"Here you go," Kat hands me a bowl of cheerios.

"Cereal for dinner? That's a first," I say sarcastically.

"Do you ever stop complaining?" She teases.

"Do you ever wear clothes?"

"This is my apartment," Kat smirks and sits next to me on the couch with her feet up.

"Yeah, and you're cool for letting me hang around."

"I know," she says arrogantly.

"I'll buy you some more Cheerios."

"No need, they were Amanda's."

"Don't tell her I was here then," I say slyly.

"You can still pay me back though."

I chuckle and tilt my head at her, "Yeah? What do you want?"

"Well, for one, you've got to come to our New Year's Eve party on Tuesday."

"Deal," I nod.

"And, you have to take me out and buy me a real dinner sometime."

"...I don't know about that," my mind hesitates on the thought.

"Why not?"

"Because of Val."

"I want a burger, not your dick," she says with a cool smile.

"I'm not sure she'd believe that," I admit. "She's really jealous sometimes."

"Does she have a reason to be?"

"I don't think I've ever given her one, but she does this thing where she'll randomly pick a fight with me about something stupid and suddenly we're arguing about other girls."

Kat nods in understanding, "my mom did that to my dad a lot before he left."

"Your dad left?" I say in surprise...not that this isn't a common thing, but I didn't know that about her.

"Yeah, when I was 8. He was supposed to pick me up from soccer practice after school, but he never showed up. I haven't seen him since."

"Shit..."

"It's not a big deal now, I'm over it. I know it's supposed to be this scarring thing but— I'll let Mandy have the daddy issues." I laugh and turn away from her. "What?" She asks, but I shake my head and continue to smile. "Tell me— what's so funny?" Kat playfully kicks me.

"You one hundred percent have daddy issues too."

She gasps and stares at me in shock before laughing, "No I don't, asshole!"

"I've never been more sure about someone, trust me." I say and start listing with my fingers, "You're fucking nuts, you never keep a guy for longer than a month, and I bet you have a lot of sex. Those are the main signs."

"What're you a shrink?" She raises an eyebrow at me.

"You're just mad that I'm right."

Kat scoffs, "it's not like you're any better, Danny."

"I'm not," I agree with a sly expression, "I'm so much fucking worse."

"Can't argue with that," she purses her lips at me. "But I'm not going to tell you to waste money crying to some dude with a degree who doesn't get it."

"I know," I chuckle, "that's why I like talking to you."

"Oh, yeah?

I nod, "you get it."

"Hi," I smile.

"Heather," he smiles back. "I was happy to get your call."

"Well, thanks for picking up."

"Always for you. Your mother said you really liked the gift, so I was waiting."

"Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Then, come in," Jace steps out of the way and further opens the door.

"Is Leona here? I'd love to say hello."

"No, only my dad is here and he's on a call."

"Oh, okay.

"Should we just go to my room then?" Jace suggests.

"Uh— I don't think so."

"Something wrong?"

Well, if this is anything like Audrey indicated or what Leo presumed, then maybe I shouldn't let you lead me into your room.

"Do you remember that day...Friday, the first week of December?" I ask rhetorically, not actually expecting him to know what I am talking about. "I spent the whole day being stared at and talked about, and then you came...looked me directly in the eye...and said: Cut the love poems out, it bothers my girlfriend."

He sighs and looks away, "I'm really sorry about that, Heather. At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing but-"

"Does buying me things like this not bother your girlfriend?" I take the hairpin out of my pocket. "Especially when you're buying her lip gloss she probably already has?"

"It doesn't bother her," he replies unconvincingly. "And what does it matter what I got her?"

I scoff through laughter, "I find it really hard to believe that you could put no thought into her gift and so much into mine without it bothering her. It just doesn't make sense...unless, of course, she doesn't know." Jace huffed and stared down at the ground to avoid responding. "...She doesn't— does she?"

"Evelyn trusts me. She doesn't need to know everything, and she doesn't ask."

"Jace," I sigh, "I can't accept this. It looks bad that you're buying me jewelry behind her back." I hand him the pin, "you should consider giving this to the girl you're dating."

He holds it in his palm and presses his lips into a line. "You know, I'm never one to listen to Trevor...but something that he said really got to me." I raise my eyebrows and wait for him to continue. "Evie and I won't last. That's always been in the back of my mind...I tried to deny it before, but I think secretly knowing the truth was relieving. Hypothetically, though...say we did last forever— and she isn't the one, I'd know I've made a mistake somewhere in the past. Then what?"

"I'm not sure how you expect me to answer that," I say honestly. "Talk to her and figure it out...but I can't help you."

"So, the only reason you came here was to give me back the gift?"

"No, I came here to see if there was a reason I shouldn't keep it," and after this conversation, it's no wonder why Leo was upset.

...I should have made him talk to me.

"I don't understand," Jace shrugs.

"If you ever decide to tell Evie you had that made for me, and she's fine with it, then you're right— she's not the one...because someone who likes you can't help but care."

