"And hello to my beautiful best friend," Romano grinned with crossed arms, leaning against his car.

"You're too nice. Beautiful?" I questioned with a grin.

He playfully glared at me. "Please, Ro, you act like you're not hot as hell."

"Thank you, Ro," I skipped over to him, planting a kiss on his cheek.

The two of us had taken to calling each other Ro. It was our thing.

I couldn't believe we'd only known each other for a day. Romano was quickly becoming one of my favorite people in this town. After exchanging numbers yesterday, Lily, Romano and I made a group chat. We had spent the entire day texting and I vastly warmed up to the idea of us forming an unstoppable trio. As promised, we were all going shopping this afternoon.

I suddenly gasped, taking note of the Porsche Romano was leaning on.

"Is this your car?" I gaped in awe. "It's beautiful."

The sleek car glittered under the sun. I lifted up an arm to touch its red exterior, but my hand was promptly slapped away.

"Don't touch her!" He screeched.

"Ro!" I gasped.

He nervously chuckled and looked away. "I mean, not that I care."

I rolled my hazel eyes. "Car freak."

"Take it back," he whined.

I snorted and pushed him aside to open the passenger door of his car. Romano eventually smiled and walked around to enter through the driver's side. As I twisted my body to place on my seatbelt, I suddenly shrieked and my body jolted.

"Antonio?" I incredulously questioned.

He was in the back seat, but that was not all. His hands were tied up in front of him, and there was a thick line of tape over his mouth. Bruises lined his face.

Just then, Romano cheerfully entered the car, flicking on the radio like nothing was wrong. I gave him a look and flicked it right off.

"What was that for? I love that song." He frowned as he began the short drive to Lily's house.

"You're holding your cousin hostage!" I screeched.

"How else would I get him to come shopping with us?" Romano shouted in defence.

I was rendered speechless and rapidly blinked. Without a moment to dwell, I turned around to untie Antonio. Ripping the tape off his mouth, I winced at the painful sound it made.

"Ro, don't you dare free him!" Romano nervously warned me.

Too late. Antonio flexed his reddened wrists. A murderous look flashed across his face, and without a second thought, he launched onto Romano. Romano yelped and swerved the car. Meanwhile, I screamed and held on for dear life.

Only one minute into this drive, and these two were trying to have me killed. Oh boy.

• • •

"Strut!" Romano playfully demanded, cheering at Lily.

She sashayed down the runway to the two of us.

"How do I look?" She pouted, flipping back her blonde hair.

"Perfect!" I smiled.

"Ugh, you are just to die for," Romano pretended to faint. "Anyways, my turn."

"What? No," Lily frowned. "I just put on this dress."

I sighed. "Not again..."

The three of us were in a designer store I couldn't be bothered to remember the name of. After a long day of shopping, I resigned to sitting back and enjoying the fashion show the two put on for me.

There was only one changing room, so Lily and Ro had devised a pattern. They would each take turns trying on clothing, one-by-one. Though, the process was long and tedious and they'd erupted into many arguments.

"But it's my turn," Romano looked at her, his right eye twitching.

"Isn't it so much easier if I try on all my clothes first? Then you can go right after me," Lily hopefully smiled.

"Cute," Romano falsely smiled. "Now get changed before I rip that red dress off of you."

I stifled a giggle. The two maintained a heated stare-off. Then, in a split second, Romano got up and raced Lily to the door.

"No fair!" She shouted, kicking him in the shin.

I watched in disbelief as he wailed and fell. Though, as she attempted to run by him, he grabbed her ankle.

"Two can play at that game," he huffed.

My hazel eyes bulged. The two of them began to roll around and hit each other.

A lady who happened to be passing by gasped in horror and ran out of the store, as if they were rabid dogs.

"My goodness," I facepalmed, giggling as Lily pulled at Romano's gelled curls.

Tears sprung to my eyes from how hard I was laughing. The two of them were crazy. Although watching them fight was incredibly amusing, I found my smile slowly begin to fade. It suddenly hit me that all of this was temporary. Knowing Jo, we were going to leave this town in just a few months. All these lovely friendships I made, they weren't going to last.

My figure slouched and a cold feeling resided over me, as the sound of Romano and Lily laughing became background noise.

"What's wrong, Flower?"

I jumped and turned around, surprised to see Antonio had come back from wherever it was he'd snuck away to. His tall figure towered over me from behind, and he gave me a look so concentrated I felt like he could hear my every thought.

"Nothing," I plastered on a smile and looked away, unable to hold his soul-reading gaze.

"That smile can hide all your pain, but those eyes of your's tell me all I need to know," he casually stated.

I slowly looked back at him with a scoff. "Yeah, and what's that?"

He placed a finger underneath my chin and replied in a low tone. "I don't know, but you're hiding something. I'm gonna find out what it is."

My breath hitched and Antonio smirked before removing his hand. As if. No one was ever going to find out about me—about what I've been through. I've never told anyone, and I planned to keep it that way. Sensing I wasn't going to budge any time soon, Antonio lazily let it go and plopped down beside me. I shook my head to rid myself of the strange conversation.

"Where were you?" I couldn't help but ask him.

"Why? You missed me?" He smirked cockily.

"In your dreams, Brown," I sneered.

"Feisty," he coyly grinned.

I huffed. "How is it possible you get more annoying every day?"

He pouted. "You wound me, Flower."

My eye twitched. I noticed that he hadn't answered my question—where did he go? Though, his droopy eyes and smoky odor told me enough. He'd probably snuck off for a smoke. I let it slide and faced forward, where Romano and Lily were still fighting.

I sighed and fell back on the couch, tired after a long day of shopping.

• • •