The sun was slowly setting, its orange glow peering through the windows. The sunlight striking Dawn caused her hair to appear a shade of golden brown. It was a really breathtaking sight and I didn’t even noticed I was staring until she spoke up.

                “Is there something on my face?” Dawn asked, hand brushing her cheeks and .

                “Huh?” I asked, slightly startled. “Oh, uh—no, I was just…” I said, pausing for a second to come up with a reasonable excuse. Unable to find one, I just said the truth, “…staring at you?”

                I could feel myself uncontrollably smile when Dawn laughed at me. “Sorry,” I said.

                “It’s fine,” she said happily.

                I smiled in relief. “So you wouldn’t mind if I stared at you some more?” I asked tentatively. She simply raised an eyebrow at me, causing me to laugh. “Kidding, I’m just kidding,” I told her. Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded staring at her, but the thought of it being so creepy repelled me from actually following through the action.

                “So, what’s your second favorite ice cream flavor?” Dawn asked me. This time, I raised my eyebrows at her. “What?” she asked innocently.

                I smiled at that. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it,” I said. “Maybe … mango?”

                She smiled. “Aw, that’s cute,” she commented. “Was that love discovered today?”

                Before I could answer, the waitress came to our table. “Here is your mango,” she said, handing Dawn a glass bowl containing the bright yellow dessert, “and here is your sherbet,” she said, handing me a similar glass bowl containing multicolored ice cream.

                “Thank you,” we said in unison.

                “Please enjoy!” she said, smiling before retreating.

                Dawn eagerly dug into her ice cream, which surprised me. “I thought you said you don’t eat sweet stuff often,” I said.

                She swallowed and said, “I make an exception for anything mango-flavored!” I had to smile at that. Her enthusiasm for mangoes almost matched a college student’s love for sleep.

                I started on my own ice cream. “Have you ever eaten ice cream with Jessica on the same spoon?” Dawn asked.

                I paused a bit. The question was so out of the blue it caught me by surprise. “Yeah, why?”

                She simply nodded, and then moved over to my side of the booth. I skootched over and she sat next to me. “Ahh~”

                Startled, I laughed nervously. “Wha—” she interrupted me by directing her spoon towards my mouth, but initially missed and smeared some ice cream on the side of my mouth.

                I looked at her, wide eyed, as I swallowed. “Hey!”

                Dawn laughed. “Sorry, let me take care of that,” she said, grabbing a tissue and wiping off the ice cream off my mouth.

                I could feel my heartbeat quicken a few paces. “That’s not what I meant,” I said. “Why—” then I remembered what she asked right before feeding me. “Are you jealous of Jessica?”

                She averted her gaze from me. After a second’s silence, she said quietly, “Yeah…”

                I smiled, both amused and excited. “There’s nothing to be jealous about—I apologize in advance if we act like a couple,” I said. “We’re trying to get rid of those habits. In fact, we’re compiling a list of things we can do and things we shouldn’t do.”

                Dawn giggled. “Really?”

                “What?” I said, whining slightly.

                She shrugged. “I guess I didn’t realize how close you two actually are; to do things like holding each other or helping each other change or washing each other’s hair in the shower an—”

                “Whoa whoa wait,” I said, interrupting her. “We don’t shower with each other.” I told her. She seemed to look relieved at that. “Well, not anymore, at least.” That look disappeared in an instant.

                “U-Uh, well yeah, I didn’t actually believe it,” she said, smiling while scratching her the back of her head. I could almost see the anime sweat drop forming on her forehead. “They were just rumors, after all,” she continued, although it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than me. “Anyway, I was saying that it would never occur to me that doing such couple-like things never phased you two.”

                Now that I thought about it, I guess she was right. I mean, considering all the “don’t”s on our list and how weird they seemed to us, not to mention any additional ones that might be added.

                We ate our ice cream in silent contemplation for a moment.

                “Hey, have you and Jess ever dated before?” Dawn asked, somewhat cautiously.

                Judging from her reactions to things before, I figured she wouldn’t take this news well, but honestly, might as well not lie as long as she asked. “Uh, yeah,” I said. “We tried a romantic relationship for a while, but we found that it didn’t work, so we broke up the following year,” I explained.

                “Why didn’t it work out?” she asked, taking another bite of her mango ice cream.

                I scooped a piece myself before answering. “I don’t really know, we both agreed it didn’t really feel right and neither of us wanted to end up married. I mean, that is where all romantic relationships head toward after all.”

                She seemed to think about that a bit. “Say, would you mind marrying me?” she asked quietly, as if nervous.

                I felt myself flush. “Wh-What? Where did that come from?” I asked, finding myself unable to meet her gaze, although I had a feeling she was looking away too.

                She smiled and shrugged. “I dunno. Just asking,” she replied.

                Her gaze met mine for a brief second, only to have it broken by her turning away quickly. Even though she was trying to hide it, I could see nervousness written on her face.

