The flight to North Carolina was the worst thing I'd ever experienced. I spent the whole flight trying and failing to sleep because of the rapid fire thoughts in my mind. Everything about the journey was anxiety inducing. I wasn't a fan of flights in the first place, but the events surrounding it made it worse. I was anxious to be leaving my life in England and anxious to go back to America.

  The flight wasn't too full, but even so I was having trouble being in a small space with strangers. I didn't have anything to do except try to sleep and watch the couple videos I had. Although I'd never admit it to anyone, I'd downloaded a couple of my friends' videos to my phone because it was the best distraction I had. If Tommy or Will found out, I'd be mercilessly made fun of. I felt like Sapnap wouldn't care nearly as much.

  I'd managed to sleep on and off throughout the flight, but I felt just as exhausted as I had when I had boarded. I arrived in Raleigh-Durham at two in the afternoon after a nearly two hour layover in Charlotte-Douglas. It was worth cutting three hours off of Bea's drive, though.

  I had given myself a second after I had gotten out of the plane to let everyone know I'd landed safely before going to get my bags. I was insanely lucky that none of my luggage had gotten lost during the layover. That would've been a nightmare to figure out.

I'd dragged my bags with me outside and waited at the curb for Bea. I had stopped texting her because she was driving, but I was hoping she remembered which terminal I was at.

Soon enough, a familiar black car pulled up in front of me and rolled its window down. "Well, if it isn't Melody Maddox."

I smiled at the redhead in the driver's seat, although she couldn't see it behind my mask. "If it isn't Beatrice Carter."

"The one and only." Bea held a huge grin on her face. "Now, throw your shit in the trunk and get in, bitch."

I laughed and dragged my luggage over to her trunk. She had already unlocked it and I put my two suitcases inside, opting to keep my backpack with me. Once I had closed her trunk and returned to the passenger door, I was met with a beyond excited Bea.

"Holy shit, I wanna hug you so bad, dude." Bea spoke as I buckled into her passenger seat, a bit disoriented by the switch in sides.

I smiled at her. "I do too, but I can't get you sick, babe."

Bea's nose scrunched in confusion. "You sound extra British."

I laughed as she pulled away from the curb. "Do I? You've heard my voice over the phone, Bea."

"Yeah, but you're all British." She emphasized her words with a flick of her hand.

I shook my head and looked out the window. I couldn't process that I was actually in a car with her again after almost a year. "Maybe you're just all American."

"Duh." She scoffed at me. "News flash, no more pip pip cheerio bullshit. If you start saying chuesday on me, I will riot."

I snickered at her comment. "There's no winning. I have Will making fun of the way I say asshole this morning and you saying I'm extra British now."

"Well, Will is extra British." Bea decided. "You're Brit-ish."

I held back a laugh at her pun. "That's so stupid."

  "You're stupid." She mocked.

  I gasped dramatically. "How dare you. I'm wounded, Bea. I may never recover."

  "And I'd do it again, bap, bap." She shot a finger gun at me.

  I giggled. "I missed you, babe."

  "Oh god, I missed you so much. Dealing with Jacobs without you is a nightmare." Bea joked.

  I shook my head at her. "I miss him too."

  "I don't think anyone misses you more than Jacobs." She teased.

  I smiled a bit. Sean had always been a huge softie. "I actually don't doubt that."

  She nodded. "You wanna know what happened while you were gone?"

  I noticed the mischievous glint in her eye. "What?"

  "Jenny moved for college." Bea was clearly excited about that. "But, Hanna's back and I feel like she's everywhere."

  I cringed at the mention of her. "That's not great."

  "Not great is an understatement." Bea laughed humorlessly. There had always been people at our school who bullied us. The three of us were a little group of misfits that automatically became a target. Hanna would be one of those people who used to bully us, but she'd graduated a year before us and we thought she'd be out of our hair for four years, but apparently we weren't so lucky.

  "You never know, she could've changed." I suggested timidly.

  "She yelled slurs at me last week." Bea chuckled at my optimism.

  "Okay, ew, still a bitch." It made me want to throw a good left hook at her.

