The moment Snow stepped foot into Malloy's house, she was enraptured by his arms when he hugged her. His warmth from his body was all around. Even in his sleep-in cotton shirt with his pajama pants, Malloy looked great. 

He invited her and the others to come over because he was getting bored.

Malloy walked with her to the living room, and Snow spotted Kyle sitting on the couch in his Nike T-shirt and gray sweatpants and Malloy's dog laying on the rug. She joined him on the couch, leaning over to hug him.

"Hey," Kyle said, patting her on the back.

"Hey," she said.

A small tap touched against her thigh, and when she looked down, cutely brown orbs were staring at her. Shelby placed her paws on the edge of the cushion and looked anticipatedly at Snow. She was a golden mountain dog, her coat in a tricolor of black, brown, and white.

"Looks like Shelby misses you." Malloy noticed, flopping beside Snow, and gave his dog a quick pat on the head.

"And I missed Shelby." Snow grinned as she caressed her soft fur. "How are you?" She talked in a baby voice.

Her tail wagged eagerly as the dog licked her other hand, showing her excitement.

The doorbell rang, and Shelby barked. "I'll get it," Malloy announced, standing up to get the door.

Snow continued heeding to Shelby with both of her hands made their way to the dog's ears. The footsteps were nearing, and she swiftly darted her eyes to the two guys.

"You remember Shelby, right?" Malloy asked Casey.

"I think so. I assume it's the dog right there." He nodded his head towards the direction of where Shelby was.

"Yeah, you didn't get a good look at her last time, right?" Malloy wondered then patted his front thighs. "Come here, Shelby," he called to her, and she dashed towards him. "Sit." On command, she did a sitting position. "Shelby, this is Casey."

He warned Casey. "She's a bit wary of strangers, but she's mostly friendly. Why don't you pet her?"

Shelby peered at Casey while her tail swished back and forth from behind. He watched her for a few seconds, and a chuckle escaped his lips. He got down on one knee and petted the top of her head. "Hi there," Casey said softly.

Malloy sat down. "I think she's warming up to him," he pointed out.

"Aww, just look at him. I think this is as close as affectionate as we'll see him," Kyle said as Shelby playfully pawed at Casey's wrist.

Casey examined her for a short bit, and soon he came out with a soft smile, seemingly warming up to her as well.

This side of him was pleasant to see. How come he didn't do it so often? It would make him good-looking, and a lot happier for his health. What could be wrong with sharing a smile every once in a while?

Snow puffed her cheeks, her head lightly falling on Malloy's shoulder and her feet kicking up to lay over Kyle's lap. Sometimes it was just comforting to feel each other's presence this way.

Casey was done petting the dog as he headed over to the space on the couch. He sat down next to Malloy and curiously glanced at the position they were all in.

Kyle waved a hand to say hey, and Snow as well.

"So, you like Shelby?" Malloy asked, looking at her who lay back down on the rug as she was earlier.

"She's cute," Casey said.

"Who wouldn't fall for her?" Malloy said appreciatively. "She got adorable eyes and is fluffy. The prettiest heart and unconditional love. I don't need other girls." He looked at her warm. "Right?" Reaching out his hand, he petted her.

"Aww." Snow beamed at him.

"Maybe you and Shelby can accompany me for the rest of my life," he said humorously.

"Really now?"

"I can see you handling him well," Kyle said.

"We can get a house big enough." Malloy swiped across the air with his hand, pretending to have a vision of a dream house.

"You guys seem really comfortable with each other," Casey pointed out.

Comfortable. Having comfortableness. It was a topic they were going to discuss, she remembered. Snow lifted her head and positioned her feet to the ground to look at him properly. "Yeah, wanna talk about it?"

He looked like he was for it as he pursed his lips, and it curved up slightly. "Sure."

"Oh my god, I love it. Group discussions," Kyle approved, smiling.

"Go for it," Malloy exclaimed. "You could be curious about our friendship."

Casey became silent for a minute, but when he thought of something, he shifted his gaze to Snow. "Snow, you said before that you were shy. Were you that way with them? How did it change?"

"That's a good question," Snow hummed. "It wasn't right away, and I just..."

"She was scared as heck with us," Malloy interrupted.

"Hey," she said defensively, and yet it was true. "Okay, yeah. I didn't know how to act so much around with guys."

Snow wouldn't have believed it herself a few years ago that they would have a close friendship. It had looked like guys had a different mind of their own from the girls, so she didn't know anything about how to talk to them. She just naturally does her own thing.

When she took the time to observe her surroundings in high school, she noticed that almost everyone had someone to talk to. The girls would have close cliques or someone that day to fill their time. And the guys had someone to joke around with and be cool with. She didn't want to be an extra in someone's else story. She wanted to be an important character that they would remember and come back to.

