"Seriously? You didn't even think to pack until now?" Aiden asked, unimpressed.

"Shut. Up" Aru whisper-yelled ferociously. "I was busy!"

"With what?"

"...things you don't need to know" She said after a pause.

"A guy?"

"No" She rolled her eyes. "Kinda gave up on love"

"I suppose that's my fault?"

"Pretty much" Aru replied. "Anyway. Why are you sitting here?"

"Because Brynne forced me to" Aiden said.

"Of course she did" Aru sighed. "Doesn't she know we're like, barely friends anymore?"

"Well. Maybe we could?"

"What, be friends?"

"Yeah" He suggested. "It's not boring for you to be academic rivals with me?"

"Sort of. It's still fun" She stuffed another formal dress into her suitcase. "But I mean. Being friends could be bad for both of us"

"I mean, well" He thought about it. It would be bad. "I'm fine with that. I don't think we'll fall-"

"Ah, let's not bring that up" Aru shivered. "Please no"

"How long are you going to ignore that fact?"

"For fucking ever" She replied.

"I'm sorry. For the way I acted at that time" Aiden apologized quietly.

Aru looked at him intensely, probably checking if he was sincere or not. After confirming, she replied "It's a bit too late for you to say that. It's been 2 years. We got over that"

Aiden forgot how whole yet insecure he felt under her gaze. Like was his hair okay? Did she not like that? But he also felt so whole, because Aru understands him.

'Too much, bud' his brain told him. 'And you didn't even answer the question'

Aiden felt embarrassed by himself and stopped thinking about it entirely.

He replied, "Yeah, but still. You were hurt by me, right?"

Aru stood up abruptly. "Stop. Stop talking about it"

"Okay. But friends?"

"Whatever" And Aiden took that as a yes.

Around a week later~

"Ugh" Aru groaned, seeing their friends leave after dropping them off (and also tearful 'I'll miss you's) "There goes most the only people I love"

"Our flight's in an hour" Aiden got up. "What would you like to do?"

"Lose you somewhere" Aru got up as well.

"You don't mean that"

"What if I do?"

"We're friends now?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"Right" She responded. "I guess"

"I'm going to get something here" Aiden took his suitcase. "Are you coming?"

"Coming"

They entered a grocery shop to get snacks for the trip. Aiden felt this being so familiar, yet so different and distant at the same time.

"We did this before" Aru said.

"I thought you don't like to bring that time up"

"I needed to bring it up before you did since that makes it worse somehow"

Aiden looked to where she was standing. She was looking down at her phone, facing toward the shelf of food, and then tilted her head upwards.

"You're so short"

Aru scowled. "I'm not short"

"How tall are you?"

"5'3"

"You wanna know-"

"No, I don't want to know how tall you are"

"So, does it change the fact that your height is technically below average?"

Aru smacked his arm. He froze.

~~~

"Stop!" She laughed wholeheartedly. He kept putting the can back on the top shelf.

"Try and reach it"

"You're so mean"

And she smacked his arm.

~~~

Aru quickly pulled away her hand, probably getting the same memory. "Uh. Sorry"

"It's okay" he turned to the shelf. "You wanted this one?"

"Yeah"

Aiden got it for her and put it in the cart. "Let's move"

It was awkward until Aiden said, "30 minutes till we have to go" once they were out. She was looking downcast, looking slightly uncomfortable and worried. 

"What's up?"

"Nothing" Aru answered quickly. "This is going to sound weird but, could I just hold your arm?"

"What?" Aiden's eyes widened.

"Just for like, two minutes" She glanced at a guy. "That guy confessed to me once and I just said 'I like someone else' without liking someone else and it would be super awkward so"

"I mean" Aiden realized it would be more awkward since he was here. He offered his arm.

Aru looked thankful and gestured to another shop. "Until there"

As they reached, Aru pulled away her arm (less aggressively, he noticed) and thanked him. "We won't bring this up again?"

"We won't" Aru replied. "Let's get to the flight"

As they got in the plane, Aiden immediately felt his excited turn. "I'm taking the window seat, right?"

"Yeah" Aru said. "Uhm. I can't anyways"

"I know. You don't like heights, right?"

"Yeah. I didn't expect you to remember that"

Aiden didn't reply, since he would probably say something along the lines of 'I can't forget anything about you, no matter how hard I try' and he was not keen on saying that.

The plane was about to take off and they were off to a rocky start. Aiden felt his stomach swoop and he felt slightly thrilled but also needed to steady himself. He saw Aru feeling the same way.

"We're just friends, right?" Aiden asked, a bit loudly to let her hear. "Like in middle school?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Okay. Hand" He grabbed her hand to steady the both of them as the plane took off.

"I-what?" Aru was confused, but squeezed his hand back nevertheless. Probably a force of habit, since they had always done this before. Not on a plane, just when the other was scared.

It felt so familiar and warm. But unfortunately, maybe a bit too warm, since heat rushed to his face and he felt himself getting redder.

When it was normal again, they pulled away their hands. Aru started reading a book and Aiden started taking pictures. He saw her glance over but then looked away quickly, due to her fear.

It was so fun being together as friends again.

I am slaying the whole 'once a week update' thing fr 💪

Also it's so hard to write the awkward phase thing before the main plot. It's so annoying. And yes, plane scenes are hard af, even though I've been on many planes before lmao. 

I haven't been with an academic-rival-but-really-we're-kinda-friends-now-to-work-together-in-a-competition-but-[redacted because spoilers]-and-its-kinda-awkward-now, so idk how to write this-

How was the chapter?

-Loife xx