  "Good news, though." She gave me a quick smile.

  "What's that?" I turned to look at her.

  She seemed to build up suspense for a moment and I hate to admit it had me on the edge of my seat. "I got a girlfriend!"

  I felt a grin spread across my face. "Holy shit! Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Just became official last night." She explained.

  "Wait..." I started to think over the many girls that Bea had claimed to have fallen in love with at first sight over the past couple months. "Is it the barista girl who put a heart next to your name?"

  Bea started nodding vigorously. "That's the one."

  "No way!" I was surprised I got it right on the first try. "Tell me about her!"

  "Well, her name's Laine." She started. "She's going to PCC for teaching and she's working at that Starbucks on 10th, which you already knew." She turned to look at me for a moment. "She's so nice, Mel. You're gonna love her."

  I couldn't get the smile off of my face. I was so happy to see Bea this happy. "I'm sure I will."

  "Question." Bea pointed at me, but kept her eyes on the road.

  "Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

  "What's going on with you and that Sapnap guy?" She spoke with her hands. "I knew you'd try to run if I asked, but now you can't."

  I frowned at the fact she had this planned. "Nothing. There's nothing going on between us." I answered honestly.

  Bea clearly didn't believe me. "Sure." She shook her head. "You like him, yeah? You just did the thing."

  "What thing?" I knit my eyebrows together in confusion. What was she talking about?

  "You started tapping your foot." She quickly tapped my moving knee. "You used to do that when I'd bring up Ty in junior year."

  I cringed at the mention of Ty. He turned out to be a total dick. "No. I didn't."

  "You did." She argued. "You did it with Francisco and Jamie too, Mel. You can't fool me, bitch."

  I frowned at the mentions of the other people I'd crushed on in high school. I had a trend of liking total assholes. "I don't do that. That's not a thing."

  "But, you do." She teased me. "So, you like Sapnap?"

  I didn't want to lie to Bea, but I was nervous that she'd judge me. I couldn't lie to her. I had to just tell her. "Uh- yeah. Maybe."

"Sick." She nodded her head. "He's not a dick, right?"

I shook my head. "No. He's not a dick."

"I'll be the judge of that." She poked my side. "You're an awful judge of character. After all, you're friends with me."

I laughed. "I think that makes me a great judge of character."

She hummed. "I don't know about that one chief. You chose going to homecoming with Jamie over Sean and I."

I rolled my eyes at her. "That was literally years ago. Are you still not over that?"

"I won't be over that until I get to kick him in the balls until he can no longer reproduce." She smirked to herself.

I held back my laugh. "Bea!"

"What?" She looked confused. "I'd do the same thing to this Sap guy if he turns out to be a dick. You tend to only crush on people who are despicable human beings."

I shook my head at her. Her reaction to this was kind of what I expected. "Nick's not an asshole, Bea. You know I'd get a good hit in if he was."

She smiled at me. "You throw the first punch and I finish the job while Sean watches in abject horror." She held her fist out.

I fist bumped her with a smile. "I'll cover Sean's eyes so he isn't traumatized."

"Oh, you know what was a really good one?" The smile on her face could only be described as psychotic. "Mason Wheeler senior year. Broken nose and you came out with that black eye."

I hated that I was proud of that moment, but I was. I definitely wasn't the best kid in high school, but I never started fights. I only finished them after some dickhead was being a perv. I had dealt with a lot of harassment in high school, but that stopped for the most part when I started throwing punches. I didn't stop, though. If I caught them targeting someone else, I wouldn't be afraid to kick them where it hurts. The only issue was how small I was, so Bea and I would always team up and always got detention together.

I was lucky enough that my parents understood where I was coming from. They weren't happy, but they were never too upset once I gave them the story. Bea wasn't quite as lucky, which resulted in a lot of time spent at my house or Sean's.

I nodded. "That was a good one, yeah."

"You didn't get into any fights over there that you didn't tell me about, right?" Bea double checked.

"Unless you count fighting with Will over headphones, then no." I shook my head. "I'm not going into a fight without my partner in crime."

