❝ Tell me, what's the situation?

I've been rackin' on my brain

Just want some answers if I ask you❞

- Madison Beer, Say It To My Face.

I nervously bit my lip as River drove.

"Is everything okay?" He asked me.

"It's a kinda long story, but I just really need to see someone," I answered.

"Well, need me to move faster?"

I thought of getting there are and not seeing Zee, so I nodded, "Yes, please."

In few minutes, River pulled up to Woodley and Bunny and my heart raced when I saw that the same car I'd seen Zee get into the last time, was parked there.

"I'll be right back out," I told River as I got down from the car.

"Alright, sure," he nodded.

I walked up to the front door, pushing it eagerly and looking around. I saw the same figure I'd seen the other time. The short, dark hair. This time, she was dressed in jeans and a poncho.

I licked my lower lip in a swift motion and felt myself starting to freeze. What if it was her? What if if wasn't? What would I do?

I made quick eye contact who smiled and nodded and then I was able to call her name, "Zee?"

She turned to look at me.

I knew. I just knew it. Standing right in front of me was Zee, but boy, had she changed.

"Renée?"

"Zee!" I flung my arms around her and she hugged me back tightly, "I've missed you so much, Renée, you have no idea how much."

"How are you? Are you here to get something?" She asked me and I realised how much I'd really missed her. She looked even prettier than I remembered her to be.

"No, actually," I shook my head. "I accompanied someone here some time last week when I saw you. I knew it was you but I wanted to be sure. So Tamara here said to text me if you ever shower up again," I smiled at the smiling worker.

"Really? I didn't see you!" She hugged me. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine. I'm just so glad we could see each other."

"Do you want to talk?"

I nodded big, "I would love to talk."

We moved outside and to a bench in front of the shop. Like the ones me and River used to sit on. I sudden remembered he was waiting for me.

"I'm sorry Zee, I have to quickly talk to the guy who I came with," I told her.

I made my way to River's side of the car, his window down. "Hey, this might take a while. I haven't seen her in such a long time and I just need this moment to talk to her," I gesticulated to Zee.

"It's okay. You can take your time."

A grin on my face, I walked back to Zee.

"He's cute," she wiggled her eyebrows and that caused me to chuckle, "Tell me about it."

"So, are you guys a thing?"

I shook my head, "No, we're not. I mean, I like him, and I think he likes me. I don't even know."

"So, let's just say you'll be an item in about a month from now," she chuckled and hugged me tightly. "You've grown even prettier."

"What about you? You're even prettier than I remember you to be."

"I can't believe it's been a while," she sighed.

"I know. I've missed you a lot."

"Tell me everything. Fill me in on everything that's going on with you."

"Right now, it's nothing really good."

"Why? What's wrong?"

I shrugged like it didn't matter. "Just rumors and stuff. School believes I'm trying to get with this guy who happens to be my best friend but has a girlfriend," I rolled my eyes. "I think, no, I know for a fact that it's his girlfriend who started the rumor. "

"Why do you say so?"

"She's threatened me before. It's just so stupid."

Zee was quiet. "You know, one time rumor had it that I slept with my dad."

I gasped. "No way."

Zee nodded, "It was a tough time and that destabilized me a whole lot, but I don't want that to happen to you. You have to be strong and confident."

I nodded, biting my lower lip. "Yeah, River told me that. River's the guy in the car, by the way."

"He must really like you. How'd you meet?"

"At this bakery where I work. He's an artist," I blushed.

"You know, I can't believe it. You'll always be that younger, extremely adorable Renée to me."

I chuckled, "Do you live in LA still?"

"Yep," Zee nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. "LA will always be home. I go to other states or countries buy that's just once in a while for work."

"What job do you do?"

"Uh, I'm into fashion writing. Basically, I just conduct interviews with people in the fashion industry. "

"Zee, that's so cool. Does that mean you get to meet designers? Like, you're a celebrity?"

She chuckled, "No, I'm really not, but I do get to meet designers. I'm doing a writing presently on Woodley and Bunny for now and that's why I've had to come here a lot."

"That's amazing. I'm not sure I could any of the products in there. Tanner would freak out because of the cost."

Zee laughed, "Hey, how's Tanner?"

"He's fine," I shrugged and after that, there was silence.

"Zee?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"What happened between you and Tanner? He wouldn't ever tell me."

She was quiet at first before putting an arm around me,"We just didn't work."

I sighed. That wasn't what I wanted to hear. That wasn't sufficient, but I didn't want to push, so I just nodded and hugged her, feeling my eyes well with tears.

"How about your parents?" She asked me and I blinked hard, pulling away. "They're good. I still live with Tanner but I'm still able to talk with them. How are your parents?"

"They're great, actually," she nodded.

We talked for the next few minutes until Zee had to get back to work.

"I have to get back to work. I still have an article to finish."

"I'm so glad we could see today."

"Me too, Renée. I'd love to meet River properly one day," she playfully winked. "We can always hang out when we're free. Here's my number," she gave me her complimentary card and I took it and held it tightly before hugging her.

"Hey, wait, one more thing," she handed a black bag to me. "You should have these."

I peered inside, seeing they were products she'd just gotten from inside the shop, I shook my head. "I can't take these!"

Zee chuckled, "Oh, don't be silly. I get discounts for these things, it's fine. Plus, the products work."

"I forgot to comment on your hair. It's beautiful. Is that an extension?"

"No, sweetie, I cut it," she chuckled.

"It's great."

"Thank you," she playfully twirled her hair.

