Sandy sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall. When Nick had asked for his help in picking out a flower to give to Ana, he'd expected it to take all of five minutes. They were approaching twenty and Nick still hadn't made up his mind.

Honestly, there weren't even that many flowers in the shop!

It was Sandy fault, though. If he hadn't pushed his friends together, Nick and Ana probably would never have realized their budding feelings and then he wouldn't have been dragged flower shopping.

Only Sandy had noticed the way Nick smiled whenever he saw Ana and only Sandy had noticed that the blonde always started playing with her hair whenever she talked to their Christmas loving friend. That's what happened when you were too busy worrying about other people's hearts to pay attention to your own, you missed things.

He was just happy that the love bug had yet to bite him. The last thing their group needed was for all five of them to be love struck at the same time.

"What do you think of this one?"

Nick's question broke Sandy from his silent musings, drawing his attention to the flower in his friend's hands. As tempting as it was to nod and be done with it, Sandy was a good friend and, apparently, the only one who paid attention to Ana's preferences. She HATED orange. A tiger lily would be an awful choice. So he sighed and shook his head, then reached over to grab a lovely looking rose, only to have Nick say, "No, I need to pick it out myself!" for the hundredth time.

Sandy scowled and crossed his arms, giving his friend a look that said, "well then, pick one!"

Nick just grinned nervously and went back to searching.

Finally, after another ten minutes, the nervous teen chose the pretty, purple rose Sandy had been trying to suggest since they'd arrived. It was a sign of Sandy's near infinite well of patience that his only reaction to the choice was a sigh. At least they could leave now.

As they exited the flower shop and began to head back towards the parking lot, Nick kept glancing around the mall as if he was terrified that Ana was going to jump out and surprise them.

Sure, Ana spent more time at the mall then all four of the male members of their friend group combined, but that wasn't saying much seeing as this was the first time Sandy had set foot in the building this year and he was sure the same could be said for Nick. Shopping just wasn't their thing.

Suddenly, Nick let out a squeal of terror and rushed into the nearest shop.

Sandy tried to figure out what had caused his friend's flight and then he saw her. Really?

He took another look and smirked. Well, it wasn't Ana, but he could see how Nick would make that mistake. Sure, she wasn't the right age, height, or body type, but she was a blonde with dyed streaks in her hair, albeit streaks that were pink and orange, not green and blue, but still. The mistake could have been made by anyone. Anyone but a person with functional eyes.

Ah well, he'd best go and get Nick if he wanted to get out of here.

With that, Sandy turned and entered the shop Nick had rushed into, only to stop short when he realized what it was. The arcade… gosh, he hadn't been here since they were kids.

Nick seemed to have been hit by the same nostalgia only, instead of just standing there and taking in the memories, he was at the change machine getting quarters.

Sandy should have been annoyed, he had things to do, but the idea of a walk down memory lane was just too tempting. Besides, he wanted to see if he could still beat Nick at the racing games.

"I haven't seen you two do something like this since we were in, what, fifth grade? Just how many quarters are in that stack?"

Both boys jumped in their seats at the loud greeting, sending their cars flying off the side of the road and dropping them from 2nd and 3rd place to the lowest ranks in the game. Not that they were paying attention to the game anymore. They'd both turned around at the sound of the voice to find Aster and Ana standing behind them, sporting matching grins.

"Here we are, thinking we've had this super original idea to come and play at the arcade, only to find that you two beat us to it," Ana added. "I call winner, by the way."

Both racers looked shell shocked. It had been ages since any of them had come here and now all four of them had chanced upon the same idea within the space of a few hours? That didn't seem likely.

Sandy's skepticism must have been written all over his face, because Ana laughed and said, "Okay, okay, so we didn't have any desire to come to the arcade. Nick's mom called us since you weren't picking up your phones and asked if we'd come by the mall and find you two. So, here we are!"

Both boys looked embarrassed now. Just how long had they been playing for? A quick glance at the clock on the wall informed them that the answer was way too long.

"Hey, what's with the flower?"

Ana's question drew their gazes from the clock to the purple rose that had been sitting by Nick as they played.

Nick's eyes grew wide and Sandy had to fight to keep from laughing. After all Nick's paranoia he was still going to be found out.

Then Nick tried to redirect their attentions to something else, hoping that the flower would be forgotten. He really didn't want to ask Ana out at an arcade. "That? Oh, it's nothing… Where's Jack?

"What, Jack? Oh, he's in Burgess today, visiting the twins. Though he's probably home by now," Aster replied, giving his Christmas-loving friend an odd look.

As soon as he'd said those words, Ana's phone began to ring and they all recognized the ringtone.

Jack.

"So, Jack, how was your weekend?"

Jack gave his foster mother a tentative smile and said, "Good. How was your visit?"

"It was nice. Did you do anything interesting while we were gone?"

Jack looked at the Overlands and sighed. Sure, he could try and hide it, but he didn't want to. He just had no clue how they'd react to finding out that he was dating a guy. Issues about homosexuality weren't something he'd talked about with them before. Well, there was only one way to find out for sure.

"Yeah, I went on a date."

Both of his foster parents looked at him in surprise and then Mr. Overland asked, "A date? With who?"

Okay, here goes…

"Aster Wilder."

The looks on their faces as they realized that meant Jack had gone out with a male weren't promising.

Mrs. Overland's tone when she said, "Aster? Isn't he a…" only confirmed Jack's suspicions, but he completed the statement that she hadn't been able to finish anyway.

"A guy, yeah."

"Oh."

All three of them were silent and then Mr. Overland said, "Jack, I know we've been distant since the... incident, but joking about dating another male for our attention…"

Jack cut him off before he could finish. "Your attention? What does that even… I'm not doing this to be noticed! I'm doing it because I like Aster."

Mrs. Overland spoke before her husband could retaliate. "Oh, Jack, he didn't mean it like that!"

"Yes he did!"

"Well, you have done things in the past just to cause trouble so you can understand why that would be our first though," Mr. Overland said with a pointed look that made Jack's blood boil. "But if you seriously like this boy then we won't stop you. Of course, the daily visits to his house will have to stop."

"What?" Jack stared between them, but Mrs. Overland was nodding in agreement with her husband.

"Yes, it was fine when he was just your friend, Jackson, but if you're dating him then we can't just let you two go off whenever you…"

"Let me? You're not my parents! You're not even my guardian's anymore!"

Silence ruled in the aftermath of Jack's shout and then Mr. Overland spoke. "You are living in our house, Jackson. That means we make the rules."

"Well then maybe it's time I moved out!"

The silence was back and even tenser than it had been before.