She beamed at me. "Damn right you aren't. Speaking of which, we're driving by Jacobs' house because if he doesn't see that you're alive, he won't believe me."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you murdered me and left my body on the drive home." I joked.

"Don't tempt me." She teased.

-=-

Watching as Bea drove into town was a surreal feeling. It was strange to see the little changes that had been made while I was gone. The thing that looked exactly the same was the Jacobs family's house as we drove up.

Bea parked in the driveway and went to get Sean so that we could talk from six feet apart. I watched as she knocked on the door three times and it was opened. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I could see her gesture towards me.

Mr. Jacobs leaned slightly out of the doorway and smiled at me once he spotted me. I waved at him and he waved in return before leaning back into the house. Not too long after, I watched Sean practically sprint past Bea and towards her car.

I opened my door and smiled at him as he approached.

"Mel!" Sean yelled in excitement.

"Hey, Jacobs!" I instinctively opened my arms and frowned when I realized. "Uh- air hug?"

"Biggest air hug ever!" He opened his arms six feet away from me.

I giggled at his excitement. "Miss me?"

"Are you kidding?" He was exasperated by the question. "Of course I did."

"How's that high school suffering going?" I teased him.

He frowned. "Zoom classes suck."

I laughed. "The only Zoom meetings I have to go to are Love or Host." I poked fun.

"You haven't even been on in months." He pointed out.

I shrugged. "The point still stands. What? You wanted me on Cubby's?"

His face scrunched up in disgust. "No. That'd be so weird."

"That's what I thought." I smiled triumphantly. "You know what we should do after my quarantine is up?"

"What?" Sean questioned me.

"Get milkshakes from Sonic." I suggested excitedly.

His eyes widened. "Absolutely! How long has it been for you?"

I shook my head in exasperation. "Too long, Jacobs. Too long. They don't have Sonic milkshakes in Brighton. I'll tell you that much."

"Duh." Bea walked around to the side of the car Sean and I were talking on. "It's an American chain."

"An American chain that she's been deprived of!" Sean complained.

"What he said." I nodded. "Give me two weeks and I'll get Banks back. We can take her for milkshakes."

"I haven't seen Banks since your dad was helping me move my shit." Bea commented.

"I haven't driven in months. I can't wait to have her back." I spoke excitedly about my car. The name Banks had been given to her by Bea because she was the type of car that was far from breaking the bank. I'd bought her used and in rough condition, but I'd worked on her enough for her to have a couple more years left in her.

  "Tell me about England." Sean was buzzing with excitement.

  I shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you. I think I told you everything."

  "You didn't tell me about London." He pointed out.

  "Well, I only went once and I was inside the whole time." I tried to think of anything interesting to tell him. "It feels like it comes out of nowhere and it's super busy."

  "There has to be something else." Sean hoped.

  I hummed in thought. "I mean, George's apartment was very nice. His dog was sweet."

  "Lame." Bea faked a yawn. "Sean, you aren't asking the right questions."

  "What are the right questions?" Sean asked her my same question.

  "Mel, how did it feel to be that short next to Will?" She teased me.

  I frowned as Sean started laughing. "Shitty. No more questions." It was refreshing to hear the sound of Sean's laughter after Bea made a joke at my expense. It was so peaceful in a strange way.

-=-

  Bea yanked my suitcase into the apartment she had just unlocked. "Welcome to your home for the next two weeks."

  I followed behind her and looked around at the apartment. "It's really nice." It was much better than the apartment I had been living in while I was in Brighton. The building was one that I knew Bea had been looking into, but I never expected her to choose it.

Bea smiled with pride. "Isn't it?" She opened a door along the wall to my left. "Anyways, welcome to your COVID prison."

I snickered and walked over to see the room. It was more than I expected her to have. It looked a lot like my room in Brighton. I turned to look at her. "Seriously, thank you."

She rolled her eyes at me. "You literally forced me to let you split rent. Don't thank me."

"You're still owed some thanks." I insisted.

She pulled my suitcase into the room and made a couple random noises to mock me. "We're literally just doing the thing."

