"do you not like subway?" wilbur asks me.

"i do!" i reassure him. "it's just... reminiscent of something now." i smile and think back to yesterday.

we all go inside and get sandwiches and chips. i get a chicken sandwich with salt and vinegar chips, and tommy gets a roast beef sandwich with salt and vinegar chips.

"you like salt and vinegar crisps?" tommy asks.

"chips. and yes," i reply with a smirk.

"they're called CRISPS, idiot."

"no they're not."

"you're in the UK. you're going to call them crisps."

"just because i'm in britain doesn't mean i suddenly have british lingo. i'm still american."

"that's a shame."

"shut up." i lightly nudge tommy in the shoulder and he laughs

we all sit down and eat somewhat quickly. we're all excited to see what we're doing next.

once everyone finishes, we all turn towards wilbur.

"what?" he asks.

"where are we going next?" toby asks.

"oh right. the cinema."

"wait," karl says. "did we rent a whole movie theater?"

"what?" wilbur asks with a raised eyebrow. "no. we did not do that. this isn't mr. beast, karl." karl groans and crosses his arms. "oh now don't baby rage now."

"i'm not baby raging. i was only asking a question." nick pats karl's shoulder.

"there there, little one," nick says. karl rolls his eyes and laughs.

we all go to the movie theater and argue about what movie to watch.

"i want to watch moana!" tommy whines.

"no! let's watch the bee movie!" toby shouts.

"that movie sucks!" i yell. "i vote on watching birds of prey."

"you've seen that movie a thousand times!" alex argues. "we should watch cats for shits and giggles."

"NO!" everyone says. we all start yelling and arguing until we hear clay's voice.

"any oppositions to ready player one?" clay asks above everyone shouting. the yelling dies down.

"no..." we all murmur.

"then it's settled." clay walks up to the ticket window and buys ten tickets to watch ready player one.

we all head into the theater. niki and wilbur go to buy popcorn and candy while the rest of us either wait, go to the bathroom, or head inside. i decide to go inside the theater with karl so we can see where we're sitting.

"we're towards the back," karl says, pointing at the ticket.

"good. the back is higher up so it's alway better," i respond. karl nods.

we find our seats and sit down, waiting for everyone to arrive. karl's on one side of me with tommy on the other.

"have you ever seen this movie?" tommy asks as the opening commercials play.

"no, have you?" i respond.

"of course. it's a gamer movie. and i am quite the gamer." i laugh.

"you sure are, tommyinnit."

the movie plays and we all watch intensely. tommy holds my hand through most of it, squeezing it when the scary parts come on.

once the movie ends, everyone is buzzing as we leave the theater. we all enjoyed the movie a lot.

we throw away our trash and decide to walk around a bit. the theater is a part of a large outdoor mall, so we all split up to browse the shops.

as i wait for tommy to try on a shirt, i open the text from lindsay again. i read it over about three times. i don't even notice when tommy asks for my opinion on his shirt.

"val!" he says loudly. i jump and look up.

"huh?" i say, glancing at his mustard yellow shirt. "that looks good on you."

"is something on your mind?" tommy walks towards me.

"uh, sorta."

"wanna talk about it?"

i say nothing but hand tommy my phone with lindsay's text on it. he takes the phone and reads the text over.

"jesus..." he whispers. "is this why you were upset last night?" i nod. "well, what'd she say?"

"basically saying none of you were my friends and you would all drop me instantly." tommy's eyes go wide after i explain the entire phone call.

"my god, i'm sorry. none of that is true." tommy puts his arm around me and rests his chin on my head.

"i know it's not. just stung a little."

"stung in past tense?"

"stings, i guess. it still hurts."

"i'd be concerned if it didn't. are you going to respond?"

"i'm not sure. if i did, i don't know what i'd say."

"do you want to forgive her?"

"i don't really know. we've been friends for a long time but... yeah. the phone call was really intense." tommy nods.

"give it time," he says. "you'll know in time what to respond, if you ever want to respond. i suggest you respond at some point, though. because that's the whole reason she was mad at first, right? because you didn't say anything to her?" i smile and nod.

"you give good advice, tommy," i say.

"i try my best," tommy responds smugly. i roll my eyes and laugh.

"you should get that shirt." i point at the yellow shirt he still has on. he beams brightly.

"you think yellow's my color?"

"might be a close second, after the red and white combination." tommy laughs and goes back inside the dressing room, changes, and buys the shirt.

as we're leaving to meet up with everyone, tommy grabs my shoulder and stops me. i turn to him with a raised eyebrow.

"i got something for you," tommy says quietly, his face reddening.

"tommy, you didn't have to," i say with a smile.

"i wanted to." he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a small box.

"are you proposing?" tommy laughs.

"not yet."

i smile at the way he says "yet."

tommy opens the box and reveals a beautiful necklace with two connected hearts. i gasp.

"this is so beautiful, oh my god," i say, covering my mouth with my hands. "thank you so much. i wish you told me so i could've gotten you something..."

"i don't want anything. you're more than enough." tommy kisses my lips gently and i smile.

"now, we should probably meet our friends, huh?" he suggests. i nod and we walk to the middle of the outdoor mall, finding our friends all waiting.