Lemon-Lime Sorbet Binge (for Valentine's!)
Author: Marina
Story: The Dragon World
Challenge: Flavor Binge (Lemon-Lime Sorbet)
Toppings/Extras: Caramel, Brownie, Malt x2 (Summer Challenge 2011, #336: It’s the right idea, but not the right time. - John Dalton; Newlywed Game Question #6: “Which of you would your partner say is the better catch?” with Laura’s and Kevin’s answers)
Word Count: 7,781
Rating: PG (leaning toward PG-13 for Kevin’s foul mouth, as usual)
Summary: In conclusion, cousins friends.
Notes: I've been wanting to do a binge about this since the concept was first introduced, but I didn't figure out what actually happens with them during this time period until recently. Now I have, though, so here it is...Happy Valentine’s!
public place
After Econ, Laura checks her phone and finds that Kevin, of all people, left her a voicemail. It’s short and blunt, almost like talking to him in person. “I’m on my way up there and I want to take you to lunch if you’re not busy. Call me back when you get this.”
The thinly veiled distress in his tone makes her return his call immediately. “Sorry, I was in class, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Which dorm is yours again?”
“Schaffer, why?”
“Just checking. I’m parking in the Rho lot right now. Meet you there?”
She quickens her pace. “Yeah, I’m heading back now. You’ll beat me there, so just wait out front until I get there.”
He’s pacing, a deep frown on his face, when she finds him, but he stops immediately when he sees her. “Finally,” he jokes. “How far away is your class, anyway? The Sahara?”
“It feels like it, sometimes,” she replies, with a smile, because that’s what he seems to want from her. “Let me go dump my books and put on a better shirt and some actual shoes, and then we can go.”
Kevin glances briefly at her school sweatshirt and Ugg boots. “You look fine.”
Laura spares him a Look. “Don’t question the whims of girls.”
She lets him drive when he insists he should, and directs him to a deli just off campus that makes fantastic sandwiches. They barely speak on the way. Kevin makes some sort of inane comment about hills and the ocean, and Laura has no idea how to respond, so she says something equally dumb and watches his face. She can see a struggle in his expression and wonders what exactly happened.
While they’re waiting for their sandwiches, she asks him what’s bothering him. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he says, rather predictably.
Then why are you here? she wants to ask, because whatever it is has clearly upset him-it’s a Tuesday, which means he’s ditched school to drive up to see her, and she knows very well that he can’t afford to use up so much gas with the economy the way it is. He’ll be in a world of trouble when he gets home, and she feels guilty for condoning it. But pushing things has never worked with Kevin. “Okay,” she says, then adds, because she can’t help it, “just remember, I’m here if you change your mind.”
He spares her a small smile. “Trust me, I know.”
Just then, their number gets called, so they pick up their sandwiches and snag a table in the sunlight. Even though it’s October, the weather still smacks of summer. Laura feels vaguely glad that she insisted on changing before they ate. She picks at the hem of her shirt and tries not to stare at him.
“I like your haircut,” he says then.
She glances at him, hand automatically reaching for the back of her head. “I got it cut a month ago,” she replies, bewildered for a moment. The angled bob is still a relatively new style for her, and she’s still getting used to straightening her hair daily to make it look the way it should, but most everyone she knows has already seen it.
“I haven’t seen you since August,” Kevin reminds her, looking amused.
“Oh.” She remembers now. He helped her move into her dorm during New Student Orientation, and he was at his dad’s for Labor Day weekend, so he didn’t see her hair then. “Thanks. You really like it?”
“Yeah. You look like a rock star.”
Laura can feel herself blushing, and she looks away to try to hide it. Even though she can’t see him, she knows he’s smirking. “Well, thanks,” she says. “So, when are you getting a haircut?”
Kevin laughs, surprising her, and fluffs the lion’s mane he’s currently sporting. “Maybe never. Why, don’t you like it?”
She does, a little. Mostly because the face underneath it looks happy, for once, and there’s not much that can mar that, in her mind. “It doesn’t suit you,” she says cheekily. “If you let that get much longer you’ll look like Aragorn.”
“Can’t,” retorts Kevin. “My hair’s blond.”
“If Aragorn was blond, that’s what you’d look like.”
He grins. “Maybe I’ll leave it, then. Don’t have a Halloween costume yet.”
“It’d be perfect with some brown dye,” says Laura. His eyes immediately go wide in horror, and she giggles. “The wash-out kind, silly. Don’t worry, I’d never suggest permanently ruining your perfect blondness.”
“Good,” he says firmly, taking a large bite of his turkey sub as if to emphasize the point. Smiling, she also goes back to hers.
caught in the act
When they’ve finished eating, Kevin asks to see her dorm room, and Laura agrees even though he already has. She knows the real request is please don’t make me go home. He may as well stay, since she doesn’t have any classes or guitar lessons that afternoon.
They sit on her bed and she gets out her guitar and plays a few of the songs she’s working on. While he listens, he flips through the folder of ideas and scraps she only lets him and Chase see. It was hard to trust him enough, at first, but now she likes having feedback from someone who’s not obligated to like everything she does because she’s his sister. Not that it’s an obligation with Chase, but it’s the principle of the thing.
“Do you ever write songs for people older than twelve?” Kevin asks, amused.
“No,” she replies, a little bit ruefully. “Honestly, I didn’t start out intentionally writing songs for kids, but it seems like that’s what I’m best at. And I like it.”
“That’s fine, and these aren’t bad.”
She makes a face. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Really, they’re not.” He shuts the folder. “I like ‘em, anyway, not that my opinion’s worth much since I can’t even carry a tune.”
“But you’d rather I wrote more adult stuff,” she persists.
Kevin drums his fingers on the folder as he studies her. “Just do what you want to, Laura. If you’re good at this and you like it, it’s probably a sign or some shit like that.”
The way he puts it makes her frown, but it seems like a confirmation of what she’s been thinking for more than a year now. Maybe it’s spending so much time with Chase that’s done it, but she likes kids and she wants to use her talents to reach out to them. She even feels like God might be leading her in that direction, to be like Mary Rice Hopkins, only her way. Not, of course, that she can say that to Kevin.
“Anyway.” He grins cheekily at her. “Got anything else for me?”
“Nothing of mine, but I’ve been learning a classical piece for my weekly performance class. I perform again in November,” she says. He begins to wrinkle his nose in response, which irritates her. “Hey, contrary to popular belief, classical music is actually quite catchy. A lot of people just don’t give it a chance.”
He waves a hand. “Fine, let’s hear it.”
Laura starts on the section she can do from memory. She sneaks glances at his face as she plays, and thinks maybe she’s made her point when she sees that he looks more thoughtful than anything. Her lips tug into a smirk.
It quickly dies again when she hears the lock click and her door swings open. She stops playing and looks over shoulder to see her roommate, Geri, walk in. “Oh, hey Laura,” she says, looking straight past her to Kevin in a way that makes her think that maybe she shouldn’t be sitting so close to him. “You didn’t tell me you were having a friend over.”
The comment annoys Laura all over again. She knows she should have texted or something to let Geri know about Kevin-it’s in their roommate contract-but it didn’t even cross her mind, since she usually hangs out in the music building. Besides, Geri rarely spends time in their room and she’s often gone overnight. When she is there, she’s distant, and she hasn’t been holding up her end of the contract particularly well. Laura bites her tongue anyway, since she wasn’t raised to compare faults. “Sorry,” she says. “It completely slipped my mind. Geri, this is my friend Kevin. Kevin, my roommate Geri.”
“Nice to meet you,” says Kevin, and shakes Geri’s hand politely. Then he glances at his watch and grimaces. “I should get going anyway. It’s past five and I’ve got buttloads of homework.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Laura says. Geri waves indifferently and crosses to the closet.
Kevin doesn’t speak again until they’re outside. “She’s frigid,” he says then, turning to her. “Brr. It’s like someone stuck a popsicle stick up her ass and left her in the freezer for a few centuries.”
“She’s…nice enough,” says Laura, carefully. She doesn’t really know how to feel about Geri, but the girl has never actually been mean to her and when Kevin says things like that, she feels the need to disagree just to make a point. “We’re just really different people.”
“You can say that again.” He accompanies the statement with a dramatic roll of his eyes. It makes her snicker in spite of herself. “Anyway.”
She smiles a little. “Drive safe.”
“Always do.” He scrubs his hands over his face. “Ugh, I’m in for the lecture of a lifetime. Don’t worry, it was worth it,” he adds, with a quick grin. “Can I come again?”
“On a weekend next time,” she says, attempting to be stern.
“Yes ma’am,” he drawls, and before she can say something about the obnoxious smirk that appears on his face, he scoops her up in a bear hug.
Laura returns the embrace and lets him leave to go to his car without comment. On the way back up to the room, she reflects that Kevin’s hugs have a way of making her feel tiny-not in a diminutive way, just by comparison. They’re very solid and warming. She wishes the rest of him would be that way, too, but she understands why that’s not possible at the moment.
When she gets back, Geri’s changed and getting ready to leave again. A fresh wave of irritation flares up, but she clamps her teeth against it and moves to put her guitar away.
“So, is he your boyfriend?” her roommate asks, out of nowhere.
“No, he’s a friend from home,” Laura says. She focuses on closing the clamps on her case and hopes Geri can’t see her frown.
“So you don’t have a crush on him?”
She flushes. “No, definitely not,” she says firmly.