"What thing?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Like, the moving in together thing we used to talk about, but it's just two weeks." She started to unzip my bag for me.

I smiled at the thought and crouched down to open my other bag. "No more guest room. It's just my room now."

"I'm upping your rent." She jokingly threatened.

"Guess I'll die." I giggled.

"Good. Give me all of your money in your will." She started to sort through my clothes for me.

"Just for that, you're getting taken out of my will." I threatened.

"I was in the will?" She questioned.

I laughed. "I literally don't even have a will for you to be in, but you'll be taken out of it once I make one."

"You can't take me out of a will if I was never in it." She argued.

"I'll put you in the will just so I can take you out of it." I looked over my shoulder at her with a goofy smile hidden underneath my mask.

She gasped dramatically. "That's just cruel."

Before I could respond to her, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I let myself fully sit onto the floor and took my phone out to see who was calling.

"Who is it?" Bea turned to look at me.

I frowned at the blank contact calling me. I had switched my number a couple days ago so that I wouldn't have to pay international fees and ended up not transferring most of my contacts since I talked to most people on Discord. "Not sure. I recognize the number, but it's not like I have my contacts memorized."

She leaned over my shoulder to read the number. "Houston area code. Family?"

It could've easily been one of my family friends since they knew it was my first day back. My gran was gonna kill me if I forgot to transfer her number and didn't pick up on my first day back in the states. In the sheer panic of that idea, I picked up the call and put my phone on speaker. "Hello?"

"Thank god. I thought you seriously gave me the wrong number for a second." Sapnap's nervous giggle came through the phone and my worries about my gran killing me melted away. It wasn't like she was my actual grandma, but it was still a terrifying idea.

I smiled at my phone. "Hey, Nick."

"Fuck. Which one is Nick?" Bea mumbled next to me. "Is that the one 'cousin' with the peanut allergy?"

I snorted at her guess of my old neighbor who I hadn't spoken to in over a year. "No. That's Nate. Nick is Sapnap."

"Is Bea there?" Sapnap questioned.

I hummed in response. "Mhm. She's leaning over my shoulder trying to guess who from Houston would be calling me."

"Oh, Sapnap's from Texas?" The worry that passed over Bea's face was hilarious. "That's not good."

I laughed at her concern. "Yeah. He's from Texas."

She cringed and shared a look with me. She was practically telling me that I was fucked over this simple fact with her eyes.

I shook my head at her before her thoughts became words. "Isn't it crazy that it's five?" I looked back at my phone.

"Well, four for me, but it's crazy that you're only an hour ahead of me!" Sapnap was clearly excited by this.

I giggled. "Yeah! No more dinners at noon for you!"

"Only problem is now I have to find some way to escape my family to keep up our tradition." He chuckled.

I frowned. "Wait, no! No way in hell am I interrupting family dinner. What would your mother think?" I teased him.

"She'd think that I have a girlfriend and try to eavesdrop on our conversations- oh wait, Cassie already does that!" His voice raised at the end as he turned away from his phone and I could assume what happened when I could hear Cassie laugh and then a door shut. "Yeah! You're not slick!" He yelled away from his phone.

I started laughing at the series of events. "Awh, is Nicky upset?" I teased him.

"Will you shut up?" His voice cracked in the middle of his complaint, making his embarrassment even clearer.

I couldn't help but burst into a little fit of giggles at his expense. Bea was annoyed by this and moved a bit to the side to start unpacking the bag in front of me.

He grumbled something and a request to FaceTime popped up.

I panicked for a moment about my disheveled appearance, but picked up despite myself. "What was that for?" I questioned.

"You look cute when you laugh, but now you're not laughing." Sapnap pouted.

Bea wildly caught my attention with a wave of her hand and bewildered eyes. She started to mouth something to me, "you didn't say he flirts back, Mel."

I felt my cheeks heat up at her silent statement and shook my head. "Excuse you, I look cute all the time." I looked back at Sapnap.

"Won't argue with that." He held a hand up in surrender and I could see Bea freak out even more.

-=-
A/N

Back to back (day) updates! Yay!

I hope you have an incredible day/night!! <3