"Hey," I said brightly to Nolan, who had just set his tray down on the cafeteria table.

"Evening," he said, pressing a brief kiss to my cheek as he sat down beside me. "How was your day?"

Shifting his messenger bag onto his lap, he opened it and began rummaging around in it.

"It was alright," I said. "Nothing new. How was yours? Did you manage to stay awake in your classes today?"

After pulling out his tablet, he pushed his tray aside to make space for it on the table. Nolan could really only drink water and eat mints, but he still got food on most days to blend in when he joined me for dinner.

He always ended up offering it to me, knowing that I was more than happy to accept free food. It helped that he only got small portions like side dishes, so I could definitely finish them.

"Yeah, for the first couple, anyway," he said. "I had to watch the recorded lecture for the third one because I fell asleep."

As I nibbled on a cheese stick, I watched him scroll through the notes he'd taken down.

"I guess it can't be helped," I said, putting my head on his shoulder.

He leaned his head against mine. "It's the weekend tomorrow. Want to do something?"

"Yeah, definitely. Did you have anything in mind?"

"We could visit the Taughannock Falls State Park. I was thinking we could take a walk around the park."

Most of my dates with Nolan weren't exactly conventional since he couldn't go out with me in the day unless the sun was hidden by dark rainy weather. For the typical movie and dinner dates, we went out in the evenings. Otherwise, we sometimes visited cafés in the evenings until they closed for the day.

Although I'd eventually gotten used to it, I still didn't particularly like being the only one eating on our dates. That was the reason why I didn't really like going out for dinner with Nolan, knowing that he could only sit and watch me eat.

I mean, what kind of one-sided dates were those? Even if he said that he didn't mind, it still kind of killed the enjoyment for me.

To my surprise, Nolan managed to figure it out without me having to voice my thoughts. Recently, he'd been suggesting things like exploring parks and quiet places, so that I could just snack on something while we strolled around.

"Oh," I said. "Yeah, why not? Wouldn't it be kind of dark to see anything in the evening, though?"

"I can see." He paused. "But I guess it'd be too dark for you."

Closing my eyes, I sniffed at his hoodie-covered shoulder. I'd grown to associate the fragrance with Nolan, and his scent was always comforting.

"I mean, I don't mind. It'd still be nice to walk around in the park, right?"

"We should go right after the sun sets, so it won't be that dark." He let out a dry laugh. "People are going to think we're weird for starting a hike so late in the day."

"Who cares," I mumbled, pulling his arm up and draping it over my shoulders.

His warmth enveloped me, and I sighed happily. Was this how baby chicks in eggs felt while they were being incubated by their mother hens?

"You smell so good," I said.

"Way to help yourself," Nolan said, but he tightened his hold on me anyway.

I loved it.

"Yup," I replied. "I'm going to hang out with Ash tomorrow, by the way. Well, I say 'hanging out', but we'll mostly be studying."

"Okay. I'll be sleeping until evening tomorrow."

"I know."

Still with his eyes glued to his notes, Nolan smiled. "Hey, eat my potato salad for me, okay?"

"Don't worry, I'll get started on it once I'm done with my cheese sticks," I said. "Consider it done."

----------------------------------

Ashley sighed. "I don't feel like studying."

"Who does?"

I was sprawled across her bed, staring up at the textbook in my hands.

With another sigh, she got up from her chair and snatched a pillow off her bed. "This is so boring."

That piqued my interest, causing me to sit up. Ashley almost never complained about studying.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I guess I'm just sick of studying." She flopped down on the bed beside me, hugging the pillow to her chest. "Hey, do you want to go out?"

Well, that was sudden.

"Huh? I don't mind," I said. "Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere, I don't care," she said. "If I'm not here, I'm in the library. I'm sick of being in campus all day just to study my life away."

"Uh ... I guess we can go for a walk outside."

Hopping to her feet, she tossed the pillow back onto the bed, almost hitting me. "Yeah, alright. I just need to get out of here and stretch my legs."

We ended up walking to the college town outside. It was a quiet morning—there weren't many people out and about, which was perfect for our little walk.

Ashley and I strolled down the street, occasionally looking in through the windows of the local businesses. We were walking past a small, nondescript-looking café when she abruptly stopped in her tracks.

She stared at the simple chalkboard sign they had outside the door.

Beneath the large, pastel green 'WELCOME' was a smiley face also drawn with the same chalk.

"Want to go in?" I offered.

She turned to grin at me. "Yeah."

Upon entering, we were greeted warmly by the lady behind the counter, who appeared to be the only staff on duty. No one else was in the café, save for a guy who looked about our age, sitting at one of the tables working on what looked like a crossword puzzle.

"What are you getting?" Ashley asked me, her eyes already scanning the menu that was stuck on the countertop.

"I don't know. Maybe an iced latte? What about you?"

"Let me think."

The lady behind the counter, looking significantly thrilled by the presence of new customers, waited patiently for us to make up our minds.

"I'll get an iced chocolate, please," Ashley said to her, finally looking up from the menu. "What about you, Chels?"

"Yeah, I think I'll stick with an iced latte," I said. "The weather's kind of hot today."

"Want any cakes or snacks? Hey," she said, nudging me, "it's my treat, okay? I did kind of just drag you out here all of a sudden."

"You didn't drag me," I said, but I was already checking out the cakes in the display. "I willingly came along. But hey, free cake? The New York cheesecake looks nice."

"Okay, so one slice of that, please," she said to the lady.

Before I could say anything else, Ashley was already paying for both my drink and the cake.

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Ash."

