Hey ya'll. Just so you know, I plan to finish this story at the end of the month, cause I'll be busy when June comes :( that's why I'm updating regularly :) anyway, enjoy!

"You have five minutes," Hotaru told me, as she took a seat on the bench swing.

I told myself to not be nervous, but Hotaru's cold demeanor got the best of me. I was wrong. Everything here has changed. I took a deep breath. "So where do you want me to start?"

She gave me a look. "Are you seriously asking that?"

I sighed. This was going to be harder than I thought. "Fine. Why don't I start from the beginning? So once upon a time there were two best friends who lived on the beach and had loads of fun spending time with each other. They built sandcastles, hung out at the pier, and-"

"That's not what I meant."

I gave her an innocent look. "Oh I'm sorry. I just figured I'd start from the beginning because you really didn't specify where to begin."

She glared at me. "Three minutes, Sakura. You're wasting my time."

I flinched slightly at the way she called me by my last name. She never called me that before. It was always "Mikan." Hotaru seemed to notice this and smirked. "What?"

"Nothing." As much as I wanted her to be my friend again, she was already getting on my nerves and I just wanted to yell at her right there. Yeah, I got the message that she hates me now. On the other hand, I wasn't the Mikan that she knew before. I could speak and stand up for myself.

"Look," I said, "I'm not throwing myself a pity party and use my brother as an excuse as to why I didn't keep in touch when my family moved. But it is true that I was miserable. Everything around me changed so abruptly that it was like I didn't have time to absorb it all. It just happened so fast. And I know that I should have answered your phone calls or e-mails even if it was too late, but I was scared okay? I was scared that you might not want to talk to me anymore because eventually those calls stopped after a few months. I decided that maybe you were having a much better life without me anyway. So I..."

"Quit? Gave up entirely?"

Hotaru's expression hadn't changed after my impromptu speech. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and looked like she was watching the most boring show on the planet. I nodded and sat on the other end of the bench swing.

"I waited for it you know," she said softly, looking at the ground. "I thought that you needed the space because you were going through a lot. That's why I stopped calling. I thought to myself that 'Hey maybe Mikan's going to come around.' But I after a year, that's when I thought that you forgot about me. Tokyo was a much better place than this crappy old town anyway, right? But the stupid thing was, I still hoped that you would give me some sort of sign that you were still alive or knew that I existed. But not even an e-mail came. So I gave up too. Looks like we both did." She said the last sentence with bitterness. And that's when I realized I couldn't fix what happened. The damage has been obviously done and an apology wouldn't cover it.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Me too," Hotaru replied, surprising me. "About Tsubasa."

I nodded, feeling a little disappointed. Of course she would say that. Everyone whom I encountered here did. The difference was, Hotaru wasn't looking at me with pity, but with understanding. I felt a little hope inside of me that maybe we could be friends again.

"Your time's up, Sakura," she told me, standing up.

Or maybe not, I thought to myself. I stood up too, and watched her as she went back inside her house without saying another word.

As I walked down the beach, the idea of running back home and burying myself in my covers for the rest of the summer was appealing to me. I had actually hoped that maybe there was a chance that Hotaru and I could be friends again, because the way she looked at me when she told me about Tsubasa was not the same as the others. It was like she understood me, like she was my best friend again. But that only lasted for a second though. Now I had to accept the fact that my (surely) ex-best friend doesn't want to see my face ever again. I could deal with that.

"Mikan!"

I jumped at the sound of my name, but I was still walking so I accidentally tripped on a rock and fell on the sand. Before I could stand up from my humiliation, I felt arms around mine helping me get up. It was Natsume.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, while I shook off the sand off my clothes with my hand. Why did I keep on running into this dude?

"Fine," I replied.

"I am so sorry."

"It's okay," I told him. I noticed he was shirtless again. "Life guarding?"

He smiled. "Yep. But I'm on break."

