Struggles of an Only Child (Book 2 of the Struggle Puff Series)

Chapter Four

"Okay, we'll leave you alone for now, Tili." Cadence said after another round of harassing me. "Clearly, Ain was probably doing what he does best and invaded your personal space. No worries. Right, Jessica?"

"Yeah... right." Her agreement was slow, indicating that she'd probably circle around to the conversation at some point in the future.

"I'm impressed that you're so easily able to identify the truth of a scenario." Ain drawled out, clearly getting ready to be a smartass, "Have you thought about teaming up with this guy named Pikachu to solve more crimes? I heard he was a great detective."

"Have you heard of a thing called my foot? I heard it was a great companion with your ass." She retorted with a glare.

"Yeah! Actually, I have." He smiled brightly, "How's it been? How's its family? Heard it fell off the wagon a few weeks ago, is it okay?"

Cadence stared at him with a flat look before slouching and turning away from him, "I hate you." She grumbled.

Ain laughed at her defeat.

Jessica watched them with disinterest. Eventually she sighed and placed her bag on the ground, "So what are we supposed to be doing exactly?"

I was surprised by her lack of excitement but brushed it off as her being a low-energy person, "Um, well. With Amy out of town, I thought it would be fun if we all got together. And since you and Ain are now friends, I kinda wanted to clear the air between us and start over, ya know?" I smile awkwardly at her, not sure of what else to say.

Instead of saying anything snarky, she simply gave a strange smile. It definitely wasn't meant to be friendly, but it wasn't malicious either, "Of course. I'd love to start over with you all. As friends."

I couldn't figure out why, but her tone made me uneasy. I glanced at Cadence to see if she was feeling weird about it too, but her face didn't dare betray her thoughts. I assumed I was just being paranoid, so I decided to move on.

"Awesome!" I said, excitedly, "So, we didn't want to over plan, but we did pick up some movies and video games, that we thought would be fun."

Everyone seemed to be okay with that, so for the next few hours, we played games and watched movies.

The night seemed to be going pretty well. Cadence was being a sore loser, as usual, Jessica turned out to be pretty good at games, Ain insisted on harassing me with reasons why we should change the sleeping arrangements, and I was just vibing.

All seemed to be right in the world, until around nine-thirty that night.

We had just put in Iron-Man Three, when Jessica stood up and walked to what I assumed was the bathroom. A few minutes after, Ain looked at his phone before sighing and walking the same direction she had gone.

I tried not to think anything of it, but I couldn't stop my mind from running rampant with thoughts of why they both left.

Another ten minutes passed before Cadence groaned loudly, "Oh my gosh, I can practically hear your thoughts. Just go and see what'sgoing on!" She whisper-yelled at me.

I thought about denying what she was implying, but I knew there was no point, so I got up and tiptoed down to where I saw them go.

Every fiber in my body was telling me to turn around and forget it, but my curiosity overtook my sanity and pushed me all the way to Ain's closed room door, stopping just short of knocking. Carefully, I leaned my ear towards the door, only barely able to catch what they were saying.

"-that you're mad, but it's really not that big of a deal." It was easy to recognize that it was Ain speaking, "It's not like anything happened."

"Easy for you to say when you're not the one watching their boyfriend flirt with someone else." She replied in a harsh tone. "Maybe I should go and flirt with someone so you can at least get an idea of how I'm feeling!"