The start of a reconnection.

I played a bit of my game for a while longer, but by then I was too distracted. My plan for the day was to stay in my room and do nothing, but now we suddenly had a cat. Worse than that, Noelle…

No. Don’t think about it. It was nothing. It wasn’t the first time I looked at her and thought she was attractive. Alice was, too, and plenty of other women. There wasn’t anything wrong with thinking that, so long as they remained harmless thoughts, but I’d still rather not think about it.

Sighing, I sat on my bed and picked up my guitar. If anything could get my mind off thinking, it was playing guitar. I started practicing one of the more difficult solos that was still giving me trouble, and before I knew it, an hour had passed.

I no longer heard the noise from downstairs. Were the girls gone? What happened to Cake?

The knock on my door answered my question. Isabelle came in, holding Cake close to her chest. “The girls asked me to tell you again that they’re thankful. I… I am, too.”

She closed the door behind her and let Cake on the floor. The cat moved slowly, one clumsy paw in front of the other as she explored my room again. It was hard to take my eyes off her, and when I looked back to Isabelle, she was sitting at the other end of my bed.

“I asked mom why she said no to me and yes to you. It… made me a little mad, at first.”

I sighed, shaking my head.

“Just a little! You would’ve been mad, too!”

My expression softened. “I guess I would’ve.”

“See? Well, she said that you’ve been showing a lot of responsibility lately, and that you knew what you were getting into.”

“I don’t know what I’m getting into,” I corrected her. Or mom. Whatever. I watched Cake trying to climb onto the bed through the bed cover. “We’ve never had a pet. It’s scary. If she dies, it’s our fault, you know?”

Isabelle grimaced. “Do you always have to see the worst possible outcome?”

“It’s a habit at this point.”

“Why’d you agree? You were so against it at first?”

“...” I don’t know why I agreed. It was a mix of too many things, some of which I didn’t want to admit. “I just changed my mind. I didn’t expect mom to agree so quickly, either.”

Cake was halfway up the bed, hanging on by her front paws and on the verge of falling. Isabelle was about to stand up to help her, but I raised my hand to stop her. We watched, and little by little, Cake managed to climb on my bed. She gave out a victory meow towards us, and we couldn’t help but laugh.

Cake kept moving until she was on my lap and decided to make that her resting place for the moment. I had the silly thought that I knew three girls who would fight the cat for that spot, and had to stop myself from bursting out laughing.

Isabelle couldn’t have read my mind, but she still said something frighteningly related. “Why don’t you send a picture of Cake to your friends?”

I looked at her, blinking. She was so casual about it. Not a hint of bitterness or anything like it. She just watched as Cake curled herself into a ball and closed her eyes.

“That’s… a good idea,” I admitted. I reached for my phone, trying hard not to move too much to bother the sleeping kitten. Though there was no way she had fallen asleep so quickly, right?

I took a picture and sent it to the girls with the message ‘We have a cat now. Her name is Cake.’ I sent it to Thomas, too, because why not?

“How…” Isabelle started again, now with more hesitance. “How’s it going with your… friends?”

I kept my eyes down on the cat on my lap. She was so light, and she started purring, too. I feared that if I looked at Isabelle she’d be able to get some truths out of me.

“Well enough. They… helped me shop for new clothes the other day.”

She blinked. “You hate shopping for clothes.”

“It was… alright this time.”

There was a long silence between us, heavy enough that we could hear Cake’s soft purring. I saw Isabelle opening and closing her mouth out the corner of my eye a few times, until she finally spoke.

“I didn’t tell you I broke up with Ignacio, did I?”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “When?”

“Like two weeks ago already.”

“Why?”

“Turns out he was one of those that’s only sweet when he wants something from you. He also bad-mouthed Alice, and I couldn’t forgive that.” Isabelle was frowning, mouth twisted. Then she pursed her lips and looked down at the floor. “It… helped me realize I’d done the same to you. I talked shit about your friends while knowing nothing about them, only listening to stupid rumors. I was… I guess I was…” She choked a bit on her own words. “I was afraid that you were… moving on, I think.”

My chest tightened, understanding and frustration mixing inside me. Isabelle didn’t say more, but it was like she couldn’t find the words to explain herself further. But I thought I understood.

“So it was okay when you did it, but not when I started?” I asked.

She answered with a silent, shame-filled nod. “I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked. “I screwed up.”

“Yes you did,” I said. Isabelle flinched.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated.

The cat on my lap stopped me from standing up to pace around the room. Instead, I started tracing the back of a finger along Cake’s back to calm myself. Surprisingly, it was working.

“I have other things to worry about now,” I said. Something in the back of my mind, maybe pride or caution, prevented me from outright forgiving Isabelle. “I think I’m finally growing in the ways I always wished I could. Even so, I can’t just forget everything just because you apologized.”

Isabelle nodded. “I figured.” Her next words she muttered lowly, with a small smile. “You’ve always been like that.”

She stood up and walked to the door. She opened it, and just before she went away, she turned her head to me. “Just so you know, I’m rooting for you. Don’t fuck it up.”

I felt a chill.

The sound of the door closing made Cake raise her head. She looked up at me, tilting her head a bit in curiosity.

“What do you think she meant by that?” I asked her.

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