Upon reaching his bedroom Paulo flicked the light on to his room. It was only after they had finished arguing with each other just moments before had they noticed how dark it had gotten in that time. It was almost entirely night outside, and you'd have thought as much if you hadn't known prior that it had only been three in the afternoon. The snow-storm still raged on and showed no signs of stopping. Things were looking dire, Sue would likely need to stay the night over at this rate.

Dire times, indeed.

It was convenient the house still had power. Though, Paulo wondered how long that would last for. He knocked on the wood frame of the door out of instinct; better safe than sorry knowing his luck.

Sue stepped into the room close behind him. Unable to stop herself from scanning his room and feeling a little sad at what she saw; cracks through the walls, though nothing a good paint couldn't accomplish. Everything in here appeared to be from a different age. She knew Paulo was living on the borderline of poverty, but she didn't know what it looked like until now.

She had noticed the room was very clean. Not something she had expected, almost as if he had been expecting company. But Sue felt she was looking too deeply into it herself. Perhaps she should've simply known Paulo was simply a bit of a neat freak. Paulo's appearances were deceiving at best.

They were here in his room for a purpose, they'd occupy themselves with the one thing Paulo believed was enough of a timewaster that they could bond over; Video games. Naturally, his idea, and his only go-to for the moment — knowing that once upon a time long, long ago Lucy had once shared the same experience in the same room — the first girl he'd ever invited in, and recalling, she had a pretty good time. He was sure this would work with Sue, knowing that she enjoyed them too. They were a different breed of video game that she was used to, most definitely, but surely, she'd played on something older than the computer she owned at one stage in her life. At least he hoped so; the one fear he held that what if she didn't find this as fun for whatever reason, be it the games or even how dated the system was. Then he'd need to find something else, and there wasn't that much to really do inside.

Paulo walked towards his cupboard and retrieved the box containing the ancient device in the lower corner of the bottom shelf. He'd decided earlier in the year it was better to pack it away when he wasn't using it. He didn't play it often as it was, but it was also so he wouldn't get distracted from his studies. That seemed to be working out for him.

He set it down on the floor before bringing the console out and the several lengths of cable for controllers, the connector to the TV and the power. He saw Sue standing beside him, he gestured to the bed, and Sue sat there patiently while he set up.

Geez, Sue; he'd almost forgotten that she was there for that brief second. It took a bit of time convincing Sue to follow him to his room. No funny business, he promised. He'd keep to his word; he just didn't really want to set the games console on the TV downstairs. He felt his dad was disappointed enough in him. Paulo couldn't begin to imagine how he'd feel if he walked through the door at any time and saw video games connected to the lounge room TV. God, worse; what about a girl in the house to boot? Oh no; he would be furious with him, for sure! Sue didn't buy his story at first, seeming suspicious of him, tiling her head and glaring at him as if he should rethink his strategy. But when Paulo begged she started to believe there may have been a chance he was telling the truth.

Ah, she lied to herself; of course he was telling the truth, she just wanted to mess with him a bit. Paulo walked off with a huff up the stairs once he realised on the second attempt to persuade her. Sue put a little skip in her walk as she followed. She made sure Paulo never saw it.

'That looks so ancient!' Sue thought aloud as she stared down towards the small little device. She'd swore she'd seen one at some stage, maybe in an old magazine while she was at the doctors. Those ones were grey, this one was slightly yellow, an aged look. She had noticed a lot of the things in his room were of the same vintage, the TV in here had to have been a few decades; the kind of analogue TV with knobs. A real relic. But loved all the same despite the wear over the years.

'I've had it since I was about seven. It's way older than me. My dad got it just before we moved.' He replied as both joysticks were connected to the main unit. He turned his head back to her, 'I don't really have too many other choices than competitive fighting games, but some of these ones have cooperative play. Is that okay?' He asked, showing her the face of the game cartridge.

'That's okay.' She replied.

The first cartridge went inside, and Paulo flicked the power button into the on position. The game came on instantly and Sue sat next to him while taking the controller he held for her.

'Don't be too harsh with the graphics, it is from the 80's.'

'It's fine. Just tell me what the controls are.'

'Oh sure, so Jump is. . .'

'That is bullshit!' Sue yelled as she restarted at the checkpoint.

Paulo hummed in agreement and laid forward on the bed with arms folded. He'd died in the section before and sacrificed a life to keep Sue going on her own. The last life. 'You were really close! I've forgotten everything about this, it's been so long!'

