"What do you want to see?" He asked, not noticing her uneasiness.
"I don't know, let's just pick something and go in?" She asked him hurriedly. He laughed and patted her arm.
"Relax Mika, they don't bite." He reassured her. "Let's watch Shanghai Noon?"
"Yeah," She said, agreeing, "Jackie Chan's movies are funny." He grinned and they went inside.
"Ha! Another point for moi!" Taylor yelled triumphantly, doing a little victory dance. She and Justin were playing basketball in the backyard, along with the rest of the guys.
"No fair!" Justin complained, "why do I have to have Lance and Joey on my team?"
"Oh come on, don’t blame your shortcomings as a basketball player on us!" Lance retorted. As two bickered, Taylor let out an excited squeal. They stopped and saw the tall, handsome guy coming in through the backyard fence.
"Who's that?" Justin asked, feeling uneasy at how happy Taylor was to see the guy.
"That's Mike, my best friend," Taylor explained, laughing as she ran to give him a hug.
"How ya' been, Tay?" He asked her, grinning down at her. Justin felt jealously bubbling inside of him.
"Great! When did you get back from France?" She asked him.
"Just now. I couldn't wait to come over and see you." He glanced at the rest of the guys. "Sorry for being so rude! My name's Mike Porter." They all introduced themselves. "Where's Noah?" Mike asked.
"Oh, I think he's up already," She glanced up at Noah's bedroom window. "But you know how he is."
"Yeah. Well, I still have to drop by mom and dad's house to say hi, so I'll see you later?"
"Sure." Taylor told him, hugging him before he left. She watched him leave, then looked back at Justin, who was quiet. "What's wrong, Justin?" She asked, studying his face.
"Nothing. Let's play some basketball, baby!" He said comically, trying to ignore the prickly feeling in his chest.
"What'd you think of it?" JC asked Mikayla as they exited the movie theatre a couple of hours later.
"It was pretty good. What do you want to do now?" She asked him.
"Well, we have two choices. One, we could head back to the house and sit around, or we could go and get some ice cream first." He pointed to the ice cream shop that was a couple of stores down from the theatre.
"Let's go for the ice cream," Mikayla suggested. They walked inside of the shop. JC ordered a mint chocolate chip in a cone, and Mikayla ordered strawberry in a cup. They sat quietly, eating their ice creams, both deep in thought.
Mikayla couldn't help but wonder how she had gotten into this situation. She had realized that she had feelings for Josh again, but she had stupidly apologized for kissing him back. She watched him take a bite of his ice cream, remembering how those beautiful blue eyes of his had always sparkled at her when they were younger.
"Mika?" JC's voice brought Mika out of her thoughts.
"Yes?"
"I wanted to just let you know," He started hesitantly, "I never kissed Allison. She kissed me, and I don’t know how that is supposed to change anything anymore but I don’t want what happened to ruin our friendship now."
"Oh," Mikayla said, knowing that it was her fault that everything had been so messed up. She should have let him explain six years ago, she should have let him plead his case. "I was partly to blame," She admitted, "I should have heard you out."
He put his hand over hers, "it's not your fault," He said softly, "You were hurt. God, how I wish I could have stopped her before it happened." He remembered the pendant on his chest, and blocked her view of it casually with his arms. He wasn't sure if she'd already seen it, but if she saw it now, she'd realize he was still in love with her and maybe it wasn't the right time for that. He only hoped that there would be.