A job.

Thinking back, it’s wild how easily I accepted Alice’s invitation. I mean, she didn’t invite me to dinner, or to see a movie, or to walk around the park. No, she invited me to a gathering of people who are into cars (some of whom race said cars) and to be a passenger in her tuned sports car as she drove the mountain pass.

There was so much in there that should’ve made me say no, yet I accepted with little issue. A gathering full of strangers who shared a passion I barely had superficial knowledge of was bound to be awkward. Surprisingly, though, that part worried me more than being in Alice’s car. Call me crazy, but despite her being a street racer, I had the strong suspicion she was no amateur. When she spoke of racing, she did so with the familiarity I would talk about music and playing guitar.

It was only just starting to get dark outside, and I was ready to head out that Saturday evening. That said, I had the very same outfit on that I’d used when I went out with Noelle. That is to say, the same clothes the girls helped me pick up. The V-neck black sweater, blue jeans and a gray peacoat. I’ve never been one to put much importance in clothes, but if this was the only decent outfit I had for going out, then I’d need another trip to the store soon. It looked good, but I couldn’t be using the same clothes over and over, right?

“Cake, no! I’m busy!” I heard my sister chiding. “Hey! Get down! Cake! Not there! Olivier! Help me!” she pleaded with exasperation.

I took off my coat just to avoid getting cat hair all over it and went to Isabelle’s room.

“What is it?” I asked as I opened the door.

“She’s not letting me work!”

I blinked. My sister was at her desk, and Cake was practically on top of Isabelle’s laptop, pressing keys just by being there.

“Even when I set her down, she climbs back up,” she told me.

“See what happens when you spoil her and don’t set boundaries?” I lightly snapped my fingers and called Cake’s name. She immediately jumped off Isabelle’s desk and started rubbing against my legs, tail raised high as she purred.

“You’re a magician…” Isabelle sighed, her shoulders dropping.

I took the chance to look at her laptop screen, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. She had video editing software on, and truly did look like she was working on something.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “You haven’t edited video since… When was it? Four years ago for mom’s birthday?”

Isabelle pursed her lips. “...I got a job.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Shut up. It’s not that surprising, is it? It’s not exactly a job, just a one time thing. It doesn’t even pay well, but I’m hoping to build a portfolio with little jobs like this.” She groaned. “I was looking for a job until I saw a post online saying that someone needed to have a video edited for their channel. I said I could do it and sent the video I made in senior year of middle school for music class.”

“The video of Nirvana clips with The Man Who Sold the World as background music?” I remembered that one. It was good and Isabelle got a perfect score on it. The only perfect score she ever got in music class, by the way.

Isabelle nodded. “It was the only decent one I had. It was either that or the video I made for mom, but that’d mean a stranger would have pictures of us as babies.”

I shuddered at the thought.

“It took a little too long, but they got back to me and said I had the job. Now I’m finishing the video. I spent too long relearning how this software works.” She groaned. “They’ve updated it too much and things aren’t where I remember. Anyway, if things go well, they’ll probably pick me to edit their next video, too.”

“What do you need money for?”

“...Nothing specific.” Isabelle bit her lip. “I just… felt like I was lagging behind, is all.”

Right. I remembered she said something like that before.

“I hope it lasts,” I told her. She was good at starting things and dropping them. Which sucked, because Isabelle could be really good at anything if she stuck with it for more than a couple months.

My sister let out a soft groan, clearly bothered by my comment, but knowing she couldn’t exactly refute me. Instead, she looked at me up and down and raised an eyebrow. “Are you going out?”

I tensed up. I had promised Alice I would keep her little hobby a secret even from Isabelle. I couldn’t tell her I was going out with her.

“Y-Yeah. I have plans.”

“With who?”

“...Friends.”

“Hmmm.” That hum was full of suspicion. “Well, not my business, I suppose. Good luck.”

I picked Cake up and carried her out of Isabelle’s room, closing the door behind me. I went back to my room, put on my coat and left the house after telling mom.

I would meet Alice a few blocks away from my house, just so Isabelle wouldn’t ask about the very eye-catching car. As I walked, though, I pondered over something that was bothering me.

Alice was keeping this a secret, and I could understand why. At the same time, Noelle was keeping secret the fact she was a streamer and V-Tuber. Somehow I ended up finding out both secrets before them, despite the fact these two girls knew each other for longer than I knew them. It felt wrong. Not that I knew, but that they were keeping these secrets from each other.

For a moment, as I waited for Alice to arrive, I wondered if telling them the other’s secret would somehow help them. I threw away the idea immediately. All that would do was make both of them hate my guts. The best I could do was try to convince them to open up, and even then I would probably be overstepping my boundaries.

Ugh. People, man. I don’t get it.

Some five minutes later, I saw that yellow RX-7 approaching. The sight made me realize I was going out with Alice. It made me remember that conversation on the rooftop with my girlfriends.

My nerves instantly doubled.

Author's Note: So... we're at 200 chapters after, if I'm not wrong, a full year since I started publishing this story. Times flies too damn quickly, but not in this story, aparently. I still feel like it's young, and that there's much more that I want to do with it. I'm enjoying writing it, so I really hope you guys are enjoying reading it and are looking forward to even more.

A huge thanks to all the people supporting me on Patreon. It's literally the reason I've been able to write like this.