"WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?" Harley scolded as he held up his phone, flopping onto his bed.

"Say what?" Caleb answered back, his voice shrill.

"You know what," the brunette-haired boy exhaled as he forked a hand through his shaggy hair.

A few hours after he had gotten home from Heaven on Ice, Harley was relaxed at home in his navy blue and black multi-patterned pajama pants and a white Walmart-branded tank top. Even if he was comfy inside the comfort of his bedroom, he didn't feel comforted. He didn't feel relaxed either. There was something bothering him from earlier that day when Summer and him went to Heaven on Ice.

So to get answers, Harley decided to FaceTime Caleb to interrogate him about it. It didn't seem to ring a bell for his friend, so he clarified. "You know, when we were at the register and you mentioned that we were talking about her right in front of her."

"Oh, yeah," Caleb nodded his head as he could be seen plopping himself into a gamer chair. "What about that?"

Harley exhaled, feeling his cheeks flush red. "What do you mean 'what about that?' You could've ruined my chances with Summer."

Still remaining calm, the Puerto Rican boy smirked as he spun around in his chair completely unbothered. "So you do like her." 

"Stop fucking with me, Caleb. Now is not the time. Summer seemed so confused when you said that. Who knows what she could've been thinking?" Harley stressed as he stared up at the ceiling. "She shrugged it off, but she could be thinking that we were talking about her behind her back in a bad way."

"Or she could be thinking that we were saying good things about her, which we were," Caleb retorted nonchalantly with a shrug. "The point is, you need to stop stressing about it. I've never seen you so stressed out about anyone."

Harley sighed. "I know, it's just that . . . Summer's special. Today, I just found out that we were in the same first grade class back then. I knew that something about her rang a bell. I just want to rebuild our friendship. It's been so many years since we've talked."

"Shit, for real? Y'all could really be a power couple," Caleb jokes. "She's polite, real fine, has a good attitude — you should go out with her." 

"Caleb, we just met. Well, re-met," the white boy reasoned. "We just started to get to know each other once again. I don't want to mess things up with her already."

"'Kay, I see where you're coming from," the Puerto Rican boy chirped as he brushed a hand through his shaggy hair. "If you ever need some big brother advice, you can always come to me."

"Caleb, I'm older than you by a few weeks, and you know that," Harley grinned. "So technically, it's little brother advice, dumbass."

"Big brother advice sounds better, cause like, why would I say little brother advice? That sounds weird," he defended. "Plus, I've been in a few relationships, I've fucked so . . . I know a lot of shit."

***

"I found his Instagram!" Loni cheered as she tapped her passcode into her phone.

"Whose Instagram?" Summer questioned as she leaned across the table, attempting to view whatever was on her phone.

"Juan, the one we saw at PacSun the other day," the girl clarified as she threw her natural goddess twists over her shoulder with her free hand, scrolling onto her Instagram DMs with the other. "Turns out he was already following me a while ago, but him and I texted for a few hours straight yesterday. He's so . . . charismatic."

"Interesting way to describe him," Summer grinned as she snatched her friend's phone away from her to scroll through their text messages.

Loni exclaimed. "Hey, give that back!"

The pair of best friends were grabbing a late lunch at Shane's Subs. Summer was entirely off for the day, so she decided that there was no better way to spend it than to spend it with Loni. Their daily tea was just beginning to spill.

Ignoring her friend, Summer smirked as she scrolled through their messages. "Y'all are real cute."

Snatching her phone back, Loni nodded. "Yeah, he's very friendly. We took a selfie at the checkout the other day while you were paying and when I sent it to him, he said I could post it on my Instagram story. He ended up liking it and reposting it in his story."

"As he motherfucking should," her friend said before she took a bite out of her newly-bought turkey sandwich, drizzled with lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and multiple other toppings.

"But what about you? Have you been talking to that boy you've been talking about?" Loni questioned out of curiosity as she took a sip of lemonade from her small styrofoam cup. "What was his name, Harley?"

"Yep, that's his name," Summer gleamed. "I've done some digging and it turns out that him and I were childhood friends. We were in the same first grade class and everything."

Loni's eyes lit up all of a sudden. "Oh, for real? Did you tell him?"

"Yeah, he seemed real happy about it. He even took me out to get ice cream and everything," Summer grinned as she felt her cheeks flame up. "But before you assume, I just re-met him. It's too early to just have feelings for him. I just want to take everything in my life slowly right now."

"And that's good. I like that mindset," Loni appreciated as she took a bite of her sandwich.

Before the girl could eat her food even further, the sound of the establishment's door slamming against its frame startled her. Being that she's worked at Shane's Subs for about a month by now, you would think that it wouldn't frighten her anymore. But that wasn't exactly the case based on how she got mayonnaise all over her fingers from jumping up.

As she cautiously wiped her fingers with a clean napkin, she looked up at whoever walked through the door. It wasn't exactly a customer who wanted to come in to eat a sandwich or whatever.

It was Harley Rhodes, dressed in his work uniform and black Nike Dunks, his backpack dangling from one shoulder. More than likely, he was coming in for work.

As his hazel eyes met her dark brown eyes from a distance, Summer could see him smile as he walked up towards her. All of a sudden, she felt all giddy inside.

She waved at him, noticing Loni spin her head around from the side of her eye. But she didn't care. All she could focus on was Harley.

"Hey," Harley mused, his voice deep as he held out his fist for a fist bump. "Here for a hangout?"

He smiled at Loni with a wave before turning back to Summer, who realized that her mouth was already aching from smiling so much. "Uh-huh, that's what we're here for. Just a late lunch. I decided that Loni and I should come here."

"Did you miss me that much?" The white boy smirked. Summer could feel herself flush as she comprehended the rather alluring question. Right at that moment, she was proud that she wasn't light skinned because no one could see her face redden. At least, that's what she hoped.

Before Summer could answer the question, Harley patted on her shoulder with the tips of his fingers before he disappeared into the back to start his shift. Looking at her feet sweep across the ground, she was speechless.

"Is that him?" Loni cheered charismatically. "He looks fine, but also has a baby face. Does he go to the gym? He looks like he does."

"He said something about going to the gym yesterday," Summer hummed as she took a sip of water from her bottle.

"Juan and I and Harley and you should go on a double date one day. To the carnival or something," her friend suggested, a glimmer appearing in her eyes.

"Not a chance," Summer insisted without hesitation.

That was her childhood best friend that she had just re-met. They haven't talked in years, so there was so much shit to catch up on. For one, Harley surely looked and sounded a lot different. He's grown out of his raspy baby voice, adapting into a deeper masculine voice. He's also grown his hair out and has a little mustache. Judging by him going to the gym, Summer's mind couldn't help but do a little bit of exploring on how he'd look. 

Just imagine how he'd look like taking a shower after working out. Washing all the sweat off with water sprinkling down to his chest, going in between his meaty abdominals, cascading down to his di—

Shit. No, Summer. You can't do this. 

Fantasizing about her friend during lunch with her friend in public was not ideal. It wasn't ideal at all. She had a friendship to build up, not start a potential relationship. That was not part of the plan.

But she had to admit, the Harley she knew has grown and matured. A lot.