"Are we going to Jordan's for New Year's?" Matt asks.

"Yeah, I guess," I shrug.

"You know Amanda is having something at her place too," Danny mentions.

"Oh, yeah? Why'd she tell you and not me?" I furrow my eyebrows.

"Kat told me when I saw her earlier," He explained, and Zach scoffed and shook his head in disappointment. "What's your problem, kid?"

"You shouldn't be around her."

"And why not?" Danny narrows his eyes.

"You want to fuck her," Zach replies bluntly.

My eyes widen and I look at him in surprise.

"Woah..." Matt breaks the silence and does a long, dragged out, fake laugh. "Danny and Kat sitting in a tree F-U-C-K-I-N-G."

"You don't know shit, Zach, and definitely not about that so shut up," Danny says annoyedly.

"I know you have a girlfriend," Zach mumbles under his breath.

I hear Danny huff and I decide to diffuse the situation before this goes too far.

"Alright, cut it out," I say to them both. "We'll go to Mandy's first and then head over to Jordan's party. Val will come with, so there's nothing to worry about."

"There never was," Danny says defensively.

I'd like to say I agree with him, but he has always had a thing for Kat— and Zach wouldn't just make this up. If he suspects something...then maybe there's a reason whether Danny realizes it or not.

"All I know is— if this party sucks, '97 is gonna be a shitty year," Matt says worriedly.

I scoff through laughter, "in other words, if Matt doesn't get laid, he's going to mope around for the next 365 days."

"What am I supposed to do?" He puts his arms up in defeat. "Everyone has a fucking girlfriend all of a sudden. You, Jordan, Danny's got two— it's just Zach and me now, and even with a fake, he can't get into anywhere."

I roll my eyes instead of arguing that I don't have a girlfriend. No matter how many times I say it, they'll just ignore me.

"What's your point, Matt?" I say in amusement.

"I need new friends," he says like it's obvious. "You jerkoffs don't have time anymore. You're too busy putting up with their PMS in hopes that they'll blow you."

I shake my head and laugh, "saying shit like that is why you don't get blown."

"And would you stop complaining? We're hanging out right now," Danny adds.

"We're back at school on Thursday, and I've only seen you guys like five times this whole vacation."

Danny slaps the back of his head, "yeah, because you were missing for a week."

"Ow!" He shouts at him.

"Fucking sleep over if you want to, Matt," I laugh, "just shut up."

"Sleep over? Shouldn't you run that by Heather first in case she wants to sleep over too?" He says slyly and I shake my head in annoyance.

"It'd be a tight fit, but she can lay in the middle," he suggests right before the sound of knocking erupts through the house. "Is that her now? She's up for it?"

"Don't be a dick, Matt," I sigh and get up to open the front door.

And if it is her...

I don't seem to be very good at staying mad at her. But, maybe it'll be easier if she's still styled by Jace and clueless to why it matters.

"Uh- package for Leonardo Rylin?" The mailman holds it out to me.

"Yeah, thanks, man," I nod and take it from him, standing in the doorway for a bit as I read the label. "From Heather Blakely," I say aloud. "Don't open until Christmas..."

The post office really screwed you there, didn't they, butterfly?

And I told you not to get me anything.

"Hey, Leo," Zach walks out, "I'll see you later."

"You going home?"

"Not really...there's this guy I've kind of been hanging out with. I'm going to see him."

"Not Evan?" I furrow my eyebrows.

"Not Evan," he confirms.

"Okay," I nod, not really knowing if I should ask about it.

"What's that?" He points toward the box.

"I'm about to find out," I say as I take it over to the counter and grab a knife to cut through the tape.

Zach eagerly looks over as I pull the flaps of the box open.

"Oh, cool, is that a CD Walkman?" He asks excitedly.

"Yeah," I laugh lightly.

Zach reaches into the box to pull out something else, "If I wrote songs instead of poetry..." he read the writing on the front.

"Let me see that," I reach my hand out and he passes me the CD case.

"It must have taken forever," Zach comments.

"Mhm," I agree. It takes a lot to burn a CD mix...but the sound quality is worth it.

"Are you going to call her?"

My eyes scan over the tracks she wrote and numbered. She's such a fucking romantic. Even without knowing all of them, I can see she added only the softest songs she loved.

...Let me be upset with you, Heather.

I shake my head, "not tonight, no."

Zach scrunches up his face, "Why not?"

"Because I won't."

"Well...you should bring her to the New Year's party," he suggests. "You know, like Danny is taking Val...so he doesn't do something dumb with another girl."

I sigh, "Come on, Zach. Yeah, I'm a little mad at her, but I wouldn't do that to Heather."

______________

- Who do you picture the characters as?

- Are any of you interested in the soundtrack?

I've recently divided most of the songs into two different categories (Leo's mixtape/Heather's mix).

I'm not sure if the music is only important to me...like for the chapter "Red Leaves in Autumn," Leo imagined they were dancing to "Strange Currencies by R.E.M." but how important is that detail, do you know what I mean?