"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Oh come on. You can't get cold feet now."

We were halfway to the airport, just exiting the Colorado Foothills towards Denver. We still had about an hour's drive to the airport.

I stared out the window and the white landscape in front of me. The closer we got to the airport, the faster my heart fluttered. "I just… why can't you tell them that you lied?"

"Because, Rin. I can't be the disappointment child."

"Disappointment child? Are you shitting me?" I shot Len a baffled look. "Your GPA is higher than I thought was possible."

"Yeah, but…" he rubbed his left temple, a nervous tick he formed in high school. "I don't have a life. I study, I work, I read. I don't leave the house." He kept his eyes trained on the road ahead of him. "I don't meet people. I don't go out."

"You don't need to meet people. You already have people."

He paused, then sat up from his slouched state. "If you changed your mind, then I'll have to admit that I lied. I don't expect you to do this-"

"I'll do it." I concluded, more to myself than to him. "I won't leave you in that shitty situation."

"I just don't want this to be weird. Like, I don't want it to ruin us being friends, or anything."

That made me smile. "We've been through weider."

"I guess." I could hear the slight smile in his voice.

We fell silent. The only noise filling the car was the faint country radio, and the slushing sound of tires spinning through the wet snow outside. The highway was devoid of cars, at least, compared to usual Denver traffic. We were driving through the industrial district. Clouds of smoke billowed out of the spouts of factories, and it disgusted me. I felt a sudden longing for home, because, even though Aspen was nearly as crowded, there were no polluting factories, and the air smelled like home. Here, it smelled like trash.

It seemed an eternity before we finally pulled off of the highway, and headed towards the parking garage. Rows upon rows of shining cars filled the lots, awaiting their owners return from all over the world. We drove up the levels, until we finally found an empty spot on the top floor.

"Do we have to walk all the way down?" I asked as I stepped out of the car. I slung my purse over my shoulder as I breathed in the city air. We were pretty far from downtown, and the factories, but I could still smell the dirty air. I began counting down the moments before we could leave and return to my pure mountains.

"No," he answered. "There's an entrance up here. They're meeting us at gate twelve."

"What floor is that on?"

"Scared of a few stairs?" He teased.

As much as it comforted me to have Len's cocky self back, as opposed to yesterday's shy self, I was slightly annoyed at his comment. "Just tell me the floor, Len."

"It's on the top one. The one we're on."

Relief flashed through me. "Oh."

"Rin, I'm telling you now, you don't have to do this."

"But I want to."

He locked the car, and we started toward the main building. "Then why are you acting all pissed off?"

I hesitated, taking in my surrounding. The airport was more crowded than the highways; likely because of the winter-breakers coming to town for their seasonal skiing. "I hate the city."

He nodded in understanding. "Me too." He put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "We'll be home soon enough."

"Right."

The building was warm. But from the buildings heating, or the plethora of bodies packed in it's walls, I couldn't tell. A sign with the big numbers '12' hung over the entrance to a boarding platform. All the seats in front of it were filled.

Len gave his temple a quick rub. "Well… let's just find a corner to stand in."

We leaned against the wall directly across from the exit. My heartbeat began to quicken again as I realized how soon Len's parents would be coming through those doors. For a fleeting moment, I wondered how I would feel if I actually were his girlfriend. I imagined it couldn't be much different.

"So, uh," Len spoke up. I could barely hear his soft voice over the people around us. "We're going to need to, um, act coupley."

I smirked. "Coupley?"

"Yeah. Like, hugging and kissing and shit."

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. Whether from his nervousness, or my nervousness, or a combination of both, I didn't know. "Hugging and kissing and shit," I repeated.

He softly laughed along with me. "Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not," I lied.

And then, out of nowhere, in the midst of our laughing, someone threw their arms around me in a welcoming hug, that didn't feel so welcome at the time. I tensed up, my laughing ceasing immediately.

"Oh!" An older woman's voice rang out. "It's so good to see you, Rin!"

The fact that Len's mother had hugged me before him was funny, when I thought about it later. At the time, however, I was very confused, and wished nothing more than to be away from the lady who smelled like wine and cheap perfume.

"Hey, ma," Len greeted. "Hey dad."

Len's father pulled him into a bear hug. "Son."

Len's mother, Emily, I barely remembered her name, finally released me. "I'm so excited to see you guys! Oh, this week is going to be amazing."

I gave Len a nervous look. He met my gaze over his father's shoulder as he hugged him. We shared an unspoken agreement that Emily had been drinking. Oh, this should be good.

Len's father, Mike, put hand on her back. "Let's just get you to the hotel to rest and adjust to the altitude." He turned his attention to me, and gave me a warm smile while holding out his hand. "It's nice to see you."

I didn't want to take his hand, I had always had large personal space bubble, but I didn't really have a choice. The whole situation had made me uncomfortable, what harm could this do? I took his hand. "Nice to see you to," I said, feigning a smile.

Len took a step closer to me. "Let's get your bags," he told his parents.

Emily waved her hand dismissively. Her long blonde hair swayed with every movement she made. "We didn't have our bags checked. Too much effort."

Oh thank God.

"In that case, let's head to the car. You guys are staying at the Motel 8, right?" Len confirmed, leading us away from the crowd of people streaming in through the loading deck. I felt a sudden uncomfortable itch all over my skin. There were way too many people in here.

"Yes, I think so," Emily confirmed, leaning on her husband.