“Right.” She hears the scrape of a book against Geri’s desk and looks back to see the other girl gathering up a small pile of supplies. “I’ll see you later.”
Laura barely resists throwing something at her as she goes. She doesn’t want to think thoughts like that about Kevin. It’s true he’s probably her best friend at this point, and she knows what Lindsey, in particular, has always thought, but there are so many reasons it wouldn’t work that it’s better not to entertain the idea at all.
At least she definitely knows how she feels about Geri, now.
***
stolen moments
Kevin’s trying to study for his Calculus final when his cell phone buzzes. He’s annoyed to be jarred out of near-total concentration until he sees that Laura is the caller. The phone is in his hand in an instant. “Long time no speak, madam,” he says lightly.
Her amused giggle isn’t quite the same over the phone as it is in person, but it still makes him grin. “Spring Break was last week, Kevin,” she says.
“Details. What’s up?”
“What are you doing on Saturday?”
“Uh…” He takes a moment to think about it, and while he hopes there’s nothing, his brain very helpfully produces the memory of something important. “Uh, Linz has a softball game in the afternoon, but that’s it. Why?”
“Oh, perfect! My youth group is having a beach bonfire that night and I wanted to know if you could come. Lindsey’s invited too, of course.”
“She won’t go,” says Kevin. His twin never does, when it’s a church thing.
“Ask her anyway,” Laura insists. “It’s just a bonfire. Hot dogs, and marshmallows, and possible volleyball since it’s probably going to be too cold to swim.”
Kevin smirks, even though she can’t see it. “Is that a challenge?”
“It is not remotely a challenge, unless you enjoy the idea of hypothermia,” Laura retorts. He can tell she’s smiling, and the satisfaction he feels makes him smirk even more widely. “Honestly, does that sound like something I’d do?”
“I was talking about the volleyball, Laura,” he says innocently.
“You were not. Besides, you’d destroy me at that anyway.”
He laughs. “Okay, I’ll ask her, but I make no promises.”
“That’s all I ask. Get back to me when you know!”
Lindsey says no, of course, but Kevin decides he’s going regardless. Church event or no, he’ll be damned if he ever passes up a chance to spend time with Laura, these days. Her college is less than an hour away, but that’s still too far to drive often with gas prices the way they are, and he misses the days when he could just walk over to her house whenever he wanted. Sometimes, he thinks Laura’s the only reason he’s kept his head above water so long.
under the stars
To his relief, Geri does not attend the gathering. He can’t remember whether she’s part of Laura’s youth group or not, but she’s the only college acquaintance of Laura’s he knows even remotely well, and dread at the possibility of seeing her always colors his visits.
The ones who do show up are mostly girls, though there are a handful of boys. Laura introduces him to most of them while a couple get the bonfire going. Kevin likes what he sees, for the most part. Crescent Beach and the university both have a bit of a reputation for uppity residents, but the members of the youth group seem to be more like Laura, for the most part-solid, honest people with nothing but good to offer. He thinks wistfully that he’d go there for college in a heartbeat if he could afford it. As it is, he’ll have to go to community college for a couple of years and transfer somewhere, which will guarantee him at least five years just to get his bachelor’s, and that’s if he’s lucky.
But for now, he’s eighteen and has the rest of his life ahead of him, and he gets to spend some quality time with his best friend in one of the prettiest places in America, so he can’t really complain. With that thought in mind, he turns to Laura. “I believe you mentioned volleyball?”
She snorts. “We brought one, sure. I bet at least one person wants to play.”
“I’ll challenge you,” says one of the boys, nudging another. “How about you and Laura versus the two of us?”
“Works for me,” says Kevin.
“I will make us lose,” Laura warns him. “My depth perception sucks.”
It turns out she’s not giving herself enough credit. She’s not good at serving, but she’s better at blocking than she claims, and a couple of lucky saves on her part make the difference between total annihilation and graceful defeat. “Good game, you two,” their opponents say, with sincere grins and claps on the back.
Laura brushes herself off with a grimace. “Yuck, I’ve got sand in places I didn’t know I had.”
“Oh?” Kevin scoops up a handful from the area around his feet. “Then you won’t mind if I add more.”
She shrieks and runs for it, but he catches up to her quickly and rubs the sand gleefully into her hair. Laughing, she shoves him away and tries to comb it out with her hands. “You are horrible sometimes,” she accuses him. “No marshmallows for you, if you keep this up.”
He knows she’s joking, but he slaps a hand over his heart as if the mere suggestion has wounded him. “You wouldn’t be so cruel!”
“Watch me,” she says, rather half-heartedly.
By that point, it’s getting dark, and the group huddles around the bonfire to keep warm against the sudden evening chill. Just to be nice, Kevin spears a couple of marshmallows for Laura before taking some for himself, and they sit close together while they toast them. The whole situation is so impossibly wonderful and healing. All of the stress waiting for him at home seems a million miles away.
“I need more days like this,” he says to himself.
Laura hears him, even though he didn’t mean her to. “So come visit more often,” she suggests.
“You’re done in a month,” he reminds her. “Not much point.”
“Fine, but I’ll be home over the summer, and next year I’ll be in an apartment off-campus, so it’d be easier for you to drop by whenever you wanted.” She grins at him. “I’ve been dying to introduce you to Firefly, anyway.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve seen Buffy, right? I know Lindsey mentioned it.” She waits for him to nod before elaborating. “It’s another show by the same director. A…space Western, sadly short-lived, but very awesome. You’d love it.”
Kevin sometimes doubts Laura’s taste in TV shows, but because it’s her, he decides he should give it a chance. He’s done more heinous things to have an excuse to see her, after all. “Okay, just let me know when’s good, and I’ll be there.”
***
against better judgment
When the knock comes, Laura immediately puts down the stack of books she’s holding and runs to the door. She grins up at her visitor. “What perfect timing! I was just wishing for a big strong man to help me move furniture.”
Kevin laughs and steps through the door. “You had me at ‘big strong man,’ Laura. Promising me food didn’t hurt, either.”
Chase gags, and Laura grins back at him. “Take it easy, Chase,” she says. “You didn’t want to move any of this and you know it.”
She immediately has to give Kevin credit, because he greets both Chase and Aaron, who have also come to help, with a degree of politeness neither of them have ever shown him. She briefly wonders why that is before deciding to just let it be. “All the furniture is sort of just clumped in the living room right now,” she tells him, as he follows her in.
“How’s the new apartment treating you?” he asks.
“So well,” she says, and it’s true, even though she’s been there less than a day. It’s already worlds better than living on campus-she has her own room, and there’s a kitchen, so she can cook her own food. Rumors of the “Freshman 15” had proven unfortunately true the previous year, although for Laura, it had turned out to be closer to the “Freshman 20.” Besides this, splitting rent for an apartment was cheaper than paying for a dorm, even in the high-rent area Crescent Beach happened to be. “I’m really looking forward to being off campus this year. It’ll be better, I think.”
“Especially since you got rid of the harpy,” says Kevin, with a knowing smile.
“Geri wasn’t a harpy,” Laura replies automatically.
“She kind of was, Laura,” Aaron breaks in, and Chase nods emphatically in agreement. The two of them had also met Geri, and neither had liked her any better than Kevin had. Chase had even gone so far as to burn her in effigy, or so he claimed. Naturally, hatred of her former roommate would be the first thing the three of them actually agree on. Laura shakes her head and directs Kevin to the bookshelf waiting to be moved.
The new roommate, a Vocal Performance major named Allie, walks in as they’re beginning to rearrange things. All the boys seem to like her, which relieves Laura. Not that she doubted they would. The first thing Allie does is smile warmly at all of them and ask what’s left to do. Her bedroom is already mostly done, and she didn’t bring nearly as many kitchen supplies as Laura did. “We still have to move the couch,” says Laura, looking around, “and get my desk out of here. Dad sort of unloaded everything and ran for it.”
“Allie and I will do the couch, and you and Kevin can get the desk,” Aaron suggests, so that’s what they do.
In about an hour, they have everything in some semblance of order. The furniture is mostly in place and the boxes mostly unpacked, and Laura and Allie can finish that on their own. To thank the boys for their help, they order Chinese, and Laura produces ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert.
“If this is what living with you is going to be like, I’m definitely glad I agreed to it,” says Allie, with a grin, as they start cleaning up.
Laura laughs. “Well, we won’t always have the guys, but I’ll do my best.” She’s glad for Allie, too. The blonde is a junior, and not exactly her closest friend, but she’s generally lovely to everyone and she and Laura have similar schedules and demands on their time. This will work much better than living in the dorms.
Shortly after this, it’s time for Aaron and Chase to head back to campus-Chase is spending the night with Aaron’s family in their faculty condo, and Laura will drive him home after class the next day. “Thanks for all your help today, Chasie,” she tells him, giving him a tight hug before leaning over to ruffle Aaron’s hair, which is about all the affection her cousin lets her get away with most of the time. “You too, Aaron. Tell Uncle Thomas and Aunt Lydia I said hi.”
“Will do,” says Aaron, and then they’re gone.
Kevin gets up to leave too, then. “Navigating Santa Monica at night is not my favorite thing ever,” he says, with a rueful smile that indicates he’d love to stay longer.
“Yeah, I don’t blame you for that at all,” Laura replies, wincing at the thought of it. “How’s your dad?”
He glances over at the kitchen, but Allie’s washing dishes and seemingly not paying attention to them whatsoever. “I liked him better when I wasn’t living with him,” he says lowly. “Don’t know if it’ll be worth it, Laura.”