She waved me off as she tucked her wallet back into her bag. "Don't mention it."

When we settled down at one of the tables with our drinks and cake, Ashley stretched her arms out over the tabletop.

"I know it's only been one semester," she said, heaving a huge sigh, "but I miss those days when I could just hang out with you and Melissa and Derek whenever I wanted."

"Aww." I couldn't help but smile, despite the downturned corners of her lips. "I miss them too. I guess we're all pretty busy."

Melissa, Derek, Ashley, Nolan and I had video call meetings sometimes, and we'd play online board games and things like that, but it just wasn't the same.

"Yeah." She sighed again. "Plus my arms are killing me. Why did I join the archery club again?"

"Because Cody's in it," I said automatically.

The guy really had varied interests and hobbies—writing fanfiction, reading books, juggling, playing recreational sports, and now, I guess, archery. To my utter astonishment, Ashley joined the archery club along with him. She said that it was because it sounded interesting, but frankly, I thought it was just an excuse to spend more time with him.

Ashley practically threw herself over the table to clap her hands over my mouth, narrowly avoiding our drinks. Unfortunately, my cake didn't manage to escape unscathed. Some of the cream cheese came off on her elbow.

"My cake!" I mourned, but the words came out muffled because her palm got in the way.

"Why would you say that?!" she demanded, putting her hands on my shoulders instead.

"What?" I complained. "He's not here. Unless you're saying that only other customer in this place is one of your course mates. Then yeah, maybe news would get back to him."

Her glowering intensified. "What if he'd stepped in through the door right as you were saying that?"

Rolling my eyes, I scraped off the part of the cheesecake that she'd touched. "Nothing would have happened. I didn't even say anything incriminating. Unless you think that he's gonna assume that everything you do is because you like him."

"Shh!"

"Nobody's here. Hey, so are you guys going to get together soon, or what? This dance of will-they-won't-they is getting boring." I wiggled my eyebrows at her. "Or should I say 'will-you-won't you'?"

"We're just friends!" she whispered, sitting back down on her chair.

"Yeah, yeah, like I haven't heard that a million times." I broke off a piece of the crumbly base and nibbled on it. "Mm, this is good."

"That's because we are!"

"Yeah, but you like him. No, really, tell me the truth, okay? Do you or do you not like him? Am I just misreading all the signs?" I leaned towards her and stared hard.

"Signs?" Ashley averted her eyes. "What kind of signs?"

"I don't know. I just thought you guys liked each other. The way you behave in front of him reminds me of the way I acted in front of Nolan before we got together. Besides, I thought that he liked you. It's been, like, two years. Hasn't he said anything to you at all?"

Her eyes shot back to my face again. "Wait, you thought that he liked me? Why?"

"Well, he kind of kept stealing glances at you when we first started hanging out together." I shook my head. "Hey, you haven't answered my question."

"I don't know," she said, shrugging.

"What kind of answer is that? Shouldn't you know whether you like him or not?"

"No? I don't really know."

"I mean, do you feel the same way towards him as you do for Derek?"

She made a face and sipped from her iced chocolate. "I guess not? But compared to Derek, I'm a lot closer to Cody. I mean, I mostly hang out with Derek in our group, but I spend a lot more one-on-one time with Cody, you know?"

That was still a non-answer, but okay.

"So you don't want to date him?" I prodded some more.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it," she said. "And I don't think it matters, because he hasn't said anything. Probably because there's nothing to say."

It seemed like their little dance was still going to last a while, so I decided to stop pressing. The quiet and cool atmosphere in the café made me want to relax. Spending the next hour interrogating Ashley about her non-relationship wasn't my idea of a good time.

"Oh yeah, I haven't really seen Nolan lately," she said. "How's he doing?"

"He's doing pretty well." I swept a quick glance over my watch. "He's probably napping right now, actually."

Nolan was definitely doing better in college than he was in high school, considering how much more freedom we were given here.

Nobody ever stopped him from napping during lectures. He managed to arrange his schedule so that he could nap in between lectures and tutorials, which meant that he could get the sleep that he needed during the day.

Smiling, she swirled her straw around in her drink. "I'd be surprised if he wasn't. Honestly, I don't know how you guys actually get to spend time together, considering how much he naps."

I shrugged. "We figure things out."

"It's so nice to see that you guys are still going strong." She sat up straight and peered at me. "Hey, the four of us should get together one of these days. We're in the same college, so it's not like we're hours away from each other."

She had a point. It had really been a while since I'd last seen Cody—I usually got news of him from Ashley.

"Yeah, we should. Want to hang out in my dorm next week?"

"What about dinner?"

At her suggestion, I ate another bite of cheesecake to avoid grimacing. "Why don't we hang out after dinner? I have a bunch of card games we can play."

I didn't want to put Nolan in a position where he'd be expected to eat a significant portion of food in front of others.

Ashley blinked. "Um, sure. If that's what you want."

"It totally is," I assured her.

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AN: hey everyone! i'm going to start regularly posting the sequel now! i've been so busy with real life stuff that i hadn't had enough time to write, but now i'm going to be able to do that. i'm looking forward to it, and i hope you all are too! thanks so much for reading YASTMT and leaving me all your kind comments, i really appreciate it. i hope you're all having a great week!（*'▽｀*）

For those who want to read in advance, Patreon supporters will be able to read two chapters ahead of what's currently available plus other YASTMT bonus chapters! (the link's in my profile)

P.S. what do you think of the current cover? is any one of the others i've posted in the banner on top of this chapter better? why can't covers be easier to decide on... ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