'What the hell am I even supposed to do? He comes flying in from the side of the screen and I can't even defend against it!'

'You're meant to hide behind that Gargoyle at that part I think.'

'Wait, that green-ish grey thing?! How is that even a Gargoyle?!'

'How isn't it?! Look—' He got up and walked over to the TV and pointed at the blurry lines. 'That's its face and its tongue is poking out.'

'Geez, really? It looked like something completely different. I suppose I can see it now.' She admitted. She stepped into the arena again, at this time she had understood and likely mastered most of the dynamics of the game. She repeated everything she did until the moment she last died, until. 'I got him!' She cried out elated.

'Oh man I thought it was game-over for sure at that last part.' Paulo said, grabbing his controller off the floor and rejoining her; his character was alive again in each new level.

'Whoa, what? Our health is better than just a moment ago!' Sue noted.

'Uh huh, if you beat the high score for each level you get an automatic refill.' Paulo pointed out.

'Ah! Well that's convenient. . .Oh, hell, this type of puzzle. . .'

'You need to run and jump just at the rock before the ledge like this . . . Oh come ON!'

'That looked awfully close, thanks for saving me from a death!' Sue winked in her laugh.

'Har har har.' He replied flatly, 'Maybe it just after the rock? . . . There we go!'

He'd forgotten how fun this was. It really had been so long. There was a point in time where David stopped coming over to play the games at Paulo's house. Instead they just went to David's; the video games at his house were a lot more modern, and damned if they weren't cooler. Thankfully Sue hadn't frowned on the primitiveness of the game at all. If fact, she was more warming up to it. As helpful as the health refill was, it wasn't long before their luck would eventually run out, and a GameOver displayed on the TV just a few steps from the final boss of the game. Paulo had to admit Sue turned out to be pretty good despite a lacklustre start, but even that didn't stop her from falling for the more trivial platforming death-traps, as was the case here. Paulo elected to change the game after being forced to restart in the stage before. This next one was a puzzle game, Paulo hadn't seen it before, there were these weird coloured orbs falling from the screen. It wasn't too obvious what they needed to do. Just before the screen filled up, Paulo managed to work out the game mechanics – four of the same colour in various combinations made them disappear and drop clear ones in Sue's play area. She lost a second later, already with a full playing field. Having understood that, they spent some time throwing clear blocks to each other's playing field – ones that couldn't disappear on their field and needed to be adjacent to the ones that could 'pop'.

Then Sue discovered letting the blocks pop in a sequence, chaining one after the other. And then another, and then another. Paulo watched in horror as the indicator on his side of the screen started getting larger with each one.

'No!' He screamed out. 'I won't let you win!'

'Yeeeeees!' Sue countered with the most mischievous grin. 'I hope you're ready!' Paulo followed continuing to wail no as he tried to copy her ability to stack the blocks, but he wasn't fast enough. She smelled victory, and would have had it too, had the power not decided to cut out at that time. A blood-curdling scream from Sue filled the black night.

'Noooooooooooo!' Sue howled. 'I almost had you!'

'Almost? What kind of a joke is that?! You murdered me even long before the move finished.' Paulo admitted. 'That was fun though!' He said elated. 'I can't believe I passed out on that game all this time!'

Paulo heard some rustling come from Sue's direction before the display from her phone shone into her face, she pressed a few more buttons and the flash on the back lit up the surrounding elements of his room. Paulo did the same with his phone. He sighed; knocking on the wooden frame of his door didn't save them whatsoever. 'I suppose the power was going to go eventually, it was just when.' He said to himself. He watched as Sue got off the bed and walked towards the power point and flicked it off before pulling the two cables out of the wall.

'What're you doing?' He asked.

'Being careful.' She replied. 'You don't want a power surge taking out your stuff.'

He made a sound in agreement. They were the only few things he had. 'There's not too much else up here. We might have board games or something downstairs.' He told her.

They made their way back downstairs under guidance from their phone's flashlights knowing that they needed candles lest the batteries in the phones ran out. And without power, that was going to be inevitable at some stage that night. Paulo went into the cupboard to fish for them and they lit several on the small coffee table before Paulo turned back towards the stairs.

'Where are you going?' Sue said, putting out the match she used.

