{{Dedicated to , because she is a sweet pea, even thought she sometimes tries to steal my (fictional) boys}}

The realization hit Rhea like a freight train, making her physically stumble a couple steps. All she thought she'd known for sure had crumbled around her within ten seconds and all she could do was stand in the middle of a vaguely familiar yet entirely strange kitchen and gape at the little girl before her.

It barely registered with her when Caleb crouched down by his sister to get to her level.

"Hey Care," he spoke to the girl softly, "why are you still up?"

His tone was different to anything she'd heard come out of his mouth. She thought she'd heard it all: teasing, playful, grumpy, sincere... But it still caught her off guard to hear the gentle and affectionate way he talked. His eyes shined as he regarded his sister and his lips were curled up in a relaxed smile.

"I heard the sounds, Kay-web. Why'd you come back? Who's this?" She pointed towards Rhea with her chubby little index finger.

Caleb stood up to stand next to Rhea, who'd regained a semblance of her composure and was now listening to their conversation with curiosity.

"This is my friend Rhea," he said, resting a hand lightly on Rhea's shoulder. "Rhea, this is my sister Caroline."

"Hey Caroline." Rhea smiled down at the little girl, who looked up to her, making Rhea notice Caleb and his sister had the exact same eyes. Green with specks of golden, they were the most striking feature on both siblings' faces.

"Hey Ree-uh, were you crying? You can hold Mr. Snuggles if you want, I always used to hold him after dad left. But I don't cry anymore."

"Thank you so much. I'm alright now, you should hold onto Mr. Snuggles. You two look quite inseparable, I wouldn't want to be an imposition."

Caroline regarded her intently for a whole of ten seconds, and she must have been satisfied with her answer, because a moment later she turned on her heels to make her way towards the living room after telling Caleb over her shoulder to "bring her cocoa to the living room".

"Yes ma'am," Caleb muttered while a small smile tugged at his lips.

With Caroline gone and Caleb's attention directed back to his task at hand, Rhea was once again left alone with her thoughts.

There was a simmering anger within her, above all things. The resentment, the shock, everything was overpowered and pushed to the corner by anger. The anger, however, wasn't focused on a sole subject.

She was mad at Floyd, yes. A big part of her was contemplating seven different ways of wringing his neck. At this point, it didn't matter all that much whether Floyd was actually her soulmate. What mattered was that she believed he could be. Rhea had genuinely thought he was her soulmate; she'd put her trust in him and he'd broken that trust. Cue her murderous thoughts.

But at the same time, she couldn't help but be mad at herself, too. She'd been so blind. As she stood awkwardly in Caleb's kitchen and stared into nothingness, she started to match all the snippets with all the little things she'd come to know about Caleb Archer. Caleb -her fricking soulmate-Archer. First, there was the little girl. To be fair, he'd never mentioned a sister, but the thing "he had to take care of" in the afternoons? Well, that was pretty obvious now.

Then, she stared at Caleb's hands as he reached for the overhead cupboard to retrieve mugs. They looked so familiar now; she couldn't begin to understand how she could've missed them when she spent an hour sitting next to him three times a week for the past few weeks. His fingers were long and slender, whereas Floyd's were shorter and thicker.

Then the three am late-night strolls fell into place.

Next, his car. She'd seen a rattled dashboard. Floyd drove a shiny fucking Toyota.

The cute guy that was surely Caleb's childhood best friend Xander lead her thoughts to that one time she saw a girl sitting across from her soulm-Caleb. It must have been Yasmine. Fuck, Yasmine.

Frankly, she'd never thought about Caleb in any way but platonically before. But now that she knew, things seemed on the verge of changing. It was like when you found out that the shy guy that always sat at the back of the class in Algebra had a crush on you. You'd start to see that person in a different light from then on, pay more attention to them, and maybe end up developing feelings for them in return. Well, she sure was paying attention to Caleb now.

That being said, things weren't simple by a long shot, and this wasn't some moment of epiphany where she suddenly realized she'd been in love with Caleb all along.

In short, she had no idea where to go from here.

"Rhea?"

Her head snapped up at the sound of her own name. She saw that Caleb was looking at her with expectant eyes; he must have asked a question. She blinked a couple of times, trying to snap out of it.

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked distractedly.

"I asked if you wanted marshmallows in your hot cocoa... Are you okay?"

"I'm... fine. And marshmallows would be perfect." She looked him in the eye. "Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem. Care loves them in hers, so I thought maybe you'd want some too."