"No, thank you so much," we hugged one final time before parting ways.

I walked back to River's car with tears in my eyes. I quickly wiped them off before getting into the car.

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting," I said to River.

"You're good. I had Spotify to keep me company," he started to the car, keeping his earphones away. "Old friend?" He asked, referring to Zee.

"No, that was my brother's ex."

"The one he took to The Little Door?"

"Exactly," I nodded. "That one."

"Well, your brother has great eyes for him to have dated her."

I chuckled and rolled my eyes, "Dork."

"Do you have to go back to work?"

"I honestly don't feel like it," I sank into the seat.

"Want to, maybe, ditch the rest of work?" He gave a boyish smirk and I chuckled, "Yes, please. Can we go to the place where we watched the stars?

And kissed...

"Shoot, I can't really remember the place," we laughed. "Any park would do, yeah?"

"Yeah, of course," I nodded.

He pulled up to a random park after minutes.

"Sadly, the stars aren't out," I said as I repeated his action of sitting on the hood.

"We really should have gotten fro-yo," River stated.

"I know," I seconded, nodding.

The silence we fell into was t comfortable. I could feel tension and i didn't know, but it had to be broken.

"River?" I called.

"Yeah?" He looked at me.

"Tell me about her, please?" I asked in a soft tone. I cleared my throat, "Your girlfriend."

His eyes were still on me, a light smile on his face before he nodded, swallowing, and I got ready to listen, regardless of what I was about to hear.

"I met Chloe when I was still in school. I didn't want anyone if I didn't have her, you know," he shrugged. "She was a ten out of ten. Really pretty, smart and very social. We had a thing going on for a while and then, I was going to leave school. I thought she would probably find someone else, but surprisingly, she didn't. So I'd go to her place or she'll come over to mine. That kinda stuff. "

Of course, she wouldn't leave him. He didn't know how attractive he was.

"Things were going great, until my sister's condition, then I started to see she was creating some distance."

By this time, he had all my attention. "Which sister? The twin or... Riley?" The image of the cute ten year old filled my head.

"Riley," he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"W- What condition does she have?"

He swallowed. "It's a syndrome. Tourettes syndrome."

"What's that? I've never heard of it," I pushed my hair away from my face.

"It's like... It's like when your body has tics. Ones that you can't control. They're quick and you have no control over it. So, people with the syndrome, their bodies do things the people themselves don't want to do. Like, they could start clapping randomly or grunt or more their tongue or jerk their arms. It's a lot."

"But if they do these things appropriately, isn't that okay? Isn't it normal?"

"No, you don't understand. The abnormality is that they do it in inappropriate situations. It's repeated. A person with tourettes could repeatedly hit his chest or clear his throat or keeps falling, it could be extreme and when it is, some repeatedly swear, but you can't control it. If you try to, it's gonna end up like a bad itch and you just have to scratch it."

"Repeated and totally non-voluntary?"

"Yeah, exactly. She can't help the body movements."

My heart broke for Riley. "Oh no..."

"Since it's a kinda weird disorder, Chloe started to feel embarrassed about being around her. I remember one time, we'd gone out. Me, Riley and Chloe. We were at the zoo and Riley starts with her tics. She was shrugging her shoulders so much, she was sniffing, clearing her throat and making mouth movements. I guess that embarrassed Chloe. Plus, we might want to hang out and Riley would get tics and I just can't leave her all alone, especially when my mom isn't home, so I'll have to cancel plans with Chloe, then she gets mad."

"Why should she? Doesn't she understand?"

"I doubt it. When I have so much work to do, I have to ask her to help look after Riley, but when Riley starts with the tics, she'll freak out then call me to come get her."

"That explains those calls you used to receive, right?" I looked at him. "When you receive them, your mood changes."

"Yeah. The other day when we went to pick her, that was Chloe's. She'd called me to come take her."

I thought for a while, "I remember she was shrugging that day."

"Yeah, she was."

"I had no idea," my face was in my hands. "Doesn't it have treatment or something?"

River shook his head, "Unfortunately, no. For some, it'll get better during their teen years but for some, it'll grow even worse. But no, it's life long."

"So, there's no medication for it?"

"Only if it's very extreme. Riley's tics aren't extreme. So she has a therapist. Her therapist helps her to identify what triggers her and helps her with a habit reversal training. So if she senses that she's about to have a urge to frown or pull a face, she would immediately smile."

I smiled lightly, "I bet she has a beautiful smile. But how does she cope with the syndrome in school or public places?"

"She was encouraged to go to school so she can try to relate with others and thankfully, her classmates are pretty great. In public places, she doesn't exactly mind the stares when she starts to tics. When she's doing it so much, she probably would cry."

As soon as he said the word, I remembered when I saw her at Salt and Straw crying. I figured immediately, she was crying because of a tic.

"She gets uncomfortable around people. While sometimes, she's confident, she's scared of meeting new people. That's why she didn't say anything to you when you greeted her the other day. "

"I didn't know."

"It's crazy because she only saw you once but she seemed to have a liking for you."

I closed my eyes after a while, groaning, "She really wanted to hang out that day, didn't she?"

"Yeah," he smiled lightly. "But I know you thought it was me who wanted to hang out."

"I feel so terrible. I'm sorry," I looked at him.

"It's okay, Renée," he ruffled my hair.

"If it's okay, we could maybe hang out with Riley," I pressed my lips together. "If your girlfriend doesn't mind," I awkwardly added.

"Who says she's my girlfriend?" He smirked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused.

"We aren't dating anymore. I broke up with her."