His attention was captivated by the hockey magazine he was reading. He didn't look up even as he heard a soft knock on his bedroom door. Charlie didn't have to guess as to who that was. "Hi, Steph."

"Hey," Stephanie grabbed his desk chair, moving it closer to his bed and sat in it. "What's up?"

"Nothing," he shrugged, closing the magazine and setting it aside.

She ran her hand through her hair. "Notice anything different about me?"

He did. She'd obviously cut her bangs shorter. They didn't look half bad, really. But instead of telling her, Charlie had a better idea. He wasn't going to let an opportunity to rile her up go to waste. He put on a confused expression. "No."

The effect was instantaneous. Her jaw dropped a little. "Seriously?" She asked, studying his face to see if he was joking or not.

He made his voice sound slightly impatient. "Yes, Tanner, seriously. You don't look any different than usual." Honestly, he should be an actor. Somehow, he was able to keep the smile off his face, remaining perfectly stoic. It was great because he got her muttering under her breath, looking hilariously annoyed. "Wait," he spoke up suddenly, "did you-" he gestured in her direction, "put on makeup?"

That brief moment where she'd perked up was gone. "No," she said flatly.

"Oh. Well, you should. It might help."

"I hate you," she glared at him.

He laughed. "I know you give yourself a haircut, Tanner. I'm not stupid."

"Michelle gave me one," she said. "I was too nervous to do it. I didn't want to end up like Laney Halloway."

He raised his eyebrows. "Am I supposed to know who you're talking about?"

"Don't you remember her?" She asked, which was pretty dumb considering what he just said. "She's in our grade."

He hit his knee. "That just clears everything up. Thanks, Tanner."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. You don't."

"Finally using that head of yours, I see."

"She-" Stephanie started to say but he stopped her.

"Wait. Hang on." She stopped and waited. In one swift motion, Charlie grabbed one of his blankets and threw it over her face. "There. That's much better."

She pulled it off. Her bangs were a little messed up. "You messed up my hair," she told him, though she didn't appear to be upset by it.

"Oh, no," he feigned a sad look.

"Jerk," she said and he could have sworn her tone sounded almost fond.

He chuckled. "Is that my pet name?"

"Maybe it is," she said.
"I want a new one," he demanded jokingly.

"You don't have a choice."

"Do too!" He insisted. "It's for me so I have a say."

"So you think," she snorted. "You call me babe and I haven't said anything."

"Mine's endearing," he corrected. "Yours is mean."

She scoffed, amused. " Mean ?"

"Mhm."

"Try accurate."

"Watch it, Tanner. I might just come up with something worse."

"Oh, no," she repeated his earlier words.

"You should be scared."

"I'm shaking."

"Good. Maybe it'll make you a little less stupid."

"No way," Stephanie said and then realized her mistake.

Charlie smirked. "You said it."

"Not on purpose!"

"Jerk," she muttered.

"Oh, it's definitely affectionate."

"Just for you," she rolled her eyes.

"That just makes me feel all special and warm," he pretended to gush.

"Whatever," she was turning her head but Charlie spotted that smile anyway.

"Don't pretend-I saw that smile," he said teasingly.

"I wasn't smiling," she was trying her hardest, it seemed, to prove that.

"Liar."

"I wasn't," she insisted but that caused her smile to widen.

"You really suck at this," Charlie laughed.

"It's your fault."

"Oh, mine , huh?"

"Yes," she said matter-of-factly.

"And just how is it my fault?"

"Because I said it was."

"Well, when you put it like that ..."

"Stop, you're distracting me," she scolded him, though it lacked any real heat.

"I didn't do anything," he refuted.

"Oh, please."

"You're distracting yourself."

She sighed. He was satisfied. "Anyway," and suddenly her mood bounced back extra bright. What was with girls and their moods? "I was wondering if you're free right now?"

"Are you asking me on a date? Oh, Tanner, this is so sudden," he sighed dramatically. "I haven't even had time to doll myself up-"

"No, dummy."

"Ouch."

"Would you rather I call you an idiot instead?"

"Only if I'm your idiot."

"Naturally, sweetheart ."

"And it does sound sweet coming from you."

"I'm flattered," she said, then added, "I was wondering because my friend, Gia, is coming over. I thought you guys could meet."

" Why ?" he said suspiciously. He wasn't so sure how he felt about it.

She shrugged. "You're going to see her when school starts. Besides, I figured you'd wanna meet someone. If not, that's fine."

He didn't say anything as he leaned up against his headboard, contemplating. "I don't remember her."

"She's a year older than us," Stephanie explained. "She got held back."

"That sucks."

"Yeah..." Stephanie uncrossed her ankles. "So...do you wanna come and hangout with us?"