It has to be bad, if he’s saying that-living in Santa Monica instead of Madison means a shorter commute to the community college he’s attending this semester, and living with his dad means free board, which is no small favor for Kevin. Laura instinctively reaches up and hugs him, forgetting her reserves about physical contact where he’s concerned. “I’m really sorry,” she says quietly. “Anything I can do?”
“Not unless you’ll let me live with you instead,” he replies.
He’s joking and she knows it, but it still makes her sad. “I wish I could.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it,” he says, setting her back on her feet.
She looks up at him for a moment in thought, then says, “You know, you’re welcome here whenever. After all, we still haven’t had that Firefly marathon.”
Kevin smiles. “I’ll keep it in mind,” he says lightly, and then he’s gone.
Laura folds her arms over her chest and studies the closed door for a long moment. When she turns back to the kitchen, it’s to find Allie’s eyes on her. “What?” she asks, bewildered.
“Nothing,” says Allie, hastily.
***
fun with food
It surprises Laura a little when Kevin takes her at her word. He stops by at least three times a week, usually calling first to make sure she’ll be home when he gets there. Sometimes, when she has somewhere to be on campus, she takes him with her, but he quickly figures out which days she normally won’t be in and avoids those. Allie doesn’t appear to mind-and she usually has musical rehearsal in the evenings anyway-so Laura stops worrying about it after a while and finds that she enjoys having him around a lot. She knows that he likes watching her cook, and quickly discovers that having him around makes her want to cook more often than she normally does. If he gives her enough warning, she’ll plan something that takes a bit more time than ramen or frozen pizza.
“I can’t believe you know how to make crock pot stew,” he says, as he watches her chop up carrots and celery from his perch on a nearby counter.
She laughs. “I learned years ago. We always got dinner faster if a lot of the prep work was done when Mom got home from work. Sometimes I’d just even do it all myself.”
“Dunno why you bother now, though. Can I have a carrot?”
“Sure.” She tosses him one and reaches for another celery stalk. “I actually didn’t like living in the dorms freshman year cause they don’t have kitchens. I wouldn’t make something like stew every night, cause it takes hours, but I do prefer making my own food. That’s part of why Allie’s a great roommate. She hates it, and she’ll eat whatever I put in front of her since it saves her time, and that keeps her from blowing all her food points on snacks at the caf before rehearsal.”
“You’re killing me, Laura. How can you look like a rock star but act so freaking motherly?”
She looks up at him, surprised. He’s said that before, right after she first got the angled bob she still wears. She wonders if he remembers that at all. “You really think I look like a rock star?”
He grins. “Hell yeah. I mean, you don’t wear makeup and you write children’s songs, but other than that…”
“Oh, don’t get me started on that again. I’ll have you know that I am working on a scathing commentary on the evils of Facebook-oh!”
Kevin hops off the counter. “You okay?”
Laura does not swear, but she has to fight particularly hard to bite back curses in some situations. Slicing her thumb open definitely falls into that category. “Eurgh, no, I cut myself because I wasn’t paying attention.” She drops the knife and grasps for something to stop the bleeding.
“Let me see.” He grabs her wrist to inspect the cut. “Shit, that’s deep. Here.” He hands her a dishtowel. “I’ll take you to the emergency room.”
“Wait, turn the crock pot off,” she says, in a daze. “We can’t let the apartment catch on fire.”
Kevin unplugs the thing, snatches up his keys, and rushes her out the door.
role reversal
Once they’re in the car, he stop just long enough to turn on his Bluetooth so they can call Allie and tell her what happened, as Laura forgot her phone in their hurry. Then they’re off.
He gets her to the hospital almost before she can blink, pushing the speed limit and rushing through a couple of yellow lights in order to do so. Laura manages to be both a little touched at his concern and a little grateful that his recklessness didn’t get them in a car accident around the pain. She’s more worried about the stitches she’s going to need for the cut, since she’s never had them before. Not even the nice doctor she sees can ease her nerves.
Kevin hates needles more than she does, but he steps up to the plate, holding her hand and doing his best to distract her. “Just don’t look at it. It’ll be over soon.”
“Your boyfriend is more supportive than some mothers I’ve seen,” the doctor jokes, once it’s over.
It’s on the tip of her tongue to say “He’s not my boyfriend,” but Kevin only laughs, so she says nothing.
There’s no point, anyway, she tells herself, as they go back to the car. It’s clearly not a big deal to him, and it’ll only create drama. But it still bothers her. Between that and the stitches, she can’t sit still in her seat, and she’s all but made up her mind to ask him about it when he pulls into a drive-thru Starbucks and buys her a Venti hot chocolate. While they’re waiting for it, he orders pizza for pick-up, too.
“It’s my fault you hurt yourself, since I distracted you,” he says, with a shrug, when she thanks him.
“Yeah, but if you hadn’t been there, I might have cut myself anyway, and there wouldn’t have been anyone to take me to the hospital, much less buy dinner after.”
He snorts. “You’re so reasonable about this it makes me sick.”
Laura grins as she eats a piece of pizza with her good hand, and decides to just let it go.
***
what you do to me
The Christmas party’s not until six, but Kevin has nothing to do and figures that Laura and Allie could use some help with setup or someone to run to the grocery store for them. It’s five-eighteen when he knocks on the door of their apartment.
He waits about thirty seconds longer than usual for one of them to answer, and when the door finally opens, it’s Laura, with a towel over her shoulder and a harried look in her eye. “Oh, Kevin, I wasn’t expecting you so early,” she says.
“I can come back,” he offers, doubt creeping in for the first time.
“No, no, come on in. I’m almost ready.” She steps aside to let him through the door. “Help yourself to a drink or something, or play with the Wii for a bit.” Without waiting for a reply, she scoops up a stack of clothes from the kitchen counter and hurries toward the hallway.
“Where are you going?” he calls after her. He’s pretty sure he knows already, but messing with her is one of the highlights of his life.
“I am in desperate need of a shower,” she says, glancing back apologetically.
“Really?” He smirks. “You look fresh as a daisy to me.”
“Thanks, but I really do. We’ve been busy cleaning for the past couple of hours, so I haven’t had the chance to yet.”
Kevin can see a smile forming on her face, so he puts on his best wheedling tone, certain he can talk her into staying if he can keep her attention long enough. He could just let her go, but it’s the principle of the thing. “You’re really going to leave me by myself? What kind of host are you?”
“What are you, five?”
“No, just bored.”
Laura laughs, turning fully back toward him and leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “You could come with me, I guess, but I think hanging out in the shower would just be awkward. Besides, you’re the one who showed up forty minutes early. You can wait ten minutes.”
It’s clear she expects him to make a face and drop it, so he does the opposite. “Or,” he says, stepping closer to her, “it could be fun. Maybe I will.”
Her jaw drops. “You’re kidding.”
“Maybe.” He casually props himself on the wall with his right forearm, blocking her escape to the bathroom, and fingers a lock of her hair with his other hand. “Maybe not.”
She looks up at him with a little shiver that he enjoys more than he probably should. “No, you’re just messing with me.”
“You like it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
He grins, running a finger along her cheek. “Then say stop.”
The ultimatum gets him a response, but not from Laura. “Hey, Laura-oh, my God."
Kevin starts, looking up to see Allie in the doorway, holding a couple of grocery bags in each hand and staring at them like she’d rather be doing anything else, but can’t help it. “Oh, hey Allie,” he says casually. He hopes he sounds casual, anyway.
Laura goes bright red, covers her face with her hands, and ducks under his arm to make a run for it. Kevin and Allie hear the bathroom door lock, followed by a thump, three seconds of silence, and hysterical laughter accompanied by ungraceful snorting.
Allie stares after her for a moment, eyebrows so high they’re halfway to her hairline, then turns to Kevin. “Sorry, did I interrupt?” she asks, barely polite.
“No, I was just giving her a hard time,” he says. “My fault. Can I help you with those?”
“Sure.”
He takes two of the bags from her and follows her back into the kitchen, where they begin to unload in silence. Kevin accepts the perishables from Allie and puts them where he remembers they’re supposed to go without once looking her in the face. Though he’s not sure what, he has the feeling he’s done something wrong, and can feel the disapproval radiating from her.
It’s not until they hear the sounds of running water coming from the bathroom that she actually vocalizes it. “You really shouldn’t mess with Laura that way,” she says. “You’ll just confuse her.”
Kevin does look at her then, completely baffled and inexplicably annoyed by her words. “Excuse me?”
Allie begins to open a box of hot chocolate packages as she talks. “You’ll have to forgive me for being blunt, Kevin, but you’re a guy. A pretty good-looking guy, on top of that. I know you and Laura are friends, but a lot of the time you act like you’re more than that.”
“We’re not,” he says.
She shrugs. “Just telling you what it looks like.” With that, she turns away to arrange the packets in a basket.
He slowly turns back to the fridge and settles a carton of orange juice inside with unnecessary care. He wants to tell her she’s wrong, but he can’t, if he really thinks about it. He and Laura have been really close for almost four years now. It probably does look that way, to people who don’t know their history. He’s never blatantly flirted with Laura before, though, and he’s certainly never meant to give her the wrong impression. Her friendship means the world to him. He would never, ever do anything to screw that up.
Suddenly, he worries that his little joke has done just that, crossed a line that shouldn’t have been crossed, and when the bathroom door clicks open he automatically glances that way to see if he can tell.