'I'm just going to head into the attic, I just remembered it's where we hid most of the board games, I think. . .' Paulo replied. 'Any reason?'

'Just in case something happens.' Sue returned. 'To you, not me, I'll be fine.'

'Sure, just don't go opening any front doors.' He mused back.

Sue rolled her eyes. 'I really hope you don't intend to keep bringing it up after today, unless you want people at school starting rumours.'

'No, probably won't.' Paulo replied, 'But I'm gonna drive it into the ground as much as I can until then.' He flashed his trademark smile. When Sue's hand went to her head in pain he saw it as his cue to go and turned towards the stairs, making his way past his room to the small panel in the celling where the entrance to the attic was. His hand came up and pulled down on the cover, letting the small ladder slide loose and ascended it into the attic. Doing so, Paulo assessed that the easy part was all taken care of. Though, between his fear of dark-places, rooms that were already creepy as fuck in the dark, and whether there were really any board games in his house, was now the difficult part.

Paulo couldn't remember the last time he ever needed to go into the attic of his own volition. In fact, the only time he could remember was when his father wanted to do some spring cleaning. It was well overdue for another, he'd noticed; as disturbed dust particles flickered in the light beam from his phone. The wind roaring just above his head didn't help the matter one bit. Neither did the white drapes over all the boxes.

Fuck, it was creepy up here.

None of the boxes were Paulo's, they were all entirely his fathers. They'd existed long since before his time; forgotten, just wasting away in the dust. Thinking about it some more, he didn't know what most of them contained. He might have seen at one stage during a clean-up. But that was clearly some while ago and he didn't particularly take too much notice. But why was that? Did they just not serve any interest to him? He pulled the sheet off the box closest to him, waving it in the air to direct the dust away from him the best he could manage, but all that did is make the dust worse.

What did his father use them for? He wondered to himself. Suppose he'd find out in time, since the board games had to be up here somewhere, and Paulo needed something to distract Sue, anything at this stage would be enough.

He went to open the closest one, laughing to himself once he realised his hand was shaking violently in the air. He really was out of his element up here, wasn't he? It made the time he went to see Mr Noodle a lot easier, though the pressure had felt much the same. He did his best given the circumstances and edged closer towards the box. When his hand finally made the distance and lifted the lid, his interest piqued as the contents came into view.

Books, old ones – novels. A lot of them! He never knew he had this many in the house.

Where these always here? He wondered to himself again. The wonder lapsed soon after once he realised the board games weren't in this container, though he was interested he needed to move on. Maybe another box, he figured.

His hand moved up towards the top of the next box like it had before, but it stopped in mid air. Paulo knew why, the entirety of his body's attention moved to what felt like a presence behind him. Forget the blizzard outside; the warmth against his ear did nothing but make him freeze to the wooden floor. The low-pitched growling noise that filled it made his heartbeat louder, surely, the presence behind him could hear it too at the rate it was going.

'So you've finally come back. . .big brother?' The voice asked him. 'I've been waiting for you.' It tried to plant a hand on his shoulder but grabbed onto nothing; Paulo had already thrown himself forward over the top of the container in front of him and onto the floor, screaming while he did so.

The voice exploding into laughter, almost hysterical. Paulo recognised it as he got up from the floor. He should've known better.

'Sue. . .' he grumbled getting up.

'Oh my god that was hilarious!' She screamed back. 'I've never seen anyone jump that high before!'

Paulo rolled his eyes before standing up again and attempting to regain his composure, 'You are so lucky I didn't turn around and clock you. Are you trying to murder me? Was the game not enough?!'

'This really made up for it!' She said in-between her laughing, she wiped a tear from an eye before setting the candle she bought with herself on one of the cabinets next to her. 'Wow, it really is a bit creepy up here with the drapes. Could use a dusting too.' She commented.

'Yeah, I know.' He said getting up. 'Dammit Sue, I almost had a heart attack! What're you doing up here, I thought you were going to stay downstairs?' He asked.

'I came to see how you were going.' Sue shrugged innocently.

'As you can see, still searching. It's been a lifetime since I was up here last. Thanks for the candle, by the way.' He replied pointing to it. It was just in time as well, his phone's battery was starting to get low. He resumed his search once he was sure his heart had calmed down, starting towards the nearest box while Sue held the candle again. He opened it, then scowled at the contents, no board games.

He turned to Sue, 'I'm not going to hear what happened just before at school, am I?'