"No, I mean, not just for the drink. Just- Thank you."

"You're welcome." He passed her a mug full of steaming goodness. "C'mon now, drink up and I'll drive you home before it gets too late."

She gave him a grateful smile and a nod over the mug, otherwise remaining silent. He moved towards the living room with Caroline's mug in his hand and she followed him with her eyes, only to see Caroline had fallen asleep on the living room couch. Caleb picked her up in his arms and disappeared into the hallway, probably to tuck her in.

The hot cocoa thawed her insides, making her rigid posture relax for the first time in what felt like eons. She started drinking in small, cautious sips, which halfway into the drink turned into big gulps. Chocolate always had its miracles, no matter what form it was served in.

When Rhea was a child, she used to have nightmares. She blamed it on that one time she went to see the first Harry Potter movie in the theatres; that stuff was pretty intense for a five year old. For three whole years, whenever she had a nightmare, she padded towards her parents' bedroom and woke her father up. Every single time, her father would get out of bed without complaint, sit her down on the kitchen counter and make her hot cocoa. Ever since that time, hot cocoa had a surprisingly calming effect on her. Now, ten years later, it still made her feel warm inside in different ways, one the result of a hot beverage, and the other the result of Caleb knowing how to soothe her without having that information about her childhood or her fondness of the drink.

Just as she gulped down the rest of her drink, Caleb came back into the kitchen with an empty mug in his hand and a smudge of chocolate across his lower lip. Rhea looked at him, her hand itching to wipe it off. But that was hardly appropriate behavior, so instead she called his name.

"Caleb, you got some..." she pointed at her own lower lip. He sheepishly ran his thumb across his lips while Rhea watched the motion dazedly.

"Got it." He smiled at her, making Rhea's eyes snap up to his. He took her mug from her grasp and placed it in the sink next to the other two, seemingly oblivious. "C'mon lets head out."

***

The car ride was silent except for the classic rock ballad that played on the radio and the directions she gave him every now and then. Rhea felt tired to her bones, so she slumped back in her seat and silently watched the road while the wind from the open window caressed her face, counting the street lamps they passed like she always did. They parked outside her house at seventy three.

She turned her body completely toward Caleb in her seat before she spoke. "I... can't thank you enough for tonight. Thank you for being there, and thank you for not pressing for an explanation."

"You're welcome." He gave her a smile. Just as she got out and closed the door behind her, he called out to her, "Hey Rhea?"

"Hmm?" She leaned down by the window to look at his face.

If you ever..." -he rubbed the back of his neck- "want to talk, or if you need someone's ass kicked, or whatever. I'm here."

She couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his words. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks."

***

The next morning, she woke up at seven, dreading the day ahead of her. It was too early, everything from last night too raw in her mind for her to go to school and possibly face Floyd. She almost never missed a day of school, but today, she was more than willing to make an exception. She wasn't too sure if and how she'd be able to convince her parents to skip a day, but she was ready to give it her best shot. With that in mind, she made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen where her parents were sat by the kitchen counter, sipping at their coffees.

"Hey sweetie, why aren't you dressed yet?" her mom asked.

"Hey mom," she said. She thought about making up an illness to get out of going to school, but she'd always been honest with her parents and she wasn't going to start lying now. "I wanted to ask if it would be okay if I skipped school today."

"Are you feeling sick?" her father, who put down the newspaper in his hands to pay attention to her, asked.

"No... no, I'm fine. Some stuff happened last night." She cut off her mother who was no doubt about to ask for an explanation. "Stuff I'm not yet ready to talk about. And I'm just not ready to face the people involved. And I know what you're going to say. You'll say the problems are not going to go away unless I face them, and I will. Just... not today."

Her parents both studied her with intent expressions on their faces. She didn't know whether it was the dark circles under her eyes -curtesy of the lack of sleep the night before- or the way she heaved a sigh as she waited for their verdict that did them in, but they exchanged a look that told her she'd convinced them.

"Okay, you can stay home today," her mother said. "If you want to talk about it, your father and I are here for you."

A car horn being honked cut their conversation short, reminding Rhea she'd forgotten to tell her best friend she wouldn't be going to school that day. She quickly dashed towards the door, slipping on her shoes before she got out the door.

"Why are you in your pajamas?" was the first thing Willa said to her when she got in the car.

"I'm skipping school today."

"Why?"