Laura looks calm enough on the outside, and perfectly put together as usual-her hair’s dry and styled, and she’s wearing a pinstripe vest over a red scoop-neck t-shirt, an outfit he recognizes as one of her favorites. No makeup-of course not-but she doesn’t need it. As she crosses the hall to her bedroom door, she catches his eye and smiles her usual steady smile.
Kevin exhales and shuts the fridge door. No harm done. He can enjoy the party without having to worry, which relieves him, since he’s looking forward to kicking ass at Wii Sports as usual.
a night to remember
The rest of the cavalry starts to arrive fifteen minutes later. The first guests, after him, are some friends of Laura’s and Allie’s from the music department they both belong to. Kevin notes, with some consternation, that three of them are guys. Two fit the “starving artist” stereotype near perfectly, and the other is decently tall, fair, and handsome in a way that makes it seem as though he’s just stepped out of a fairy book. Kevin hasn’t met any of the three before tonight. When Laura introduces them, he filters through his memory for their names and finds he only recognizes one.
She seems especially close to the shortest of the three, a dark-haired boy named Eric who keeps his hair in his face and has chains on his pants. They share a laugh over something to do with Biochemistry and babies, but Kevin can’t tell what since their snickers keep cutting into their words. Annoyed, he turns away to see if there’s anything else he can help Allie with.
Another knock comes at the door a few minutes after that, and when he hears Lindsey’s voice, he feels relieved. “Took you long enough,” he calls to her, over the din.
“It was a longer drive for us, you ass,” says Lindsey, with good humor, as she herds Sidney, Carrie, and Chase through the door ahead of her.
“Be nice, twins,” Laura calls.
“We’re always nice,” Kevin shoots back. He makes his way through the throng to greet his sisters. He hasn’t seen them in a few weeks, and while Lindsey can be difficult, living with his dad makes her seem like a day at the beach in comparison. Of course, Sidney is always a breath of fresh air. He hugs her, first, adding a noisy smooch on the top of the head for effect. “Missed you, kiddo.”
“I missed you too,” says Sidney, beaming up at him.
Kevin grins and ruffles her hair. Keeping one hand on her head, he looks up to greet Lindsey properly, but his eyes catch on something else: Laura swamping Chase in a similarly affectionate embrace. He rolls his eyes and thinks that it’s unlikely he’ll be able to get much of Laura’s attention with all these other people here-
“Just telling you what it looks like.”
His head snaps toward Allie, but she’s not paying any attention to him, seemingly preoccupied trying to swat the tall guy with a wooden spoon.
Kevin looks back at Laura, and finds that he can’t discount what Allie said so easily now. He can’t stand the idea that some other guy might be more important to her than him, even her own brother. Laura’s his, or rather, he’s hers-at least, he would be, if she wanted him to be.
He wants that more than he’s ever wanted anything in his life before, and the realization scares the shit out of him, but the idea of just leaving it suddenly scares him even more.
***
sweet nothings
Laura goes into her last final of the semester with a smile, because when it’s over, she and Kevin finally get to have the Firefly marathon they’ve been talking about. She just has to get through her Aural Skills final, which should be a cinch, since she practiced. Her classmates like to claim that her perfect pitch means she’s got it made, but she’s never been comfortable sightreading on exams.
Her session with her professor only takes ten minutes, as she expected, and she bids goodbye to the friends who are still waiting for their turns before hopping right back in her car and going back to the apartment. As soon as she walks in the door, her phone goes off. “Hello, Kevin,” she answers, without bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Hello, Laura,” he replies jovially. “Guess your final’s over, since you picked up.”
“Yep, I’m all done. You can come up anytime.”
“Good. Out of curiosity, what’s that brand of green tea you like again? The organic one, right?”
She smiles widely. “The one where they gross you out by talking about where honey comes from on the label, yes.”
“And if I were to look for it in the Crescent Beach Ralph’s on my way to see you, oh, about now, where would I find it?”
“Aisle twelve,” she says, highly amused at this. “You are useless in grocery stores, you know.”
“Not true!” he says indignantly. “I could find it fine if I were in my grocery store, but yours is arranged all wrong.”
“Au contraire, it’s yours that’s laid out all wrong.”
He snorts. “That may be, but I like it, thank you very much. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“I’ll be here. And thanks.”
in your dreams
Kevin likes Firefly, just as she knew he would. His only complaint is that there are no aliens, but he considers the Reavers to be a decent substitute and declares the idea of them “fucking creepy,” which is high praise from him even though it makes her cringe. “Please tell me they come back.”
“A couple times,” she says, with a sly smile, because she doesn’t want to spoil anything in the series for him before he can watch it. Reactions are always a lot more fun that way, as she’s learned from years of watching and reading things along with Chase.
They stop after episode three for a bathroom break and popcorn popping. He settles back on the couch with a fresh bottle of Coke while she dumps the popcorn into a large bowl they can share. The excitement on his face has her smiling with satisfaction. “I told you,” she says.
He grins easily. “You were right, what can I say?”
“I’m always right.” She picks up the bowl and resumes her seat. “You should trust me more often.”
“I always trust you. Now hand over the popcorn.”
She does, as she reaches for the remote to start the next episode. Although she’s made a point to put at least a foot between them, he scoots closer so they can share the bowl more easily. When his arm goes across the back of the couch, she’s very aware of it, but says nothing because it isn’t worth making a fuss over. Nothing is.
After episode five, they have to stop again. Laura hasn’t seen Firefly in a long time, so she’s forgotten some of what happens, and her no-spoiler policy means Kevin wasn’t expecting any of it. Simon and River’s storyline hits a little too close for both of them. “Sorry,” she says. “I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s all right.” Kevin runs a hand over his face. “It’s still good. I’ll be prepared for it now.”
She crosses her arms. “It’s just frustrating. It seems like everything takes us back to…that, sooner or later. Like we’re never going to escape it.”
He’s silent for so long that she worries she’s completely ruined the day for both of them by saying that. Then, his arm drops from the back of the couch to encircle her shoulders. “That’s not so bad,” he says. “We wouldn’t have met, if that hadn’t happened.” As if to emphasize his point, he tightens his hold just a little.
Laura has to smile. “We might’ve met, but you probably wouldn’t have paid me any attention.”
“Well, I would’ve been a dumbass in that case,” says Kevin. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Laura.”
At that, she looks at him. The seriousness in his face lets her know he’s not kidding, and she swallows. She’s never expected him to be so open with her, not verbally, at least. He’s easy to read, but he’s bad at saying things. “You don’t really-"
He lifts a hand to her face. “Laura.”
“What?” she whispers, frozen with shock.
“I mean it.” Before she can utter a word of protest, he leans in and kisses her.
Her eyes fall shut instinctively and for a moment, all she wants is to let him, to kiss back, even, because she does want this and has for a while. Her hand itches up to touch his face or fist in his shirt or something, she’s not really sure, but in the end, she doesn’t do anything remotely like that.
Instead, she gently but firmly pushes him away. “Kevin, no,” she says, very quietly.
He recoils a bit, like she’s burned him. “Do you not like me that way?”
Laura scoots out of the circle of his arm and reaches for a couch pillow to hug. “I wish I didn’t,” she says. Probably she shouldn’t tell him this, but she won’t feel right unless she comes clean. Still, she can’t quite look him in the eye. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t feel like I’m about to hurt you for no good reason.”
“Then why?”
There are a number of reasons. She’s recited them over and over in an attempt to make her feelings go away, but they all sound so callous. He’s not a Christian. He swears a blue streak, which is fine since they’re just friends, but it would be unbearable if they were dating. He’s a mess, emotionally. For that matter, so is she. Sometimes, she feels like she’s twice his age instead of only three months older. She loves him to death, but they’re not equals and she knows it. “It…we’d hate each other, eventually,” she says slowly.
“I’d never hate you,” he says, laying a hand on her arm.
“You say that now, but…I can’t explain it, Kevin, I just know it wouldn’t end well for either of us, and I care about you way too much to start anything with you, knowing that.”
It’s the kindest way she can say it, but he’s still angry. “That’s bullshit.”
Laura takes a deep breath and makes herself look him in the face. His pain is obvious, but she maintains eye contact and says the words. “You said you trusted me, so trust me on this. It won’t work.”
Kevin darts up from the couch, snatches his keys up from the coffee table, and storms out of the apartment without a word.
Later, Allie tells her she did the right thing. “It doesn’t feel like the right thing,” Laura says miserably. She’s spent most of the afternoon crying her eyes out, and there’s a dull ache in her chest that throbs freshly every time she thinks about the fact that she’s driven away her best friend, probably for good.
“It never does, when you hurt someone you care about,” Allie responds. “But you did, and he’ll thank you for it later. Now, come out with me, and I’ll buy you a cupcake.”
***
our little secret
They run into each other again two weeks later, while they’re both back in Madison for New Year’s. Sheer coincidence has Chase and Sidney asking to go to the ice rink on the same day, and neither of them can say no to that kind of request. Kevin passes Laura on the rink while she’s still trying to get her balance. At first, he goes right by her as if he hasn’t noticed, but he turns back after a moment, skids up to her, and silently offers her his hand.
“Let’s forget about it,” he says, after they’ve been around the rink once. “You’re probably right, you always are. I hate not talking to you.”
It’ll never be the same, but the concession, coming from him, means a great deal. “Okay,” she says. “It’s forgotten. Friends?”
