So it turns out that inviting Dante to Victoria Secret on Thursday afternoon was a mistake.

He asked if I wanted to be picked up and since Nicole and I went shopping, I asked him to come and collect me from here. Then in an attempt to make him feel uncomfortable, I asked him to help me pick out a bra. But since he gets way too invested in everything, he's helping me pick out multiple to take to college and Nicole is too busy laughing in the corner to help me herd him away and out of here. So now here I am, bra shopping with my boyfriend and best friend.

Honestly, I should've known this would happen.

"Kennedy? You like the colour gold, right?" He says, holding up one bra. I almost throw the red one he picked out for me back at him but settle for rolling my eyes and taking it from him. "What?"

"Why are you so good at this?"

A wicked smile comes on his face.  "My mom and sister used to bring me here when I was like five."

"What?"

He shrugs. "Anaya wanted a younger sister and by then Vic was too old to be pushed around. I went along with it because I thought it was fun and they always got me some twizzlers when we were done."

"You find this fun?"

"Am I not supposed to?"

Nicole bursts into laughter and I sigh into my pile of bras. A shop assistant looks at him longingly and I almost tell her to keep it moving.

"Thanks for all your help." I say, only slightly sarcastically.

"No problem, Slugger." He puts his hands on his hips with a silly grin on his face. Even though I don't want to, it makes me laugh and I shake my head at him before heading to the fitting room.

After subsequently spending enough money to open a small store, the three of us head outside to the parking lot.

"Hey, Nicole, are you busy? My mom's having a barbecue." Dante says, grinning. I think he's happy because all the bras he chose ended up fitting me. Either that or he's just in one of his ridiculous moods.

She puts on her cat eye sunglasses. "I don't know... I kind of wanna take a nap."

"A nap's always best after a meal though." I push a little. She sighs and folds her arms, thinking about it.

I do a little dance, trying to convince her some more. Tyler freaked me out last night by suggesting that the whole of Dante's family would probably be there and I would have to introduce myself as his girlfriend and all of them might hate me and et cetera. He really stresses me out for no reason.

"Fine, I'll come along."

I let out a cheer and continue my dance, slightly aware of the fact Dante is taking a video and there's a guy across the street staring at me. The three of us get into his car and make our way over to his house, chatting pretty much about nothing and everything.

Nicole gasps when we're pulling up on Dante's street.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"That's Max's car." She exclaims, pointing out of the window.

"Oh yeah, he's gonna be here." Dante says, oblivious to the panic brewing in his car. He parks on the side of the road and then checks on his growing beard in the rear view mirror. I'm dating a whole ass narcissist. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not." She lowers her sunglasses to make a face at me. "I'm gonna get a head start, I've been third wheeling with the two of you for way too long now."

Before I can say anything, Nicole gets out of the car and rushes towards the front door, being let in by Vic. I look to Dante who is still checking out his growing chin fluff and clear my throat. He takes no notice of me.

"Your head's still big." I comment, wanting attention. The exasperated expression on his face tells me that it worked.

"You are so mean, Kennedy." He says, undoing his seatbelt.

I gasp. "Me? Mean?"

"Yeah? We can't go anywhere without you reminding me that my head is bigger than... wait, which one was it? Jupiter?"

I can't tell if he's actually upset or not. "I think we've rationalised that it's not Jupiter levels. It's more Saturn. And when you wear hats –"

"Oh there you go." I roll my eyes. "Why are you like this?"

"Like what? What did I do?"

"You're so mean to me?"

"I'm not!"

He tries to pull a serious face and I do too, but then I can't help but try not to laugh. Alas, I fail at that and dissolve into giggles, making him smile. "Stop laughing at me."

"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at... the situation."

"Well the situation is not –"

A knock on the window interrupts what he's gonna say and we both look up from each other to see his sister standing by the window, holding her purse. Dante rolls the window down and looks at her expectantly.

"What do you want?"

She gives him a dirty look but then smiles at me. "Hey Kenny! How's McKinley doing?"

"Hey! She's good, still on vacation though."

"Aw cool, that means there's still time to get her to buy me some magnets and a mug."

"Nerd." Dante interjects and the two of them glare at each other. "What did you want again?"

Anaya rolls her eyes and clears her throat. "Mom was wondering where you were because she saw your car roll up five minutes ago."

"Kennedy and I were just talking." He says and then his eyes light up. "Hey, guess where I went today!"

Oh my God.