'We agreed that technically today never happened.' Sue reminded him. 'I prefer to consider this a level playing field.'

'Only now?'

'Found anything?' She asked, changing the topic.

'No, the first crate there is full of old books. This one seems to have toys I haven't seen in a long time. I've still got to check the others.' He slammed the crate closed and scratched his chin, 'No, seriously, why did you come up here? You can wait for me downstairs, right?'

'I figured you could use the help.' She replied nonchalantly. 'I was going to come up eventually.'

Paulo wasn't too sure about that exactly. He was sure there was a reason behind it. He wanted to know why. But to be honest, he was happy with the company himself. There was greater relief in that it was just her and not some long-lost sister which he never ever heard of, who'd been kept up here out of sight for all these years.

They resumed exploration of the attic, each of the remaining crates held some piece of Paulo's family history. Unfortunately; all unknown to him, and none of them contained any sense of a story to tell. Paulo sooner realised that there was a lot more to his father than he realised. They opened the last box together and Paulo's heart sank further into him; his memory had failed him, there weren't any board games. He turned to Sue when it was obvious at this stage and bought his hand up when she went to the first chest he checked. 'I've already checked that chest.'

'I'm just having a look again.' She told him, she eyed the contents. 'Ever wonder why your dad keeps all his books up here?'

'I have no idea, but. . .' Paulo replied bluntly, he shut the cabinet behind him 'There's not that much room downstairs to keep them displayed.' He thought for a bit. 'Not to mention, I don't think I've ever seen him read in forever.'

'They must mean something to him if he keeps them around. But why up here?' She through aloud, retrieving one of the books from the chest and looking at it briefly. Paulo thought to stop her; it was his fathers, he didn't want to intrude any further on his father's effects. He was going to, but Sue interrupted. 'Have you ever seen these before?'

'No, can't say I have.' He returned. 'Any reason?'

'This one has a message in the corner from someone.'

'For real?' telling her off became a lower priority, he brushed up beside her for a better look as Sue held her finger to the page he needed to read. He couldn't recognise the handwriting:

~Hi honey, Happy fifth Anniversary. I wasn't sure what to get you, so I thought I'd add a bit more to your collection. Hope you like it. XOXO

His eyes were wide open, 'Mom. . .'

'I guess your father liked to read at some point. See, even this one has something in it as well! But only a few of these books look like they were gifts.' Sue noted.

Paulo scratched his head, not sure what to make out of the situation. His concern became centred around disturbing his father's personal effects. 'Let's put it all back. The games aren't here I guess, come on, we're going back downstairs.' Paulo told her.

Sue nodded. They put the books back inside the chest and shut the lid. Sue picked up the candle again before meeting him at the ladder.

'Will you be okay with getting back down?' Paulo asked.

'Huh?'

'I mean with your arm. Is it any better?' He clarified.

Sue gave her bad arm a bit of a flex. 'Well, it doesn't hurt as much as it did.'

Paulo nodded, and slowly eased himself down the small step ladder before taking the candle himself and setting it aside before standing-by as Sue started her descent. She slipped just before she reached the bottom and found herself falling backwards, until a pair of arms wrapped around her and stopped her.

'Are you okay?' Paulo asked catching her in the air.

'Apparently my arm isn't all better at all.' Sue sighed. And after a couple of seconds; 'You can let me go now.' She said, her feet kicking lightly in the air as Paulo held her against himself.

'O—Oh!'

He let her down slowly. She found her footing and spun on the spot as Paulo pushed past her and started putting the ladder back up into the attic again. 'You were almost expecting that to happen, weren't you?' She asked.

'Can't be too careful with this house.' Paulo replied, 'Either you were going to slip, or the ladder was going to break or something. I don't trust this house as far as I can throw it.' He took the candle from the counter behind them and gestured back down the hallway. Sue followed in pursuit.

'Well, thank you.' Sue replied, and followed, snickering once she saw the dust from her handiwork earlier plastered all over Paulo's back. 'Hold up, your back is covered in dust. Let me get all this off you.' She said, brushing at him.

'Considering you were the one who put it there in the first place.' Paulo pointed out.

'I could've said nothing.' She mused in response.

'Don't be evil.'

'I'm not evil, it's only fair as far as my shoulder's concerned.' It caused Paulo to hang his head. Sue pat him on the back. 'Come on, that was a joke. Don't keep feeling bad over it.'