He smiles faintly. “Friends.”
Story: The Dragon World
Challenge: Flavor Binge (Lemon-Lime Sorbet)
Toppings/Extras: Caramel, Brownie, Malt x2 (Summer Challenge 2011, #336: It’s the right idea, but not the right time. - John Dalton; Newlywed Game Question #6: “Which of you would your partner say is the better catch?” with Laura’s and Kevin’s answers)
Word Count: 7,781
Rating: PG (leaning toward PG-13 for Kevin’s foul mouth, as usual)
Summary: In conclusion, cousins friends.
Notes: I've been wanting to do a binge about this since the concept was first introduced, but I didn't figure out what actually happens with them during this time period until recently. Now I have, though, so here it is...Happy Valentine’s!
public place
After Econ, Laura checks her phone and finds that Kevin, of all people, left her a voicemail. It’s short and blunt, almost like talking to him in person. “I’m on my way up there and I want to take you to lunch if you’re not busy. Call me back when you get this.”
The thinly veiled distress in his tone makes her return his call immediately. “Sorry, I was in class, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Which dorm is yours again?”
“Schaffer, why?”
“Just checking. I’m parking in the Rho lot right now. Meet you there?”
She quickens her pace. “Yeah, I’m heading back now. You’ll beat me there, so just wait out front until I get there.”
He’s pacing, a deep frown on his face, when she finds him, but he stops immediately when he sees her. “Finally,” he jokes. “How far away is your class, anyway? The Sahara?”
“It feels like it, sometimes,” she replies, with a smile, because that’s what he seems to want from her. “Let me go dump my books and put on a better shirt and some actual shoes, and then we can go.”
Kevin glances briefly at her school sweatshirt and Ugg boots. “You look fine.”
Laura spares him a Look. “Don’t question the whims of girls.”
She lets him drive when he insists he should, and directs him to a deli just off campus that makes fantastic sandwiches. They barely speak on the way. Kevin makes some sort of inane comment about hills and the ocean, and Laura has no idea how to respond, so she says something equally dumb and watches his face. She can see a struggle in his expression and wonders what exactly happened.
While they’re waiting for their sandwiches, she asks him what’s bothering him. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he says, rather predictably.
Then why are you here? she wants to ask, because whatever it is has clearly upset him-it’s a Tuesday, which means he’s ditched school to drive up to see her, and she knows very well that he can’t afford to use up so much gas with the economy the way it is. He’ll be in a world of trouble when he gets home, and she feels guilty for condoning it. But pushing things has never worked with Kevin. “Okay,” she says, then adds, because she can’t help it, “just remember, I’m here if you change your mind.”
He spares her a small smile. “Trust me, I know.”
Just then, their number gets called, so they pick up their sandwiches and snag a table in the sunlight. Even though it’s October, the weather still smacks of summer. Laura feels vaguely glad that she insisted on changing before they ate. She picks at the hem of her shirt and tries not to stare at him.
“I like your haircut,” he says then.
She glances at him, hand automatically reaching for the back of her head. “I got it cut a month ago,” she replies, bewildered for a moment. The angled bob is still a relatively new style for her, and she’s still getting used to straightening her hair daily to make it look the way it should, but most everyone she knows has already seen it.
“I haven’t seen you since August,” Kevin reminds her, looking amused.
“Oh.” She remembers now. He helped her move into her dorm during New Student Orientation, and he was at his dad’s for Labor Day weekend, so he didn’t see her hair then. “Thanks. You really like it?”
“Yeah. You look like a rock star.”
Laura can feel herself blushing, and she looks away to try to hide it. Even though she can’t see him, she knows he’s smirking. “Well, thanks,” she says. “So, when are you getting a haircut?”
Kevin laughs, surprising her, and fluffs the lion’s mane he’s currently sporting. “Maybe never. Why, don’t you like it?”
She does, a little. Mostly because the face underneath it looks happy, for once, and there’s not much that can mar that, in her mind. “It doesn’t suit you,” she says cheekily. “If you let that get much longer you’ll look like Aragorn.”
“Can’t,” retorts Kevin. “My hair’s blond.”
“If Aragorn was blond, that’s what you’d look like.”
He grins. “Maybe I’ll leave it, then. Don’t have a Halloween costume yet.”
“It’d be perfect with some brown dye,” says Laura. His eyes immediately go wide in horror, and she giggles. “The wash-out kind, silly. Don’t worry, I’d never suggest permanently ruining your perfect blondness.”
“Good,” he says firmly, taking a large bite of his turkey sub as if to emphasize the point. Smiling, she also goes back to hers.
caught in the act
When they’ve finished eating, Kevin asks to see her dorm room, and Laura agrees even though he already has. She knows the real request is please don’t make me go home. He may as well stay, since she doesn’t have any classes or guitar lessons that afternoon.
They sit on her bed and she gets out her guitar and plays a few of the songs she’s working on. While he listens, he flips through the folder of ideas and scraps she only lets him and Chase see. It was hard to trust him enough, at first, but now she likes having feedback from someone who’s not obligated to like everything she does because she’s his sister. Not that it’s an obligation with Chase, but it’s the principle of the thing.
“Do you ever write songs for people older than twelve?” Kevin asks, amused.
“No,” she replies, a little bit ruefully. “Honestly, I didn’t start out intentionally writing songs for kids, but it seems like that’s what I’m best at. And I like it.”
“That’s fine, and these aren’t bad.”
She makes a face. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Really, they’re not.” He shuts the folder. “I like ‘em, anyway, not that my opinion’s worth much since I can’t even carry a tune.”
“But you’d rather I wrote more adult stuff,” she persists.
Kevin drums his fingers on the folder as he studies her. “Just do what you want to, Laura. If you’re good at this and you like it, it’s probably a sign or some shit like that.”
The way he puts it makes her frown, but it seems like a confirmation of what she’s been thinking for more than a year now. Maybe it’s spending so much time with Chase that’s done it, but she likes kids and she wants to use her talents to reach out to them. She even feels like God might be leading her in that direction, to be like Mary Rice Hopkins, only her way. Not, of course, that she can say that to Kevin.
“Anyway.” He grins cheekily at her. “Got anything else for me?”
“Nothing of mine, but I’ve been learning a classical piece for my weekly performance class. I perform again in November,” she says. He begins to wrinkle his nose in response, which irritates her. “Hey, contrary to popular belief, classical music is actually quite catchy. A lot of people just don’t give it a chance.”
He waves a hand. “Fine, let’s hear it.”
Laura starts on the section she can do from memory. She sneaks glances at his face as she plays, and thinks maybe she’s made her point when she sees that he looks more thoughtful than anything. Her lips tug into a smirk.
It quickly dies again when she hears the lock click and her door swings open. She stops playing and looks over shoulder to see her roommate, Geri, walk in. “Oh, hey Laura,” she says, looking straight past her to Kevin in a way that makes her think that maybe she shouldn’t be sitting so close to him. “You didn’t tell me you were having a friend over.”
The comment annoys Laura all over again. She knows she should have texted or something to let Geri know about Kevin-it’s in their roommate contract-but it didn’t even cross her mind, since she usually hangs out in the music building. Besides, Geri rarely spends time in their room and she’s often gone overnight. When she is there, she’s distant, and she hasn’t been holding up her end of the contract particularly well. Laura bites her tongue anyway, since she wasn’t raised to compare faults. “Sorry,” she says. “It completely slipped my mind. Geri, this is my friend Kevin. Kevin, my roommate Geri.”
“Nice to meet you,” says Kevin, and shakes Geri’s hand politely. Then he glances at his watch and grimaces. “I should get going anyway. It’s past five and I’ve got buttloads of homework.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Laura says. Geri waves indifferently and crosses to the closet.
Kevin doesn’t speak again until they’re outside. “She’s frigid,” he says then, turning to her. “Brr. It’s like someone stuck a popsicle stick up her ass and left her in the freezer for a few centuries.”
“She’s…nice enough,” says Laura, carefully. She doesn’t really know how to feel about Geri, but the girl has never actually been mean to her and when Kevin says things like that, she feels the need to disagree just to make a point. “We’re just really different people.”
“You can say that again.” He accompanies the statement with a dramatic roll of his eyes. It makes her snicker in spite of herself. “Anyway.”
She smiles a little. “Drive safe.”
“Always do.” He scrubs his hands over his face. “Ugh, I’m in for the lecture of a lifetime. Don’t worry, it was worth it,” he adds, with a quick grin. “Can I come again?”
“On a weekend next time,” she says, attempting to be stern.
“Yes ma’am,” he drawls, and before she can say something about the obnoxious smirk that appears on his face, he scoops her up in a bear hug.
Laura returns the embrace and lets him leave to go to his car without comment. On the way back up to the room, she reflects that Kevin’s hugs have a way of making her feel tiny-not in a diminutive way, just by comparison. They’re very solid and warming. She wishes the rest of him would be that way, too, but she understands why that’s not possible at the moment.
When she gets back, Geri’s changed and getting ready to leave again. A fresh wave of irritation flares up, but she clamps her teeth against it and moves to put her guitar away.
“So, is he your boyfriend?” her roommate asks, out of nowhere.
“No, he’s a friend from home,” Laura says. She focuses on closing the clamps on her case and hopes Geri can’t see her frown.
“So you don’t have a crush on him?”
She flushes. “No, definitely not,” she says firmly.
