After the eventful day, Natalie decides to take a nice, long shower.

She just got back from her shower when she noticed that she had gotten a text from an unknown number. Immediately, she knew who it was.

Done with all her homework and chores, she is content to just lay down and scroll through her phone.

The message read 'hey, its Jace.'

Its? It should be it's. Never mind.

Like the studious student she is, Natalie is bothered by the sight of Jace's grammar mistake. Her flawless view of him is shattered by this single grammar error—well, shattered is a bit too strong to describe her feeling. But Natalie definitely felt her golden boy image of him was shaken.

It's just a small mistake. She tries to justify Jace's slip-up in her mind.

Then she sees several dots flashing in the messages, indicating he was about to send a text or in the midst of making one.

After some seconds and still no text appears, she realizes he must've gone back on his mind and hesitated to send the message. This breaks her weird, infatuated haze over the grammar error and prompts her to respond.

She sends a 'hey,' encouraging him to text back.

For what felt like forever to Natalie, but was really about an hour or so, they text back and forth, talking about anything and everything. From him asking about her family's recipe to talking about school and classes.

They finally say good night when Natalie notices it was pitch black outside. Checking her phone, she sees it's almost midnight. She tells him she has to get up early to walk her brother to his school. Jace, of course, doesn't hesitate to offer her a ride to school.

Natalie, at first eager to accept, remembers her friends and erases her text. She usually walked in the morning with them along with the new addition of Jace.

Would he be okay with driving all 4 of us?

She types, 'actually, I'm gonna walk with my friends, but thanks though.'

He responds with only a thumbs up.

She decides to end their conversation there and puts her away to sleep.

~~

After dropping off Sam, Natalie waits by the house that happens to be the junction of her friends' house. She spots Min and Levi walking side by side, looking cute together.

Though they were kind of far, Natalie could feel Min's spirited, peppy energy. Even from afar, she hears Min's loud rants and sees her flailing hands. Min had a habit of talking with her hands. Levi, on the other hand, is a stark contrast to Min's liveliness. Where she is like the sun, radiating energy, Levi is the shadow left behind by the sun. He is quiet, but was clearly engrossed by her rants—if the soft way he looks at her was any indication.

Natalie almost feels uncomfortable, like she stepped in a moment that was supposed to be private. She pulls out her phone and decides to look busy until one of the pair notices her, which luckily wasn't long.

"Natale!" Min calls out in a sing-songy voice.

Natalie glances up from her phone and pretends this is the first she noticed her friends. She jogs up to them. They continue to Kelly's house, but this time Natalie and Min are walking side by side with Levi relegated to the back even though the sidewalk had room for him to walk beside them.

Sorry.

Natalie mentally apologizes to Levi for breaking up their dynamic, though he didn't seem too upset.

"How was your weekend?" Min politely asks Natalie.

Natalie lets out an excited sigh. "I didn't want to tell you guys over text, but I had a really exciting week!"

"What happened?!" Min responds just as excited as Natalie.

"After the game yesterday, he dropped me off. And do you remember when I told you my mom asked me to invite him to dinner?"

Min nods vigorously and pleads for her to: "continue, continue."

"Anyway, I asked him to drop me off like a block away from my house and told him that my parents might see him and invite him over. But he said he didn't mind staying for dinner."

Min screams in excitement, "Kelly is gonna be so excited to hear about this!" She continues, "how was the dinner? Did your parents interrogate him?"

Min, who had been her friend for years, was also subject to the same treatment when she first befriended Natalie and knew how overprotective they could be.

"They just asked some awkward questions, but they actually seemed to really like him."

"Of course, they did. What did Jace say when he left? Did you get his number?" Min peppers her with questions.

"Actually, guess what we did after dinner?" Natalie asks.

Min responds without a beat, "sex."

Her sudden answer and the way she says it seriously has Natalie surprised and Levi, coughing and blushing.

"No!" Natalie yells.

"Ohh," Min pouts, dissatisfied, "you can't ask me a question like that and leave me disappointed."

"You're such a horndog."

Levi coughs again and even wheezes. He seemed to be having a fit back there.

"And you aren't?" Min shoots back at her.

Natalie knows when to concede, saying, "fair enough."

Min gets the conversation back on track, "so what did you do for dinner?"

"Sam asked to get ice cream and he drove us there. Just him, Jace, and me."

Min coos and gushes over her friend's luck.

"That's so cute." Then she screams all of the sudden. Min goes from raving about Natalie's 'date' to screeching at the top of her lungs from the sight of their other friend.

"Kelly! Come here! Nat has so much to tell you!"

Kelly jogs towards her friends. They are complete now. The three girls side by side and Levi sort of forgotten at the back.

Min recounts every single detail of Natalie's eventful day yesterday, insisting it was a date. Kelly, of course, has the same reaction as Min. Her friends could be so dramatic sometimes.