Happy New Year, friends! I hope you've all had happy and safe holidays. Sorry for the long delay on this chapter. I feel like I'm always apologizing for this - really, writing just takes a lot of time to flow sometimes. In the mix of school and work and life, it gets tough. But even when it takes me some time to update, I am always working on my stories - whether that be writing or brainstorming. And as I keep reminding y'all: do not fear that I'm abandoning my posted works! I will not do that. Taking a while to update is not the same as giving up. I don't plan on giving up.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading and reviewing and all of the things. I appreciate you to infinity and beyond!

Now, I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Chapter Six

Anna

Dinner at Grandpa's was nice, uneventful, and passed much too quickly. I wished it could have dragged some—and I told myself it was because I enjoyed my grandfather's company (which was true) and not because I was beyond nervous about hanging out at Felicity's the next day (which was also true). Grandpa laughed as I hugged his brittle body a tad too long before we left.

"I'll see you soon, Annie," he told me as he patted my back. "You live so close now."

I mustered as good of a smile as I could in return and agreed. Regardless of my anxiety going haywire, it was nice to be near Grandpa instead of states away.

The next day at school passed even quicker than dinner, something I didn't think was possible. Wasn't school supposed to be mind numbing and boring? Since when did the hours fly by? But sure enough, the school day was over and I was expected to meet Felicity in the parking lot to ride home with her. Except instead of going to my home, we were going to hers—her apartment. Where we'd hang out with a couple of her friends. And I'd have to be sociable and not a lunatic.

My palms were sweating as I walked to meet her.

She apparently spotted me first because I heard her call, "Anna! Over here!"

I turned to find her waving at me from beside her car. Was I smiling at her? It felt like a grimace.

Felicity studied my expression as I got close. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Nodding, I sighed. "Just nervous." I bit the inside of my cheek, unsure if I should say more to explain myself.

She gave a reassuring smile. "Don't be nervous. It'll go great! Jacob and Paul already think you're awesome."

I snorted as I climbed into the car. "Oh, they do?"

A faint blush stained her cheeks. "Jacob…well, Jacob kind of loves me? So he's glad for me to have a new friend that I'm excited about."

"That's sweet." It was cool she had such a nice boyfriend.

"And Paul, you'll understand when you get to know him better, but there's kind of no way you can go wrong with him. He's probably ten times more nervous than you, so no worries."

I said nothing in response this time, since I highly doubted she was correct. No way was that big, beautiful guy with those shining eyes and perfect everything more nervous than me for this confrontation. It was the definition of impossible. But I didn't want to argue or make Felicity feel bad—or bring attention to the true scale of my nerves. I kept my hands folded in my lap so she wouldn't see them shaking.

The ride to the apartment complex was full of Felicity babbling about our plans and me staring out the window practicing my deep breathing. When we got there, it took everything in me to not drag my feet as we headed inside. To not make up an excuse to go home.

Felicity led me to her apartment, and we entered through the unlocked door to Paul and another guy, who I assumed was Felicity's boyfriend, bickering.

"It's called options, asswipe," Paul said as Felicity quietly pressed the door shut.

"Obsession is more like it, and it's weird," Jacob argued.

"Oh, like you weren't—"

Felicity rushed forward then, cutting off the rest of whatever Paul was going to say. Apparently she was done being entertained by the boys' spat. "We're here!" She stepped up to Jacob and they hugged. I felt awkward watching them, so I shifted my eyes away.

And landed my gaze on Paul, who was staring at me. There was a weight to his expression, something deep behind it and I wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. Definitely strange, considering we didn't know each other barely at all—and the one exchange we'd had was him insulting me.

"Hi," he said, voice soft and careful.

I bit my lip, unsure if I could form any words with how anxious I felt. Hopefully he wouldn't try to shake my hand just yet because it was beyond clammy.

When I said nothing, he pulled in a breath then said in a rush, "I'm a fucking idiot, and I'm so sorry I subjected you to that. I was trying to make a joke. I knew it wasn't funny. I should have known it then and not said it, but I was stupider than normal because I was tired and said it anyway. And I know that's no excuse, there's no excuse for being an asshole and upsetting you, but I am so, so sorry." He paused. "So sorry. Please don't hate me. Please?"

Wow. Okay. I understood why Felicity had thought Paul was more nervous than me. She was still wrong, but he was obviously…kind of a mess. It was endearing.

And just like that, I couldn't help myself—I laughed. It was quiet, more of a giggle at first, but then it grew to an actual laugh.

Paul's expression shifted from regret to uncertainty. His mouth opened. Closed. I tried to stop laughing so I could say something, but now I needed to catch my breath.

Jacob took pity on us and said, "Hey, I'm Jacob. You must be Anna?"

Slight smile still on my face, I nodded. "Hi." It was embarrassing how breathless that short word sounded.

"Thanks for not letting this jerk," he hitched his thumb at Paul, "keep you from hanging out. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," I said, finally catching my breath.