"Right, because hanging out with two girls is at the top of my to-do list," he said.

"It should be," Stephanie said. "We're fun."

"Define fun ."

"We're the life of the party," she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Must be a dead party," he remarked.

" Rude ."

"I can guess how your conversations must go," He then put on a girly voice, pretending to flip his own hair, "Oh my gosh, did you see that guy over there? He's so cute !"

"We don't just talk about guys," Stephanie was giggling.

"Mhm."

"I'll have you know we have very intelligent conversations," she informed him primly.

"Look at you, trying to be funny."

" And ," she said, "you wouldn't be the only guy in our group for long. Our other friend, Harry, is on vacation right now but he should be back soon."

"Harry-?"

"Takayama. I guess you don't remember him from school."

"No," Charlie said. "He probably won't remember me either."

Stephanie winced.

He narrowed his eyes. " What ?"

"He remembers you."

"Okay, so what's the problem- wait ," he just comprehended what she said. "What do you mean he remembers me?"

"Isortatalkedtohimandmentionedyou."

Charlie was exasperated. " Tanner !"

"I mentioned you," she eventually said with reluctance.

"When?"

"Recently. When I was getting those pictures for you. I didn't know where to look so I asked Harry. He wanted to know who it was for."

" Steph ," Charlie groaned. "Why?"

She faltered. "I didn't tell them about your dad."

" Still ," he grumbled. "You didn't have to say anything."

She lowered her head. "I guess not."

He sighed. "What did he say?'

She whipped her head back up. "What?"

"What did he say ? Obviously, it wasn't good because of the look on your face," he said.

"It's not-"

"Don't lie to me," he told her firmly. "And stop trying to spare my feelings. I hate that."

"Fine," she exhaled. "He thinks you're a jerk."

He made his face look impassive.

She continued. "He remembers how you used to trip him in the hallway and how you ruined his origami project."

The memories came back to him.

It was hard to put a face to the name, but Charlie didn't need that to recall the things he'd done; how he'd laughed at seeing Harry fall to the floor in a heap after letting out a cry of alarm or the time he'd ruined his project and reduced him to tears after he'd apparently worked so hard on it.

He hadn't cared back than

But now?

Remorse was settling in.

Big time.

"Hey," Stephanie frowned. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

He didn't know is she was really that oblivious and living up to the 'dumb blonde' stereotype or that was her way of getting him to initiate the conversation.

"He's going to hate me."

"Who, Harry?" Stephanie said. "No, he won't."

"Sounds like he already does."

"He doesn't," she shook her head. "I told him you're different now."

"And he believed you?" Charlie said skeptically.

"He probably wants to see for himself," she said. "But he said he trusts my judgment."

He leaned back against the headboard. That may have been fine for her friend but she couldn't do anything about how everyone else at school would feel upon seeing him return.

"You're thinking again," she said.

"It's nothing important," he shrugged it off.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

She didn't believe him. But she didn't probe further.

He almost wished she would.

/

"When's your friend coming?" he asked casually.

He gave in and went to her house. They were in her room, just sitting around, waiting and talking. When they got there, Stephanie's cousins were on their way out with that guy, Joey. They'd gotten really excited at seeing him.

"Charlie!" they exclaimed and attacked him with a hug.

He wasn't fond of touching from anyone but it was more tolerable coming from them.

Because he knew they couldn't hurt him.

"We missed you!"

He felt flattered, to be honest. "Yeah?"

They nodded.

Joey smiled at Charlie. "How's it going, Charlie?"

"Oh. Uh. Fine."

"We're gonna go upstairs, Joey," Stephanie told him. "We're waiting for Gia."

"Okay, kids. Have fun," Joey said as he ushered the twins out.

"Just a few more minutes," Stephanie said. "She doesn't have a car so she's walking."

"She better not be annoying."

"She's probably saying the same thing about you," Stephanie shrugged.

" I'm not."

She raised her eyebrow. "It's not cute to be in denial, sweetheart ."

"And here I thought everything I did was cute to you, babe ."

"You thought wrong."

He smirked.

Her eyes zeroed in on his shirt-the plaid one. He'd managed to get out of the house without Mom telling him to take it off. "I really like your shirt," she complimented.

"Is that your way of trying to get me to loan you the shirt?"
"No," she said. "I'm just saying. The ones from the girls section aren't that cool."

"The audacity ."

"Besides," she continued, "it looks good on you."

"Believe me, I know," he said smugly.

She laughed. "I didn't mean it like that."

" Sure you didn't ."

"I didn't," she said "I'm just being nice."

He folded his arms, not fooled. "You wanna try it on, don't you?"

"...can I?"

He shook his head, starting to grin. "Girls are weird," he said as he removed it and gave it to her.