Paulo sighed to himself. He felt he couldn't shake how guilty he felt about it.

Paulo lead them back downstairs into the living room, completely sure there was nothing further to accomplish on the second floor. Only then had his stomach began another attempt to win him over for a second time that day; dinner was suddenly in the cards. It had been that time; they had been playing video games for a number of hours, it was already seven. He walked into the kitchen without a second thought, leaving Sue in the living room and pondered ideas of what to make from what he could see in the cupboards. He walked back into the living room once he had something, only to find Sue staring wide eyed into her phone.

'I—I've got reception!' She said excitedly turning to him. 'You know, my parents don't actually know where I am exactly. I should let them know I'm okay.'

'Y—yeah you should!' He suggested. His thoughts went to his parent at that very moment as well. He bought out his own phone and checked it. He had reception too, finally, but his battery was long on the way out. He had just enough power for a small conversation, maybe two minutes. He'd try to give him a call later, once he could think of what to tell him. He put away his phone and turned to Sue, 'Are you going to have them pick you up?' He asked.

'What? Absolutely not! There's no way in hell I'm getting them to go out in that!' She said pointing to the window. 'I'll just tell them I'm at a friend's place and they shouldn't worry.'

'Ah, Okay then. Should. . .Should I make dinner then?' He asked.

'That would be nice of you to get started, I'll help out like before once I take care of this.' She said as she tacked her mother's name in the contacts menu. She threw Paulo a glance as if to ask for a bit of privacy. He complied, walking back into the kitchen and started retrieving what would be that night's dinner. He hovered around the front of the kitchen, there wasn't a chance in hell he was going to miss this.

'Mom? Hey are you alright?' She said talking into her phone. 'Wow, the reception isn't great. Me? I'm fine. Yeah, I'm just at a friend's place, I couldn't get home in time. Don't. No. No mom! It's blowing a gale outside. . . . No, they'll probably have the roads closed off anyway. I'll spend the night here and walk home. I'll be fine. Don't worry. . .Yes, Yes they're okay with it. No. What? No! Don't make me say it, oh my god. . . Mom, I'm in front of company. . . You've got to—. . .Mooooooooooom.' She whined. 'All-right. . .all-right fine. . . I—I love you. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Take care.' She ended the call with her thumb. Sighing to herself and brushing her hair behind her as she walked into the kitchen to find her cheeks flushing as Paulo stood there at the counter, with the most cheekiest grin he could muster.

'Oh god you made sure you heard all of that didn't you?' She asked, flatly.

'All of it.' Paulo snorted. Sue had her hands out and was ready to jump him when Paulo held his own outwards towards her to make her stop. 'It's okay! I get it. Parents are parents, right?'

Sue calmed herself. She smiled to herself. 'Yeah, mine are pretty protective.'

'They're great like that, aren't they?' Paulo said warmly. 'My Dad's tried to ring me several times already.'

'You really should let him know you're okay.' Sue suggested.

'My phone's almost dead. I wouldn't get a minute.'

'Then use mine.' She said, holding her phone towards him.

'Use your phone?! No that would send the wrong message.' He said pushing her phone back towards her.

Sue was puzzled, 'What do you mean?'

'Gee, I don't know, it might have something to do with me being grounded for the year?'

Wide-eyed, 'You're grounded?'

'Do you really think I got off scot-free for almost failing last year? Hell no, I've been banned for having anyone over!'

'W—Wait, was that the reason why you were so abrasive that morning?' Sue asked worriedly.

'That. . . and other things.' Paulo said feeling his hand scratch the back of his head.

Sue started to feel a little sorry, her ears flattened. 'Am I going to get you into trouble being here?'

'What? No, no I'll. . .I'll think of something. Never mind that now, were you feeling hungry enough for dinner?' He asked.

'I really could, you know?' She replied. 'What're you thinking of?'

'Burgers?'

'Again?'

'If you want a little bit of variety I can find something else if that was boring?' Paulo said. 'I just went with it because it was the easiest option.'

Sue thought deeply about it, stuck between her desire not to be an inconvenience but at the same time curious desire to know what other things Paulo could cook. And then again, the burgers they had before were something out of this world.

'We're doing burgers again.' She decided.

Paulo shrugged in response, smiling to himself as if Sue was an audience to his symphony; an encore it was.

