"Angelica."

She looked so pretty, so peaceful, like an angel. He almost didn't want to wake her. He gently touched his fingers to her cheek. Her chest rose and fell with each breath, her petal pink lips barely open, breathing short, soft breaths.

"Angelica." He cupped her face. She smiled in her sleep and, slowly coming to, placed a hand over his. "Hey, you," she said, obviously still half asleep. She yawned. "I guess I dozed off. What time is it?"

"About midnight."

She stretched her fingertips to the ceiling. "Aww, why'd you wake me? I was having a good dream…about you…" she gave him a wicked grin. "But the real thing's even better. We can just pick up where the dream left off…"

He grinned. "That sounds great, but we're getting ready to go out."

She sat up and lazily picked up her brush from the dresser. "Out?"

As she ran the brush through her long tresses, the light from the bedside lamp caught the strands and they glinted gold in the dim light. He found himself staring at her stupidly. He thought of what Kimi had once said to him about pre-asking Angelica to marry him. The beach at midnight might be a good place to bring it up. How could she say no?

"Chuck?"

"Oh yeah…the beach, remember? Dil's taking us to look for proof of alien existence." He grinned.

"Who goes out on the beach in the middle of the night looking for aliens?"

He shrugged. "He says they like the beach, around midnight. We're supposedly looking for some kind of tracks or markings or something…"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, this is stupid. I can't believe you actually woke me up for this."

He stood and motioned for her to do the same. "Come on, you gotta come, Dil asked me to get you to come with us."

"Uh, no."

"Angelica."

"I'm not coming."

"But everyone gets to choose something to do each day of the week, that was the plan. And we did what you wanted to do yesterday, we went shopping all day long. And this is what Dil wants to do tonight…and he specifically wanted you to come."

"Oh come on, Chuck, you have to admit that this is inane."

"Well, it's what he wants to do."

She crawled back into bed.

"Angelica."

She pulled the blanket over her head stubbornly. "I'm going back to sleep."

He yanked the blanket back roughly. She looked at him in surprise. "What is your problem?"

"I swear," he said angrily, "Sometimes you are so damn selfish. We all did what you wanted to do yesterday, now it's Dil's turn. Can't you just be a nice person every once in a while?"

She scoffed indignantly. "At least I'm not a pushover like you."

"Excuse me?"

"Do you really want to go look for some stupid nonexistent aliens on the beach in the middle of the night?"

"No," he admitted, "But it's not my day to choose."

"Pushover," she reiterated.

"No," he corrected. "Compromising. There's a huge difference. But you wouldn't know anything about that, because you've never compromised a day in your life. You always have to get everything you want!"

She rolled her eyes. "You're just too sensitive," she chastised. "You blow everything out of proportion."

He stormed out of the bedroom. She followed him into the living room. Susie jumped up without hesitation. "Hey guys, guess what?" she squealed excitedly. "Phil and I moving in together!"

Phil grinned and kissed her cheek. "Yeah, we figured that if you two can do it, anyone can."

Everyone nodded in agreement and started talking at once but the room got eerily quiet as they all realized Chuck and Angelica were silently staring daggers at each other.

Phil's smile faded. "Something wrong?…"

"We're not moving in together anymore," said Angelica.

"Fine by me." replied Chuck.

"What?" said Susie, her voice faltering. "Why?"

"Because she's a selfish brat, just like she's always been."

"No, because he's a spineless pushover, just like he's always been."

Chuck just walked out the back door, the screen door slamming shut behind him. He disappeared into the humid night. Everyone glared at Angelica. She scowled and made her way back to bed.