(Unedited)

I was officially free! Well, from my parents at least. My mom and dad officially left for their "therapy vacation" an hour ago, leaving me and Aunt Anita alone with the twins. I knew she could handle them though. She had way more patience than I did. That's one of the things I loved about her. She was laid back and relaxed about everything. No very many things upset her.

And lucky for me, I get to spend the next three days with her.

"...so after I realized he was way more serious than I was, I had to let him go." She sighed and shook her head regretfully. "I really liked him, but marriage I can't do. Not yet." She looked at me and smiled. "Girl's like us can't be tied down, you know?"

I giggled at her, though somewhere in the back of my brain I knew I'd heard that "can't be tied down" story before. Thomas had mentioned that to me more than once.

Suddenly Anita jumped up from her seat and reached for her purse. "I'm hungry, why don't we go grab something to eat? I'll get the twins."

I smiled. She was always so abrupt. "Sure. Where did you have in mind?"

"What's good in this Podunk town?" she asked pulling out her car keys.

Anita wasn't used to our little town. Well, little to her standards anyway. She's used to traveling and residing in bigger cities. Currently she was living someplace in New Mexico. She'd mentioned it twice since she arrived.

Last year when she was in New York she invited us to come and stay with her, but my mom declined of course. There is no way those two could live together. They barely got through their teen years without killing each other.

"Oh, I know!" she said. "Why don't we go to the mall? We'll eat at the food court." After a moment of silence she tilted her head to the side slightly, displaying a curious expression. "This town does have a mall, right?"

I laughed at her. "Of course."

She'd only visited it twice before. Poor Aunt Anita, so absent minded.

In fact, I'm pretty sure she'd taken me to the mall the summer before my sixth grade year. That's the same visit she paid to have my ears pierced. Talk about an angry mother; something about her rite of passage and Anita taking that from her. I don't know. I just know Mom was not happy about it.

"Then let's go," Anita said. "I have to get Cynthia's ears pierced and I promised Cody I'd buy him some new shoes."

Uh-oh. "Ears pierced. Does my mom know about it this time?"

Anita grinned "Not if you don't tell her." She dug into her purse and pulled out a fifty. She held it out to me and said, "Here, hush money."

My eyes grew at the large bill and I took it without thinking twice. "I'll take it and I didn't see a thing," I promised.

I knew it was wrong, buy hey, fifty bucks was fifty bucks.

At the mall we finished up our lunch and Anita made me go with Cynthia into one of her favorite stores while she took Cody back to footlocker. It was not my idea of a fun Sunday at the mall when I had to babysit my sister.

While she mulled over the friendship bracelet to get her and her best friend I decided to browse the shop. There wasn't much for anyone over the age of twelve in there, but it wasn't like I had the option to do anything else.

Thirty minutes later I was board out of my mind and ready to scream until my sister showed back up to tell me she was ready to leave. I was thrilled to pay and leave.

"I need to pee," she so gracefully told me once we were outside the store.

I glanced across the mall to the sale poster of my go to store and rolled my eyes. "Can't you wait? You went before we left home."

"And I have to go again."

I glanced between her and my store again and groaned. "Fine, but if you're not out of there in three minutes I'm leaving you behind."

She crossed her arms and dared me to do it. "You can't do that. I'll tell mom and you'll get grounded."

I shrugged. "At least I'll have a pair of new jeans to keep me company. It's worth it."

It really wasn't but I didn't want to her to know that.

"Whatever. I don't take that long anyway."

I felt like screaming when I actually got to go in my store. Anita still wasn't back with Cody yet so I was still stuck with my sister much to my dismay. No escaping the babysitting responsibility anytime soon.

I was able to pick out a few article of clothing when my phone rang, grabbing the attention of a few shopping customers nearby. I rushed to answer it to silence the ring.

"Hello?"

"Olivia?" a male voice asked.

Who was it, Thomas? Wait, did he even know my number? Did he?

"Yeah," I replied.

"Hey, it's Deacon."

Deacon. Oh. I didn't bother to figure out why I was so bummed about that. I checked myself to make sure it didn't show in my voice when talking to him.

"Hey."

When a few passing shoppers gave me annoyed looks, I rolled my eyes and stepped outside the store to talk.

"I hope I'm not bothering you," he said. "It sounds loud."

"No, no. It's fine. I'm just at the mall."

He chuckled, but it sounded a little nervous.

"Oh. Well, I just wanted to explain about last night."

About ditching me? Ok, I'd love to hear it.

"Alright," I said.