Felicity placed a hand on Paul's arm. His eyes turned to her, shining. Hmm. The way he was looking at her…maybe there was a crush there? Maybe that was why he acted so strangely. He was trying to make Felicity happy. If she wanted me as a friend, he wouldn't want to mess that up. It was still bizarre for him to apologize so frantically but now that I had an idea of a reason, at least it made a little sense.

She smiled at me. "You remember Paul, I'm sure."

I'd just gotten done smiling, but forced another small one for a brief moment to be polite. "Yes." I looked to him. "I'll forgive you if we can just move on and never mention it again. Okay?"

He perked up. "Are you sure? Because I can continue to grovel."

I shook my head. "No. No groveling. It's done. Let's forget about it now."

Paul nodded, a smile on his face. "Okay. So. We have snacks and we have games. Just pick one you want to play and we can get rolling."

Felicity moved toward what I assumed was the kitchen, seeing as the layout of the apartment was very much like ours. It was probably identical, minus one room—our apartment had three bedrooms while Paul and Felicity shared a two bedroom. "What games did you get?"

Jacob snorted. "What games didn't he get? He bought the store out of all their boardgames."

"You're exaggerating." Paul rolled his eyes.

"Um," Felicity said from the kitchen. "I'm not sure he is."

Unable to help myself, I moved toward the kitchen curiously. When I reached the doorway, I gasped. "Oh wow."

"See, it's not that many. Right, Anna?" Paul asked, lifting his eyebrows at me as if asking me to take his side.

"This is…a lot," I said.

"But not the entire store, right?" Paul pushed.

Jacob laughed as he edged around us and into the room, taking a place at Felicity's side as she studied the games on the table…and the chairs…and a few piled on the floor. "Leave her alone, Paul. You know you went overboard on the game-buying."

Paul crossed his arms over his chest. "I know no such thing."

"It just means we'll have to have Anna over again to play more," Felicity chimed in with a smile. "You up to helping us make use of all these games, Anna?"

I moved forward, reading over the titles of the games piled everywhere. There were a lot of common games, but there were also some ones I hadn't heard of that looked interesting. It was tempting, I had to admit. But would I be comfortable making this a regular thing? Too soon to tell. "Maybe."

Paul clapped his hands together once. "That's not no."

"It's not yes either," I pointed out quietly, then blushed. Paul and I had just gotten over a drama. I didn't need to be rude and cause another one. We didn't know each other well enough to banter yet.

But my moment of worry was for nothing because he laughed. "But it will be."

I blinked at him. "Confident much?" Shut. Up, I told myself. I needed to stop while I was ahead.

Yet again, Paul seemed unperturbed by my sass. He simply smiled. "That's probably the nicest way anyone has ever put it."

"Yeah," Jacob agreed. "People usually refer to him as a douche."

"Okay!" Felicity said, putting her hands on her hips. "What game do we want to play?"

Paul looked at me. "You choose, Anna." The way he said my name…it made my stomach flip.

I shrugged. "Felicity?"

She shook her head. "You're the guest."

Jacob reached out, pulling the Scrabble game off the top of the stack. "Oh look. I chose what game we're going to play. Let's go get set up in the living room."

Paul

Sitting on pillows around the coffee table, we got set up. I forced myself to focus on the letters in front of me instead of staring at Anna.

"I'll keep score," Felicity offered, hopping up to go get a pen and paper.

"Grab some snacks too!" Jacob called out as she headed to the kitchen.

I snorted. "And I'm the ass?"

He frowned. "What?"

"You could have offered to go help her."

He rolled his eyes. "All the snacks are in bags from the store. But I will get up to go get drinks. What would you like, Anna?"

Apparently startled at hearing her name, she blinked up at him for a moment. Then she cleared her throat. "Water is fine."

"You sure?" I asked, not wanting her to hold back for the sake of politeness of whatever. "We have soda and shit—I mean stuff, soda and stuff too."

She shook her head. "Really, water is okay. Thank you." She gave Jacob the smallest forced smile I'd ever seen.

If we'd actually had a second alone I would have checked to make sure she was okay since she seemed so uncomfortable. But as soon as Jake left, Felicity walked in. "We have basically any chip you could wish for," she announced. "You want some, Anna?"

Anna bit her lip. I wondered what she was so torn about. Was she not hungry? Was she nervous to be the first to pick a snack? "There's plenty," I told her. "I'll take that bag of cheddar Ruffles, doll." Hopefully if I started mowing this shit down first, Anna would be more at ease.

For once, it seemed like I did something right because a moment later, Anna reached out and grabbed a bag of wavy Lays. She opened the bag and carefully extracted a chip. Jacob came back then, handing her a bottle of water. As soon as she was done chewing, she didn't hesitate to open it and take a sip.

I reached over and took one of the bags of snacks, rummaging around for… "Hey," I said, drawing Anna's attention away from where it'd gone back to her letters, "we have some dip." I opened my bag of chips, scooping a helping of dip onto one and tossing it into my mouth and crunching away. "We can share."

After blinking at me for a second as if my offer confused her, Anna shook her head. "No, thanks."