“Right.” She hears the scrape of a book against Geri’s desk and looks back to see the other girl gathering up a small pile of supplies. “I’ll see you later.”
Laura barely resists throwing something at her as she goes. She doesn’t want to think thoughts like that about Kevin. It’s true he’s probably her best friend at this point, and she knows what Lindsey, in particular, has always thought, but there are so many reasons it wouldn’t work that it’s better not to entertain the idea at all.
At least she definitely knows how she feels about Geri, now.
***
stolen moments
Kevin’s trying to study for his Calculus final when his cell phone buzzes. He’s annoyed to be jarred out of near-total concentration until he sees that Laura is the caller. The phone is in his hand in an instant. “Long time no speak, madam,” he says lightly.
Her amused giggle isn’t quite the same over the phone as it is in person, but it still makes him grin. “Spring Break was last week, Kevin,” she says.
“Details. What’s up?”
“What are you doing on Saturday?”
“Uh…” He takes a moment to think about it, and while he hopes there’s nothing, his brain very helpfully produces the memory of something important. “Uh, Linz has a softball game in the afternoon, but that’s it. Why?”
“Oh, perfect! My youth group is having a beach bonfire that night and I wanted to know if you could come. Lindsey’s invited too, of course.”
“She won’t go,” says Kevin. His twin never does, when it’s a church thing.
“Ask her anyway,” Laura insists. “It’s just a bonfire. Hot dogs, and marshmallows, and possible volleyball since it’s probably going to be too cold to swim.”
Kevin smirks, even though she can’t see it. “Is that a challenge?”
“It is not remotely a challenge, unless you enjoy the idea of hypothermia,” Laura retorts. He can tell she’s smiling, and the satisfaction he feels makes him smirk even more widely. “Honestly, does that sound like something I’d do?”
“I was talking about the volleyball, Laura,” he says innocently.
“You were not. Besides, you’d destroy me at that anyway.”
He laughs. “Okay, I’ll ask her, but I make no promises.”
“That’s all I ask. Get back to me when you know!”
Lindsey says no, of course, but Kevin decides he’s going regardless. Church event or no, he’ll be damned if he ever passes up a chance to spend time with Laura, these days. Her college is less than an hour away, but that’s still too far to drive often with gas prices the way they are, and he misses the days when he could just walk over to her house whenever he wanted. Sometimes, he thinks Laura’s the only reason he’s kept his head above water so long.
under the stars
To his relief, Geri does not attend the gathering. He can’t remember whether she’s part of Laura’s youth group or not, but she’s the only college acquaintance of Laura’s he knows even remotely well, and dread at the possibility of seeing her always colors his visits.
The ones who do show up are mostly girls, though there are a handful of boys. Laura introduces him to most of them while a couple get the bonfire going. Kevin likes what he sees, for the most part. Crescent Beach and the university both have a bit of a reputation for uppity residents, but the members of the youth group seem to be more like Laura, for the most part-solid, honest people with nothing but good to offer. He thinks wistfully that he’d go there for college in a heartbeat if he could afford it. As it is, he’ll have to go to community college for a couple of years and transfer somewhere, which will guarantee him at least five years just to get his bachelor’s, and that’s if he’s lucky.
But for now, he’s eighteen and has the rest of his life ahead of him, and he gets to spend some quality time with his best friend in one of the prettiest places in America, so he can’t really complain. With that thought in mind, he turns to Laura. “I believe you mentioned volleyball?”
She snorts. “We brought one, sure. I bet at least one person wants to play.”
“I’ll challenge you,” says one of the boys, nudging another. “How about you and Laura versus the two of us?”
“Works for me,” says Kevin.
“I will make us lose,” Laura warns him. “My depth perception sucks.”
It turns out she’s not giving herself enough credit. She’s not good at serving, but she’s better at blocking than she claims, and a couple of lucky saves on her part make the difference between total annihilation and graceful defeat. “Good game, you two,” their opponents say, with sincere grins and claps on the back.
Laura brushes herself off with a grimace. “Yuck, I’ve got sand in places I didn’t know I had.”
“Oh?” Kevin scoops up a handful from the area around his feet. “Then you won’t mind if I add more.”
She shrieks and runs for it, but he catches up to her quickly and rubs the sand gleefully into her hair. Laughing, she shoves him away and tries to comb it out with her hands. “You are horrible sometimes,” she accuses him. “No marshmallows for you, if you keep this up.”
He knows she’s joking, but he slaps a hand over his heart as if the mere suggestion has wounded him. “You wouldn’t be so cruel!”
“Watch me,” she says, rather half-heartedly.
By that point, it’s getting dark, and the group huddles around the bonfire to keep warm against the sudden evening chill. Just to be nice, Kevin spears a couple of marshmallows for Laura before taking some for himself, and they sit close together while they toast them. The whole situation is so impossibly wonderful and healing. All of the stress waiting for him at home seems a million miles away.
“I need more days like this,” he says to himself.
Laura hears him, even though he didn’t mean her to. “So come visit more often,” she suggests.
“You’re done in a month,” he reminds her. “Not much point.”
“Fine, but I’ll be home over the summer, and next year I’ll be in an apartment off-campus, so it’d be easier for you to drop by whenever you wanted.” She grins at him. “I’ve been dying to introduce you to Firefly, anyway.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve seen Buffy, right? I know Lindsey mentioned it.” She waits for him to nod before elaborating. “It’s another show by the same director. A…space Western, sadly short-lived, but very awesome. You’d love it.”
Kevin sometimes doubts Laura’s taste in TV shows, but because it’s her, he decides he should give it a chance. He’s done more heinous things to have an excuse to see her, after all. “Okay, just let me know when’s good, and I’ll be there.”
***
against better judgment
When the knock comes, Laura immediately puts down the stack of books she’s holding and runs to the door. She grins up at her visitor. “What perfect timing! I was just wishing for a big strong man to help me move furniture.”
Kevin laughs and steps through the door. “You had me at ‘big strong man,’ Laura. Promising me food didn’t hurt, either.”
Chase gags, and Laura grins back at him. “Take it easy, Chase,” she says. “You didn’t want to move any of this and you know it.”
She immediately has to give Kevin credit, because he greets both Chase and Aaron, who have also come to help, with a degree of politeness neither of them have ever shown him. She briefly wonders why that is before deciding to just let it be. “All the furniture is sort of just clumped in the living room right now,” she tells him, as he follows her in.
“How’s the new apartment treating you?” he asks.
“So well,” she says, and it’s true, even though she’s been there less than a day. It’s already worlds better than living on campus-she has her own room, and there’s a kitchen, so she can cook her own food. Rumors of the “Freshman 15” had proven unfortunately true the previous year, although for Laura, it had turned out to be closer to the “Freshman 20.” Besides this, splitting rent for an apartment was cheaper than paying for a dorm, even in the high-rent area Crescent Beach happened to be. “I’m really looking forward to being off campus this year. It’ll be better, I think.”
“Especially since you got rid of the harpy,” says Kevin, with a knowing smile.
“Geri wasn’t a harpy,” Laura replies automatically.
“She kind of was, Laura,” Aaron breaks in, and Chase nods emphatically in agreement. The two of them had also met Geri, and neither had liked her any better than Kevin had. Chase had even gone so far as to burn her in effigy, or so he claimed. Naturally, hatred of her former roommate would be the first thing the three of them actually agree on. Laura shakes her head and directs Kevin to the bookshelf waiting to be moved.
The new roommate, a Vocal Performance major named Allie, walks in as they’re beginning to rearrange things. All the boys seem to like her, which relieves Laura. Not that she doubted they would. The first thing Allie does is smile warmly at all of them and ask what’s left to do. Her bedroom is already mostly done, and she didn’t bring nearly as many kitchen supplies as Laura did. “We still have to move the couch,” says Laura, looking around, “and get my desk out of here. Dad sort of unloaded everything and ran for it.”
“Allie and I will do the couch, and you and Kevin can get the desk,” Aaron suggests, so that’s what they do.
In about an hour, they have everything in some semblance of order. The furniture is mostly in place and the boxes mostly unpacked, and Laura and Allie can finish that on their own. To thank the boys for their help, they order Chinese, and Laura produces ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert.
“If this is what living with you is going to be like, I’m definitely glad I agreed to it,” says Allie, with a grin, as they start cleaning up.
Laura laughs. “Well, we won’t always have the guys, but I’ll do my best.” She’s glad for Allie, too. The blonde is a junior, and not exactly her closest friend, but she’s generally lovely to everyone and she and Laura have similar schedules and demands on their time. This will work much better than living in the dorms.
Shortly after this, it’s time for Aaron and Chase to head back to campus-Chase is spending the night with Aaron’s family in their faculty condo, and Laura will drive him home after class the next day. “Thanks for all your help today, Chasie,” she tells him, giving him a tight hug before leaning over to ruffle Aaron’s hair, which is about all the affection her cousin lets her get away with most of the time. “You too, Aaron. Tell Uncle Thomas and Aunt Lydia I said hi.”
“Will do,” says Aaron, and then they’re gone.
Kevin gets up to leave too, then. “Navigating Santa Monica at night is not my favorite thing ever,” he says, with a rueful smile that indicates he’d love to stay longer.
“Yeah, I don’t blame you for that at all,” Laura replies, wincing at the thought of it. “How’s your dad?”
He glances over at the kitchen, but Allie’s washing dishes and seemingly not paying attention to them whatsoever. “I liked him better when I wasn’t living with him,” he says lowly. “Don’t know if it’ll be worth it, Laura.”
