''What were the odds?' He couldn't contain his laughter; the entire neighbourhood could hear him; 'You picked the romance movie after all!'.

Sue grumbled at him as he reminded her, she looked off to the side and sighed to herself. Paulo thought she would have been furious with him but thankfully Sue decided to see the funny side of the whole thing when it was all said and done. She begrudgingly admitted she was fooled in the end; Paulo had failed to mention the coupons were a special event for a not-quite-valentines romance event, in September no less. He was blameless, he told her, it just…happened to have slipped his mind while they were on the phone! All the movies on offer that night had some romance theme, they had also removed any indication of the event since it was the final week. She had read the Lair of the Dragons book several times but didn't once care about the movie to see what they had changed. She would learn they had kept all the romance elements from the full trilogy, but half-baked and jammed them into a two-hour movie. When she had realised she was fooled she had expected Paulo's stupid face grinning at hers making her the elaborate joke of the evening. But that never happened, she found him practically glued to the movie. He wouldn't notice her reaction.

Sue tried to think back and recall if she'd heard of the event from Amaya before. She might have, but it might have been the fact there was talk of needing to be a romantic couple that she chooses not to. Sue would glare at Amaya for he betrayal as they would head home that evening but Amaya could do nothing but smile and wave them off as they left. What was Amaya thinking letting her go into that movie? Sue lied to herself, she couldn't hold this against her, not ever against Amaya.

The result was still the same despite Sue's effort not to; Sue had gone with Paulo to watch a romance movie. It was unthinkable.

Neither would want to admit it openly, but they both had fun that evening. They only spoke about the movie as they walked home, there were adventures, there were dragons, there was a knight in shining armour….

'But talk about cliché,' she interjected. 'They focused more on the whole sex appeal than the character progression.'

'Was the book any better?' Paulo asked back curiously, he immediately regret asking as Sue's eyes lit up at the question. The walk turned into half hour of the franchise and fantasy medieval realms, the tropes, and how a story should be written. She even went on about it even after they had arrived and stood out the front of her house. A part of him wanted to phase out at her lecture, but he found he couldn't. Something about it was grabbing his attention. It was when Sue's phone rang in her purse when she realised where they were.

'Oh! Right! We've been out here for quite a while, haven't we?' she came to realise, 'Thank you for the night out. It was…good. I'll see you at school on Monday, I suppose.' She said with sincerity.

As she turned towards the house, Paulo's curiosity won over him. He thought to finally ask her, 'Do you think sometime, you could show me more of that online game?'

'WHAT?'

She didn't mean to say it so aloud, the question caught her completely off guard. The idea was immediately objectionable. Paulo interested in the roleplay game they played? For real? She turned to him again with a cruel grin. 'Really? You? An interest in roleplay?' She asked him. What were the odds of this? She asked herself.

Paulo felt taken aback from the response, and a little offended to boot; wouldn't she have been at least somewhat accompanying at the idea he had an interest in something she liked? Was he wrong? He stood his ground, he bought his arms up to his side. 'I just want to kill things! I haven't played a game in years.'

'Just killing things is boring.' Sue replied. 'The game is meant to be played in a group and it's focused on storytelling. It's more fun in a group.' She was sure he could not have an interest in doing that sort of thing. There's no way he'd be that into the game, he'd drop it for sure.

Paulo set out to prove her wrong, 'I just write what my character is feeling, right? Then I can still do that!'

Sue thought it over; Paulo was hard to teach as it was, having an interest in the game was one thing but how much effort would she need to spend trying and teach him how to play for give it up a second later? She couldn't remember a time in all their years at school when Paulo could find the discipline to focus on something. He was never part of a club at school. But at the same time there weren't that many people on anymore and they were desperate for new people. With Mike going overseas and Abbey no longer playing himself, there was a lot less people Paulo could end up upsetting.

He started having second thoughts, maybe this wasn't a good idea after all. She wouldn't show him. Instead it appeared as if the sheer thought that Paulo had some interest in something Sue treasured had given her a rise. He didn't like it one bit. He turned to leave, 'You know what, never mind.' He said over his shoulder.

'Tomorrow.' She called back to him.

His ears rose in surprise, he stopped and turned to her. She continued. 'Tomorrow I'm heading to the library to get my book report done. I figure you haven't been able to do yours so you should come along for that.'

He was wary at the invitation, it wasn't an answer to his question. 'More studying? With you?' He asked her. She must have been joking. Although, it could have been worse, he considered; at least it wasn't blackmail.

