we also ate the candies as well given it was free sample day. There was sour candy, gumdrops, Skittles, lollipops, gummy bears, gummy worms, chocolates of all flavors, gum, toffee, caramel, Three Musketeers, jellybeans, Starbursts, Toblerone, tootsie rolls, Lifesavers, chocolate coins, M&M's, butterscotch, Air Heads, gobstoppers, candy canes, licorice, Smarties, pixie stix, peppermints, taffy, Almond Joy, Nerds, the list just goes on and on. I can say anymore because either I've eaten them or I'm going to have a heart attack.

"Here," Parker said as he put on a candy necklace around my neck.  "It's candy that you can wear, its genius!"

I gasped. "Aw, you went to Jared."

The both of us, childish we are, kept tossing candies at each other and caught them in our mouths. No candies were injured during this, we both had good aim. The store clerk watched as we ran around the shop back and forth with a blank stare. She watched as the containers kept on lowering and lowers, she watched as candies vanished into our bellies. Finally the both of us decided that we shouldn't torture her anymore because she seemed so nice and made this genius thing. We went up to the counter and plopped two bags filled with candies of all kinds that we wanted to eat later in front of her.

"To go, please?" I said with a bright smile.

I saw her eye twitch. "Uh-huh."

She weighed the candy bags and I paid for mine while Parker paid for his own candy. I grabbed back both bags, and looked at them seductively. Patience Naomi, we'll be alone together at home. And I was talking to the candy.

"Have a nice day," she said with a forced smile.

"Thanks," the both of us said in unison as we walked away.

I heard her say under her breath. "I regret ever coming up with free sample day."

Parker and I fist bump each other before leaving the store. We continued walking, taking out random candies and eating it on the street. I know that eating while standing up will make you gassy, but this is candy we're talking about. Candy won't do that, it's too innocent unless it has nuts and you're allergic to them, then its evil.

There was a street vendor just ahead of us, trying to sell her product. She was selling clothes, some T-shirts, hats, bags, toys, and other souvenirs for tourists. We were just about to pass by her when something caught my eye. There was a Snapback hat with the Paladins logo on it. I stopped and stared at it. I always had a soft spot for Snapbacks, I love wearing them, and this one has the Paladin logo on it, I don't have it, I must have it.

"Oh, do you see something you like?" The street vendor lady asked me hopefully.

"How much is that hat?" I asked her, pointing at it.

"It's only 20 dollars-" she looked at me up and down "-15 for you."

I looked at her. "You're giving me a discount?"

"Yeah, sure. My son's a Paladins fan too, you can get five-dollar discount for another fan."

"Wow, okay," I said, taking out my wallet. "Thanks!"

"What are you buying?" Parker asked me as he walked next to me.

"That hat," I told him distractedly as I counted the money.

"That Paladins hat?" He asked me. "You're buying that for your dad?"

I snorted. "No, I'm buying it for me."

He blinked. "Wait, you're a Paladins fan?"

"Of course!" I told him. "Only people who want to lose wouldn't go for them."

"I'm one too!"

"No way!" I exclaimed, grinning at him.

"Yes way, Williams will be leading the team to the championships."

"That's what I keep telling them." I said. "But they only focus on the players, not the coach."

He shook head. "Amateurs."

I frowned, looking down at my wallet. "I thought I had another five here, but I only have a ten left."

"You must have used it when buying those candies."

"Darnit," I muttered, though I still don't regret buying the candies.

"Well, I guess you can't pay for the hat," Parker said.

I scratched my head. "Yeah, I'm sorry miss." I told the lady.

She waved her hand dismissively. "It's alright, maybe next time."

"And look at that, I have 15 bucks right here," Parker said in surprise, looking down at his wallet.

I gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh, I would. I'm a fellow Paladins fan remember?" He turned to the lady and handed her the money. "One Paladins hat please."

She wrinkled her nose. "20 for you, 15 for her. Give me 20 if you want the hat."

Parker's jaw dropped. "That's kind of sextist don't you think?"

The lady snorted. "I don't remember giving you a discount, only to her."

We both high-five each other. Go girl power!