She put it on, rolling up the sleeves slightly as it was a bit bigger on her than it was for him. She examined herself in the mirror. "This is cute."

"Hey!" He protested loudly. "Don't call my clothes cute !"

"Why?" She gave him a look that suggested what he said was dumb.

" Because . It's clothing. Clothes aren't cute."

"They are," she argued.

"Are not!"

"Are too !"

"Are not !"

A girl came around the corner who Charlie presumed to be Gia. "I heard you from out there," she interrupted them. "What's up?" Her eyes landed on Charlie and she looked at him with keen interest.

Stephanie clasped her hands together. "Gia, this is Charlie. Charlie, this is Gia."

Oh, you're the guy Steph mentioned," Gia said, her eyes lighting up.

Apparently , Charlie thought, dryly.

Gia leaned in close to Stephanie but didn't bother to lower her volume. "You're right, he isn't bad looking."

Stephanie didn't think he was bad looking?

Oh, now she was looking pretty embarrassed. Her face went all pink. Too bad it wasn't from what he said. He could've won the bet.

"Oh, really?" he said teasingly.

She tried to deny it. "Oh, please ."

"Come on, Tanner. Don't be like that. I can't be that bad looking if you're wearing my clothes."

Gia was intrigued. She grinned slyly.

"Don't," Stephanie warned her. "It's not what you think."

"Uh huh."

"I was trying it on," Stephanie said. "I said it was cute. Charlie said clothes aren't cute."

"What?" Gia scoffed. "That's not true."

"Here we go," Charlie muttered.

"They are , as long as you have the right ones."

"And check this out," Stephanie showed her, "this looks great, doesn't it?"

"That would look so good with those black jeans!"

"You mean the ones you got me?"

"Yeah, totally!"

"My dad hates those, you know."

Gia grinned. "Why do you think I bought them for you?"

Charlie cut in, "As much fun as I'm having listening to this and believe me, it's thrilling, can I have my shirt back?"

Gia opened her mouth.

But Stephanie beat her to it. "Don't say it."

"Don't say what?" Charlie was perplexed.

"It's nothing."

She took off the shirt and handed it back to him. He put it back on. She was obviously not going to elaborate on what her friend was going to say so he left it alone. For now. "Oh, gross," he complained when a familiar scent hit his nose. "You got perfume on it!"

"So?" Gia said.

"It smells all girly now."

"You gave it to me," Stephanie reminded him.

" Still ."

"It's better than the cologne you use," Stephanie said.

"No, it isn't," he denied.

"Is too!"

"Is not !"

"Is too -"

"Do you always do this?" Gia interrupted, gesturing between them.

"No."

"Yes."

They looked at each other.

"No, we won't," Stephanie said.

"Yes we do. But that's because you start it," Charlie shrugged.

" I start it? Oh, come on. If anyone's starting anything, it's you!"

"You wouldn't last at AA, I hope you know that," Charlie teased. "I bet you wouldn't even admit you were an alcoholic."

"Oh, please . I could admit it if it was true," she put her nose in the air haughtily.

"Oh, yeah?"

" Yeah !"

Gia looked bored. "Does this happen a lot?"

Stephanie momentarily abandoned their conversation and switched topics. "You'll never guess what happened," she said to her friend.

"That hot uncle of yours is single?"

"Eww," Stephanie made a face. "I thought we agreed; no talking about how my uncle."

"No, we didn't," Gia disagreed. "And besides, my fingers were crossed."

"I like her," Charlie said, nudged Stephanie, cheerfully.

"Of course you do," Stephanie grumbled. Louder, she said, "No, nothing about my uncle. It's DJ; she's engaged."

"You'll have to show me what your dress looks like," Gia told her.

"I hope it's good," Stephanie grimaced.

"Has she set a date yet?"

"Not yet," Stephanie said.

"Just wait until it's your turn," Gia said.

"You'll be my bridesmaid, of course," Stephanie grinned.

"Naturally. But what about Harry?" Gia said. "What will you do with him?"

Charlie groaned, causing them to look his way. "Can we talk about something else?"

They went back to their conversation.

"I'm sure we can call him something else," Stephanie was saying. "Like a brides...man or something."

"Nice. I like it."

Charlie flopped down on Stephanie's bed, shutting his eyes. "Wake me up when you're talking about something interesting."

"You should braid his bangs," Gia suggested.

"Don't even think about it," Charlie glared at them as they dissolved into giggles.

"He's no fun," Gia pouted.

"Why don't you just put a kick me sign on my back and be done with it?"

"You got a pen?" Gia asked Stephanie promptly.

"Funny," Charlie scoffed.

"Glad to see you two are getting along," Stephanie rolled her eyes.