Upon her best friend's inquiry, Rhea took a deep breath, and regaled everything that had happened the day before. Just like she'd expected, Willa let out an angry set of expletives when Rhea told her what Floyd did, a surprised one when she disclosed her soulmate turned out to be Caleb. It felt good to let it all out, especially when it was to her best friend in the whole world. When she was finished, Willa pulled her into one of her hugs that Rhea loved to be on the receiving end of.

They ended up parked in the driveway for almost an hour as they talked it all through. Willa wanted to know what she planned to do about the whole Caleb issue and Rhea promptly informed her she didn't have the slightest idea. At the end, Willa offered to skip school along with her and stay in, now that she'd already missed first period. But as much as it was comforting to be in Willa's presence for Rhea, what she really needed was some time alone, so she told her best friend to go to school and maybe come back afterwards.

***

By the time it was noon, Rhea was doing a pretty good job at drowning all her thoughts with Netflix, immersing herself in the story of a particularly dashing lawyer-by-day-vigilante-by-night man. That is, until the doorbell rang and she reluctantly had to tear herself away from her computer to go ahead and answer it.

At the door was the last person she wanted to see.

"What do you want?" she bit out, one hand clutching the door knob, ready to slam it in his face if necessary.

"I want to talk." His tone was cautious. He approached her the way you'd approach a wild animal; one wrong move and your throat could be ripped out. Which wasn't a long shot from how Rhea felt about him at the moment.

"Fine, talk." She stared at him impatiently.

"Do you remember how I said I did stupid shit when I got drunk? Well, last night was one for the books. I don't know what good it'll do, but I came to apologize."

"I..." -her voice wavered a little bit- "I don't know what you want me to say. That your apology is accepted? Because it's not."

"No, it's just... I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend last night. As much as I've been playing it cool, I really like you and, I don't know, I chickened out. So I thought maybe if I had some alcohol in my system," -he rubbed his eyes- "I'd finally man up and do it. But before I know it you're out the door and I'm the asshole that blew his chance with the most amazing girl."

"Floyd-"

"No, I know I screwed up. I screwed up big time. I know I don't deserve a second chance, but man, do I want one. We had- we have something good, Rhea. I know you've felt it too."

"I don't know if I will ever-"

Her sentence was cut short when Floyd swooped in and swiftly pressed his lips against hers.

The surprised sound she let out at the action was swallowed by his insistent lips. By the way he kissed her, it was obvious he was trying to convey something within the kiss he couldn't quite put into words. Perhaps it was an apology, or perhaps he was trying to give her a reason to stay.

Rhea let herself get swept up in the moment, and forgetting all about the reasons why she shouldn't, she kissed him back with all her might. Her fingers found their way into his hair like they always did whenever they kissed, while his arms wrapped around her waist in an attempt to pull her closer.

The press of his lips against hers was deliberate as he nibbled at her lower lip, wanting to deepen the kiss. He didn't get to, however, because a moment later Rhea pulled back as if the contact had scorched her skin. Placing a steadying hand on his chest, she stepped out of his embrace, putting a much needed distance between herself and the boy before him that had a desperate flame in his eyes.

"I can't," she breathed out. "All your kisses do anymore is remind me of all the things you said last night."

"I'm so sorry." His face contorted with regret, his eyebrows pulling in just the slightest bit.

"I know you are. But last night- it just changed things. I used to trust you wholeheartedly. Now every time I kiss you, I'll always be wondering whether you're thinking I'm being a tease. You know what they say about drunk words being sober thoughts, after all. And whenever you touch me, I'll want to cower and curl up in myself because I'll be thinking of last night. It's just never going to be the same with us."

"Fair enough." He sighed. "Just... I don't want to lose you, Rhea. I want to be around you in any way you'll let me. Will you... let me?"

She wordlessly studied him for a while. "We'll give it some time, okay?" she said finally, her gaze softening imperceptibly.

"Yeah, okay. I can work with that." He visibly brightened, his hunched posture straightening as he looked at her with a renewed light in his eyes. "Oh and just so you know, Wade almost punched me in the face today."

"Well, in his defense, he did warn you." Rhea smiled despite herself.

"Yeah." The corner of his lips twitched, giving away the beginnings of his own smile. "Wait how do you know that?"

"Just a wild guess."

***

An hour after Floyd had left, the doorbell rang again. She dragged herself out of her bed, this time knowing who would be at the other side of the door.

"I brought Pitch Perfect," Willa said when the door was opened, showing the DVD in her hand. "I'll let you sing along to the final song, c'mon."

***