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“God, it smells in here,” Andi mumbled to herself, taking in the musty scent of the tent.
Okay, she’d admit that hiding inside of a tent in Cyrus’ backyard could be considered weird. But to be fair, he should’ve taken the tent down by now so if she didn’t seize the opportunity to scare him, Buffy would—which is way worse.
Also, she was incredibly bored. Her parents were both working, Buffy was hanging out with Marty, Jonah and Amber were on a date, and Cece was at the rage cage again. There was nothing to do and no one to do it with, which is why she decided to wait inside of a hot and smelly tent for one of her best friends to come outside and inspect it. Definitely not her best idea.
As she mulled over her plethora of poor choices, a door slid open outside. She quickly got into position and waited for whoever it was to get close to the tent.
Footsteps approached and stopped, hands grabbing at the tent as if they were taking it down.
She reached her hand out of the hole and grabbed their ankle. “Blah!”
Luckily, the response she received was a slight jump from Cyrus’ along with a quick shout—unlike the piercing scream she got from his step-dad earlier.
“What the—Andi?” he questioned.
She popped her head out. “How’d you know it was me?”
“I can recognize those bracelets anywhere,” he said, pointing down towards her wrist.
“Fair enough,” she laughed. When her eyes finally adjusted to the light, she noticed Cyrus’ puffy face and furrowed her eyebrows in concern. “And I can recognize someone who’s been crying.”
“Oh,” he wiped at his cheek. “It’s—it’s nothing, I’m fine.”
He gave her an obviously fake smile and thumbs up. She rolled her eyes and reached her hand upward, grabbing his. “Cyrus.”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” he mumbled.
“And you don’t have to,” she said. “But I think it would help if you did. You can’t bottle up your emotions.”
He looked down at her for a moment before groaning loudly. “Come on, Andi. You can’t play the therapist friend, that’s my job.”
She giggled. “Well, today it can be mine. Get in here.”
She let go of his hand and moved further into the tent, allowing Cyrus to follow her in.
“How long were you waiting in here?” he asked.
“Mmm, not that long,” she shrugged. “But a while. Long enough to scare your step-dad by accident.”
He chuckled. “Do you not have anything better to do right now?”
She ignored his question. “Don’t think I forgot why we’re in here. You’re upset.”
He sighed. “Yes, and?”
“And I want to help,” she said. “I’m here if you want to talk—or not, I’m totally down for distractions too. Oh! There’s this new flea market down in town and it’s 70’s night at the roller rink, so if you—”
“It’s TJ,” he blurted.
“Wh—it’s what?”
“The reason I’m upset,” he explained. “It’s because of TJ.”
She cocked her head in confusion. “What happened?”
He sighed. “We just haven’t talked a lot recently and I miss his company a little. That’s all.”
She looked over his face again. Just as puffy and red as it was outside, but now she could see that his cheeks were wet. His tears must’ve come recently. “That’s all?”
“It’s just…” he sighed again. “You remember costume day?”
“You mean the day my parents told me they weren’t getting married, I got sandwiched into Amber and Jonah’s relationship, then Jonah bailed on me? Of course I do, don’t remind me,” she said. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “…Unless you need to?”
“Well, that’s where everything started. We’ve been distant since then but I kind of got myself over it,” he said. “But seeing him on the swings with Kira the other day was just… A completely new feeling.”
She remembered him telling her about that. It must have really affected him to be this upset. She reached out and grabbed his hand. “A new feeling like what?”
“Anger, bitterness, a lot of sadness,” he pointed to his damp cheeks with his free hand. “And then I realized my feelings might not have been as friendly as I thought this whole time.”
“What do you mean?” she asked gently, although she had a feeling herself about what was going on.
“Like…” he trailed off. “Like seeing him with her, acting all couple-y, made me realize how much I wanted to be doing those things with him instead.”
“Ah,” she nodded. “Got it.”
“God, why do I always have the worst timing?” he groaned, burying his head into her shoulder. “Of course I like him as soon as he’s with someone else.”
“He’s not with her with her, Cyrus,” she rubbed circles on his back. “And I bet things would be different if you just talked to him.”
“I don’t wanna,” he mumbled grumpily. “Kira’s always there and he clams up around her.”
“Then find him alone,” she suggested.
“What, you want me to corner him somewhere just so we can hang out?” She could hear his eye roll.
“Well it sounds bad when you put it that way,” she said. “Listen, I’m not perfect when it comes to relationship advice. I try to help people out but my only experience is Jonah.”
“And that’s always a fun experience,” he joked.
“Yeah,” she laughed. “We should start a club for that.”
“Then we’d have to invite Amber over and I am not ready for that conversation.”
“Then it’ll just be us for now,” she said with a smile he couldn’t see.
Moments of silence passed before Cyrus moved up from her shoulder. She noticed new tears lining his eyes.
“I didn’t think TJ would be another Jonah,” he trembled quietly.
“Oh, Cyrus,” she put her hands on his shoulders. “I promise you, one day you’re going to find the right boy and he’s going to wake up everyday wondering how he got so lucky, because he is with the Cyrus Goodman.”
He laughed slightly at that. “Right.”
“I am right!” she said, wiping away a slow falling tear. “I know it may seem like it, but they won’t all be Jonah’s.”
“I’d hope not,” he snorted. “You know what the real moral of all this is?”
She scrunched her nose. “What?”
“Boys suck,” he sighed dramatically.
“I can agree with that moral,” she stood up. “Now can you agree that this tent needs to come down?”
“Yep, it’s three raccoon visits overdue,” she gave him a hand to help him up which he took gratefully. “Wanna stay and help?”
“Of course, but only if I get to raid your fridge for ice cream,” she said.
He scoffed. “Good luck beating me to it.”
“As Buffy would say…” she placed a hand on his shoulder before quickly getting back down and wiggling out of the tent. “Race you!”
“Oh come on!” he shouted after her, footsteps catching up eventually.
Later that night, the two could be found on Cyrus’ couch under soft blankets, sharing a variety of ice creams and binging the best rom-coms from the early 2000’s. They always said the same thing every time one of them looked outside at the tent, “we’ll get it later”, because they definitely had better things to do tonight.