She returned the same exasperated look back at him before she spieled on, 'You're asking for a lot, you know? Roleplay isn't something I can just simply teach you in one day; there's a lot of teamwork involved too. We try to keep to a schedule so the games are more fun. It won't be of any benefit to me if you decide it's not for you the first time you play. Not to mention I would be pressed to boot you out of our group if you so much as did something as irritate the other players.' She took a deep breath. She needed to be honest with him. 'I don't mean to sound offensive when I say this either, Paulo. But you don't really have a reputation for keeping to things.' She watched as Paulo's expression soured, she quickly rushed to clarify; 'I'm talking about your work ethic, not Lucy!'

He felt something within him snap. Being told he couldn't keep to things, Lucy of all things, stuck a nerve, coming from Sue made it worse. It wasn't his fault. They were just a series of mistakes! He was angry, she had no right to judge him!

'Did you?!' He yelled back. It wasn't enough he felt insecure over actually accepting to have an interest over something that she enjoyed, but to be mistreated like this? To have that bought up? To hell with the whole idea, the game can go rot for all he cared. Sue can go rot as well. His blood boiled so much he couldn't hear her calling to him as he turned back towards the street and charged away. Then he ran.

She ran after him as he broke away from the front of her place and up the street. She didn't mean to imply Lucy. This needed to be fixed, but she couldn't manage to keep up with him, she wasn't wearing the right shoes that would let her. They were making things worse, she threw them off her feat the soonest she could. It would help her a fraction better, but once Paulo broke into a sprint himself he was completely untouchable. Sue had to stop against her wishes to, she was already out of breath. God, when did PE stop being important to her? Sports were not exactly her forte in middle school, but Paulo was just too much faster naturally.

Paulo disappeared into the darkness. She couldn't hear his footsteps over her gasps for air.

Smooth, she could only think to herself under her gasps for air. A part of her wanted to bring a hand up against her face. She didn't, her parents would ask where the mark came from. She hadn't forgotten the rejection from just a few months ago. She didn't want to try to remember the second time both Paulo and she were nearly at each other's throats over a friend. Sue had felt responsible for it. Lucy ended up being a sore spot for the two of them even at the mere mention of her name, albeit, in different ways.

Sue gave herself a minute before she made her way back home, picking up the shoes she had discarded onto the grass and snuck into her house through the front door. Her presence was known to her parents immediately as they watched movies in the living room, but she was already up the stairs to her room and out of their sight by the time they turned around to greet her.

As soon as she closed the door behind herself she went to inspect the damage to her shoes; it was safe to say they were ruined; they weren't designed for running. Were they that fragile? It was the first time she bothered to wear them. She let them drop out of her hands onto the carpet and stared at herself in the mirror. She was happy her parents didn't see her; she was a mess. Her makeup had begun to run and her hair was everywhere. You wouldn't have been able to tell that she had spent special care of it before going to the cinemas. What did that matter anyway? Paulo didn't seem to notice.

She found herself having difficulty sleeping that night; her heart weighed down heavily on her. She dreamed of the final week of their junior year.

Lucy told Sue her plans over the phone that night before she would sever her ties to the group of friends near the end of their junior year. Sue would listen, she would understand the concept, but she couldn't understand Lucy's motives. There didn't seem to be any reason behind it. She couldn't feel like she could commit to it, it could hurt the people around them. God, what about Paulo? He'd only been wishing for her to come back for the whole of the past year. Could she convince Lucy otherwise, could she just go with Lucy instead? Oh, no? That made Sue more troubled.

'You're put an awful lot of responsibility on me, Lucy. I don't think they'll listen.' Sue said to her.

'They'll listen.' Lucy reassured her. 'You'll be fine, I think they'll need someone like you.'

But they wouldn't listen. Lucy would crush Paulo's heart the next time they would meet alone. Sue would want to help him, but the glare Paulo gave her when she found him would keep her away for most of that year. She hated herself for not being able to convince Lucy otherwise.

Despite her best efforts to inspire the group, she couldn't get the group of friends to stay together. Friendships would begin to strain between one another, until one by one they all went in separate directions. Sue couldn't help but harbour a bit of anger towards Lucy, especially for having been put in that position in the first place. Friends shouldn't have to do that. She would also wonder if Paulo had blamed her for any of it at the time.

Last night likely confirmed he still did.