I stared down at Blue, wondering if he could sense the love I was beaming at him through my eyes.

Or maybe it was too intimidating for him.

Blue had just finished eating a beetle I'd fed it. As I slowly reached out with my index finger towards him, he froze. I held my breath as I touched his head. He didn't run or fly away.

I lightly scratched the top of his head with my finger, and still he stayed. He felt so soft!

I raised my head to look at Nolan, who was watching me with a small smile on his face. "I did it! I won his love!"

"Yep, you've done it," he said, nodding at Blue. "Congratulations. You even got over your fear of insects for the sake of feeding it."

"I did! I mean, only temporarily I did, but still!" Even though my cheeks felt like they were about to split open, I couldn't stop grinning. "And it's thanks to you! Thank you, Nolan!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Me? You were the one patiently feeding it."

"Yeah, but you're the one who helped me," I said, gesturing to the little box of insects he held in his other hand.

If not for his presence here with me, I wouldn't even have been able to hold those insects, gloves or not.

"Alright, then. You can repay me with more mints," he said, nodding. "I could do with more of those."

"I literally just gave you the two promised boxes last week," I said, staring at him. "Not that I mind, since I have a lot, but did you already finish them?"

After that Friday when the rain cut short our little outing, things went back to normal between Nolan and me. I made a little more progress with Blue on Saturday when we went again, managing to get him to be more comfortable around me. When the school week started, we walked to classes together whenever we could, although he still continued to sleep during the actual lessons themselves.

"Of course not, but it's always nice to have more in stock," he said, shrugging.

"Well, you're not wrong there."

I had plans with Ashley and the others to go to the mall tomorrow, and I made a mental note to keep an eye out for other flavored mints. Maybe Nolan would want to try those blackberry-flavored ones that never managed to entice me.

I stroked Blue's back and, when he didn't try to escape from my touch, cooed over him.

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"You have longer legs, so it's not fair."

I could hear Melissa's voice even before I actually saw her.

I tiptoed so that I could peek over the bookshelf that I was behind, browsing through thriller novels that looked promising.

Sure enough, she was just entering the bookstore with Derek. The both of them kept looking around, probably in search of Ashley and me.

"You're just in denial that I'm clearly better than you at DDR," he said, strolling down the rows of bookshelves.

Melissa snorted as she walked next to him. "I'm just saying, it's obvious that if you have longer legs, it's more effortless for you to reach the buttons!"

"Hey," I said, coming out from the cozy spot I'd been huddled up for ... how long was I here?

I checked my phone, and my eyebrows instantly rose. I'd already been in here for two hours just browsing books. It wasn't exactly a huge surprise, since I did like to hole myself up in bookstores whenever I came to the mall, but I thought Melissa and Derek would've come looking for us sooner.

The moment she saw me, Melissa said, "I'm hungry. Where's Ashley?"

"Hey," Derek said. "I'm hungry, too."

At hearing the word 'hungry', my stomach let out a low grumble. I couldn't wait to grab a bite, too.

"I think she's in the young adult section," I said, craning my head in a pathetic attempt to look over the bookshelves.

We headed to the aforementioned section without further conversation. I was already thinking about what I wanted to get. A warm pretzel sprinkled with sour cream and onion seasoning sounded perfect just about now.

Ashley was standing behind the book aisle, nose deep in a novel.

"Let's go, Ash," I said, and she started at the sound of my voice.

"Oh," she said, blinking up at us in surprise. "You guys are done already?"

"We would've been done earlier," Derek said, looking pointedly at Melissa, "but someone insisted that we needed to play a few more rounds to make sure the arcade dance machine hadn't made a mistake."

Melissa whistled lightly and looked away.

As she closed the book she'd been browsing, Ashley snickered at them.

"We've been here for two hours, actually," I said. "I'm hungry."

"That makes the three of us," Derek said, casting a glance in the direction of the open glass doors. "I want a churro."

"Wow, okay," Ashley said, holding the book in one hand as she followed us out of the aisle. "I have to pay for this book, and then we can go."

"Me too," I said, showing her the one I was carrying. "I'm not leaving here without something."

"Yeah, that's nothing new. You never leave here without a new book," Melissa said.

She cracked a smile as I rolled my eyes at her.

"What are you getting?" I asked Ashley.

While Derek and Melissa usually made their way to the arcade when we came to the mall, Ashley usually joined me in the bookstore. It was honestly my favorite place in the mall, because I got to take in the wonderful papery scent of printed pages.