I nodded. For some reason, I wasn't as annoyed as I was with Natsume yesterday. Maybe because of the fact that I owe him for what he did last night? I didn't know.

"So I saw you head to Hotaru's place a while ago," he said.

"Yep. That was me."

"How'd it go?"

I arched an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

"Um." He looked embarrassed. "Well your mom said last night that you were supposed to be at a dinner. Then I asked you where, you told me at Hotaru's."

I did? Wow I will never get drunk again. "Oh. Well, for starters, she hates me." I didn't know why I was telling him this.

"She doesn't hate you," he said, quietly.

I looked at him with a confused expression. "How would you know?"

His cheeks flushed this time. What was he so embarrassed about? "We talk and stuff."

I took a step backwards. This was news to me. I still remembered that pact Hotaru and I made like nine years ago. Even if I broke that pact on the same day I never thought Hotaru would give up that easily. I suddenly remembered one scene from last night. We were in his truck and he was talking to someone on his phone. Could it be...

Natsume must have noticed the expression on my face, which was probably pure shock and disbelief, because he said quickly, "No, no, no. It's not like that. We're not... we're friends."

Hotaru and Natsume friends? What was happening to the world? Seems like I was wrong. A LOT has changed. "Well not really friends," he continued. "Just acquaintances or something like that."

Before I could inquire any further, I saw a guy running up towards Natsume. He just got out of the ocean, and was shaking his hair in the process while approaching us. I didn't recognize him from afar, but when he got closer I knew immediately who it was. The blonde hair, those piercing blue eyes and that wide grin on his face? It was none other than...

"Ruka! Hey!" He and Natsume did this fist pump they always did as kids. It originally involved my brother with them. They were like this invincible trio. The Three Musketeers, if you will.

"Hey man!" Ruka replied, brightly. "You weren't at your post so I figured you were on..." He gaze went to me, and he his face brightened like a little kid on Christmas Day. I'm not even kidding. "Mikan? Is that you?"

"It's me," I said, trying to level up to his energy, but there was no way. He was still the lively Ruka Nogi that I knew.

He engulfed me in a huge hug which lifted my feet off the ground, literally. "Man, I missed you so much!" he said, when he put me down. "You look great."

"You too."

He pouted. "What you don't miss me, little sis?"

Little sis. My heart broke into a million little pieces when he said that. Natsume might have told me I was like a sister to him, but Ruka treated me like one. He was an only child so he was the one always around at my house. He was the complete opposite of Natsume before. Now, Ruka was still the same, and I found that comforting. I punched his shoulder lightly, but I had to tiptoe to do just that. He and Natsume were so tall now. "Of course I missed you, dummy."

He grinned and gave me another hug. It made me miss my brother even more.

"We should definitely catch up with each other," he said. "Natsume, what time does your shift end?"

"Twelve-thirty. And now my break's over. See you guys." He patted Ruka's shoulder and nodded at me before he ran back to his post.

"Let's have lunch after!" Ruka shouted after him.

Natsume turned around, and was jogging backwards. "Sure!"

"Wanna sit somewhere?" Ruka said.

"Um yeah. Sure."

Five minutes later, we were seated at the pier where Hotaru and I used to hang out all the time. Ruka bought us both ice cream. I was touched that he still remembered my favorite flavor, cookies and cream. We just sat in silence for a few minutes, but it was comfortable silence. Although I was nervous as hell, since we were seated at the edge of the pier, so that meant one slip, and I'd fall right into the water. I was trying not to look below me, and the ice cream helped a little. With the nerves, I mean.

"So how are you, Mikan?" Ruka asked, finishing his cone.

"I'm okay, I guess," I said. Nope, I was far from okay. He frowned at me. "Come on, that's what people answer when they're the opposite of okay. It's just me, Mikan. You can tell me anything."

