Two hours later, I'm sitting between Hannah and Candela, laughing at one of Kellan's stories about football camp. The parlour is crowded with kids from our school decked in graduation caps and fancy gowns. I look around the room, at all the happy faces and inhale the atmosphere, enjoying this time with my friends.

"You know, I can't believe you haven't taken Hannah to Disney yet!" Blossom says to Hannah's friend Imani when we're all finished laughing.

Imani giggles, brushing her braids away from her face. She smiles, showing only a little bit of teeth and leans forward, resting her elbows on the table. "I've always meant to, but things happen. I didn't think it was that important?"

I focus on my ice cream as Blossom launches into a very passionate speech about how much Disney World and all it's parks mean to her. It's a combination of rocky road and apple pie, which sounds bad but I think it tastes pretty good. When I got my job here last year, I made it my goal to try every combination I possibly could before I left at the end of this summer. So far I've gone through good ones and bad ones, and I'm definitely ruining my stomach lining, but it's fun.

My friends don't share the same sentiment though, because Candela looks at me with pure disgust. "You cannot be serious, Nathaniel."

"Don't call me that." I say, guiding a very serious spoonful into my mouth.

"You're gonna get a stomach ache!" She protests. "And then where will you be?"

"At home, in my bed with a stomach ache." I reply. She rolls her eyes. "Why do you care anyway?"

"Because." Candela sticks her nose in the air and looks past me. "Hannah, can you believe Nathaniel's eating this crap?"

Hannah, who seemed very interested in Blossom's lists of do's and don'ts for the Tower of Terror turns to us. "What's he eating?"

"It's apple pie and rocky road." I say. She raises her eyebrows. "Wanna try?"

She looks between me, Candela and my unserious ice cream combination several times. "What the heck, why not?" She says.

I cheer as she prods her plastic spoon into my ice cream, taking a big spoonful. Candela pushes my arm slightly as we watch her raise it to her lips. She swirls it around in her mouth for a few seconds, like she's tasting wine, before swallowing dramatically. And then, with the best poker face I've ever seen, she turns to us.

"It's great." She announces.

I cheer, Candela rolls her eyes and shoves me so I stop cheering, but it doesn't work. Instead I just laugh and high five a now smiling Hannah, who uses her free hand to steal some more of my ice cream.

"What made you pick these flavours?" She asks, taking some more. I decide to give the whole thing to her.

"He's weird." Candela deadpans.

"Or, I just like to experiment with my palate." I send her a look. She just rolls her eyes. "I've always been a big eater."

"I noticed at lunch that one time." Hannah says. "You eat a lot, like a lot. And you're so slim! Are you never full?"

"Well, I would be full if people didn't steal my ice cream from me all the time." I side eye her and she makes a big deal of taking a spoonful. I end up smiling. "It's because I swim."

"Nate, you talking about swimming?" Kellan interrupts from across the table. He sighs dramatically and looks to our friends. "Don't you just hate athletes, y'all? All they talk about is themselves."

"You're literally the most narcissistic athlete I know." I hit back.

"And I wear it well!" He pops his collar, causing everyone to laugh again. I roll my eyes.

"Whatever. I'm going to get another ice cream. Anyone want anything?" I ask and find my wallet. When I look up again, everyone's shaking their heads no, seemingly concerned with whatever Kellan's talking about now. I shrug and stand up, content on going by myself.

"I'll go with you, I wanna get another one of your wacky combinations again." Hannah says, standing up too.

"I recommend the birthday cake flavour with um, raspberry and then some cinnamon sprinkles on top." I tell her as we walk up to the counter. My co-worker Chris is serving some kids from school and he sticks his tongue out at me when he sees us coming.

"There's a birthday cake flavour? What?"

"Yeah, it's great! What, you never had anything like that in San Francisco?"

She shakes her head. "And I've tasted kale flavoured ice cream before."

"What? Was it good?"

"It tasted like pistachio. I think I got ripped off."

"You definitely did, pistachio sucks."

"Okay relax, Mr I'm-Too-Good-to-eat-a-Normal-Ice-Cream-Combination." She nudges me in the side. "But you're right, pistachio sucks."

I laugh. When we get to the front, she tells Chris her order, and he looks at me accusingly as he scoops it out.

