Just Friends

*21*

"I have a bad feeling about this." Fred mutters as he and FP stealthily sneak into the restaurant where Alice and Lance are.

"She won't even know we're here." FP reassures him.

"I don't even get why we're here, she's a big girl, she can choose who she wants to date."

"I just want to make sure he doesn't try anything."

"Is it that? Or are you hoping it goes badly so she'll come running to you."

"What?" FP scrunches his nose. "No, why would you even say that?"

"Because you're like weirdly obsessed with her dating life, you act like a damn police officer every time she brings home someone new."

FP shrugs him off and searches for the couple. "She's my best friend, I just want what's best for her."

"Even if that something isn't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. We're just friends."

"Keep telling yourself that, bud." He claps FP on the shoulder, earning a glare from the boy.

Across the restaurant, Alice is laughing cheerily as Lance tells her a story of the time he and his teammates put itching powder in their rival team's jerseys.

"That's awful!" She exclaims.

"Maybe, but it was funny, and we won the game."

"Well I'd hope so if you went through all that trouble."

"It looked pretty grim for a moment but we pulled through. They aren't our rivals for nothing."

"Did they ever get you back?"

"Yeah, they snuck in during a practice once and stole our clothes. That was fun to explain to the coach."

She smiles. "No offence, but you definitely deserved it."

"I deserved getting my clothes stolen and being butt naked and humiliated?"

"You did put itching powder in their jerseys before a game."

"Alright, fair enough." He smiles at her, relaxing against the worn leather booth seat. "How about you? You have a devious side to you?"

"Don't we all?" She winks as she takes a sip of her drink.

"Something tells me I shouldn't be so surprised about that?"

She raises an eyebrow at him. "Oh?"

"You did drag me into a strangers game closet at a party where we basically trashed the room." She laughs as she thinks back to the boxes that crashed down around them as he hoisted her up and pressed her back against a shelf.

"Hey, you're the one who said we should just turn off the light and pretend we were never there, instead of actually cleaning up what we knocked down, which by the way was my suggestion."

"Alright alright, you have a point."

"That isn't..." she starts to ask the question that's been weighing heavily on her mind but quickly decides against it. "Never mind."