                We both fell silent, quietly eating our ice cream. “It’s a bit early to say,” I finally responded. “If I say yes, it could transform into a no later and vice versa,” I reasoned.

                My eyes landed on her startling green eyes, and I noticed something I haven’t really thought about before. “Hey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with green eyes, especially an Asian.”

                She looked at me, as if what I just said fascinated her as well. “Oh, that?” she said. “My dad is Asian but my mom is Euorpean. I asked my mom about it once because she had brown eyes but I have green ones, and she said that I was like 13 percent Icelandic or something, which is the country where the most green eyes come from.”

                I nodded. “I like them. They’re very pretty,” I said without a second thought.

                Dawn flushed at that. She averted her gaze back down to her ice cream as she continued to eat.

                I smiled—she was cute when she did that.

                “So, can you tell me a bit more about Jessica and you?” Dawn asked. Before I could respond, she quickly added, “I’m just a little curious, that’s all.”

                I nodded and sighed. “Well, we met the summer break before second grade. She moved right nextdoor, and I got to meet her on her first day here. We quickly became friends and became inseparable,” I took a deep sigh. “But during the summer break before sophomore year of high school, we learned that Jessi’s parents perished in a cruise ship accident.”

                Dawn looked startled. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she said.

                I smiled and nodded. “I think Jessi has put that behind her, although I do find her crying sometimes when she’s reminded of them.” I felt my own eyes sting a bit, so I turned away. I blinked, pushing out a tear that was quickly caught by my hand.

                She reached over to touch my arm. I looked up, a bit shocked at her actions. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring back those memories—”

                I shook my head. “It’s ok,” I said, ridding my eyes of their tears. It felt embarrassing, crying in front of Dawn—but I couldn’t really help it. “It was sophomore year we started dating, and it was that school year we found out that we were romantically incompatible with each other,” I said.

                I went back to my ice cream, but when I looked up again, she was still looking at me expectantly. “What? I’m done. The end,” I said.

                “What? That’s it?” she said, pouting.

                I shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much. Unless you want to hear about when Jessi and I started bathing togeth—”

                “No no no,” she said, waving her hands at me, eyes closed. “It’s ok.”

                I chuckled at her reaction. It was mean of me to say something like that, but yet teasing her was so fun.

                “So, how about you?” I asked.

~The Do’s and Don’ts of a Friendly Relationship~

                “I’m back!” I said as I entered the dorm room. I didn’t hear a response, nor did I expect one as I immediately heard the pattering of shower water hitting the floor.

                I picked up my laptop and mouse and fell onto my bed with my laptop on my lap, opening up Netflix. Before I could do much, I heard a loud thump.

                I quickly shoved my laptop aside and jumped up. “Jessi?” I said, rushing to the bathroom.

                I didn’t hear a response. “Jessi! Are you ok?” Still no response.

                I ran in to see Jessi lying on the floor, unconscious.

                “Oh god…” I murmured to myself as I quickly wrapped her in a towel, picked her up and brought her to her bed.

                Or I was going to, when the door suddenly opened and revealed Tiffany. “Hey Alex I—”

                She stared at me and Jessi for a second before her pupils dilated. “Wh-What are you doing with Jessica wrapped in just a towel?” she asked nervously.

                “She fell and knocked herself unconscious while in the shower,” I said simply, lying her down on the bed.

                “Wh-Wha—normal friends don’t see each other !” she said.

                “Well, what was I supposed to do? Leave her in there?”

                “Well, you could have asked another girl from this floor, or you could have asked me!”

                I shrugged and looked back at Jessi, whose eyes are still closed. “Hey, Jessi,” I said. I carefully inspected her forehead but couldn’t find any sign of a bruise. “Jessi, are you—” she opened her eyes, cutting me off. “Jessi! Are you ok?”

                She looked up at me and smiled. “Yeah, I just slipped while taking a shower. Thanks Jinnie,” she said. “Oh, your hair is—” she reached up and patted some part of my head. After a few seconds, she nodded. “Ok, better.”

                “H-Hey! Friends don’t do that either!”

                Jessi looked around and found Tiffany at the doorway. “Oh, hi Tiff,” she greeted casually. “And what do you mean by that? Didn’t you say that friends do worry about each other?”

                “Well yeah, but not that much!” she told us.

                “Hey Tiff, are you ok?” I asked her.

                She seemed to jump a little, apparently surprised at my question. “Uh—what do you mean?” she asked.

                “You seem more … worried than usual,” I told her.

                She seemed surprised at that. “Oh really? Huh, I’m fine,” she told me, smiling. “Thanks for your concern, though.”

                I smiled back. “Of course; friends worry about each other, don’t they?” I said.

                After Tiffany told me what she needed to, I remember to add a sixth entry: “DON’T—Worry About Each Other Too Much”.

Heh, this one took a little longer than the last two ^^

Anyway, to those who were wondering what the first part of this chapter had to do with this chapter's theme, Dawn and Alex don't appear to (want to) be just friends, right? :D

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!