"Tell me on the way to the backyard, Uncle Peter wants to talk sports with you." She says, waving her free hand in the air. "He brought his newest girlfriend and she brought her kids."

"That bad?" He asks.

"One of her kids already asked Vic if he'd go for a younger woman. She's fourteen."

"Gross."

We get out of the car and Dante takes hold of my hand quite passively as he tells his sister about his Victoria Secret adventure and brags about how much of a bra genius he is. Once inside the house, he is immediately distracted by his mom who gives me a hug and hurries him away.

There's a bunch of people talking in small groups and eating burgers in the backyard. I find Nicole talking to Vic and Mr Correll about something that looks suspiciously like baseball by their swinging action. I approach them carefully.

"There she is, woman of the hour!" Mr Correll says and pats my shoulder. "Kenny, Nicole here was just telling me about your softball days."

Ah.

"She says you've got a swinging arm to die for." Vic adds. I think he senses my discomfort because he chuckles when I side eye him. "Weren't you the one who gave Dante a concussion a few months ago?"

I'm about to explain myself but of course Nicole bursts into laughter. I notice Max looking our direction forlornly when she does but then he diverts his attention back to the girl he's talking to.

"That was her! She was so good, I don't know why she quit last year."

"I was super stressed." I explain. "And it wasn't fun anymore, especially after Mayfair."

She nods understandingly. "Mayfair '12 was a – terrible experience."

"What happened at Mayfair '12?" Mr Correll asks.

"Well, we had a girl break her arm and her nose and that was before the game even begun." I sigh, shaking my head. "I also sprained my wrist during the game and if it wasn't enough, we lost. Really badly."

"And they have this shot of Kenny crying – like ugly crying – and they put it in their highlights reel. It's so embarrassing, here I'll show you." Nicole whips out her phone and shows them the video.

It's funny, I got so used to her doing this at the beginning of last summer and senior year that I've become desensitized to it now. Even I peer into the screen to see how I look, mostly because I haven't seen sixteen year old Kennedy in a while.

"Hey, look, my hair's grown since then." I point out.

"Looks a lot healthier too. Wow." She nods, impressed. "Your face is a lot chubbier now, thank goodness."

"The chub fills out my forehead, right?"

We high five and the clip is hastily put away. Mr Correll laughs at our antics and we chat for a while before someone calls him away.

"Oh my God, Victor, could you get me and Ken some juice?" Nicole says suddenly.  "We are totally juiced out."

Vic looks at the two of us and raises his eyebrows. I pretend to be totally juiced out, whatever that means. "Okay, uh, sure?"

We watch as he walks off and as soon as he's out of hearing distance, she turns to me. "Okay, so his new girl looks like me."

I peer at his new friend. They look nothing alike. "You look nothing alike."

She rolls her eyes. "I mean her personality is like mine!"

"Aren't you dating like, three guys right now?" I ask, wondering why she's bothered. Nicole doesn't really show much emotion unless it's excitement or joy at my expense. I could probably count on two hands the amount of times I've seen her genuinely angry and this is the first time I've ever seen her jealous.

"Actually, I dumped the two of them." She stands up a little straighter. "I decided that I'm going to be single for all of college."

"Right. Sure you are." She pinches me. "Ow! You said that at the beginning of sophomore year but had a whole ass boyfriend from that October up until winter quarter of junior year!"

Nicole sighs. "I did like Leo."

Dante comes over holding two cups of juice and hands one to Nicole. He takes a sip out of the other one and winks at me. It dawns over me that he's drinking my drink like I asked him to.

"Is that my drink?"

"It's our drink." He paraphrases. The only thing I am able to do is sigh. "Hey, have you eaten something?"

"In what time would I have eaten something, Dante?" I ask, putting my hands on my hips. "I've been away from you for fifteen minutes and we both know I eat slowly."

He considers this. Then drinks my drink some more. Then shrugs. "You want something? My grandpa's really knows how to throw down on the barbecue."

"Is this the grandpa with ten kids?"

"Who else?"

"Cool. Nic, will you be okay – what the?" I say, turning around. Nicole has mysteriously disappeared and I don't know where she'd even go. "Okay, so let's go say hi to your legendary grandpa?"

"He's not legendary per se, he just has a lot of kids." He corrects me, slinging an arm around my shoulder and squeezing me close.

"So your grandma's the legendary one? Got it."