Parker frowned but gave in, taking out another five from his wallet and giving it to her. The lady gave me an apologetic look and gave Parker the hat.

"This would look so cute on you," he studied, looking at the hat.

"Yeah..." I said hopefully.

"Too bad it looks cute on me too," he said, putting the hat on.

Okay, I have to admit he did, but that wasn't the point.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Fine. But I hope you feel guilty wearing that."

"What was that Naomi? Sorry, but I was too busy marveling at my hat."

I muttered something under my breath, making Parker snicker. The both of us continued walking.

-

"What would happen if I pushed you?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "I'll take you down with me."

"Nevermind, then," I said. "It's tempting, but not worth it at the moment."

"I think it's against the law to do it anyway."

"It's only against the law if you're caught doing it."

He thought about it. "Yeah, you're right about that."

"I know, I always am," I said, smiling at him.

We continued pedaling on the paddle boat Parker rented. We found a park with a lake that lets people rent paddle boats for an hour. We did this to past the time and see what we should next. We've been aimlessly wandering around the city just as we are aimlessly pedaling around the lake.

"Ugh, pedaling is so tiring," I said, pausing from pedaling and I stretched.

Parker though was still pedaling, so we ended up going around in circles in the boat. I snickered, feeling stupid but it was cute.

"Look ma, no hands!" He said, grinning at me.

I burst out laughing. "You're making me more and more tempted to push you off this boat."

He winked at me. "If you do that sweetheart, I'll just take you down with me."

I hesitated then feign that I would push him, making him flinch and grabbed my arm, pulling me forward. The both of us were inches close, blinking stupidly. Both of our faces were getting as red as the paddle boat's color.

"I-I was kidding," I assured him. "I wasn't really going to push you."

"Yeah, I figured." He said, smiling sheepishly.

He awkwardly let go of my arm. Then the both of us continued pedaling in silence.

Pedal, pedal, pedal.

"Hey Naomi?"

"Yeah?"

Parker paused but shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Okay."

"It's just..."

"It's just what?"

There was a slight pause. "If you could remember what happened last night, would you want to?"

I frowned. "Why? Should I remember something?"

He was silent. "I-I don't know."

"Well, you said I didn't do anything bad. And I probably didn't do anything good so-"

"No, you did something good." He blushed, his eyes widening what he just said. "I mean... it was..."

"What? Did I give you money? 'Cause that's the only thing I can think of that seems good. Someone giving me money for no good reason and not remembering it..." I trailed off. I knew I was rambling to fill up the awkward silence. What did he mean by good?

"It was... nice."

Nice? He thought it was nice? I looked down at the lake. Maybe I could jump...

"Oh." I said, not really knowing how to respond to that other than saying oh.

"I wish you would remember what happened last night," he told me.

"Yeah," I said wistfully as I kept on pedaling. "Me too."

It was getting late and our time was almost up so we were pedaling back to land. We parked the car next to the dock. Parker got out of the paddle boat first, hopping onto the dock. He held out his hand to help me out, I took it and I went back on dry land. We waved goodbye to the man who owned the paddle boat rental shop and walked away.

"Dinner?"

"Dinner."

-

We were walking back to the car. But we were going through the park as a shortcut instead of having to go all the way around it. The both of us were taking out time walking back. It was night now, the cool and crisp air was refreshing compared to the warm afternoon.

I patted my satisfied stomach. "That was delicious." I said with a sigh.

"I know," Parker agreed. "I never knew there was a Thai restaurant around here, but now I do."

"I've been there many times with my parents. The cooking is so delicious and service is great, the waitress remembered me."

"Well, now that I know it exists, I'll be going there more now. And I love that Thai fried rice."

"That's khao pat," I told him. "Then there was the phat wun sen, kaeng kari, and kai thot."

He closed his eyes and sighed. "I have no clue what you're saying, but it sounds delicious."

I began to list out some other recipes I've remembered from the countless of times I've gone there.

"Wait, how do I know you're not just saying random syllables to me?" Parker asked me.

"You don't," I said, making us both laughed.

