We get home the next day around 12:00. Tomorrow is our last day of break. "Hi!" Mom yells when she sees me. It feels like forever since I've seen her.

"Hi, Mom," I say. I hug her.

"I think you grew," she tells me. I smile and bring my bags inside. I put them in my room and then walk downstairs. There's scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, and toast there's also a big pot of coffee that's been brewed. My dad looks up from his newspaper.

"Hey peanut," he says. I go over and kiss him in the cheek.

"Hi Dad," I say. I sit down across the table from him. He pushes the coffee and milk towards me. I pour my mug full of coffee and add a little bit of milk. Mom sits down. I fill my plate with food and start eating.

"How was the trip?" Mom asks me.

"Good. Theo'a sister was nice," I say. My dad looks at me.

"That's all you have to say?" he asks me.

"It was fun. We went swimming and shopping," I say.

"How's Devin?" Mom asks. I try not to spit up my coffee.

"Good," I say.

"You seem off," Mom says.

"I'm fine just tired," I tell them. They nod. We finish eating. "I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap," I say. I hug both of them and then walk upstairs.

I slip under my covers and breathe a breath I didn't know I was holding. My eyes shut, I didn't realize how tired I was.

When I wake up I go to the bathroom and wash my face. I brush my teeth and my hair. I wander over to my closet and pull out a zipup hoodie, a t-shirt and jeans. I change and then walk downstairs. It's the late afternoon.

"Hey, I'm gonna go out. I'll be back in a little while," I say to my parents. They nod and I walk out. I walk across the street and knock on Alex's door. He answers it.

"Oh, hi Riley," he says.

"Can we talk?" I ask. He nods. He yells something to his mother and then shuts the door. We start walking around the park.

"So...what do want?" Alex asks me. I look at him. His hair is a little bit shorter than I remember.

"I know we're not exactly on the best terms but you have to understand that Devin's my best friend-and probably my only friend-but I've known him for a long time. And when I left your dinner it was because he needed me, and he was going to do something bad if I wasn't there. It wasn't in any way, shape or form because I didn't want to be there but," I say. I look at his face.

"But what?" he asks.

"But things change and now he might not be my friend and now I'm just this lameass person that has no friends and I could use another friend," I babble.

"You're impossible to stay mad at," he tells me.

"I need a friend and I don't need anything complicated, I just need a friend. You know? I don't want to end up this batshit crazy old woman who has twelve cats." I pause. "So, will you be my friend?"

"I could use a friend too. I might end up a crazy old dude that tells military stories even though he was never in the war," Alex says. I grin.

"So, friends?" I ask him. He nods. "You wanna go to a movie tomorrow after school?" He nods.

We walk in silence for a little while. "Why wouldn't Devin be your friend?" Alex asks me. I shrug.

"Things change and I think I should have more than one friend," I lie. What I should say if I'm being honest is, I fucked things up because now I love him and he doesn't have any romantic feelings for me or anything like that. And when I'm around him I can't think straight and I'm going to do something stupid. So, I need another friend.

Of course I don't say any of the last part.

"Okay," Alex says. "My family likes you."

"That's good," I say. "What movie should we see?" I ask him. He shrugs.

"There's a new action one out. It looks bad but we might as well," Alex says, turning to look at me.

"Sure," I say. We're almost done walking. "Did you have a nice spring break?" I ask.

"Yeah, I mainly hung out with my family. What about you? What did you do?" he says.

"I went to Florida, with Devin, his older brother and his brother's husband and then the husband's sister," I tell him. He smiles.

"Sounds...interesting." I nod. We both smile. We round the block to our street. "See you tomorrow," I say.

He smiles and unlocks the door, he's halfway in before he turns back and says, "I don't think you would have ended up an old woman who had lost her batshit and had twelve cats."

"Oh, yeah?" I say grinning.

"Yeah, you would have had thirteen," Alex says. I grin and he walks inside.