"Was that your recommendation, Nate?" He asks when it's my time to order.

"Absolutely, and she's gonna love it."

He rolls his eyes and I pay for my ice cream. It's a simple vanilla cone: I wanna cleanse my palate before dinner tonight. Hannah's already eating her ice cream earnestly by the time we're walking back.

"Nate, this is literally amazing." She says in between scoops. "How did you come up with this combo?"

"I was with my best friend." I tell her. Chloe came down during spring break and she hung out here whenever I was working. It was like old times, minus Reese.

"Who, Candela?"

"No, this girl Chloe." We reach our table again and we sit down. "So I've got this thing, where I'm trying out all the flavours together, and Chloe dared me to try these two together. She didn't think I'd actually like it though, but I'm a weirdo."

"It's not that weird, I like it too."

"I think that just means you're a weirdo too." I say.

"Hey!" Hannah elbows me gently. "Where is Chloe? You guys don't hang anymore?"

"No, she's in college." I explain. "And she's got this big fashion internship in New York, so she couldn't be here for my graduation."

"Dude, I'm sorry." Hannah shakes her head. "Trust me, I know how much it sucks not being able to graduate with your best friend. Mine's all the way back home."

Candela's head snaps towards us, away from the conversation with Kellan. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nate's just telling me about his best friend Chloe." Hannah explains. "She sounds really cool."

"Yeah, she is. I think you'd get along well with her actually, she's super warm and receptive and cool. Right Candela?" I lick my ice cream and turn to her, expecting for her to agree. Instead, she's frowning, right at me. "Candy?"

She turns around and faces the table, the frown still on her face. "Right, whatever. Chloe's great."

I share a look with Hannah who shrugs. We decide to leave her alone for now, because something's obviously gotten her in a bad mood.

However, Candela's mood doesn't improve for the rest of the afternoon. She's sulking when we say goodbye to Hannah and Imani, she's irritated when we pile into Halley's car and she's downright furious after we drop Blossom off at home. I can literally feel the rays of contempt emanate from her in my direction. Against my better judgement, I ask her if she's okay, and I'm met with a sharp 'I'm fine'. We leave her alone.

Kellan texts me to ask what's wrong with her, and I reply with a real life shrug. We talk around her and sing along to the radio, figuring she'll stop being upset when she's ready. Everything's pretty much cool, until, well, it's not.

"I don't get it." She announces.

"Get what?" I ask, not looking at her. I'm sending Reese a text, telling him I'll call him right after dinner with my mom. The original plan was to call him as soon as I got home, but it's just past six now and I don't think there'll be enough time before we gotta head on out to eat.

Candela doesn't say anything and I continue drafting my text. Then finally –

"Hannah. I don't get Hannah. I don't get why she'd want to be friends with you."

Kellan stops rapping and the car is suddenly silent. Confused, I face Candela properly, locking my iPhone. She's got this spiteful look on her face and I've never seen it before. I scratch the back of my head, wondering what's wrong with her.

"What? You know I'm the world's greatest friend." I try to joke but my voice sounds off, even to me. She rolls her eyes and then glares at me.

"You know you're pretty damn hard to be friends with." She snaps.

"What?"

"Now, Candela –" Kellan starts but he's immediately interrupted.

"Yeah, you're kind of a social liability." She says.

"Well, why are you my friend if I'm such a liability?" I ask, frowning at her. "I'm not forcing you to stick around."

She scoffs but seems to be at a loss for what to say. I raise my eyebrows, waiting for an answer. This seems to irk her even more.

"You say that, but you kinda are. Hanging around me all the time. It's getting old."

She's gotta be kidding me.

"Okay, Candela." I say, sighing. I send my message to Reese, shaking my head and wondering what I did to piss her today. I thought I was being nice but apparently I was just a social liability.

"Don't dismiss me!"

"I'm not dismissing you, I just don't get where this is all coming from."

"From me!" She yells. "It's coming from me, they're my feelings and even though you love to ignore me, I'm tired of it, okay?"

"When have I ever ignored you? You've never given me the chance to!" I make brief eye contact with Halley through the rear view mirror and she pulls a face.

"Today, Nate! For the whole afternoon, you acted like I didn't exist to talk about – to be with Hannah!" She bursts. "But I don't care anyway."

