Black Friday deals were upon us, and Blaine, Arti, and I had every intention of taking advantage of them. The mall opened at midnight for ridiculous sales, and it was the first year that any of the three of us could drive. Naturally, we needed to go to buy a ton of useless shit we didn't need since we were fortunate enough to live in the same exact city as the most famous mall in the country.

If we left at six, we would hopefully be able to get a decent spot in line. I told Arti and Blaine to meet at my house at 5:30, and with Arti only one house away, there was no way she could possibly be late. I knew I was lying to myself, but that said more about her than it did about me.

A little while after Blane arrived, it was 5:45, and there was still no sign of Arti. While Blaine and I could have easily walked right over to her house and kidnapped her, we decided to let her come on her own time, until 6:00. Then we were going to get her using whatever means necessary.

I still hadn't told Mom about our plans, since a large part of me was scared that she'd call me insane and not let us go, so I brought it up casually. "Hey, Mom. I'm going to go out with Blaine and Arti soon if that's okay."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

Blaine looked at me. "You didn't tell her?"

"I didn't mention it, no." I turned back to Mom. "Well, we wanted to go shopping at the mall once it opens."

Mom's eyes widened. "Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea what it's going to be like there?"

"Pretty crazy, I'm sure." I looked down at the ground. "But I'll have Blaine and Arti."

"No. There's no way I'm letting three sixteen-year-olds handle Black Friday on their own. That's ridiculous."

I suspected that to be a possibility, but it was obvious that she didn't understand how important it was to get new shoes.

"For the record, I'm not talking back, but why not?" I asked. I had caught too many backhands to the back of the head over the years not to add my disclaimer.

"You can't just say that you're not talking back and then proceed to talk back," Mom said. "And look, I know you three think sixteen is mature, but it's not at all. You're still kids."

"I'm almost seventeen," I said, even though I knew damn well that wouldn't help my case.

"We'll talk when you're eighteen, and that's it."

Eighteen? By the time I would be eighteen for Black Friday, I'd be in fucking college. What kind of bullshit was that?

Wait.

Viktor.

When he turned eighteen, I got him nothing for his birthday, so clearly, I owed him the opportunity to have the full American experience.

I smiled to myself, but just before I could make my argument, Blaine spoke up.

"Mrs. Jayne, you absolutely should be concerned about the safety of your daughter and her friends in such a chaotic environment, but the truth is, I am adequately prepared to deal with the craziness. I have two bottles of pepper spray in my bag—"

"Stop talking. I think you're making this worse," I said.

He didn't listen. "—and we will not hesitate to use them on any questionable people."

"I'll give you credit for trying, but that was a horrible argument," Mom said to Blaine.

"What about Viktor? He's eighteen," I said.

Mom paused to think for a second.

Was that a bad move? "I understand if you still say no, but—"

Mom interrupted me. "Amanda, are you seriously asking if Viktor can join you?"

Shit. I nodded anyway.

"I know you're kind of using him to get your way, but that's a big step for you," Mom said. "If you go with Matt and Viktor and call me every half an hour, you can go."

I rose my eyebrows. I almost never got my way once she said no.

Who would have thought Viktor could actually do something good for me?

"I'll be right back," I said, and I rushed up the stairs to go tell Matt and Viktor that they had won the Go Black Friday Shopping with Amanda and Her Friends lottery.

When they weren't playing hockey or their NHL video game or air hockey or watching the Wild or Blackhawks, they usually liked to hang out together in their room where the triplets and I couldn't bother them.

I knocked on the door twice and opened it up without an invitation. "Hey guys, remember that time when I convinced and trained Viktor to play hockey? You owe me now. We're going shopping."

"Fuck you," Matt said without looking up from his phone.

Well then. "You have to. Mom said."

"No, she didn't," Matt replied.

Viktor, on the other hand, at least worked with me a little. "Matt, your mom is letting me stay here, so we should at least do what she says."

"The foreigner who could definitely be shipped back to Sweden at any moment is right," I said.

"Are you really going to go there?" Matt asked.

I nodded.

"I'm driving." Matt looked over to Viktor. "You're too nice, you know that?"

Viktor smiled. "You tell me that every day."

I turned away before I accidentally smiled. I loved my friends, but Matt and Viktor's friendship made me want something like it. Arti was great for when I needed someone who gave less of a fuck than I did, and Blaine was stuck with me no matter what, but I could have used someone like Viktor in my back pocket. Not Viktor himself, but someone with a similar personality.

When Arti finally presented herself, Blaine flatly informed her that she was late, she told him to go fuck himself, all was well.

We climbed into Matt's car and headed to the mall, and I sat in between Blaine and Arti.

As we were stopped at a red light, Matt turned to Viktor. "Remind me why we're doing this."

"Because Candy Cane was really nice to us, so we should do something nice for her," Viktor replied.

"Amanda? Nice?" Arti laughed. "That's cute."