I took a sip of my Thai iced tea. Parker put his arm around my shoulder, and I noted that he didn't do it in any cheesy way. He pulled me closer as we walked, making me smile. I absently continued drinking my drink until it was all gone, and then I tossed it into the garbage can as we passed by it. We were talking the whole time as we walked through the park when he suddenly stopped.

"Hey look, a playground." Parker said pointing ahead of us.

I looked and saw a playground structure similar to the one in Valley Park.

"Yeah, it's cute."

"C'mon, let's go to the swings." He said as he grabbed my hand so I would follow him.

I plopped down on the seat swing. I looked at the swing structure. Now that I'm sober and all, I'm a bit worried if my weight can handle this. It is after all originally built for children. Parker was about to sit on the swing next to me when I stopped him.

"Hey, maybe we should swing one person at a time," I suggested. "This swing looks old, it might break I the both of us use it."

Parker frowned. "Oh okay," he said in disappointed. "I wanted us to have a contest of who can swing the highest." He smiled at me, but it seemed sad.

"Maybe another time," I said.

"Hey, how about we go to the monkey bars instead?" He suggested. "We can climb on top of them and just talk."

I looked warily at the monkey bars thinking the same thing. The moment we sit on them, they could break and we'll fall. This park is as old as Valley Park, but they remodeled the playground structure so it was stronger than this rusty one. Parker figured out before I could tell him and nodded.

"Nevermind, probably not a good idea," he said.

"Sorry." I told him.

Parker shook his head. "No, don't be sorry, it's not your fault."

"How about you push me in the swings?" I suggested, not wanting him to seem so down.

His face lit up. "Sure."

Parker walked behind the swings then gave me a small push. Soon I was swinging higher and higher. I closed It was just like last night, the feeling of rising and falling, reaching the sky then falling back to the Earth. I closed my eyes, feeling the thrill again. So I didn't notice when Parker stopped pushing me on the swings until I was slowly swinging lower and lower. I put on the brakes, having me stop swinging by placing my feet firmly on the ground. I looked up and saw Parker standing in front of me. I blinked and suddenly felt it, the feeling of déjà vu. He leaned forward, wrapping his hands on top of mine as he held onto the chains of the swings. I looked back at his blue eyes with my brown ones. I began to heat up, my cheeks felt like they were breathing. Breathe, Naomi, breathe. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale...

It was then I realized it. First the swings, then the monkey bars, and now this? Parker was trying to replay last night at Valley Park. The question though is why? Why was he doing this when he knew that I don't remember anything last night? Unless, he wanted me to remember so he's trying to have me remember this moment with him.

He began to lean towards to me once more. And it was so tempting to do it, to lean towards him. I was sober, not drunk last night. He wants to kiss me and I wanted to kiss him back. It was so tempting, so tempting. It was as tempting as wanting to push him off the paddle boat but I decided against it. Just like now.

I turned away from him, not even bearing to look at him in the face. Parker backed up from me just like the last time.

"So you don't want to kiss me, huh?" He said sadly.

I looked at him, seeing the pained expression on his face.

"Parker..."

"I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't have done that. I wanted you to remember last night. And I just thought... If I could replay it, you'd remember or at least feel this-" he said, gesturing the both of us.

"No I-"

Parker sighed. "But I was right. What happened last night was only drunk Naomi. She wanted to kiss me because she didn't know any better. But you, you don't want to kiss me because you just... don't want to."

"Parker," I said, "I have something to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I-" I gulped and took a deep breath "-I lied, Parker."

He blinked. "What?"

"I lied about not remembering last night. I actually do remember everything down to the last detail." I said, shaking my head in shame. "I know. I shouldn't have done that. But I was so embarrassed about last night that I couldn't bear knowing that you know. So I thought if I pretended I didn't remember it, you'd just blame drunk me and wouldn't bring last night up."

Parker didn't say anything. There was just a huge silence in the air.

"You must really hate me right now."

"No, I don't."

I looked at him. "Really?"

"I don't blame you, Naomi. Lots of people do that, even I do that." He told me. "But you shouldn't be embarrassed by it and pretend to forget last night. Did you really not like what happened last night?" He asked me.

I blushed. "N-no, I did," I said sheepishly.

