After Tuesday, the week pretty much flies by. Before I know it, it's late Friday afternoon and I'm walking over to Janet's house after drama club. Ethan did show up again on Wednesday but not today. Mrs Apendale has us preparing to choose our autumn performance already so I'm pretty upbeat.

Speaking of Ethan, he's been around. He insists on walking with me to school instead of taking his damn car but I've been practising patience around him. I think he's sensed that I'm trying not to let him annoy me so he's stopped hanging out as much.

When I get to Janet's house, I'm not surprised to see Ella's already there. She's been a little moody the past week but nobody blames her – it was a bad (and very public) breakup so I don't expect her to be in the happiest of moods for a while. She'll come around when she's ready.

"Hey, Alisa!" Janet gives me a hug. I say hello to her mom and go to the living room, pulling a bottle of mountain dew out of my bag and sitting on one of the couches.

When we weren't working together at McDonald's this summer, I spent a lot of time over here just relaxing and playing Super Mario and Ocarina of Time on Janet's old Nintendo 64. We unveiled it at the beginning of May and pretty much wasted our days off on it. It was fun and reminded me that I could just be a kid again, especially after such a stressful school year.

"Ella and I were just talking about this weekend!" She says to me as I sit back.

"Cool. Have you got your schedule yet?" I ask her.

"Betty said I can work eight hours on a Sunday and show up twice a week for two four hour shifts. Thinking of Thursday and Wednesday?"

I grin. "I got the Sunday and Wednesday shift too." The two of us high five and I catch sight of Ella's expression. "So how are you doing?"

She shrugs. "Today I saw Josh and Jessica sitting together at lunch,"

Oh dear. "Yeah? Well, they were probably having a terrible time and playing it up," I attempt to reassure her.

It doesn't have the desired effect because her face gets a lot sourer. "That's stupid. They were having a great time, anyone could see that."

"Well, they could've just been acting?" I try again. She glares at me.

"Oh yeah? Know anyone who's good at it? Because I don't. " She snaps and I feel physically winded. "I know what I saw."

My face heats up and I open my mouth to tell her off but remember that she's just saying things because he put her in a horrible mood. So instead, I release some breath through my nose and smile like her comment didn't bother me... or take a huge hit on my self-esteem.

Who's the bad actress now?

"So!" I turn to Janet who is looking between the both of us from behind a pillow. "What were you talking about again?"

She straightens out. "Well... the weekend. I made plans tomorrow, I was wondering if you guys would like to come!"

I grin and sit back. "Pray tell me, who were the plans with, Janet?"

Her cheeks go pink. "With a friend... who is bringing his friends?"

"Does this friend's name begin with an A and end with –Nthony?"

She throws her pillow at me but I just catch it and laugh. The two of them have been hanging out a lot – she even showed up to school early to 'share notes' about English class with him.

"Shut up, Alisa." She says, her cheeks going pink. "Do you guys wanna tag along anyway? He said he'll bring E- two friends so I thought I'd bring two friends and who better than my closest two friends?"

I shrug. "I have nothing else to do tomorrow,"

"I don't know..." Ella says, pushing her bangs back. "I'm still feeling down. What are you doing?"

"Roller skating. Then we wanted to go try out the lemon cake in that cutesy diner in town but I don't know, I might just get a whole stack of pancakes and split it with someone – Alisa do you wanna split a stack of pancakes tomorrow?"

"If you don't get the cake then why not?" I say. She claps a few times.

Ella sighs. "Fine. I'll come too."

"Yay!" Janet squeals. "This will be fun guys! We'll have a blast!"

"It better be." Ella mumbles. We gently ignore her and instead notice that my phone is vibrating with a new text message. My brother sent me a picture of a cat wearing a bright green cowboy hat and I chuckle out loud, showing it to Janet and then tossing my phone over to Ella so she can see. She doesn't seem too impressed but I don't let that get me down, the cat is still way cute.

We hang out for a few hours and end up staying for dinner. By nine o'clock, it's pitch black outside so we decide to head home, giving Janet a hug and thanking her parents for putting up with us tonight.

Ella's still in a scummy mood on the way out. "Do you think if I go blonde, Josh would like me more?"

I shake my head though I'm not sure she can see me. "Don't go blonde, you're a perfect brunette." I tell her. "Changing for Josh would just make him act all high and mighty for no reason."

She huffs but doesn't say anything. Since Ella lives closer to Janet than I do, we get to her house first.

"See you tomorrow afternoon!" I call to her as she walks up the porch to her house. She waves at me and offers me a wan smile before heading inside.