Blame it on books and TV series that had magical friendships with a best friend or two who was there for you a lot of the time.

Friends were pretty difficult to find and to stay.

"The first time I started hanging out with these two, I was nervous. Even though I was the odd one, they didn't think of me that way. I mainly thought internally, 'was I saying something right?', 'why would they want to talk to someone like me?' You know internal debates to yourself. It's so weird." Snow had thought that they were just ones that were casual to be around, but not ones she would get to hang out with all the time.

"I think we started to feel like real friends, it was when we had our first silly conversation together. I felt down about missing out like I was the only one not experiencing as much as others, and they sought me out," Snow smiled at the two of them, "reassuring me that everything doesn't need to have a plan. It just goes according to how we look at things and face them. Then they just started to talk about random nonsense."

Whenever she was with them, she realized how much they can give her a good laugh.

It wasn't that they hadn't before, but she was certainly feeling it at the time when they were there for her when she didn't know she needed them.

"And after high school, we're still here," Kyle stated, and she shoved him lightly.

"I hope so after college days are over too," Snow replied.

"As if we want to rid of you." Malloy poked her on the side, and she chuckled.

"So, when did it click for you guys?" Casey asked, turning to both Malloy and Kyle. "How long did it take for you guys to grow close and then with her?"

Kyle contemplated. "Man, it seems kinda long ago. When did we? I think it happened after our countless art interactions."

"You're the one that got problems with my artistic talent," Malloy declared.

"You mean you draw like a fourth-grader. Even my little brother can draw better than you," he retorted, scoffing.

"Mrs. Hubbard said my art was whimsical," Malloy defended himself.

Kyle raised an eyebrow at him funny. "I'm sure she said that to be nice."

The two of them gazed at each other for a moment and they burst out laughing.

"Good times." Malloy slapped his knee. "I think after weeks, we started to know each other better. As for Snow," he glanced towards her, displaying her a half-smile. "I already thought she was good enough."

"I think she just needed some time," Kyle agreed.

Her sixteen-year-old self with them was just her early days, acting all hesitant. She was a lot quieter and mainly just nodded at whatever they were saying. The first time she thought of them, they were weird. Their hobbies were different, and they understood each other in short sentences. Snow chuckled nervously half of the time.

Boys weren't her strong suit.

But they were a lot more giving than they appeared when they subtly encouraged her and made her feel like one of them.

"Knock it off," Snow told him. They were just saying that to make themselves look good, but another part of her hopefully thought they meant that.

"Don't be modest. Have you seen yourself?" Malloy ran his mouth. "Look at her, Casey. Is she not the cutest?" He petted her head sportively. "Look at that puppy face."

Kyle patted her on the cheek. "She even has those soft cheeks."

"Guys, you're embarrassing me," Snow muttered, gazing at them sheepishly.

Not that she didn't love it. They were praising her that they cared, but it had to be in front of Casey.

"But that's what friends are for, right?" was Malloy's witty response.

"I think when it comes to getting close to people and how comfortable, it might not matter about how long you've known each other, but it could be the feeling inside of you. You have to have a good instinct and just trust it," Kyle said thoughtfully.

"All relationships might have a rocky road somewhere. It wasn't all smooth sailing for us. We had our differences."

Snow nodded. "We even swim in circles," Malloy added, whirling his index finger in the air. "In circles, it's a loop. But we find a loophole." He gestured a sign of it.

"Do you guys argue about the same things? Is it anything big or small?" Casey asked.

She tilted her head in thought, pursing her lips to one side. When they were past the new friendship state, the arguments were usually trivial but arguments leading to conflicts, had happened before; those moments weren't pretty to remember.

It usually had to do with another person involved or the insecurities they had within themselves that was difficult on them.

"Sometimes yes, and other times it's different. When we brushed it off as something small, the problems became bigger later on," Snow answered.

"Oh, please. Some of them are so embarrassing. They should be left alone." Malloy brought a hand up to his temple, his fingertips massaging them.

"They're just your normal problems like when we're mad at each other, we don't tell each other, or we thought we're doing the right thing, but sometimes they're not," Kyle noted.

"Yeah, that's it," Snow said. "We all goofed up along the way, but I think the important lesson that we learn is to figure out where we stand with each other and try talking it out."

Their friendship had its ups and downs, but it was steady enough that they cared about each other more than the problems that stood in their way. Good sides and bad sides came out of it, but they never left the other person alone for too long. She thought their progress was what counted the most.

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Think it like that," Malloy advised.

Casey must have been thrown off in his thoughts, his face busied over the words they had said to him.