It has to be bad, if he’s saying that-living in Santa Monica instead of Madison means a shorter commute to the community college he’s attending this semester, and living with his dad means free board, which is no small favor for Kevin. Laura instinctively reaches up and hugs him, forgetting her reserves about physical contact where he’s concerned. “I’m really sorry,” she says quietly. “Anything I can do?”
“Not unless you’ll let me live with you instead,” he replies.
He’s joking and she knows it, but it still makes her sad. “I wish I could.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it,” he says, setting her back on her feet.
She looks up at him for a moment in thought, then says, “You know, you’re welcome here whenever. After all, we still haven’t had that Firefly marathon.”
Kevin smiles. “I’ll keep it in mind,” he says lightly, and then he’s gone.
Laura folds her arms over her chest and studies the closed door for a long moment. When she turns back to the kitchen, it’s to find Allie’s eyes on her. “What?” she asks, bewildered.
“Nothing,” says Allie, hastily.
***
fun with food
It surprises Laura a little when Kevin takes her at her word. He stops by at least three times a week, usually calling first to make sure she’ll be home when he gets there. Sometimes, when she has somewhere to be on campus, she takes him with her, but he quickly figures out which days she normally won’t be in and avoids those. Allie doesn’t appear to mind-and she usually has musical rehearsal in the evenings anyway-so Laura stops worrying about it after a while and finds that she enjoys having him around a lot. She knows that he likes watching her cook, and quickly discovers that having him around makes her want to cook more often than she normally does. If he gives her enough warning, she’ll plan something that takes a bit more time than ramen or frozen pizza.
“I can’t believe you know how to make crock pot stew,” he says, as he watches her chop up carrots and celery from his perch on a nearby counter.
She laughs. “I learned years ago. We always got dinner faster if a lot of the prep work was done when Mom got home from work. Sometimes I’d just even do it all myself.”
“Dunno why you bother now, though. Can I have a carrot?”
“Sure.” She tosses him one and reaches for another celery stalk. “I actually didn’t like living in the dorms freshman year cause they don’t have kitchens. I wouldn’t make something like stew every night, cause it takes hours, but I do prefer making my own food. That’s part of why Allie’s a great roommate. She hates it, and she’ll eat whatever I put in front of her since it saves her time, and that keeps her from blowing all her food points on snacks at the caf before rehearsal.”
“You’re killing me, Laura. How can you look like a rock star but act so freaking motherly?”
She looks up at him, surprised. He’s said that before, right after she first got the angled bob she still wears. She wonders if he remembers that at all. “You really think I look like a rock star?”
He grins. “Hell yeah. I mean, you don’t wear makeup and you write children’s songs, but other than that…”
“Oh, don’t get me started on that again. I’ll have you know that I am working on a scathing commentary on the evils of Facebook-oh!”
Kevin hops off the counter. “You okay?”
Laura does not swear, but she has to fight particularly hard to bite back curses in some situations. Slicing her thumb open definitely falls into that category. “Eurgh, no, I cut myself because I wasn’t paying attention.” She drops the knife and grasps for something to stop the bleeding.
“Let me see.” He grabs her wrist to inspect the cut. “Shit, that’s deep. Here.” He hands her a dishtowel. “I’ll take you to the emergency room.”
“Wait, turn the crock pot off,” she says, in a daze. “We can’t let the apartment catch on fire.”
Kevin unplugs the thing, snatches up his keys, and rushes her out the door.
role reversal
Once they’re in the car, he stop just long enough to turn on his Bluetooth so they can call Allie and tell her what happened, as Laura forgot her phone in their hurry. Then they’re off.
He gets her to the hospital almost before she can blink, pushing the speed limit and rushing through a couple of yellow lights in order to do so. Laura manages to be both a little touched at his concern and a little grateful that his recklessness didn’t get them in a car accident around the pain. She’s more worried about the stitches she’s going to need for the cut, since she’s never had them before. Not even the nice doctor she sees can ease her nerves.
Kevin hates needles more than she does, but he steps up to the plate, holding her hand and doing his best to distract her. “Just don’t look at it. It’ll be over soon.”
“Your boyfriend is more supportive than some mothers I’ve seen,” the doctor jokes, once it’s over.
It’s on the tip of her tongue to say “He’s not my boyfriend,” but Kevin only laughs, so she says nothing.
There’s no point, anyway, she tells herself, as they go back to the car. It’s clearly not a big deal to him, and it’ll only create drama. But it still bothers her. Between that and the stitches, she can’t sit still in her seat, and she’s all but made up her mind to ask him about it when he pulls into a drive-thru Starbucks and buys her a Venti hot chocolate. While they’re waiting for it, he orders pizza for pick-up, too.
“It’s my fault you hurt yourself, since I distracted you,” he says, with a shrug, when she thanks him.
“Yeah, but if you hadn’t been there, I might have cut myself anyway, and there wouldn’t have been anyone to take me to the hospital, much less buy dinner after.”
He snorts. “You’re so reasonable about this it makes me sick.”
Laura grins as she eats a piece of pizza with her good hand, and decides to just let it go.
***
what you do to me
The Christmas party’s not until six, but Kevin has nothing to do and figures that Laura and Allie could use some help with setup or someone to run to the grocery store for them. It’s five-eighteen when he knocks on the door of their apartment.
He waits about thirty seconds longer than usual for one of them to answer, and when the door finally opens, it’s Laura, with a towel over her shoulder and a harried look in her eye. “Oh, Kevin, I wasn’t expecting you so early,” she says.
“I can come back,” he offers, doubt creeping in for the first time.
“No, no, come on in. I’m almost ready.” She steps aside to let him through the door. “Help yourself to a drink or something, or play with the Wii for a bit.” Without waiting for a reply, she scoops up a stack of clothes from the kitchen counter and hurries toward the hallway.
“Where are you going?” he calls after her. He’s pretty sure he knows already, but messing with her is one of the highlights of his life.
“I am in desperate need of a shower,” she says, glancing back apologetically.
“Really?” He smirks. “You look fresh as a daisy to me.”
“Thanks, but I really do. We’ve been busy cleaning for the past couple of hours, so I haven’t had the chance to yet.”
Kevin can see a smile forming on her face, so he puts on his best wheedling tone, certain he can talk her into staying if he can keep her attention long enough. He could just let her go, but it’s the principle of the thing. “You’re really going to leave me by myself? What kind of host are you?”
“What are you, five?”
“No, just bored.”
Laura laughs, turning fully back toward him and leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “You could come with me, I guess, but I think hanging out in the shower would just be awkward. Besides, you’re the one who showed up forty minutes early. You can wait ten minutes.”
It’s clear she expects him to make a face and drop it, so he does the opposite. “Or,” he says, stepping closer to her, “it could be fun. Maybe I will.”
Her jaw drops. “You’re kidding.”
“Maybe.” He casually props himself on the wall with his right forearm, blocking her escape to the bathroom, and fingers a lock of her hair with his other hand. “Maybe not.”
She looks up at him with a little shiver that he enjoys more than he probably should. “No, you’re just messing with me.”
“You like it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
He grins, running a finger along her cheek. “Then say stop.”
The ultimatum gets him a response, but not from Laura. “Hey, Laura-oh, my God."
Kevin starts, looking up to see Allie in the doorway, holding a couple of grocery bags in each hand and staring at them like she’d rather be doing anything else, but can’t help it. “Oh, hey Allie,” he says casually. He hopes he sounds casual, anyway.
Laura goes bright red, covers her face with her hands, and ducks under his arm to make a run for it. Kevin and Allie hear the bathroom door lock, followed by a thump, three seconds of silence, and hysterical laughter accompanied by ungraceful snorting.
Allie stares after her for a moment, eyebrows so high they’re halfway to her hairline, then turns to Kevin. “Sorry, did I interrupt?” she asks, barely polite.
“No, I was just giving her a hard time,” he says. “My fault. Can I help you with those?”
“Sure.”
He takes two of the bags from her and follows her back into the kitchen, where they begin to unload in silence. Kevin accepts the perishables from Allie and puts them where he remembers they’re supposed to go without once looking her in the face. Though he’s not sure what, he has the feeling he’s done something wrong, and can feel the disapproval radiating from her.
It’s not until they hear the sounds of running water coming from the bathroom that she actually vocalizes it. “You really shouldn’t mess with Laura that way,” she says. “You’ll just confuse her.”
Kevin does look at her then, completely baffled and inexplicably annoyed by her words. “Excuse me?”
Allie begins to open a box of hot chocolate packages as she talks. “You’ll have to forgive me for being blunt, Kevin, but you’re a guy. A pretty good-looking guy, on top of that. I know you and Laura are friends, but a lot of the time you act like you’re more than that.”
“We’re not,” he says.
She shrugs. “Just telling you what it looks like.” With that, she turns away to arrange the packets in a basket.
He slowly turns back to the fridge and settles a carton of orange juice inside with unnecessary care. He wants to tell her she’s wrong, but he can’t, if he really thinks about it. He and Laura have been really close for almost four years now. It probably does look that way, to people who don’t know their history. He’s never blatantly flirted with Laura before, though, and he’s certainly never meant to give her the wrong impression. Her friendship means the world to him. He would never, ever do anything to screw that up.
Suddenly, he worries that his little joke has done just that, crossed a line that shouldn’t have been crossed, and when the bathroom door clicks open he automatically glances that way to see if he can tell.