I release a sigh I've been holding all day. It's becoming more and more tedious hanging out with Ella but I don't want to abandon her in her time of need so I guess I just gotta stomach it.

The streets get brighter and busier when I get to the main part of town. I turn on my iPod and start playing some Owl City, humming along to make myself seem a little less alone. I'm having a blast all by myself and almost don't hear my name being called as I walk past a McDonalds.

"Alisa! Wait up!" When I turn around, I almost groan. Ethan's walking towards me holding a drink with a smile on his face. He waves when he's close to me. "Hey, you heard me."

I nod. "I'm not deaf."

"Yeah, well, you've got a habit of ignoring me when I call your name." He says. Before I can say something sarcastic, he clears his throat and looks at his watch. "What are you doing out so late anyway?"

"It's like nine thirty." I squint at him. He takes a sip of his drink.

"That doesn't answer my question but okay. You want a ride home? My car's parked just across the street." He gestures in the direction.

I almost say no but then I shrug. "Why not?"

He looks surprised. "I thought you'd say no."

"Well, it'll be faster than walking." I explain. Ethan grins down at me and then takes a long slurp of his drink. "What?" I ask him when his staring gets me nervous.

His grin doesn't let up. "You just wanted to spend time with me."

I should've known he was bound to say something stupid. "Oh please. I just didn't want to walk."

"Sure you didn't. Admit it, 'Leese, you enjoy my company." Ethan waves to someone behind us and then keeps walking. "Hey, you want some of my milkshake?"

"No." I fold my arms and follow him, trying to seem aloof. He raises his eyebrow at me and shakes the milkshake in front of me.

"You sure? I know strawberry is your favourite. Or at least, it was."

"I don't want any, Ethan."

"Okay, don't say I never asked!"

We reach his car a few moments later. He unlocks it and gestures for me to get into the front seat before going to a trash can and throwing his milkshake away. A few minutes later, he's pulling out of his parking spot and we're driving home.

"So..." He starts. I shift around in my seat and wonder if he'll let me fiddle with his radio. "I've been meaning to talk to you, actually."

At first I try to seem nonchalant but my curiosity gets the best of me. "What about?"

Ethan doesn't say anything for a while. Just as I'm about to tap his shoulder and tell him to hurry up and speak before we get home, he sighs. "You know how I was a jerk when we were kids..?"

"Well, yeah."

"I wanted to kinda... apologise?"

"Only kinda?"

We make brief eye contact. "No. I want to apologise for it. I was a dumb kid and horrible with a huge – I mean, I don't blame you for hating me now."

I keep quiet. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting for him to apologise to me at all – in fact, I figured he'd just pretend that everything was always cool between the two of us until he eventually got fed up of my hostility and left me alone. That I could handle. This... well... every time Ethan was remotely nice to me when we were kids it would end with me covered in something and almost in tears.

"So here is me officially saying sorry. It's not much but I wanna make peace." He says simply.

"Peace, huh?"

"We can try to be friends." He glances at me. "If you want."

I rub my chin, trying to think of something smart to say. "What if I reject your offer of friendship like you did when we were six?"

"Oh come on, you had cooties and were acting all mature! I had to say no."

"You didn't have to push me into the sandbox on my first day of school though?"

Ethan smiles. "I didn't but it was still fun."

"You're a jerk," I slap his shoulder lightly and he laughs.

"So is that a yes? Can we be friends?"

I shrug. "You've gotta work for that title but as for now... we're acquaintances."

"Work for it? I'm driving you home?" He looks appalled and it makes me giggle a little.

"You're off to a good start already then."

We continue talking all the way home. It surprises me how easy it is for me to brush everything under the rug and talk to Ethan like we're old friends or something. I even find myself reminiscing with him about the time I threw a meatloaf at his face and he chased me around the school all lunch break in fifth grade. It's like we didn't hate each other.

"This is me." I say when he parks in front of my house. I'm almost reluctant to get out of his car. "I'll see you on Monday." I say and open the door.

He bites his bottom lip, watching me as I get out. I wave and as I'm about to close the door, he reaches over and stops me. "Hey, I'm going roller skating tomorrow with some friends."

Where have I heard this before? "Is Janet going?" Ethan nods. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Ethan grins. "Cool. Bye Alisa."

With one last wave, I close his car door and head up to my front door.

a/n: hey guys. sorry about the lack of updates, I'm getting ready to go back to university this weekend and I've been busy with last minute things. I originally wanted to do two updates a week but I might go for one instead until things calm down! Hope you enjoyed this :)

(14th/09/2017)