I wiggled the dip at her before putting it down between us. "I don't have cooties or anything. I swear. And those chips are made for dip—those ridges? Maximum dip scoopage."

Her lips twitched—had I almost gotten a smile there? "My brother says the same thing. But I don't like dip. I'm just a fan of the extra crunch the wavy chips get."

"Interesting," I said, hoping I didn't sound sarcastic. It really was interesting. Everything about her was, and I was learning a lot. She didn't talk much but just observing her revealed a fair amount. It made me excited for when we would get familiar enough with each other that she would chat with me…all the things I could learn about her then. But for now, I filed the new chip info away in my brain: Anna enjoys crunchy snacks.

"Okay," Jacob said, "now that you're done trying to sell poor Anna over here on the wonders of chip dip, we can actually start playing."

And so we did. I'd been a little skeptical at Jacob's choice of Scrabble—such a boring choice, full of thinking and the possible use of a dictionary—but I could tell that playing the game really put Anna in her element. She fucking rocked at Scrabble. She didn't speak much, other than the little bit of small talk Felicity urged her into, but watching her while she studied her letters and the board was fascinating. Her eyes were full on focused while the rest of her expression remained calm. Every now and then her lips would move the barest amount, mouthing her letters to herself before whipping out some brilliant word.

"Zebra?" I asked incredulously. "You've been stowing away the word zebra over there this whole time?"

Anna shrugged. "I've had the z and the b for a while and kind of hoped for the opportunity, but wanted to wait for the right moment."

Jacob snorted. "Like when you could land on a triple word score? I think we're being swindled."

Color infused her cheeks. "You picked the game. And no one made any bets."

"That you know of," Jacob teased.

Felicity slapped his arm lightly, smiling at Anna. "He's joking. He's just a little sensitive because he's losing. Even Paulie over there is beating him."

If I hadn't been so intensely in tune to Anna the entire time, I might have missed it—but when Felicity mentioned me, Anna's eyes wavered a tiny bit. She looked down for the barest moment. As if she was…flustered? Upset? Uncertain? I didn't know her well enough yet but it was definitely something.

"Yeah, and little Anna is kicking all our asses," I said, giving her a wink to hopefully lighten her mood.

She blushed again, rubbing her hands together.

"How did you get so good, Anna?" Felicity asked as she laid down the letters for her next word. We were nearing the end of the game, so it was a short one: you.

Anna bit her lip. "I'm not so sure I'm good at the game…I just got lucky with useful letters."

"You used z in a word longer than zoo, I think you're actually good at the game," Jacob pointed out with a smile, laying down his own three letter word.

"You could have done zebra too if you'd had the letters."

"So modest." Jacob smirked at me, and I knew in his head he was laughing at the fact that her demeanor was so polar opposite to my own. If I'd made even half the words Anna had during this game, I definitely would have been bragging my ass off.

Anna placed three letters on the board. "I read a lot. Maybe that helps?"

I was all over this offered information. "You do? What kind of books?"

Her gaze met mine for a moment before flicking back down. "Good ones."

I laughed. The way she shifted after saying it made it clear she wasn't entirely comfortable being sarcastic with me, but I was living for it. She was funny. And whenever she let a little comment like that slip out, it showed she was getting closer to being comfortable with me. All I needed was to reassure her to the point where she wouldn't immediately retreat right after each.

Felicity chimed in then about books she liked to read, and while I think she's great and all I'd wanted to know more about Anna. So I went back to paying close attention to Anna and her responses as we finished the game and Felicity chattered.

"This was nice," I said as we cleaned up. "We definitely need to do this again. Or anything. You just need to start hanging out with us on a regular basis, Anna."

Anna blinked, a small smile tipping up her lips. "We'll see."

"I'm not so sure," Jacob said, stretching back on the couch. "I don't know if I can take losing so badly again. I'm ashamed of myself."

"Maybe we should play on teams next time," Anna suggested quietly. "To make it more fair."

I grinned. "I call dibs on Anna's team."

Felicity laughed while Jacob rolled his eyes. "How did I know that was coming?"

"Well," Anna said, getting to her feet. "I need to get home. Thank you all for having me."

I watched as she headed toward the door. "Maybe I should walk you?"

She frowned. "It's right down the hall. I think I can make it."

Felicity walked over and hugged her, and shit. I was kind of jealous. Or maybe a lot jealous. Why couldn't I hug my own imprint? Because she barely knows you yet, idiot.

"I'll keep an eye as she walks over, Paul," Felicity said with a smile. Then they both went into the hallway, Felicity talking and Anna responding softly.

"How do you feel?" Jacob asked, seeming genuinely curious instead of mocking.

Pulling in a deep breath, I closed my eyes as I replayed the past couple of hours in my mind. Anna's smooth expressions. Her small fingers fidgeting with her letters. Her soft voice. Yeah, the day had gone so well. "Pretty damn great."

Thank you for reading! PLEASE leave a review and let me know what you think! They really are so inspiring. See y'all next update - which I'm aiming for/hoping to be soon! :)