Melissa was right in that I almost always left the bookstore with a purchase. I could never keep my hands off the shelves once I got in here. The only thing stopping me from buying three to four books per trip was the lack of storage space in my dorm room, and the chore of packing my luggage at the end of the school semester.

Unlike me, however, Ashley was typically satisfied after browsing through the numerous books the store had to offer. She liked reading well enough, but her textbooks were usually more dog-eared than the novels I'd seen on her shelf.

"Oh," she said, casually waving her hand at me as she slid the other one behind her back, effectively hiding it from me, "it's just a book."

What was that?

I narrowed my eyes. "Just a book that you have to hide?"

She squealed as I charged at her, my hand shooting out to reach behind her back.

"Let's see it!"

Unfortunately for me, she managed to keep the front of her body facing me as she pranced away.

Melissa, evidently on my side, snickered and sprinted towards her. Of course, once Melissa entered the fray, there was no chance for Ashley. Melissa's physical capabilities lay not just in her speed, but also in her dexterity. She always cleared those hurdle races during gym in no time at all, making the rest of us seem like complete slugs. She managed to get behind Ashley, and I saw her hand dart out even as Ashley tried to turn back around.

The second Ashley groaned, I knew that she'd lost the battle.

"Aha!" Melissa said triumphantly, brandishing the book Ashley had been trying so hard to keep from us. "I've got it!"

She tossed it over to Derek, who caught it with ease.

"Doesn't look like very shameful reading to me," he said, glancing over the cover without much interest. "With the way you were hiding it, I thought it was going to be some kind of children's adventure book."

He handed it to me.

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," I said, examining it. "Oh, hey, we're reading this for our book club meeting next week. What a coincidence."

"Why were you even hiding this?" Melissa said, looking unimpressed.

For some reason, there was a growing tinge of pink on Ashley's cheeks.

Doubt trickled into my mind as I stared at her. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence after all.

"Was this a recommendation from someone we know, Ash?" I said in a singsong voice, passing the book back to her.

"It's nothing," she insisted, as we continued heading for the payment counter. "My friend thought that I might enjoy reading it, so I just thought I'd pick it up when we came here."

Obviously, she knew who I was talking about, but she was refusing to acknowledge it. It looked like I wasn't the only one hiding things from my best friends.

"So much secrecy for a single book," I continued, watching her squirm as she handed the book to the cashier behind the counter. "It really makes me wonder why you were hiding it in the first place. It's a perfectly respectable book to be seen reading, you know."

On the other hand, I was cheering on the inside at the thought of the two of them hitting it off. They were way too cute.

"I'm not hiding it exactly..." she began.

"Which totally explains why we had to snatch that book to even get a look at it," I said, nodding.

"I just didn't want you to see it," she added in a tiny whisper, not looking at me.

Taking her newly purchased book, Ashley stuffed it into her small backpack. I placed my book on the counter and smiled politely at the cashier. She smiled back before scanning my book.

Ashley straightened up as she put her backpack back on. "I've recently started getting into reading, so I thought that it would be nice to try something new. The blurb looked interesting, so I thought, why not?"

"Hey, I'm all for it," I said, getting my book back from the cashier. "I've been trying to get you into books forever. It just surprised me that it was Cody who finally succeeded."

I was so smooth.

She spluttered. "He might have inspired me to start, but I've really come to like reading on my own!"

Despite wanting desperately to cackle at how I managed to draw a confession from her, I decided to cut her some slack and be nice about it. After all, she was my best friend. Amidst the triumph that flooded my entire being, excitement that I could actually have book discussions with Ashley bubbled up.

"Maybe you can even consider joining our book club!" I said, looking at her with wide hopeful eyes.

"I'm not that in love with reading yet," she mumbled, her already red face flushing even more, "but I'll let you know if I ever get to that stage."

"Yeah, let me know," I said. "I could even try to get you into my reading group! You know I'm in the same reading group as Cody, right?"

"Chelsea!"

I giggled and ran out of the bookstore when she made as if to hit my head.

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AN: DDR = dance dance revolution, frequently found in arcades i think! everyone, tysm for reading as usual, i appreciate your support and votes! it's monday, so have a great week ahead!! see you guys on Thursday! :D looooots of love ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ♪)

this is dedicated to _unknownxo for your continuous support, it makes my day every time i see your name appear in my notifications! thank youuuu!! '͈ ᵕ '͈ ♡°◌̊