Parker smiled. "Then I have something to confess myself."

I frowned. "What is it?"

"I knew it all along."

"Wait, what? How?"

He grinned at me. "People who were drunk the night before and say they don't remember anything last night are lying. Even if you're a little drunk, you'd still be able to remember most of the stuff that happened the night before. I've been drunk many times and I could write a detailed book of everything I've done. It's only when you're black out drunk do you not remember anything. But I've seen blackout drunk, man, I've done it, and you weren't blackout drunk."

"So this whole time you knew?" I asked him in disbelief.

Parker winked at me. "At the seventh grade they didn't have a lot of boys in drama, so they moved me from computers to drama. My acting skills paid off, huh?"

I put my face in my hands. "I can't believe this. I'm so embarrassed."

He ruffled my hair. "Aw, don't feel too bad Naomi. At least now we're on the same page of you remembering last night."

"Yeah..."

"C'mon, let's take you home now. It's getting late."

"Okay," I said as I got up from the swing seat.

We arrived back at my house only a couple minutes later. He got out of the driver seat, went around the car to open the car door for me. I smiled and took his hand that held out to me. We walked to my house, holding hands. Our hands didn't want to let go, but we reluctantly did when we arrived to my front door. There was no way I was going to replay what happened last night now that we're in the same situation again now that I'm sober, I won't even do it drunk. I turned to open my door when he said something.

"You know, I've been thinking."

I stopped and looked back at him. "About what?"

"About last night, when you kissed me..."

My cheeks turned warm. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, it just seems pretty unfair to me."

I blinked. "How?"

"You kissed me, taking me by surprise." He told me. "Do you know how hard it was when I was trying to sleep but I kept on replaying that again and again?"

"No?" I said sheepishly.

"Well, maybe I should take some revenge for losing sleep because of you."

"Wha-"

Parker took off the Paladins Snapback and placed it on top of my head. He yanked me forward with the brim, making me lean towards him at the same time he leaned towards me. He kissed me softly on my right cheek, making me stiffen at the sudden contact. His lips lingering there before he backed away. He pushed the brim of the hat down to cover my face that was burning up. I didn't know what to say, what to do, my mind just blanked out right there.

He chuckled. "Try sleeping with that on your mind."

Then he walked away. I heard the slam of the car door and the start of the engine before he drove away. I stood there blinking stupidly, dumbfounded, speechless, just like Parker was last night. I touched my cheek, still feeling the kiss that was just there a few seconds ago. I brought the hat's brim lower, embarrassed of my face that was as red as the Paladin's team color. I slowly turned around and walked inside.

I didn't get any sleep that night.

You do not know how long I wanted to write that last scene. Anti-Parkomi fans have to at least admit this was pretty cute.

This chapter is dedicated to randomesque, a pretty awesome reader and commentor of this book. She was actually awesome enough to make a fan art/cover of this book. Check it out at the right, it has Barbara Palvin on it. I love her cover skills, check out her books. Random, I don't know if you're a Parkomi fan, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Okay, so you all know that I'm one of the few authors who reply to comments here. Well I've finally realized how harder it is to do so now that my book has gotten so much bigger and more readers are commenting every day. It's not like I don't like replying to you guys, I love replying to you guys. Except the ones with questionable death threats... those scare me a bit. But other than that, I'm having some problems on replying to comments. I'm only one person, and it'll only get harder when school starts. Ugh, you know school is coming when you see those back-to-school commercials. They're a sign to run and never look back. Man, I wish Wattpad could come up with something so it would make replying easier. Anyway, I've planned to only reply to the latest three-five chapters only, if there are any comments that caught my eye before then, I'll reply to them. I hope you're all okay with that, thanks.

Now I'm going to go sleep (unlike poor Naomi) thinking about the next chapter. I have a craving for cashew nuts. I'm allergic to peanuts and I've always been wary of nuts, but I always gave in to eating cashew nuts, greaseless, roasted and salted. Oh, so delicious. There's one last pack of them in existence in my house and I'm planning to rid of it of this world and put it in my stomach. Now I just gotta find them before my mom or brother find them... Wish me luck.

RubixCube8921