"You see, I kind of got caught up in some stuff yesterday and I lost track of time."

I raised my eyebrow. Really?

"Lost track of time," I repeated.

"Yeah. I uh...I sort of ran into a friend. Well, an old girl friend really."

I immediately knew who he was talking about without even asking him. However, I couldn't even be upset. To my surprise it didn't even bother me. I guess I kind of expected her to show back up at some point. Like Grace said, they are never really over. I should have seen it coming.

"June," I said.

"Yeah. She was really was really upset yesterday and I couldn't just leave her. We talked and..."

"It's okay. We all have things that come up," I told him before he went into the entire account of their meeting. I really didn't need to hear all the details.

"I really didn't mean to stand you up. Are you sure you're not mad. Grace already threatened to kick my ass. You can too if it will make you feel better."

He laughed and I did too.

"No, it's fine. It's not like its serious or anything."

"Right?" he agreed. "I told Grace we were just two people going out. I knew you'd understand."

"She's just being a good friend. She'll forgive you."

He laughed again. "You obviously don't know how she feels about June, do you."

"I think I have a pretty good idea. But you're family. That trumps everything."

He was silent as if thinking over my words then spoke again. "I guess you're right. And I should have known messing with my sister's best friend would have consequences."

I don't think either of us really thought any of this through very well.

"So, what do you say, friends?" he asked hopeful.

A week ago those words would have bothered me more. Now, they were surprisingly relieving. Not that I didn't still like Deacon. Things were just more complicated than they were before.

"Sure," I agreed. "Friends."

Thankfully when I returned to the store my items were right where I left them. I grabbed my jeans, scarves and sister and checked out. Outside of Forever 21, two stores later, my sister had to pee again. I've told mom to get her pea sized bladder check out. I swear the amount of times she has to go is unnatural. I pulled out my cell to play one of the many games stored on it until she finished.

"Feel better?" I asked her when she rounded the corner.

She nodded. "Much."

Cynthia walked along side of me in search of Aunt Anita, whom I was starting to worry about, when the smell of fresh, hot pretzels filled our noses. Cynthia and I may not agree on a lot of things, but our love for the baked bread was shared.

"Can we get a salted one please?" she begged. I promise not to bother you for a whole day.

I agreed, however I didn't need any persuading.

At the checkout out counter I was surprised to see who was wearing a smile, blue apron and sun visor hat.

"Will that be all?" the cashier asked lifting his eyes from the register to look at me.

Jake, one of Thomas's friends, recognized me as soon as I he saw me. His smile grew to sizes bigger. I had to hold in my laughter at his attire. It was definitely not a bomber jacket and combat boots.

"Um, hi," I said awkwardly.

Was I supposed to laugh or wasn't I?

"Olivia, hey." There was still a certain amount of surprise in his voice despite his smile. He crossed his arms as he smile turned into a smirk. "Thomas told you I worked here on the weekends, didn't he? This ought to give him a good laugh."

I shook my head smiling. "Actually he didn't. But I guess the secret's out now."

He let out a small laugh. "Sure he didn't. What, did he send you over here to get a picture or something? Tell you to post to Facebook?"

I could hide my laughter anymore and let it out completely ungracefully. The woman behind us watched with barely hidden amusement.

Cynthia nudged me with her arm and looked at Jake. "Who's that?"

She caught his attention and he stared down at her. "Your sister or you just running with a younger crowed now?"

"My sister actually, and no Thomas did not send me over here. I haven't even seen Thomas since Friday night."

"Uh huh. Tell him I said nice try when you see him again. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool Jake Phillips." He tapped his finger against his temple for emphasis.

"Sure," I said. He wouldn't believe me no matter what I said anyway so why not play along?

I paid for mine and Cynthia's food and began to look for a vacant bench to sit on. The first two we spotted were busy but the next only had one person seated at it; a guy. And it just happened be none other than "the" Thomas Cavanaugh.

"Who's he?" Cynthia asked dreamily.

Uh oh. Seemed he had to ogling effect in people of all ages.

"Someone much too old for you," I told her.

He was wearing his signature smirk as we neared him. It was funny how no one dared crowed his bench. It's like he was wearing a back off sign or something. Or maybe it was just his face. He could appear very unwelcoming when he wanted to.

"Speak of the devil," I grinned. "We were just talking about you."

He glanced around me toward the counter we just left from and wiggled his fingers playfully at Jake. "I know. My ears were burning."

I looked back at a scowling Jake. Yeah, defiantly didn't believe me know.

"Who's the kid?" Thomas asked when he saw my attachment.