My head turned back and forth as I scanned the room around me. I didn't like being here at all. The reunited family continued their greetings as my breathing began to speed up, and I walked faster and faster through the terminal.

"Not a fan of crowds, huh, Rin?" Mike's voice brought me out of my frantic haze. Len, who had been mid sentence, paused to look at me. He stood to my right, while his parents walked on my left.

"I, uh…" I was at a lost for words. "No. I don't."

And then, in possibly the weirdest motion I have ever seen, Len slowly and very visibly slipped his hand in to mine. Holding hands was an act almost too intimate for me to handle, but it was a gentle reminder of the week to come. The oddest part of it all, however, wasn't the unfamiliar feeling of his skin on mine, or the burning gaze of his parents, or the intrusion of my personal bubble, but the comforting feeling his small act gave me.

"Looks like we need to get you back home too, then," he concluded. Our eye contact felt odd, too. Almost like the hand holding.

I nodded, unable to do much else.

"What do you man, overbooked?" Len exclaimed at the clerk. I had long relaxed since our return to Aspen, but Len's tensions seemed to have only escalated since our arrival at the motel. We stood at the counter as Len's parents lounged on the couches behind us.

"I'm sorry sir, what did you say the name was?"

"Kagamine," Len insisted, rubbing his temple. "Len Kagamine."

The clerk shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir. We don't have a room under that name."

"But I called you guys last week," he continued. "I paid for this whole week. I have the receipt somewhere, I know I do."

"Len!" Emily called. "Where's our room?" You'd think she would have sobered up by now.

He shook his head, and walked away from the desk to meet his parents. I turned to the clerk, who looked as uninterested as ever.

"How long had this place been booked?" I asked him innocently.

"Our last room was rented out last night." He stifled a yawn, and ran a hand through his black hair to get at a scratch.

"He called last week. I was with him."

He rolled his eyes. "Do you have the reciept to prove it?"

I glared at him for a moment, before turning my back as well. Len was trying to explain the situation to his parents.

"That guy's an a-" I began, before the parents' eyes locked on me. "-awful employee," I finished.

"How are we going to find a hotel in the middle of ski season in Aspen?" Mike questioned.

Len gave me a look that told me he had an idea. "I mean," he suggested. "You guys could always stay with us."

My eyes widened. Oh no.

Emily, however, nearly sprung out of her seat. "Oh!" She yelled. "Some bonding time!" She traversed around the coffee table, and put a hand on each of my shoulders. "I just knew you two were going to realize how perfect for each other you were eventually," she beamed. I felt my cheeks grow hot. "Ever since that first track meet your ninth grade year. I could just tell. You could call it a mother's intuition."

"Ma," Len called, although I could tell by his expressions that he was enjoying this embarrassment. "Let's go home."

Although I'd been in Len's apartment only the night before, the place felt oddly small and confining. Len's parents threw their bags onto the couch, and I'm almost certain Emily was asleep before she even landed on the couch. Mike just laughed at his wife, and sat on the floor in front of her with the tv remote in his hand. He didn't say a word as he turned in ESPN, and leaned against the couch.

I could understand their exhaustion. Flown in all the way from Florida, been rejected by a hotel clerk… it was already nearly eleven o'clock at night. I was ready to hit the hay, too.

Len and I left his parents in the living room, ("They'll make themselves at home," he'd assured me) and veered to the left toward his bedroom.

"So, there goes sleeping on the couch," he told me in a quiet voice after he'd shut the door to the living room.

I shrugged. "It's not a big deal."

"I'll sleep on the floor if you want-"

"No, that's okay. We can just make, like, a mountain of pillows between us or something. I don't really care."

"Alright."

I quickly thought of how lucky Len was to have such a huge bed to himself. That thing was like a cloud, and a king-sized cloud, at that. His bed sat against the wall opposite of the door, centered in it. His tv hung on the wall next to the door, and the bathroom door was to the right of the bed. A pretty basic setup, but one I could get used to.

My bags were scattered on the right side - my side, I guess - of the bed. I unzipped them and pulled out some pajamas as Len jumped into his bed.

I closed myself in the bathroom to change, admiring the expensive tiling on the floor and walls. Len was living a pretty lavish lifestyle for a college student, I realized. The bathtub was more of a hot tub, with a separate shower built with frosted glass walls. He had a double sink, and a huge mirror. Probably spends a lot of time looking at himself, I joked mentally.

I walked out of the bathroom in my pajamas to find him suddenly changed as well. Like his father, ESPN was playing on the tv.

"Since when are you into sports?" I asked, throwing my clothes onto my bags in the corner.

"I'm not," he admitted. "At least, not playing them. I like watching them sometimes."

The tv showed two newscasters talking about the lineup of some sports team. "But they're not even playing."

He shrugged. "Do you have anything better to watch?"

"Gimme this thing," I said as I planted myself on the bed and gabbed the remote from him. The channels were pretty bare, except for - "-The Goonies!"

He furrowed his brow at the. "The what now?"

My jaw dropped. "Don't tell me you've never seen the Goonies."

He shook his head. "Sounds like a made-up disease."

"Don't you disrespect the greatest movie of the 80's like that. I will kick your ass."

He laughed. "Let's watch it then."

I clicked on it, and sat cross-legged on his bed as the screen changed to Chunk smashing his milkshake against the glass walls of the arcade.

My eyes lit up. "It's just starting, too!"