"Do you like hearing the hard truth?" Malloy asked him. "The one where it breaks the bad news. Even if you may not want to hear it?"

Casey blinked. It sucks because nobody likes the hard truth. Who does? There wasn't anyone imaginable where the hard truth would be something they'd felt eager about.

"I guess not," he said.

"At some point, it does happen to each one of us. The bottom line is, you may have to accept it."

Malloy put his palms together, fidgeting his fingers. His face in deep thought. "Kind of like thinking when you're young, thinking you'll always be happy and live an easy life when you realize that everything is actually not so easy, and you have to work hard at something."

He mimicked his mother in a demanding tone. "You're always so stubborn; You need to pick up after yourself, you're gonna live off on your own someday, you know? Stop fooling around. Not everyone is going to find you funny. It's not always sunshine and rainbows."

"Also like thinking Santa Clause is real, but then the gifts under your tree are actually from your parents, and your reality is destroyed," Casey added.

"Exactly, the reality changed for you, and you just don't know what to do for a while. So like when someone has to break the bad news to you, you just want to reject it because it's something we don't like."

Snow rested a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. "You know you care about someone's well-being that even though it may hard, it's for them because they need it. And then, that's where our level of comfort goes, to each other."

"Wow, it's been a while since we had a sit-down talk like this," Kyle said, shocked.

"Oh my god, is it?" Malloy turned to him. "I almost don't know where I went."

It had been a while since the guys were so serious and sentimental when they would rather talk about sports, videogames, or food.

"So, do you think we're closer now?" Casey wondered.

"Of course. You're a bit of a pout, but I accept you," Malloy teased.

Aww, how nice. Malloy just made Casey smiled a little just now. He was a good influence on him.

"Gosh, I'm getting hungry. Do you all want snacks?" Malloy asked suddenly.

"Heck yeah," Kyle replied.

Snow nodded. "Please."

"I'm assuming your no response is a yes then," Malloy said to Casey and moved from the couch. "I'm getting you a treat too, Shelby." Her attention shifted to him while she was playing with a stuffed toy in her mouth, dropping the toy to follow him to the kitchen.

Kyle picked up the remote from the coffee table to turn on the television, changing the channel.

Malloy returned with Goldfish crackers packets and bowls of sliced kiwis for them. The four munched away, casually relaxing with watching tv for a half hour.

Now and then, they made comments, and such. Snow loved the leisure just to relax with just the guys.

"You know what I just realized?" Malloy said, chewing. "We never had a slumber party."

That idea popped into him fresh as the tv screen showed where the main character was inviting her girl friends over to her house to have a slumber party as they showed up in their pajamas and a pillow they carried.

"Huh?" Kyle placed a finger to his chin. "Thinking about it, you're right. Why haven't we had one?"

Snow's cheeks fainted with light pink. A slumber party with just boys? That thought hadn't crossed her mind. "Aren't we past that?"

"Why? We can paint each other's nails and talk about boys if you prefer." Malloy grinned lopsidedly.

"What do you think about slumber parties?" Kyle asked Casey.

"Um, it depends, I guess," Casey murmured.

To be fair, in her early teens, Snow thought a slumber party could be exciting. She thought about doing those shared activities Malloy mentioned.

"Anyway, how far done are you two with your... uhhh relationship going?" Malloy questioned.

"We're halfway done," Snow said, nodding.

"Is it working out so far?"

"I think so, don't you think so too?" Snow looked at Casey.

Casey thought for a moment, then nodding. "You're growing on me a little bit."

A little bit. Her face up with those little words. Perhaps there was a chance she was uncovering him more. A little bit more. 

"I see you guys are moving at your own pace," Kyle commented.

Their days could still improve and move past their awkwardness stage and into a friendlier one.

Snow hoped to see them bonding like what friends do soon. "We try, don't we?"

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Hello, hopefully, you're having a great day. What do you think of this chapter? I feel like even though this was a chill chapter, this chapter also just have important moments and sayings. There's more I could talk about or explore, but that might be in other later chapters where it is more needed to fill in and said there. 

Do you agree with what they're saying about being comfortable is usually with how you go with your gut feeling? Are you the type of person to take time as well? Maybe you need important moments to help you realize how you may get along closely with the other person. No right or wrong there.

A lot of material is changing around than what I originally planned out two years ago. So I'm mostly kind of planning ahead from here to now, but they'll work out somehow. These types of things should be talked about, don't they? 

I'm going to start University again next week, so I might not be writing this story just for a while until I know what's up. And also, planning something else on the side. You can look out for it if you want. Otherwise, just wait for the next update.

Please vote and comment as it means the world to me.