W Y A T T

Ever since yesterday, I have been on cloud nine. If heaven exists, I'm in it. In the very faint possibility of us humans, existing on a living dream, I am proof.

"And then I said, "Chloé, I love you so much baby, we should get married!""

The word married on the same sentence as my sister's name immediately caught my attention and the flashbacks of last night stopped playing in my head. I shot my attention to Ben who cracked up as soon as my eyes met his.

"Finally!" He had to catch his breath. "I thought I was gonna have to start belting out loud details of things that should be private between a couple."

"Yeah, no one would want that." Noah said with a huff before taking a sip of his orange juice.

I rolled my eyes at them. "What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Your body was here but your head wasn't." Ben explained after taking a large bite of his toast. But before he could go on and on, trying to get an answer out of me, the sound of footsteps approaching was heard.

"Aw, thank you for waiting for us." My sister, Chloé, pointed at the table that was now already covered in full plates with food from the buffett. Her sarcastic tone didn't go by unnoticed. "We couldn't be more flattered."

Saved by the bell.

"I did wait for you." I said, showing pride in my statement while the guys shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"I can see that. Thank you, brother." Chloé gave me a kiss on the cheek and proceeded to take a seat across from me, right next to Ben.

Zoey went off to sit next to Noah, and Harper didn't have any other place to sit but right next to me. She cleared her throat quietly before asking, "Um, is this seat taken?"

It took me a fraction of a second to register that she'd even asked that question. I knew that she was trying her best to play it cool and sound nonchalant but God, she couldn't lie if her life depended on it. I suppressed a chuckle, and answered her with only my smile showing a hint of amusement. "No, you can sit here."

She took her phone from the back pocket of her denim jeans and put it on the table, next to a plate of the scrambled eggs, and proceeded to sit next to me.

"What kind of question is that?" Chloé asked out loud, laughing and earning laughs from everyone else. "Who could be taking the seat?"

"Carter and Kyle aren't here, Chloé."

Nice safe, babygirl.

I had to twitch my lips to not let it show how proud I was of Harper's last minute comeback.

"Has anyone heard from them?" Zoey asked, looking around the six of us.

"They're probably just fucking."

Kyle and Carter showed up a few minutes later looking like they did anything but sleep last night.

* * *

"I feel like my eyes will only be able to see in red and white from now on." Ben said, putting on these bright red sunglasses.

The Coca-Cola store might not be the most common attraction when people come to Vegas, but we didn't exactly come here to go to the casinos or clubbing, we came on this trip to be together as friends and enjoy each other's company and to just, overall, have fun. Obviously, coming to these types of stores basically meant that we'd be paying way too much money for merchandise of a worldwide brand.

"This store truly is something else."

Mugs, water bottles, t-shirts, aprons, dishes, glasses, you name it... they sell anything with Coke's logo on it in this store.

Never in my entire life I thought a Coca Cola Fountain would exist, let alone that I'd get to see it. But not only is it standing before me, I am also getting to drink from it. It's important to say it is not an actual fountain, it just is named like that because they got every flavor of coke in the world. Literally.

Vegas is wild.

Shortly after we took our seats, a guy in his early thirties, wearing nothing but the store's merch with a name tag hanging on the strap of his apron that read Alex, brought two trays with eight cups each, with all the sixteen samples of Coke.

We busied ourselves, tasting the colorful beverages and passing the cups around. The following hour was filled with a bunch of funny faces, smiles, laughs, and some "Ew!"s here and there, but also some satisfying "Ahhh!"s that encapsulated the delight of taking a sip of what tasted like bubblegum soda - pure sugar.

We spent a good thirty minutes hanging out, mostly teasing each other, joking and laughing, and after Alex politely came to our table and asked us to leave so other customers could sit down and have a tasting experience like us, we apologized, waved him goodbye and thanked him for his service before we walked down the staircase to the ground floor.

"Hey Harper, isn't this the t-shirt you were looking for?"

Zoey was referring to a red, washed out, vintage looking t-shirt with the Coca-Cola logo in white, stamped in the front. The shirt didn't look like that big of a deal, it was just a pretty standard Coke t-shirt, but Harper's eyes lit up the moment she found it, and I knew it must mean something to her.

"Yes!" Harper grabbed it from the rack and looked at it with gleaming eyes. "Thank you, Zoey! God... how'd I miss this when we walked in?"

I wanted to know. I wanted to know why this t-shirt meant so much to her, even if it didn't carry any special meaning. God, I am so in love with this girl, I want to know everything about her. I wanted to walk over to her and just ask her, but I didn't want to seem too interested, too eager, to the point where the others might suspect that we were more than friends.

But just like the soulmates we are, Harper seemed to have read my mind, and I was caught off guard when she turned the t-shirt in my direction and waved it in front of me.

"Do you like it?" She asked, her voice tingling with excitement.

"Uh, yeah, I do." I smiled. "You've been looking for it?"

"Yeah! I used to have one exactly like this as a kid and I used to wear it all the time until I outgrew it." She shrugged softly, as if it didn't matter. But it did. It did matter.

"My aunt and uncle bought it for her when she was four." Zoey joined in and explained. "At the time it was too big for her, but then she grew and it eventually fit her. Until it didn't anymore."

"I used to wear it all the time, you have no idea." Harper clutched the t-shirt to her chest like it was the most precious thing in the world. Like that piece if clothing alone carried precious, special memories that she was replaying in her mind, like a movie.

"True story. There wasn't a family vacation we went on that she didn't take it with her."

Zoey dropped that information and walked away to meet Noah by the mugs stand, leaving me and Harper alone next to the clothing racks. My lips curled into a smile, mirroring Harper's. "Are you gonna get it?"

"Oh, I don't know..." She looked down at the t-shirt once again, while reconsidering, as if she was debating with herself if it was worth it or not. "Probably not, it's too expensive."

She was right - forty dollars for a t-shirt that she could probably buy for less than half the price at a gas station is a bit too much.

"I agree." I said, resting my arm on the silver rack to my right. "But you wanted it because that other one had a meaning right? It carried tons of memories for you."

She nodded, but I could tell she wasn't quite following my train of thought yet.

"Well, if you were to get this one, despite being a bit expensive, it would already come with some pretty good memories included." I gave Harper a knowing look before winking at her and showing her a cheeky grin.

I would never need any souvenirs to remember this Vegas visit. This was the trip where Harper and I finally got together. Hell, I pray to God I never get Alzheimer's so I never ever forget this. And I knew all too well that Harper didn't need a memento to remember it either, but she already wanted that t-shirt in the first place.

"Yeah, okay. I like that idea."

"Good." I grabbed the t-shirt from off her hands and went straight to the teller.

Just as I was about to pay, Harper showed up right next to me holding a red baseball cap with the brand's logo in white. It matched her t-shirt perfectly.

"Join or separate?" The cashier asked when Harper handed him the cap. She was quick to answer.

"Separate."

And that is the story of how Harper and I got a matching t-shirt and cap. 

* * *

author's note

finally a new chapter!!!! i hope you guys liked it 💖

question: what have you been up to? it's been a while since i posted a new chapter!

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xoxo, mars