A hint of normality returning.

School was pretty much a standard day. Nothing particularly interesting happened. I got through my classes, did my assigned work, and spent the breaks with Michael and Lyndsay, listening to them argue about something that I couldn't remember five minutes later.

Michael asked me if I was still thinking about Kat.

“Not particularly,” I lied.

He gave me a look that suggested he didn't believe me, but thankfully, he didn't push it.

Kat was the difficult part of the day. She was perfectly normal with everyone else. She chatted with her friends, laughed at Michael's jokes when she happened to be nearby, and carried on with her usual routine. With me, though, she was completely closed off. If we passed in the corridor, she looked straight through me. When we ended up in the same classroom, she didn't acknowledge my presence. There was no angry glare or pointed comment, nothing that might have given me an opportunity to apologise. I simply didn't exist. I knew I'd hurt her, and I couldn't blame her for wanting nothing to do with me. That didn't make it any easier.

Rebecca, meanwhile, seemed determined to make up for the time she'd spent ignoring me. She found me during breaks, walked with me between classes, and asked how I was doing. She didn't mention Kat unless I brought her up, and even then, she didn't dwell on it. It was nice having her around again. For the past few weeks, I'd been so used to wondering what I'd done to upset her that it was a relief to have things feeling normal between us.

By the final bell, I was ready to get out of there. The afternoon passed much like the rest of the day. I got home, changed out of my school clothes, did a little homework, and spent some time playing Call of Duty. Dad was around for a while, but Heather was still at college. I had the house mostly to myself, which suited me just fine.

It was getting towards early evening when I heard a tap at my bedroom window. I looked up from my laptop. I already knew who it was.

“It's open!”

The window slid up, and Rebecca's head appeared. “That's not an invitation to shout at me,” she said.

“Then stop climbing through my window.”

She grinned and swung a leg over the sill. “Hi to you too.”

“Hi. What are you doing here?”

“Watching a movie.”

I looked at her. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“I'm telling you. Unless you've got something better to do?”

“Not really.”

“Good. Move over.”

She gave me a little shove as she passed, then looked around my room. “What have you been doing?”

“Homework. Gaming. The usual.”

“Sounds thrilling.”

“Your life must be pretty exciting if you're spending your evening here.”

She ignored that. “Come on. Find us something to watch.”

I picked up my laptop and moved a couple of things off the bed so I could set it up beside me. Rebecca sat down while I opened the streaming site and began scrolling through the available films.

“What about this one?” I asked.

“No.”

“You haven't even looked at it.”

“I've seen it.”

“This one?”

“Too depressing.”

“You're making this difficult.”

“You're the one choosing all the rubbish.”

I kept scrolling. Eventually, we settled on an action film neither of us had seen. I propped the laptop up on a couple of pillows, angled the screen so we could both see it, and pressed play.

Rebecca settled in beside me. At first, we watched in silence, occasionally making comments about the characters or the plot. It didn't take long for the commentary to begin.

“That guy's an idiot,” she said.

“He's the hero.”

“Then the hero's an idiot.”

“He's trying to save his girlfriend.”

“He could start by not getting himself killed.”

“It's an action movie. That's kind of the point.”

She rolled her eyes. A few minutes later, she moved closer so she could see the screen properly.

“Can you move that pillow? It's blocking the corner.”

I shifted it. “Better?”

“Much.” She settled back against the headboard, close beside me, and continued watching.

It felt comfortable. Rebecca had been climbing through my window and hanging around my room for years. We'd spent countless afternoons together, watching movies, playing games, or simply talking about whatever happened to be on our minds. It was nice to have that again, especially after the last few weeks.

Halfway through the film, she laughed at something one of the characters said and nudged my arm. “That's exactly what Michael would do.”

“Michael would have made an even bigger mess of it.”

“True.”

We spent the next few minutes inventing increasingly ridiculous ways Michael would have managed to get himself into trouble if he'd been in the film.

By the time we finished, I'd missed an important bit of the plot. “Wait. What just happened?”

Rebecca stared at me. “You weren't watching?”

“I was listening to you.”

“That's your problem.”

“Could you rewind it?”

She sighed dramatically, but did as I asked. We watched the scene again, this time with Rebecca providing a running explanation of everything I'd supposedly missed. It was exactly the sort of thing we'd always done.

We were well into the second half when I heard footsteps in the hallway. I didn't think much of them until Heather's head appeared around my bedroom door.

“Hey, have you seen…” She stopped.

Her eyes moved from me to Rebecca, then to the laptop balanced on the pillows beside us.

Rebecca looked up. “Hi, Heather.”

Heather stared at us for a second, confounded. “Hi.”

I paused the movie. “What?”

“Nothing.” Heather's expression suggested that it was definitely not nothing. She looked at the screen again, then back at us. “Just don't get too comfortable.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I said so.”

“That's not an answer.”

“It's the only one you're getting.”

Rebecca laughed softly.

Heather shook her head, though I caught the hint of a smile. “Honestly. You two.”

She disappeared down the hallway before I could ask what that was supposed to mean.

I looked at Rebecca. “What was that about?”

She shrugged. “She's your sister. Who knows?”

“She's weird.”

“Very.”

I restarted the movie. Neither of us mentioned Heather's interruption. Rebecca settled back beside me, and we carried on watching as though nothing had happened. But I couldn't help wondering what Heather had meant. Don't get too comfortable. It sounded like a warning. Or maybe she was just being Heather. I glanced at Rebecca. She was watching the movie, apparently oblivious to the whole exchange. I turned back to the screen. Whatever Heather thought she knew, there was nothing going on between Rebecca and me. I was happy just to sit there, watch a movie, and enjoy having my best friend back.