Seth sat in his Subaru, the only car in the parking lot of the Village Pointe Starbucks, watching the tired Saturday-morning workers open up. The Starbucks occupied the last spot to the left of the fountain in the central roundabout of the shopping center, both a first and last stop to shoppers. Seth had his music turned down, out of a desire to not be that guy blasting his bass in the parking lot. He sighed and glanced at the time. 5:13. He twisted in his seat, looking for Jessica’s red Chevy Volt—as well as the source of the prickles on the back of his neck. They hadn’t left since he pulled out of his driveway.

A few cars were parked in front of other stores throughout the Village Pointe, but none that immediately screamed surveillance. Then again, that would be the point of a surveillance vehicle, wouldn’t it? The all-white Nissan Rogue parked in front of Hollister suddenly seemed suspicious. He narrowed his eyes.

Jessica’s car pulled into the parking lot. She was unperturbed to be ‘that guy’, and her upsettingly loud early-2000s Taylor Swift could be heard over the toned-down volume of Seth’s Sword playlist. She parked next to him and waved, smiling. Seth waved back and gave one more glance around the plaza. He wondered if he’d spot a shadowy figure and begin chasing them down in public, much to the horror of shoppers and workers all around.

Jessica knocked on his window. “You getting out?” She was wearing jeans and a bright yellow blouse today, unbuttoned just far enough to be a protest of the onset of cooler weather. Her favorite necklace—a cross with two bars and an infinity symbol—hung from her beck and she’d put her hair up in a messy bun with two chopsticks through it.

Seth nodded and turned off his car before stepping out. “Surprised you were up.”

“Were you, though?”

Seth shrugged. “Just needed an excuse to get out out of the house, and CFA doesn’t open until nine. I’m your shopping buddy until then.”

“You know these stores,” she pointed around, one arm crossed and holding the elbow of the other. “Don’t open until nine, right?”

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “No, I had no idea.”

“You sure know how to dodge the finer things in life, Seth.”

“Hey, I’m not dodging coffee.”

“Let me guess, black, two shots of espresso?”

His smirk changed to a grin.

“Yeah, not the finer things. Not from Starbucks.”

“Not gonna drink basically a milkshake before training.”

“Have at least a latte. My treat.”

“You want me to throw up?”

“It would be funny.”

“Yeah, to you.” Seth crossed to the door and held it open for her.

She walked in front of him to the counter, greeting the hapless barista with a cheery smile and an order with a concerning amount of modifiers. “Oh, and his, too.”

The girl behind the counter sighed and looked to Seth with pleading eyes.

“Coffee, black. Iced. No sweetener.”

“Gross,” said Jessica, tapping her phone to the pay kiosk. “Come on.”

They sat down at a corner table by the counter. “How are you holding up?” Asked Jessica. “I’m going to be honest, you look like you’ve slept an hour in the last week.”

“I’ll be fine. Just don’t want to spend the early morning hours with my dad. Not really trying to spend any time with him.”

“Things that bad these days?”

Seth interlaced and then immediately unlaced his fingers. “We had a fight right before the shooting. He slapped me. I kicked him. He’s been weird ever since I got back.”

“He’s hit you before. First time you did anything back.”

Seth shrugged. “It was right after my car accident. Then I went to David and Anthony’s and… Well, I’m sure you saw the video, and I’m sure you saw the news.”

She nodded, getting up for a brief second to grab their drinks. She slid Seth’s to him as she sat back down. Seth cradled the cold cup in his hands and took a sip of the bitter, life-giving drink.

“What really happened after the party, Seth? I know you weren’t in a coma.”

He stared at his cup. “I can’t really talk about it.”

“That bad?”

“Well… Yeah. Kind of. There’s details of the investigation I’m not allowed to talk about.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. More of a half-truth. Still, just as it hurt to lie about any of it Andrew, it hurt to lie to Jessica. He and her weren’t nearly as close, but they were still very long-term friends, and that meant a lot to Seth.

She placed a hand on his arm. “Hey, it’s okay.”

That just made it worse. Seth nodded.

“You should probably know Madeline’s amping up the rumors about you.”

That was a distraction, for sure. “What?”

“Yeah, it changed from you cheating on her with Emma. Now, I’ve heard people saying you were sleeping around with a bunch of different girls over the summer.”

Seth pressed his head into one palm. “What the hell…”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been putting those down anytime I hear them, but she really wants a leg up on you, for whatever twisted reason she has.”

“I haven’t spread anything about her at all!” His voice raised a little and he caught one of the baristas staring at them. He quited down. “You, Andrew, and Emma are the only ones at school that know she cheated on me. She’s literally telling everyone I did what she did.”

Jessica took a long pull of her whip cream-topped blended coffee. “I always thought Madeline was a little messed up.”

“Yeah, thanks for telling me you saw the red flags when I started dating her.”

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “I did, Seth. You were just so in love you ignored your friend’s advice.”

“I think your advice was, ‘she’s so beneath you’.”

“She is.”

“Well, a ‘hey, this chick is a sociopath’ would have been better.”

“I didn’t think she was a sociopath, just a brat. Some guys like that.”

Seth shook his head. “Well… Hey. You want to be my second back-up?”

She drained more of her drink. “Go on.”

“I’m fighting at David and Anthony’s party tonight. It’s at Madeline’s lake-house.”

“Oh, she is really, really trying to climb the ladder, isn’t she? You know she’s dating someone right? Some other school, south side of town. I think Benson.”

Seth shrugged. “Her business, I guess. Andrew’s coming.”

“Ooh.”

“Oh, no, don’t tell me.” Seth’s lips curled. “No. Not while I’m around, okay?”

“Around as in alive, or…”

“I just don’t want to know about it, alright?”

“Why? Andrew’s hot.”

“Yeah, but… He’s like my brother and you’re like my sister. That basically makes it incest.”

“Game of Thrones made that a cool thing, didn’t it?”

“Really didn’t,” said Seth, his face drawn tight. “Look, just don’t abandon me to get surrounded by Madeline’s friends.”

“I would never. Andrew and I will keep any fun strictly while you’re fighting and we’ll be back right when it ends.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“You gonna be up to fighting after training today? Aren’t you going through that god-awful hazing they put you through for your belt or something?”

“Instructor tab, but yeah.” Seth felt his elbow. The skin had grown completely back. “I think I’ll be okay, though.”

“The kids at those fights really that much beneath you?”

“Uh, something like that.” Seth looked out the windows of Starbucks. That feeling was still there, and it was going from spooky to downright annoying very quickly. He had newly raised goosebumps every ten minutes, despite the temperature perfectly agreeing with him.

“What?” Jessica twisted in her seat to look out the windows too. “See someone we know?”

“No…” Seth took another drink of the ice coffee. “Just got a weird feeling.” Again, half-truth. He settled into his seat, hoping this feeling wouldn’t last the rest of the day.