"Look, you just gotta speak her language. When Amanda cares, she may never say it, but you know by how she acts. She made six charts to express the fact that she liked me," Blaine said.

"Those were for analytical purposes. I hadn't made my conclusion yet," I said.

Blaine laughed. "You're full of shit."

Before I could even argue, Viktor spoke up again. "Is that true about your personality?"

Oh fuck no.

He already knew I was kind of obsessed with him, but it was because he confused the hell out of me and was stupid and different, not for any reason he could make up.

No one even answered his question, but he kept talking. "I guess that makes sense. Why else would you offer to help me get back on the ice?"

I leaned my head back on the seat. And my secret was out.

"You what?" Arti spat. There were a hundred million reasons for her not to be mad, like the fact that she never even liked Viktor, but did those matter? Nope. The only one that held any sort of significance was the fact that they somewhat dated, and I had the audacity to spend time with him, even if it was to help my brother.

"Look, there's literally no reason to be upset. I just yelled at him until he sucked less at hockey. Why is that a big deal?" I asked.

"It's a medium deal because you lied about it, even though you got super pissed at Arti for hanging out with Viktor earlier," Blaine said.

"Oh my god, are you gonna make this bigger than it has to be too?" I asked.

Blaine shook his head. "I said it was a medium deal. That's bigger than a small deal, but not nearly as important as a big deal."

"I figured that out, dumbass."

"So I'm obviously not making this a big deal."

I let out a huff. "This isn't even a deal. It's a non-issue."

"Is this real English, or are you guys just making this up? I'm confused," Viktor said.

"Not now, you fucking Swede," Arti said, then turned to me. "We're just saying that you're a hypocritical bitch. That's all."

I hesitated. I was a lot of things, but I wasn't hypocritical. It was completely different than what Arti pulled on us. I was just trying to help my brother out by working with his friend, and I abandoned exactly zero people in the process.

"How fast do you think I'd have to be going to kill us all if I hit a tree?" Matt asked.

"When you say stuff like that, it makes me kind of nervous," Viktor replied.

Blaine lowered his voice. "Amanda, you know we don't think you're hypocritical."

"What about a bitch?" I asked.

"Occasionally."

That was fair.

"But anyway," Blaine continued, "I just don't like lying, and there wasn't any reason not to tell us. Don't you think we figured out that you were up to something?"

As much as I liked to call both Arti and Blaine dumbasses, they were pretty damn perceptive when they wanted to be.

"Well, I don't know what you want me to do about that now. I was just trying to do something nice for Matt and kind of Viktor," I said.

"You did, and it's all over now, so it's barely even a medium deal. You don't have to lie and hide shit. It's sneaky, and it kind of freaks me out. I hate it," Blaine said.

"You like Arti, though, and she has never told the truth ever," I said.

"Yeah, and I expect that from her. I expect brutal honesty from you. It's part of your charm."

"If you guys could stop with this lovey-dovey bullshit, that'd be great," Arti said, and I let myself smile. I sure as hell wasn't a fan of fake and superficial compliments, but I liked our version of flirting.

I wasn't sure how the hell he did it, but Blaine had that side of me all figured out. And thanks to that, I wasn't even pissed at Viktor for letting it slip.

As long as Viktor didn't somehow get the wrong idea into his stupid head that I had some sort of fuck to give about anything besides the way he played hockey, everything was going to be fine.

***

We arrived at the mall, and although it was dark, the lights in the parking lot and the glowing of phone screens lit up the area. I glanced at the clock just before I got out of the car, and there were more people huddled there than I was expecting six hours before the mall opened. Chairs lined the sidewalk in front, some empty and unattended, while others had tables with speakers and snack foods.

Didn't these people have friends or family to celebrate Thanksgiving with?

"Hey, you brought food, right?" Viktor asked Blaine.

Blaine laughed. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Dude, it's literally Thanksgiving. Haven't you guys eaten enough?" Arti asked.

"You're tiny. You wouldn't understand," Blaine said.

Arti raised her eyebrows, then hit him in the arm.

Blaine laughed and rubbed his arm. "What? It's not your fault you're short. It's cute."

The four of us grabbed the chairs out of Matt's car, not including Arti, of course, because she had just gotten her (third) appendix removed the day before, and we joined the line.

It would have been a miserable wait if Blaine was still mad at me over the non-issue, and I definitely would have figured it out if he was just saying that he was fine. He was a horrible liar, after all.

I set up my chair next to him and Arti, and Matt and Viktor set theirs up just across from us. We had a nice little circle with Blaine's bag of snacks, pepper spray, and whatever the hell else he deemed important.

Six hours was a long time to spend in a car to Chicago, and it would probably be an even longer time in the crisp Minnesota November night air.

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Hello everyone! This is a pretty long chapter, so I decided to break it up into two parts. I hope to have the second part posted very soon, so stay tuned! Thank you so much for reading!

So for today's question, how do you think Viktor and Amanda are progressing? Is their relationship changing? How much?