Laura looks calm enough on the outside, and perfectly put together as usual-her hair’s dry and styled, and she’s wearing a pinstripe vest over a red scoop-neck t-shirt, an outfit he recognizes as one of her favorites. No makeup-of course not-but she doesn’t need it. As she crosses the hall to her bedroom door, she catches his eye and smiles her usual steady smile.
Kevin exhales and shuts the fridge door. No harm done. He can enjoy the party without having to worry, which relieves him, since he’s looking forward to kicking ass at Wii Sports as usual.
a night to remember
The rest of the cavalry starts to arrive fifteen minutes later. The first guests, after him, are some friends of Laura’s and Allie’s from the music department they both belong to. Kevin notes, with some consternation, that three of them are guys. Two fit the “starving artist” stereotype near perfectly, and the other is decently tall, fair, and handsome in a way that makes it seem as though he’s just stepped out of a fairy book. Kevin hasn’t met any of the three before tonight. When Laura introduces them, he filters through his memory for their names and finds he only recognizes one.
She seems especially close to the shortest of the three, a dark-haired boy named Eric who keeps his hair in his face and has chains on his pants. They share a laugh over something to do with Biochemistry and babies, but Kevin can’t tell what since their snickers keep cutting into their words. Annoyed, he turns away to see if there’s anything else he can help Allie with.
Another knock comes at the door a few minutes after that, and when he hears Lindsey’s voice, he feels relieved. “Took you long enough,” he calls to her, over the din.
“It was a longer drive for us, you ass,” says Lindsey, with good humor, as she herds Sidney, Carrie, and Chase through the door ahead of her.
“Be nice, twins,” Laura calls.
“We’re always nice,” Kevin shoots back. He makes his way through the throng to greet his sisters. He hasn’t seen them in a few weeks, and while Lindsey can be difficult, living with his dad makes her seem like a day at the beach in comparison. Of course, Sidney is always a breath of fresh air. He hugs her, first, adding a noisy smooch on the top of the head for effect. “Missed you, kiddo.”
“I missed you too,” says Sidney, beaming up at him.
Kevin grins and ruffles her hair. Keeping one hand on her head, he looks up to greet Lindsey properly, but his eyes catch on something else: Laura swamping Chase in a similarly affectionate embrace. He rolls his eyes and thinks that it’s unlikely he’ll be able to get much of Laura’s attention with all these other people here-
“Just telling you what it looks like.”
His head snaps toward Allie, but she’s not paying any attention to him, seemingly preoccupied trying to swat the tall guy with a wooden spoon.
Kevin looks back at Laura, and finds that he can’t discount what Allie said so easily now. He can’t stand the idea that some other guy might be more important to her than him, even her own brother. Laura’s his, or rather, he’s hers-at least, he would be, if she wanted him to be.
He wants that more than he’s ever wanted anything in his life before, and the realization scares the shit out of him, but the idea of just leaving it suddenly scares him even more.
***
sweet nothings
Laura goes into her last final of the semester with a smile, because when it’s over, she and Kevin finally get to have the Firefly marathon they’ve been talking about. She just has to get through her Aural Skills final, which should be a cinch, since she practiced. Her classmates like to claim that her perfect pitch means she’s got it made, but she’s never been comfortable sightreading on exams.
Her session with her professor only takes ten minutes, as she expected, and she bids goodbye to the friends who are still waiting for their turns before hopping right back in her car and going back to the apartment. As soon as she walks in the door, her phone goes off. “Hello, Kevin,” she answers, without bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Hello, Laura,” he replies jovially. “Guess your final’s over, since you picked up.”
“Yep, I’m all done. You can come up anytime.”
“Good. Out of curiosity, what’s that brand of green tea you like again? The organic one, right?”
She smiles widely. “The one where they gross you out by talking about where honey comes from on the label, yes.”
“And if I were to look for it in the Crescent Beach Ralph’s on my way to see you, oh, about now, where would I find it?”
“Aisle twelve,” she says, highly amused at this. “You are useless in grocery stores, you know.”
“Not true!” he says indignantly. “I could find it fine if I were in my grocery store, but yours is arranged all wrong.”
“Au contraire, it’s yours that’s laid out all wrong.”
He snorts. “That may be, but I like it, thank you very much. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“I’ll be here. And thanks.”
in your dreams
Kevin likes Firefly, just as she knew he would. His only complaint is that there are no aliens, but he considers the Reavers to be a decent substitute and declares the idea of them “fucking creepy,” which is high praise from him even though it makes her cringe. “Please tell me they come back.”
“A couple times,” she says, with a sly smile, because she doesn’t want to spoil anything in the series for him before he can watch it. Reactions are always a lot more fun that way, as she’s learned from years of watching and reading things along with Chase.
They stop after episode three for a bathroom break and popcorn popping. He settles back on the couch with a fresh bottle of Coke while she dumps the popcorn into a large bowl they can share. The excitement on his face has her smiling with satisfaction. “I told you,” she says.
He grins easily. “You were right, what can I say?”
“I’m always right.” She picks up the bowl and resumes her seat. “You should trust me more often.”
“I always trust you. Now hand over the popcorn.”
She does, as she reaches for the remote to start the next episode. Although she’s made a point to put at least a foot between them, he scoots closer so they can share the bowl more easily. When his arm goes across the back of the couch, she’s very aware of it, but says nothing because it isn’t worth making a fuss over. Nothing is.
After episode five, they have to stop again. Laura hasn’t seen Firefly in a long time, so she’s forgotten some of what happens, and her no-spoiler policy means Kevin wasn’t expecting any of it. Simon and River’s storyline hits a little too close for both of them. “Sorry,” she says. “I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s all right.” Kevin runs a hand over his face. “It’s still good. I’ll be prepared for it now.”
She crosses her arms. “It’s just frustrating. It seems like everything takes us back to…that, sooner or later. Like we’re never going to escape it.”
He’s silent for so long that she worries she’s completely ruined the day for both of them by saying that. Then, his arm drops from the back of the couch to encircle her shoulders. “That’s not so bad,” he says. “We wouldn’t have met, if that hadn’t happened.” As if to emphasize his point, he tightens his hold just a little.
Laura has to smile. “We might’ve met, but you probably wouldn’t have paid me any attention.”
“Well, I would’ve been a dumbass in that case,” says Kevin. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Laura.”
At that, she looks at him. The seriousness in his face lets her know he’s not kidding, and she swallows. She’s never expected him to be so open with her, not verbally, at least. He’s easy to read, but he’s bad at saying things. “You don’t really-"
He lifts a hand to her face. “Laura.”
“What?” she whispers, frozen with shock.
“I mean it.” Before she can utter a word of protest, he leans in and kisses her.
Her eyes fall shut instinctively and for a moment, all she wants is to let him, to kiss back, even, because she does want this and has for a while. Her hand itches up to touch his face or fist in his shirt or something, she’s not really sure, but in the end, she doesn’t do anything remotely like that.
Instead, she gently but firmly pushes him away. “Kevin, no,” she says, very quietly.
He recoils a bit, like she’s burned him. “Do you not like me that way?”
Laura scoots out of the circle of his arm and reaches for a couch pillow to hug. “I wish I didn’t,” she says. Probably she shouldn’t tell him this, but she won’t feel right unless she comes clean. Still, she can’t quite look him in the eye. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t feel like I’m about to hurt you for no good reason.”
“Then why?”
There are a number of reasons. She’s recited them over and over in an attempt to make her feelings go away, but they all sound so callous. He’s not a Christian. He swears a blue streak, which is fine since they’re just friends, but it would be unbearable if they were dating. He’s a mess, emotionally. For that matter, so is she. Sometimes, she feels like she’s twice his age instead of only three months older. She loves him to death, but they’re not equals and she knows it. “It…we’d hate each other, eventually,” she says slowly.
“I’d never hate you,” he says, laying a hand on her arm.
“You say that now, but…I can’t explain it, Kevin, I just know it wouldn’t end well for either of us, and I care about you way too much to start anything with you, knowing that.”
It’s the kindest way she can say it, but he’s still angry. “That’s bullshit.”
Laura takes a deep breath and makes herself look him in the face. His pain is obvious, but she maintains eye contact and says the words. “You said you trusted me, so trust me on this. It won’t work.”
Kevin darts up from the couch, snatches his keys up from the coffee table, and storms out of the apartment without a word.
Later, Allie tells her she did the right thing. “It doesn’t feel like the right thing,” Laura says miserably. She’s spent most of the afternoon crying her eyes out, and there’s a dull ache in her chest that throbs freshly every time she thinks about the fact that she’s driven away her best friend, probably for good.
“It never does, when you hurt someone you care about,” Allie responds. “But you did, and he’ll thank you for it later. Now, come out with me, and I’ll buy you a cupcake.”
***
our little secret
They run into each other again two weeks later, while they’re both back in Madison for New Year’s. Sheer coincidence has Chase and Sidney asking to go to the ice rink on the same day, and neither of them can say no to that kind of request. Kevin passes Laura on the rink while she’s still trying to get her balance. At first, he goes right by her as if he hasn’t noticed, but he turns back after a moment, skids up to her, and silently offers her his hand.
“Let’s forget about it,” he says, after they’ve been around the rink once. “You’re probably right, you always are. I hate not talking to you.”
It’ll never be the same, but the concession, coming from him, means a great deal. “Okay,” she says. “It’s forgotten. Friends?”
He smiles faintly. “Friends.”