"Then why are we having this conversation?"

"Because someone has to tell you! You gotta know just how much of a drag you are!" I try to say something, but she just powers on. "It's why nobody ever tells you stuff anymore, it's why Reese never even speaks to you, because you're boring and gloomy and a downer and you used to be so cool but now you're not! I hate being your friend!"

The car goes deathly silent. Candela and I keep staring at each other until tears pool in her eyes and she has to look away to fan them. Half of me is raging and I want to yell, but I let it go, swallowing the rising feeling in my chest and facing forward.

She sniffs. Halley asks Kel to hand her a tissue. I keep my eyes trained on the back of his seat until Halley's car comes to a stop right outside my house. Without sparing a glance, I get my stuff and get out of the car, slamming the door shut behind me.

Kel rolls down his window but I'm already walking away. "Nate, wait." He calls.

"I'll see y'all later." I say without looking back.

"Listen –"

"Later." I repeat and get my keys out. He doesn't push it. I hear him tell Halley to keep driving when I manage to jam my key in the lock.

I rush up the stairs, ignoring the fact that my mom's in the dining room and throw my keys on my bed. What is her problem? Where the hell did all of that come from? Did someone else piss her off? And to mention the Reese thing too - am I just her stupid punch dummy?

Immediately, I'm looking through my closet for a pair of swimming trunks. We don't have a pool but I need to cool off and I can probably swim a few laps at the training centre before it closes.

There's a tentative knock on my door when I'm picking up my keys again. My mom's leaning against the side, still wearing her dress from earlier this afternoon. I tense. It just completely escaped my mind that we were supposed to get dinner tonight.

"Nate, is everything okay?"

"Yeah." I answer too quickly and gruffly. I clear my throat. "I mean, sure. Everything is fine."

However, she doesn't push it. "Okay... you ready to leave in five minutes?"

I nod, and rub out the tense muscles in my neck. She raises her eyebrows at me and then turns to leave. When I hear her steps on the stairs, I sigh and run my hand through my hair a few times, I throw my swimming trunks back at my closet and shake Candela's comments out of my head.

I cool down substantially when we get to the restaurant for dinner. It's hard for me to be mad when I'm about to eat in one of my favourite places, and beside, I've just finished high school or whatever. I'll focus on the Candela thing tomorrow while I swim, force out all the tension in my body.

My mom's real finicky with her hair when she parks her car. She's been finicky all day, but now she's looking seriously stressed.

"Mom, is everything okay?" I ask.

She jumps but then shows me a weak smile. "Yeah! Um, I gotta tell you something though."

I raise my eyebrows. "You do? What is it?"

"We're meeting someone tonight. We're not dining alone at the restaurant."

Immediately, my interest perks up. Mom stops touching her hair and gets out of the car, forgetting her purse. I pick it up and slip out with her, quickly matching her fast pace. She's nervous, anyone could see that. I start to feel bad : it shouldn't have taken this long for me to figure it out.

"Who are we meeting?" I ask.

"It's someone important." She mumbles as we get to the doors.

I hold them open for her and she goes in first, telling the maître d that we're dining with someone already. My mind jumps to the only conclusion and I grin.

"Mom do you have a boyfriend? Are you dating someone? Do I get to meet him?" She pulls a face. "Is this why you've been getting home later than usual?"

"No, that's not it." She mumbles.

"Mom, you have a boyfriend!" I gasp and turn to see the inside of the restaurant.

My smile wavers when I see Reese and his dad sititng in a big booth further into the restaurant. They're talking to each other intensely, so they don't see us coming in.

"Oh, look Reese is here too. You know, he came to the house a few days ago?" I say and turn back to my mom. She's already staring at them, but glances nervously at me. Her eyes water a little bit. "Mom?"

"They're who we're meeting tonight." She says quietly.

"Why?" I ask, moving closer to her. She flinches and wipes her eyes. Why is she so jumpy? "Mom? What's wrong?"

"Because Nate," She takes a deep breath. "He's... Mr. Saluzzo's your dad."

a/n:
Nate at the end of this chapter

shdbdjdjdksn ok on a serious note who was expecting this?!?!!? I sure wasn't when I set out to rewrite this!!! lol hope u enjoy 💖