He'd got it right this time, and complimented himself for a perfect blend as the spices and tastes swished their way in his mouth with every bite. He amazed himself, he really did. Why bother going back to school when he could just cook for a living? He glanced forward to Sue to see if she shared the same thoughts – and she did, as far as the food was concerned, salivating each bite as she did so. But there was no chance in hell she would let him leave school to try.

They'd prepared the food in the same manner as they had the first time without a single change in the detail; with Paulo cooking the meat over the gas oven while Sue cut vegetables on the counter. The four candles they used then found themselves in the centre of the coffee table. Paulo had a thought; you could almost call it romantic; just him, her, and a candle-light dinner. Almost like a miniature date. The audacity of the situation had hit him so hard he began to choke on his food.

'Are you okay?!' Sue asked, she was about to stand up to help but sat back down as Paulo shook his head and kept his hand raised up as he coughed.

Once he caught his breath; 'Just thought of something funny. That's all.'

He wouldn't dare say it out loud.

Their dinner plates found themselves in the sink after they were done with them. Paulo had begun to fill the sink only to then realise there may have been a chance the hot water wouldn't work. Sue stood beside him.

'You don't have to help clean up, you know?' Paulo said.

'It's only right.' Sue replied. 'Besides I wanted to wait to see how long it would take for you to realise you couldn't use the hot water without electricity.'

'How mean!'

'I'm just playing with you.' She said pushing him lightly. 'Too bad your kettle is electric, you might've been able to do wash up if it wasn't.'

'Well, the joke's on you; the house at least has a decent boiler, we installed it a couple of months ago.' He revealed, turning the hot water on and letting it fill the sink. 'Oh boy, aren't we wrong about something?' He said mockingly. He turned to find her glaring back, his heart dropped a little, 'Sorry, that wasn't what I was going for.'

'What were you going for?'

'A light jape.' He replied. 'Didn't mean to refer to anything from, you know, earlier.' He gave her a little nudge, she returned it.

Co-existence for the moment.

He washed, she dried. It was a faster job with two people. That was bad, he needed to think of what to do next while he cleaned up. A real problem. There wasn't any electricity, no video games, no television (although even then, he wondered if the aerial could retrieve reception in this bad of a storm). He couldn't locate those board games. Hell, they probably didn't exist, his memory might have been playing tricks on him. Nothing was coming to mind.

'What's wrong?' Sue queried. It was hard not to notice with his hands pulling at his hair. In his defeat, he thought to at least come clean with her.

'There really isn't much else without electricity.' He sulked. 'I don't think there are any board games, and the only thing I could think of was TV.'

Sue's eyes lit up and her hands clapped together. 'Well, I was hoping you'd say that, actually! I should've mentioned earlier. . . but I bought one of the books back with us from upstairs.' She said as her hands went to her pockets and withdrew a small book. 'We should read it together!' She suggested gleefully.

Paulo was blank for a moment, he didn't know how to feel about it initially. That book was his fathers. Why did Sue have it? Without even asking him first. It was rude, wasn't it? Taking things without asking? He was sure that's what everyone would tell him if he did it. He thought about asking why she had it in the first place. Or even yet, how were they even supposed to read it together? It was such a small book. She'd have to rest on him to even look at it herself. How the hell was this going to work anyway?

'That . . . actually could be a fun idea.' He said, smiling at the idea.

All reason flew out the window. Did he agree because it sounded interesting? Or was it because he really had nothing else to suggest in its place? He wished he could choose between them.

Though, he wondered if it was the gleam in Sue's eyes as she held out the book towards him had won him over.

His arm felt sore after a while after holding the book out between them. It was the least he could do considering one of Sue's was no good for the job. Just them both, on the couch, sitting side by side. He went to turn the page but earned a harsh nudge from Sue, he read the page too fast again and needed to wait to her to finish. She told him it wasn't a race nor was he trying to cram the book. Hell, he didn't mean to, but Sue was leaning right into him, his thoughts and his heart were racing at a million beats per minute. Personal space invaded, they were close enough to breath the same air. No, this really was too intimate for friends. He'd already let his guard down for a moment and almost wrapped an arm around her. His only saving grace was when she flinched when his hand touched her sore shoulder, and he backed off as quickly as his arm came down.

What the hell was that? He asked himself. He didn't have an explanation, it all just went with the flow. It was awkward. He told himself to refrain. He mandated his guard would never go down for a second time that night.