Mischa's POV

Ximena, Rose, and Cass skipped into our house, giggling and linking arms with each other.

"Hey kids!" Noel said, starting a pot of water for some pasta. "How was the mall?"

"Good! Hey Misch, can I get my nose pierced?" Cass said, bounding up to me and shaking my arm. "Please?"

"I'll have to ask your mom." I said, pretending to check my phone. "Oh, she said no."

"Fuck you!" Cass said, jokingly elbowing me and earning a loud laugh from Ximena.

Rose chuckled a bit and retied her shoes. "Well, uhm, today's been fun, but I gotta go home. I gotta- um, pack."

"I forgot." Ximena said, putting her arm around her best friend. "You're moving tomorrow morning."

Rose nodded slowly. "Just gotta, gotta make sure all my stuff's situated. Love you, Mina. See you soon."

Rose gave Ximena a hug, grabbed her backpack, and started to leave.

"Wait!" Ximena yelled.

"Yeah?"

"Uhm...are you still going to go to St. Cassian's? I'm sorry, that was probably a weird question given you're not Catholic and you probably don't feel all that comfortable at a Catholic school, but I don't really have any friends there-"

"Mina." Rose said, coming back into the house and sitting down on the couch. "My grandparents live in the next town over, and they're not made of money. Religious differences aside, they probably can't afford the tuition. I'm probably going to the local high school there. I'm sorry, Mina, I was gonna tell you tomorrow..."

"Just go." Ximena said, her accent growing heavier and their voice starting to break.

"Mina?"

"Just go! I'm sorry I even asked!" Ximena said, running off to his room and slamming the door.

"Should I-"

"Rose-" I started to say, but was cut off by my husband.

"I got Rose. Just- Just go check on Mina, okay?" Noel said, putting a protective arm around Rose.

"Yeah." Rose responded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make them upset..."

"It's not your fault." Noel whispered, gently guiding Rose to the couch while I went to Ximena's room to check on them.

To my surprise, when I opened the door, Ximena was already asleep.

~~~

Ximena's POV

I opened my Instagram the next day at school, trying to ignore the sound of kids laughing at me in the background.

From the split second the app loaded, I saw a post from Rose. Posing with some girl I had never seen in my life. Rose told me everything, and in turn, I told her everything, and I'm sure she would've mentioned a new friend or hell, a new girlfriend to me.

But what did I know, I was just a friend from Rose's old life. We rarely, if ever, talked anymore. I was never obligated to any details of her life. And hey, she was happy.

But where did that leave me? I wasn't happy.

"Freak." someone said as I felt them kick me in the back. "Guys, freak alert!"

"FREAK ALERT!" a group of kids yelled, and I felt things getting thrown at me from every angle.

As I tried to duck, my eyes glanced back down to my phone, and I saw the caption on Rose's Instagram post.

Screw Ximena, I have better friends now.

~~

Mischa's POV

"NO!" A sharp cry came from Ximena's room.

"Mina?" Rose said, eating some food on the couch. It had been three hours, and Rose refused to leave until Ximena waked up- until she could say with confidence that Ximena was okay.

"She probably had a nightmare or something." Noel said. "I got-"

"No. I'm used to nightmares. I got it. You just eat dinner, you only got home at the same time the kids did." I said, making my way to Ximena's door.

"PAPA!" Ximena cried the second I stepped in their room. My heart tugged at getting my first "Papa," but in the wake of Ximena's distress, it didn't mean as much as it would've otherwise.

"зірка, I'm here, I'm right here." I said softly, taking Ximena's hand and rubbing her knuckles. "What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"

Ximena nodded slowly and hiccupped a bit from the tears.

"I- I was at school, and um, um...people were um...laughing at me, and I saw Rose...her, um, Instagram post, and um..."

"Take your time, зірка, it's okay."

"She didn't...she was making fun of me too. She...she had a new best friend and she wanted nothing to do with me!" Ximena said, stuttering from how much she was crying.

"Oh Ximena..." I said as Ximena hugged me tightly and started crying into my shoulder. I ran my hair through their curls and just held them tightly for a while, letting him get all her emotions out.

"I'm scared...scared that Rose isn't gonna...that she's not gonna want to be my friend anymore once she moves...Rose means everything to me, we're a team, me and her...I can't afford to lose that!" Ximena whispered.

I looked back at the door, towards the living room. I knew Rose was out there, but it was 11PM. Both of the kids needed to sleep, and right now, I just wanted Ximena to calm down.

"Do you want me to message her?" I said. "I won't say anything if you don't want me to, it's your fears to tell and only if you want to tell them, but maybe if Rose knows what you're worried about, she can help you navigate your fears. You know, зірка, I had the same fear when I got adopted. I had friends in Ukraine, and I didn't want them to forget me. I didn't want to lose them, and I didn't want to get made fun of in a new school in a new country."

"And?" Ximena said softly.

"I still kept in touch with them. I still message some of my friends from when I was like...15 every once in a while. And you haven't met her yet, but your aunt? Talia?"

"I have an aunt?"

"Yes, my ex-fiancee before I got with your dad. Her name is Talia, and by chance, she went to my old school. We were in a long-distance relationship, but she was still from my country. We had mutual friends."

"So even if Rose moves, it'll be okay? I won't lose her?" Ximena said.

"You won't lose her, зірка. I promise." I said, giving Ximena a hug and kissing her head.

"Papa? Can you sing?" Ximena said.

"Yeah, of course I can, what do you want me to sing?"

"Anything." Ximena said, and then I finally got an idea.

"This is a song that's really special to me, зірка. Your dad would sing this to me all the time back in high school. He would sing this to me to calm me down when I couldn't sleep or if I was having a panic attack, he would pick me up for dates playing this on a small speaker, he would dedicate it to me at concerts and open mic nights he went to. I had one for him too, but that's for another day. Do you wanna hear it?" I said.

"Yeah." Ximena said, wrapping himself in the blankets.

I took a deep breath and started singing, stroking Ximena's hair as I did it.

"I can dim the lights and sing you songs full of sad things, we can do the tango just for two..."

"This is Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen, right?" Ximena said, giggling.

"That's right, зірка. You know Queen?"

"One of my favorites." Ximena said, and I could see them start to relax.

"I could serenade and gently play on your heartstrings, be a Valentino just for you..."

Ximena smiled softly at me and eventually, she finally fell asleep.

"Oooh, love, ooh, loverboy, whatcha doing tonight? Hey boy, set my alarm, turn on my charm, that's because I'm a good old-fashioned lover boy..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I swore I could see Noel standing at the open doorway, eavesdropping with a massive smile on his face, blushing a bit.

And in my heart, I knew our little family would be okay.