"Do you remember all the city lights on the water?"

Brynne was lying dramatically across Rudy's bed, which was something he would probably care about, but he was in class, so it didn't matter.

"I'm bored." she proclaimed, flipped upside down so she could see Aiden, who was sitting on his bed right-side up.

"Then do your homework." he said, editing a photo on his computer.

"Not that bored," she replied, flipping back up, "Besides, I have until Monday to do my project."

"Do you want to stay up all night on Sunday?" he asked.

"I already did like, half of it. And you shouldn't be talking about sleep. How many nights have you gone to sleep before midnight this week?"

In response, Aiden grabbed the closet thing to him—a pillow—and threw it across the room at her.

"Just try to finish all your homework before this weekend. It's Aru's birthday on Wednesday." he told her.

"Ooooh, what are you going to do for her? Ooh, what are you going to do for her the day before her birthday?"

Aru's birthday was February 15th, so Aiden had to participate in her birthday party planning and plan out something for Valentine's Day, since they were faking the whole dating thing.

"I don't know yet," he admitted, "To be honest, Valentine's Day is overrated."

He actually hated Valentine's Day. Everyone was always talking about how love was in the air, and couples decided it was an excuse to be over-the-top dramatic. There were almost always rumors about him in middle and high school. But that wasn't the worst part. It was when someone in class inevitably complained about how in love their parents were, and Aiden had to sit there and laugh, as if he wouldn't give anything to trade places with that kid.

"Oh. Hira and I are going to that drive-in movie place. You wanna come? We can do a double date or something."

Aiden looked up. "So you guys are officially a couple or what?" he asked, a cheeky smiling stretching across his face. He didn't really talking about his (fake) romance, but he could tease his best friend about her's anytime.

Brynne pursed her lips to hide her smile. "Not official...but not not official?"

Before Aiden could ask her whatever that meant, the door opened and Rudy walked in.

"Get off my bed!" He told Brynne, swatting his hand at her as if she was a fly. In reality, she was taller than him and Aiden, which was a fact Brynne never let them forget. She crawled off the bed and moved to the floor, which was a terrible idea, considering it was Rudy's side of the floor. She then grabbed the pillow Aiden had thrown at her and flung it back to his bed.

"Also," he turned to Aiden now, "Aru's waiting for you in the library."

Aiden checked the time on his phone. "Shit." he hissed, hastily closing his computer and getting up.

"So," he heard Brynne say to Rudy as he closed the door, "is there any drama happening in your life?"

—

Aiden walked into the library to find Aru on her third packet of Swedish Fish.

"Mini would kill you for that," he commented, gesturing to the empty wrappers on the table. She shrugged in response, popping another one into her mouth.

"You want one?" She held the packet out.

Why not? He thought, taking the piece of candy and popping it into his mouth.

"Why did you want me here again?" They didn't plan this out like normal. Aru had texted him in the morning to go to the library at 3, so here he was.

"I was going to hang out with Mini, but she abandoned me for this book sale at the public library."

So I was your next choice? That was...actually a pretty nice feeling. Nice was kind of a meaningless word, but he didn't know what else to use. He liked hanging out with her, even if they were just friends.

"Oh. Okay. So, what do you want to do?"

Aru paused, then looked at her computer. "I came here to do homework, but that's not something I really wanna do right now."

She really wasn't giving him any clear answers.

"But I am bored. Wanna find something to do outside of here?"

So eating Swedish Fish wasn't a hobby she had. Aiden wasn't that hungry, but he didn't want to ditch Aru...

"Sure."

"You saw me start to believe for the first time...."

—

PJO TV December 20th and Young Royals S3 March (1st?) 2024. Mark your calendars