That very same evening, Neo comes to the café.

Aden doesn't notice him at first — which is, funnily enough, a first — because he's too busy explaining the menu to the new girl who started working there the other day. She has fiery red hair, is a year older than him and sounds excited about everything in the world.

She makes Aden feel like he's babysitting a five-year-old on a sugar rush.

But honestly? Aden doesn't really mind. Plus, she's easy to talk to. Which is definitely a bonus because he really doesn't have the energy to deal with the effort of an awkward, or one-sided conversation.

It's a nice change from having to think about all the things that he doesn't want to think about; a welcome distraction from the lingering gloom in his chest.

"You just have to get used to it," Aden tells Olivia with a wry smile, referring to the menu. His elbow is on the counter, and he's leaning down with his head on his knuckles as he talks to her, other hand pointing at the massive beverage list of the café. "It's a little overwhelming at first —"

"I'm just gonna take a picture," she chirps, pulling her phone out of her pocket before Aden can reply. If this was anyone else, he would sigh and internally wish for them to stop interrupting him. But she had apologized about it a day before, admitting that it was something she struggled with, right after she had unintentionally done it the first two times.

"Yeah, that'd make it easier to remember," he says with a nod, watching her click a picture and then zoom in on it to make sure nothing is blurred out. "You wouldn't have a shift alone for at least two weeks from now, though, so I think that's plenty of time to —"

"Hi."

Aden straightens up at the new, but obviously familiar voice, and even though he hates to admit it to himself, somewhere under all the confusion from the evening of the bonfire and the overthinking after, Aden feels his heart stutter in his chest at the sight of Neo standing at the other end of the counter.

His glasses are perched as usual on his slightly red nose and a beanie covers his head, some of his hair falling out and covering his forehead. In his oversized sky blue hoodie, hands fiddling in front of him as he barely makes eye contact with Aden, he looks small.

Smaller than usual.

"Hey," Aden greets back, sounding more composed than he feels. He can't lie to himself and say that being ignored by Neo hadn't hurt. He's spent hours and hours thinking about what he would say to this boy if they ever talked again, and had come up with nothing.

Because putting his crush aside too, he had assumed that they were friends.

Looking at him in the eye again after almost three days feels odd.

There are questions inside his head, and a good part of them on the tip of his tongue. But the more Aden tries to frame them better so he can let them out, the stupider they sound to him. So he swallows them back, pretends that this was just a stupid crush that he needs to get over. Pretends that he hasn't spent weeks unintentionally feeling himself slowly gravitating to the happiness around the boy in front of him — his giddiness about something as simple as taking the first sip of his favorite drink, the crinkles at the corners of his eyes every time he smiles a little too wide... and now to add to the list, his giggles that Aden had heard for the very first time at the party.

Yeah. Just a stupid crush.

So... yeah. Of course he swallows all of his questions back right along with the lump in his throat and with a faint smile on his face that he hopes doesn't look as glum as he feels, he asks, "Your usual, right?"

Neo looks a little stumped, eyes wide and lips parted; expression clearly stating that he had expected Aden to say anything but that. Me too, Aden thinks. He watches Neo blink a few times when he realizes that the boy behind the counter is waiting for him to reply, and quickly nods.

Aden doesn't miss the way a light dusting of pink appears on his cheeks, internally patting himself on the back for keeping his questions to himself.

He'd rather suffocate on his own thoughts than be the reason for someone else's discomfort.

"I'll call you right over when it's done," he says, voice lacking the usual fluster that it holds whenever Neo is around him. He passes him another smile before turning around to work on the milkshake, ignoring the way Olivia had been looking between them.

He lets the smile slowly slip away as he hears receding footsteps only for a second, fingers faltering just a little on the machine when he hears a soft,

"Actually... can we talk, please?"

Aden is standing frozen with his back to Neo, and he has to give himself a few minutes to let the words sink in. Talk.

Neo wants to talk.

Closing his clammy hands into fists, he slowly turns back around to meet his eyes.

Maybe, there's something on his face that tells Neo how he had felt this entire time, because words rush past Neo's lips the next second without a pause.

"It's okay if you don't want to," he adds quickly. "It's totally understandable. So like, you can say no. I mean, I would prefer it if you didn't, of course." A nervous, broken chuckle follows his stuttered words, and Aden's fingernails ease off his palms. "But you can! Just saying. Because —"

"Fifteen minutes," Aden interrupts his nervous rant.

Neo's mouth is still parted, another string of words that barely make sense probably ready to leave his mouth. But instead, he says, "Huh?"

"My shift ends in fifteen minutes," Aden explains, and feels his expression soften at the way Neo's eyes widen a little more. "Are you okay with waiting till then?"

Neo blinks. Opens his mouth, closes it. And Aden watches him swallow once before he opens his mouth again. Closes it again.

Then after a moment: "Yeah... yeah. Of course. Sorry, I..." The flush of his cheeks brightens some more. "Right. I'll..." He gestures awkwardly in the general direction of the seats with his thumb and slowly starts backing away.

Aden hears Olivia let out a barely audible chuckle with her head down just as he says, "I'll get you your sandwich and milkshake."