For some reason, I trusted him when he said that. He reminded me of Tsubasa. I sighed. "The truth? I'm not okay. I've never been okay since he..." I swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in my throat. "It sucked when we moved to Tokyo right after he died. It was like leaving him. To me, this place was just Tsubasa, you know. He loved it here. And then while I was in Tokyo, I felt like I was already getting adjusted. And then, snap. Another change. Now I'm back here for the summer as punishment from my parents."

"Why punishment?"

I ate what was remaining of my ice cream cone. "I was... a little crazy in Tokyo. Well not over the top rebellious teenager, since I don't get drunk or do drugs. I just go to parties all the time and come home late. Like early in the morning. I failed some of my classes on purpose just to piss my parents off. Because the truth was, I hated them during that time. They didn't even care what I thought about moving. Nor did they ask. And these past two years they were trying so hard to become this perfect family, like Tsubasa was just history. They said the reason why we came here was for his anniversary. But then we never even acknowledged his past anniversaries. Do you know how painful that is? So why now? Doesn't make sense to me."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that," he said, sincerely. "I miss your brother too. Things haven't been the same since he... died. And you left."

"How?"

"During the first few months after it happened, people we went to school with were posting all over Facebook, Twitter, their blogs, and stuff like that. They were saying about how Tsubasa was a great guy and all that crap people say about dead people they don't know. I was pissed, you know? Because they never really knew who Tsubasa was. He was popular because of what he did, and he didn't do those things to get people to like him. He did those things because he wanted to. He didn't care what anybody thought. He-"

"Ruka?"

"Huh?"

"I know."

He smiled and ruffled my hair. "Of course you do, kiddo. Just taking a trip down memory lane."

I combed my hair with my fingers, fixing it back in place. Ruka and I weren't totally close before, since Hotaru and I decided that my brother's friends were idiots, but he wasn't like Natsume before. He acknowledged my presence, invited me to whatever agenda they had planned for the day, and put an effort to keep up a conversation. I was glad that he was still the same.

"Whoops, look at the time," he said, examining his wrist. "We gotta go fetch Natsume and eat lunch. I'm starved."

"You don't have a watch," I pointed out. We both stood up and walked back to the beach.

"Lighten up, kiddo. Geez, are you on your period or something?"

He said it so nonchalantly that it made my cheeks flush. "No. Sorry, I just have this hangover."

He stopped in his tracks and looked at me wide-eyed. "I thought you didn't-"

"Yeah me either. It's a long story." We continued walking. "Didn't Natsume say anything? I mean, he was the one who had to take damage control last night."

"We didn't talk until this morning." He glanced at me with a concerned expression. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I shrugged. "Not really."

He didn't seem to have a problem in this. "Okay then. Maybe next time."

When we arrived at the main beach, Natsume was just climbing down his lifeguard chair and flipped the On Duty sign to Off Duty. "Hey guys," he said when he saw us. "Where do you want to eat?"

"I'm craving for some pizza," Ruka said. "What about you, Mikan?"

"Pizza sounds fine."

"Great. Oh just a sec, let me call Hotaru."

I swear it was like someone had hit me with a baseball bat that made me faint, and then wasn't able to remember the events that happened three seconds ago. "Wait," I heard myself saying. "What did you say?"

Ruka, who already had his cellphone out, looked at me confused. "What?"

"Just two seconds ago, what did you say?"

He glanced over at Natsume, clearly thinking that I was insane. Natsume gave him a shrug in reply. "What, about me calling Hotaru?" Ruka said.

So I did hear it right. But why on earth would he call her? It didn't make sense to me. And then I remembered what Natsume told me earlier that he and Hotaru were acquainted with each other. But they weren't dating according to Natsume so it must be...

Oh my God. "Are you dating Hotaru?" I blurted out.

The silence that followed was so awkward that I wished the sand would bury me alive. Ruka and Natsume exchanged looks, and Ruka finally said, "Yeah. I am"

And to think my life couldn't get any more complicated than this.

You must think I'm cruel for cutting you off like this. Next chapter to be posted soon! X