I meant to get this out earlier, but then things got a bit hectic. I had to help my sister move, I might be moving to Florida soon, work blew up, all those crazy life things. And then by the time things calmed down a bit, I figured why not post this on the 4th of July since that's when it takes place, and that felt fun.


Natara fidgets through dinner on the 4th of July. Her mom tells her to stop playing with her napkin long enough to eat something, all the while exchanging smirks with her father. Normally she would be annoyed at that. But she's too nervous to care. Neha alone acts like nothing is wrong, possibly because she doesn't know what's happening after dinner.

She's really not that hungry, even before she factors in the nerves. After just enough bites to make her mom happy, Natara excuses herself up to her room to get ready. She checks her outfit in the mirror, changes her shirt no less than three times, plays with her hair and tries to get it just right.

She huffs out a sigh. She shouldn't be this nervous. It's just Mal. They've hung out a few times, at this point. They occasionally have movie nights at his place. This really is nothing new, when you get right down to it. And Mal is her friend, nothing more.

For now, taunts the voice in her head. She immediately quashes it. Yes, for now. And for now, that's enough. She has plenty of time to assess whether she wants anything more than friendship from him, or not. And Mal, to his credit, hasn't asked about it since the night they graduated.

The doorbell rings at exactly 7:30, but it still makes her nearly jump out of her skin. She flies down the stairs, jumping the last three, and skids to a stop in the front hallway just in time to stop her dad from opening the door.

"I've got it," she tells him with a pointed look, and he has at least the good sense to back up a few steps. When she's happy her dad is far enough away, she opens the door. Mal stands there with his easy going smile that only barely falters when he sees her dad hovering nearby.

"Hi," he says, standing up a bit straighter.

"Hey," she says. "Let me just grab my jacket and then we can go." She doesn't want to leave her dad alone in the hallway with Mal, especially when she sees that he's crossing his arms and not so subtly flexing his biceps. But her jacket is still in the kitchen, and she'd rather not have her mom bring it out to her. She'll have to take her chances.

"I trust you'll have my daughter home at a reasonable hour?" her dad asks as she turns her back and hurries to the kitchen. She can feel her face burn and is glad neither of them can see it.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Mansingh, sir," Mal answers. She imagines him saluting.

"Who's at the door?" Neha asks as Natara grabs her jacket, bracing her feet against the table so she can tip her chair back and peek down the hall. "Is it a boy?"

"Have fun, sweetie," her mom says with a smile, then pushes Neha's chair back down. "Don't tip that back, or you're going to fall."

"Where are you going?" Neha asks. "Are you going with the boy?"

"His name is Mal," she says as patiently as she can, "and we're going to the fireworks."

"Fireworks?" Neha yells. "Can I come?" Natara meets her mom's eyes and she knows panic is written all over her face.

"Oh, Neha, baby, you don't want to go," her mom says soothingly. Neha's face goes red.

"Yes I do! I wanna see the fireworks!"

Natara can see that she's getting ready for a tantrum, so she turns on her heel and is ready to sprint down the hall, grab Mal, and escape to his truck. She doesn't even make it one step before Mal and her dad are peering down the hallway at her, eyebrows raised.

"I'm so sorry," she says when she gets to them. "I'm ready, we can go. She's only going to get crazier if we stay." Behind her, she can hear Neha gearing up to cry.

"I mean, if she wants to go that bad, she can come with us," Mal offers with a shrug.

"Oh, that's okay," she says.

"Are you sure?" he asks. "I don't mind. And there'll be lots of other kids to keep her company."

She wants to say no. Neha is a tattletale in the best of times, and she can only imagine what she'll say to their parents. But Neha's already heard him, and her dad looks like he's in favor of the idea.

Which is how she ends up sitting on a blanket in the park with Neha in between her and Mal. Her sister is chattering away about something, and she knows she should probably be paying attention but she's seething and it's hard to focus on anything at all.

It's not so much that she was forced to bring Neha. It's more because this was the first time in weeks that she was going to get to spend time with Mal, just the two of them. And instead she's stuck babysitting Neha while her five-year-old sister acts as an unwitting chaperone. She does her best to hide it, but she can see Mal giving her weird looks in between her clipped answers and pinched expressions. She can't imagine he's all that happy about it, either.

"Are you okay?" he asks her quietly when Neha runs off briefly to greet a boy she recognizes from preschool. She watches her sister carefully, making sure she doesn't run too far.

"Yeah," she lies as she finally meets his eyes.

"You sure?" he ventures. He's not sure it's wise, probing further when she's insisting she's fine, but he does it anyway. He figures if it annoys her and she snaps at him, she'll come to her senses later and then she'll have to make it up to him somehow. He tries not to smile at the idea.

"Would it matter if I wasn't?" she says waspishly, then shakes her head. "Sorry that tonight isn't exactly going as planned." Mal shrugs one shoulder and leans back a bit.

"Honestly? It's fine," he says. "I wouldn't have offered if it wasn't. And your sister's kind of refreshing."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to live with her." They both crack a smile.

"That's true," Mal concedes. "It's kind of weird, too, seeing the other side of things."

"What do you mean?" she asks, giving him a quizzical look.

"Well, I only have an older sister," he explains. "She's twenty-four, now, but when we were kids, she used to make my life a living hell. I guess I never considered what I was like to her."

"Probably obnoxious," she snorts, then continues when she sees Mal's face. "If you were anything like Neha, I mean. It's classic Second Child Syndrome I love her, but my parents spoil her so much. They're totally wrapped around her finger."

She watches as Mal bites his lip, his expression unreadable. She wants to say something, but she doesn't know what. Instead she continues to meet his gaze. A second later, Mal shakes his head.

"I mean, I think that's kind of the natural order of things, right?" he says lightly, his expression back to normal. "The oldest kid is the practice child, the one they raise by trial-and-error. And then the youngest kid is the one who can get away with anything. Right?"

"I guess," she says moodily.

They lapse into silence. A few people are dancing along to music in an open section of grass. Around them, kids scream and laugh while their families watch. Natara glances around, looking for Neha, and locates her still sitting with the boy from her class. A few other kids have joined them, and her sister looks too preoccupied with her friends to care whether or not Natara is there.

She makes a noise of surprise when Mal takes her hand and pulls her up with him. Before she can ask what he's doing, he's leading her over to where everyone is dancing.

"Mal, I don't-"

"Nope, don't," he admonishes her with a grin. "Don't say you don't dance because I know you do." He begins dancing (somewhat awkwardly) in front of her, still grinning.

"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?" she challenges as she tries to hold in her own smile.

"The winter formal," he says, as if it should be obvious. She rolls her eyes.

"Slow dancing with you hardly counts."

"Doesn't it?" Natara crosses her arms and bites the inside of her cheek as Mal nudges her shoulder with his.

"No, it doesn't," she says. "All we really did was sway back and forth."

"Fine, but I still saw you dancing with Amy," he says. "That definitely counts as dancing."

"Hardly," she snorts. But she starts swaying a bit, just to placate him. His grin grows even wider, and she can't help but smile back at the absurdity of it all.

They dance together. They lose track of how long they dance for, but they're having fun so neither of them truly cares. They dance even after Neha joins them and it gets dark. At one point, Natara helps Mal hoist Neha onto his shoulders and they dance like that for a while.

And when the fireworks begin to go off above their heads, and Neha screams and points at them, Natara feels like there's electricity running all throughout her veins. Every inch of her tingles and she's aware of her entire body. And when Mal takes her hand, she thinks she's never felt more alive.