*-8*-8*

I've suddenly gained four new aunties and a legendary grandmother, which is nice since I barely see my grandparents. Everyone's been super nice so far and the meanest thing that has happened to me is Dante deciding to show his strength off and picking me up when I was about to eat something. His mom made him publicly apologise to me which was embarrassing but I can deal.

"Meeting people is exhausting." I say, lying on the grass next to Dante. He gives me a side eye. "What?"

"You know what you did." He says, folding his arms.

"No I don't? What did I do?"

"You were flirting with my cousin." He declares.

I blink a few times, wondering which cousin he's referring to. Most of them are in their mid-twenties with secure jobs, pay checks and the illusion that their lives are together. "You mean the nine year old? Ben?"

"Yeah? He told me he's in love with you when you ran away to Nicole."

I blink at him, completely unsure as to whether this is a joke or not. However, I still sit up and give him a kiss on the cheek. He tries not to smile. "Jealousy suits you." I pat his cheek and he lets the grin shine.

"Is that a compliment?"

"Definitely not." I laugh at his facial expression and then lie down again, aware of all the grass that's probably getting in my hair. "Hey, Dante?"

"What's up baby girl?"

I wrinkle my nose in an attempt not to smile. "When are you flying out?"

"End of August." He puts a hand on his head and rubs, looking uncomfortable. "You?"

"A few days after my birthday. I start on the fourth." He picks up some grass and sprinkles it on my face. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"What are you doing for your birthday?" He ignores my question entirely. I sigh and brush the grass out of my eyes.

"I don't know, eating cake maybe?"

"You are always eating something, aren't you?"

"Shut up."

He chuckles. "Someone's getting brave."

I mimic him and he rolls his eyes at me, but he's still smiling. Nicole walks on over to us, her arms folded and her cat eyed glasses slightly askew. I haven't seen her this shaken up in about a year.

"What's wrong?" I sit up and shake my grassy hair out. She sits down and takes off her glasses, looking furious.

"His girlfriend! She is just over there... existing."

"Darn that existence." I say, not entirely serious. I don't think she catches on though because she folds her arms and dispels air through her nose.

"Who's girlfriend?" Dante asks, squinting.

"Oh! Dante, could you get us – you know what, it's whatever, after bra shopping, you're one of the girls." Nicole says, brushing her hair out of her face. "We are talking about Max's new girlfriend." She explains.

"Oh – wait, that's not his girlfriend. That's his cousin, Candice." Dante clears up. Nicole and I share a look of disbelief.

"You're bullshitting me." She says, dumbly.

He shakes his head. "She's really cool, we were all talking earlier. Max isn't over you."

"What?!" Her eyes widen. "How do you know that?"

He shrugs. "Well, about an hour ago, he almost threw a spoon at me because I had invited you here knowing full well he was here. Then he told me he wasn't over you and I called him a fool."

Suddenly, Nicole starts smirking. She pushes her sunglasses up her face and clears her throat. "I like your boyfriend, Kenny."

"Thanks. I think I do too."

Dante throws grass at me. "Only think?"

"So Nic, what's your next move?" I say, ignoring him completely. "Are you gonna sashay your way into his life again or...?"

Her eyebrows dip into her face. "I told you I'm going to be single for the whole of college, didn't I?"

I roll my eyes. "You weren't serious with that, were you?"

She laughs. "Of course not. It's time to go meet my destiny, so I'll see y'all barbe-cuties later!" Nicole says and skips over to where Max and his cousin are talking to Vic. She melds into conversation with them effortlessly, turning back and winking at the two of us when she sees us staring.

"She's not serious." I say. Dante throws more grass at me and then grins when I glare at him. "You are really annoying."

"And you're mean. So I guess we level each other out." He says, sticks his tongue out and then rests his head on my lap. "Kennedy?"

"What?" I ask, thinking that he's just going to annoy me some more or something.

Dante shields his eyes and stares up at me, his face suddenly serious. "It's a while until we leave but I hope you realise I'm going to miss you. A lot."

My face softens. "I'll miss you too."

He takes my hand in his. "Not as much as I'll miss you."

"Okay, first of all," I say and he starts laughing. "It's not a competition, and even if it was, you know I'd win anyway."

"No you wouldn't." He pokes me in the side and chuckles when I squeeze his cheeks in response. "We should go shopping together more often, it's fun."

I roll my eyes. "Why not? You're one of the girls now, aren't you?"

He grins.

Happy new year y'all! Hope you've all had a splendid holiday szn and enjoyed this chapter! Love y'all!