Present

"Hi," I say, with a lofty gradient manner. "Hey," He goofily grins, revealing his adorable canines. I always wondered how blessed of a kid he is, with all the perfects. Perfect hair colours, eye colours and of course his rarely perfect pair of teeth.

Mr Heartthrob, the 'perfect' one. In comparison to him, Lucas is a heartthrob too, but between them both? I honestly don't know, whom to reward the Mr Handsome crown. They both are equally alluring, both in and out. Even with all their imperfections.

"Bud, we missed you," Maria hops up, from behind. I didn't even realize the other kids were there. "Yo dude," Lucas also came up, with their dude-ey shoulder shake.

I gaze at him, grinning at everyone and embracing them so heartily. And then, don't know what he thought but abruptly turned his gaze in my direction. Catching me gazing at him. And when our eyes met, his smile enlarged.

"First off, I did NOT miss you. At all." I say, emphasizing the word 'NOT' strongly.

"mhm, neither did I, Lizzy," he says shaking his head.

"Oh hey! So you are the girl he is so obsse—" I peek behind Alas and see a black-haired male.

"Olive," a black-haired, towering girl urges the guy, with her arm. "Stop scaring her with this folly."

"Sorry about them, they—" Twitching his eyebrows, Al says, "a bit too crazy."

"We what?" Putting her arm sideways around Alas' shoulder, the girl squishes him and turns towards me. "Don't listen to this idiot."

"I am Alena, but you can just call me Olivia."

I look at her hand relaid at me, and then to the other one on Alas' shoulder. "Hi. Umm I'll just call you Alena," I try and smile.

"She wants to avoid confusion between you and Olive," Alas ensures, looking at the black-haired girl.

'Woah. Is he explaining to her?' Since when did he start explaining stuff to people?

***

"Huh, excuse me. What?"

I look back at him, full of a smug-filled smile. "Listen, you are a human too, okay. Don't act all so grand."

"Dude, I need to. Okay?" With a tone abounding with haughtiness, he says with a lowered shrug, "It's my thing."

"Huh, your thing." Rolling my eyes, I keep attempting to dispute with this too-filled-of-himself guy. "No matter what you say, Al. One day or another you will have to lower your fences down, for someone."

"I don't want to." He shrugs, taking another bite of his cotton candy.

"We will see," I smile, taking a bite off of my pink one. "Everyone has to open up to someone or the other."

"I won't want to do that."

"Why?" The pink cotton candy always smells better than all the other ones, even though I know it's all the same. Maybe not?

"I don't know, it just makes me feel—caged somehow."

Bitting the last big thread off of my cotton candy, I glance at him.

"What?" He says, with the cotton candy all shuffled in his mouth. "Just thinking about your future."

"Nah stop." He turns away, still engrossed in his cotton candy.

A splash of insensitive reality hit me out of nowhere, fetching me back from the spring of memories I was lost in.

"Yarkshar!"

The other black-haired boy smiles, at us. Looking at Alas, Maria asks confusingly, "Umm sorry but what is 'Yarkshar.'

"It is a form of informal hello, a dialect of Yorkshire." He explains.

"We all are having vacations for just a week, so here we are." The girl shrugs.

'Vacation for a week?' I glace at Alas, and he looks back at me. "She has a habit of always cracking 'weird' jokes." He emphasises the weird part, before adding "They all are here for a mini-vacation of 7 days."

"Yup," The girl grins, "A small mini trip of seven days."

"And you," I stare at Alas, as he smirks, looking at me, Luc and Maria.

"You'll get to know." He smiles. "Let's first get in the car? I am damn tired from the flight." The girl yawns, stretching her arms wide.

She is a small, cute creature from what I can understand, but. . . I glance back at Alas.

It is said that when you don't see someone for years, no matter how many years that might be—if you don't see them in – years, you overwhelm yourself with a whole bunch of emotions. Fear is the biggest one. You fear them not being the same anymore. You fear you'll forget how to talk to them, you fear it will be like you both are strangers. You get angry at them, for potentially having other people replace you, in your absence. Angry, Furious, Fear and also Sad. Sad that you are someone they can so easily just 'forget'.

At this moment, things are good yet a bit strange and it all feels somewhat out of place. A strange sort of sensation seems to have brushed its claws against me, in a subtle way. More of a warning of something greater.

Sitting inside Lucas' car all of us start talking about random stuff. Mostly Olive, Aleana, Alas and Maria do the talking. Me and Lucas, sitting in the front seats of the car, seldom join in.

This, wasn't how I'd imagined us getting back together.

This wasn't supposed to be like This is supposed to be us, right? Our moment after a whole two-year gap. But, Alas—

"So," Taking a right turn, Lucas crossed the airport's exit as he nonchalantly added, "Where to?"

"I am tired, first let's check into hotels and stuff." Widening his arms, Olive yawned, "I can never agree that aeroplanes act as good beds at night. They are so freaking uncomfortable."

"Gosh no—" turning towards Alas, the black-haired girl calls him, "What do we get to see first?"

"I don't know. The Sparkling city maybe—?" Alas says.

"The sparkling city?" Though I did not want it to come out loudly, it came out loud enough for everyone in the car to be able to hear it. And up, all the heads rolled back at me. Even Lucas', just for a second, ever so slightly.

***

"Why are we here?"

It was a windy afternoon, and it was just about time now, before the sun would say its adios, and get off work. "It's late Al."

"I know." But he wasn't one to back down. For whatever reason it was, he wanted to bring me there. "Just follow me." Saying that he holds my hand, clasping my fingers with his own.

People were all getting prepared to leave the place. Most of them were parents running after their children, rebuking them to come home as it was 'time' to go home.

"Al I think we should—" but I couldn't finish what I had wanted to say, as my eyes did not want to move from the place they had laid their sight on. Besides the pink, blue, purple coloured vibrant cotton candies, I saw on a big signboard. ELLE'S BOOKSTORE.

It was a big, four-story book store, that I had never seen before.

"Happy birthday, Lizzy." Smilingly Alas smugged his four front teeth, hiding his hands behind him. "You—this—did I—" I could not process words properly at that point. The excitement that I experienced that day, was one I can relive even to this day.

"Dude, I love you!" Saying this, I crashed into him, who had already his arms ready to engulf me. "I don't." He smugly said, earning another big punch to this stomach.

"Thank you," the smiles, music, people chattering, and the sweet taste of the pink cotton candy just seemed enough. Enough to tie us down to some unknown promise, stuffing both of us into our strange bubble of 'us'. It was enough for our hearts to feel contemplated, in each other's embrace.

***

"Why? Any problem, Lisa?" Turning her wavy hair, back to attach to her clip she says, "If you don't like it, we'll—"

"No, I just—" before I could decide whether to accept her words and get out of the car or say I was not feeling well, someone else answered for me.

"No, why will we? It will be awesome. Let's go there." Glancing at Maria, I saw her concerned eyes fall at Al before they battered up at me.