It was particularly windy one gray February day. I had to wear two scarves instead of just one. Kookie and I were on our way to meet up with Mochii and Zelo. Despite the skateboard incident things were still normal. I had been lowkey worried that things would be awkward between us. But he had talked to me normally the next time we met up and I quickly forgot about any awkwardness I had felt before. A small part of me was disappointed that he didn’t seem more affected, but I tried not to think about it too much. What we had now was nice.

     I stopped in my tracks. There he was on the bench with his eyes closed. I would have thought he was asleep but I could see his lips moving. The wind carried a snippet of his voice to me.

“If you just give me a chance to meet again, I’ll take you somewhere far and fly awayyy. Shining like a star, diamond in the dark..”

I stood there transfixed. I didn’t know he could sing and the song was so full of yearning. I wondered who it was about. It sounded like a girl. Whoever she is, she’s pretty lucky. Then he sneezed and the spell broke. What a dork I thought to myself with a smile. I unwrapped my scarf and sneaked up behind him. I wrapped the scarf tight around his neck. He started to resist.

“Hey dork it’s just me. You’re going to get sick like that and you won’t be able to impress the ladies with your voice anymore.”

“Oh hey Jenny. You uh heard that?”

“Just a little. Your voice ain’t bad. So who’s the lucky girl?” I said looking away at a patch of dead grass.

“Girl? What makes you think it’s about a girl?”

“Woman’s intuition.”

“Woman? Where?” I rolled my eyes and smacked him.

“Fine don’t answer me.”

“It’s just someone I know.” My heart dropped a bit. I knew enough to know that this wasn’t just anybody. Of course he had someone he liked. Whatever. We’re just friends anyway. It’s fine.

When it was time to go, he started to unwrap my scarf from his neck.

“No keep it.”

“Are you sure? You always wear this scarf.”

“Yeah you need it more than me. I still have one at  least.  I’ll trust you with that one for a little longer. I’ll murder you if you mess up my favorite scarf.”

“Thanks. But let me walk you home at least. I’m meeting a friend over that way, anyway.”

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.” I said. On the way to my apartment, he told me about the time the Australians fought a war against the emus. I didn’t believe him at first, but he insisted it was totally a thing that happened. I googled it and burst out laughing when I saw that it really did happen. The walk to my apartment never felt so short. All too soon we reached my apartment complex.

“Well, here we are I would invite you up for ramen or something but your friend must be waiting on you.”

“Yeah. My friend is waiting. But next time for sure.” I smiled at him.

“I’ll just have to show you my mad ramen making skills next time.” He rolled his eyes at that.

“Good night, shorty.”

“Bye,dork.”

It wasn’t until I made it back into my apartment that I realized something. I never told him which direction I lived. And now that I think about it he seemed like he didn’t know where he was going when we were walking. I didn’t notice earlier Hmm. How interesting.