I glanced down at her. "Oh, she's just my sister."

She was still ogling him. He appeared to not car or didn't notice. I couldn't be sure which. Though, I could tell he wasn't a kid person.

"Still stalking me I see," I joked plopping down beside of him. "Couldn't find anything else to fill out your day?"

"Well it was that or pick up this jerk-off from work," he nodded toward Jake and raise his voice a little higher for him to hear it, "...because he still doesn't own a car!"

Jake threw his hands up and shouted, "I'm working on it!"

I giggled. "Your bromance is sweet. Do your other friends get jealous?"

He lifted his one of his crossed arms and gave me a firm shove then return to his original pose. It didn't hurt, but I yelled 'aw' just for good measure anyway.

"You just can't stay away from me, can you?"

"It's futile. It seems like our paths are meant to cross."

He nudged me playfully. "I think the universe is trying to tell us something."

"One of us should move?" I guessed.

"Ha ha," he said. He lifted his arm to flip his watch around to display the time. "It's not three yet and this isn't best buy. Couldn't you wait to meet me?"

"If I were here for the reason you're implying, I wouldn't have brought my sister along."

"Ew! Okay. I'm wanna go now," Cynthia said. She looked around desperately for an escape and then grinned. "Oh look, there's Anita."

Before I could spot her myself, Cynthia rushed off toward her leaving me setting with Thomas. "So that's the Aunt who's visiting. The one you couldn't meet me because of."

"The very one."

I might have accidently forgot about Thomas being here today what with all the craziness of Anita coming in this morning. However, now, I was very aware of our conversation last night in the chat box. The hairs on my arms were standing up from the nervousness and excitement of it.

"Who's your friend?"

I nearly jumped at the sound of Anita's voice beside me.

I whipped my head around to look at her. How did she get over to me so fast? She had ninja skills.

"Hi. Um this is Thomas." I gestured to him then back at her. "Thomas, this is my aunt Anita."

She grinned and held out her hand to him. "Hello, Thomas. I can't say I've heard anything about you. But I did just get this morning. I'm sure I'll get all the juicy details later."

I felt the heat rising in my face. She really didn't have a sensor on her brain.

Thomas politely held out his hand to her. "Nice to meet you too. And could you let me in on those details when you get them? I'd like to know what they are myself."

"You got it," she laughed.

"Well," I said standing up. "I think we should go before this gets any weirder." I gripped my bag tighter hoping she'd pick up on the situation and walk away with me.

She didn't.

Weird? Things are just getting good," she said.

Great.

"What are you doing tonight Thomas? Do you like to eat?"

I knew exactly where this was going.

She continued."I can't promise I can cook, but can promise I'll order the best take out this town has to offer. What do you say? Come over at seven?"

Say no. Say no. Please say no.

"Sorry, I'm all booked up for tonight."

Yes!

"But I'll take a rain check. I won't say no to take out."

No! Crap.

"You got it. Just let Olive know when you're free." She grinned at me and I wanted to disappear into a hole. She was trying her match making skills on me and I knew it. She sees an opportunity and she jumps. He shot me a grin and mouthed Olive? So I mouthed to him'shut up'.

"Will do, Miss..." He said.

"Oh no, call me Anita. No Miss. I'll feel old."

"Anita then."

She grinned at him then looked at Cody and Cynthia. "Ready you two?"

When they nodded Thomas quickly jumped in.

"Would you mind if Olivia stayed? I promise to bring her home safe and sound by curfew." He put on his dazzling smile for her.

Oh yeah. He won her over.

"Of course," she agreed. "I have no objections to that."

"Keep in mind I have school tomorrow," I reminded her. Thomas only wanted to get me alone just to make good on his promise. I wasn't that naive.

"Actually we don't. Teacher workday," Thomas said.

I scowled at him.

"Okay. Twelve then." She smiled at me. "I trust you."

That was whole hour past my weekend curfew. Was she crazy? Of course she was. That's why I loved her.

Any other time I would have been thrilled by this curfew increase. Not so much now though.

"Then I'll deliver." He said with a barely hidden smirk. "You can trust me too."

Yeah, as far as you can throw him.

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Hi guys. How is everyone? Is anyone still reading this book after such a long break? I hope so.

This chapter is in 2 parts. The second half of it will be posted in a few days. It will be far more interesting than this chapter. Full of action and maybe a little drama. It will be fun.

Song of the chapter is "Ain't It Fun." I just love Paramore.

Let me know what you thought of the chapter in the comments below!

Oh, and I've missed you guys. :)