Mom constructed a grocery list, checking the refrigerator and pantry for anything she'd missed. Grayson was set to arrive any minute now. With her favorite son returning, she had to cook a grand feast of all his favorites. Beef stroganoff and stuffed peppers and Mom's lemon cake. It was a weird combination, but what Gray wanted, Gray got.

She handed the list to me, the servant tasked with making sure Grayson's dinner goes off without a hitch. As if he wasn't in this very house with a list of chores of own just two months ago. Now, when he came, he was treated like a king.

Liah was waiting out in her car, practicing her lines, or rather, her song. An instrumental played over the speakers, the same one I'd heard a million times that week when working on the sets. Then, I had headphones to drown out the music. If Mom wasn't rushing me, I wouldn't have forgotten to grab them.

My best friend had a beautiful voice but if I have to hear her sing that song again, I'd scream. Thankfully, she changed the music before she pulled off towards the store.

• • •

The grocery store was decked out for fall and Halloween. Garland of fake leaves and pumpkins decorated every shelf. Cut-outs of ghost and vampires advertising candy were around every corner. There was a table giving out samples of pumpkin spice bread that Liah and I graciously accepted.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Guess what we're doing for Halloween!" She was practically bouncing down the aisles, a wide grin across her face.

"Going to school?" I said around a mouth full of bread. Halloween was a Tuesday. Which meant teachers in costume. Was there anything scarier than your math teacher dressed up as Nicki Minaj? No. No, there wasn't.

"After that."

"Homework?"

She heaved a sigh. "I really hate you sometimes."

"False," I shot back, grabbing some lemon cake mix and dropping it in the cart. "And I don't like guessing games."

"It's Myisha's birthday and her parents rented out the bowling alley for the night," she told me. "Everyone working on the musical is invited."

Everyone meant Corey. It'd been days since what I was now calling The Incident. Then I met you. When I played the moment over in my head, the gymnast butterflies in my belly got all worked up. I didn't like it.

I didn't like Corey. He was being unexpectedly sweet about Gray. Then he said that thing and some wires got crossed. That's it. Not a crush. Just a moment of confusion.

"Annnnd," she said, dragging the word out with a conspiratorial smirk. "Someone was asking about you."

She skipped down the aisle like she hadn't just dropped the biggest bomb on me. "Who?"

"You'll find out on Halloween." She disappeared around the corner.

I followed with my cart, abandoning the grocery list. Halloween was still a week away. I couldn't wait that long. Just as I turned the corner, the front of my basket slammed into someone.

"Oof." The guy doubled over, clutching his stomach.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

The guy held up a finger, sucked down a deep breath, then stood up straight. Vik.

He blinked, recognizing me too. "I guess I deserved that after lying to you."

"I didn't see you there," I said, hoping he didn't honestly think I hit him on purpose.

Liah joined me at my side, wincing at the scene. "Ari, I told you to get your road rage under control."

My eyes narrowed at her because it was partially her fault. "Are you okay?" I asked Vik, who was still holding his stomach.

"Yeah, nothing is broken," he said, adjusting his glasses. "Might leave a bruise, though."

Someone cleared their throat and I realized we were blocking a display of cereal. I apologize, moving my cart out of the way. We walked to the meat aisle to get the ground beef for dinner.

"I really am sorry about running into you," I said, dropping two rolls of ground beef into the cart. "Again."

"No, I should apologize for what happened at Mapleway," he countered. "I didn't mean to mislead you like that."

"What were you doing there if you weren't one of the delinquents?" Liah asked as we walked to pick up red peppers and cheese.

Vik ran a hand through his hair. "My mom works at the school, P.E. teacher, and she's in charge of the weekend detentions. Since I don't have anything better to do with my weekends, I tag along."

"That is so sad." I elbowed Liah in the ribs, even though that's exactly what I was thinking.

"Ignore my friend. She has no filter," I told him.

Liah rubbed her side, offering Vik an apologetic smile. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"No, you're right, it's pathetic," he admitted. "That's why, at Mapleway, when you thought I was one of the cool kids, I went with it."

"Cool kids?" Liah scoffed, any hint of her apology gone in an instant. "You think being an asshole is cool?"

His eyes widened. "No, not all. But tell that to the people at Oakwood."

"Good answer," she said, patting his shoulder as she walked past him to the deli counter. She could never leave the store without a southwest chicken wrap.

I'd grabbed everything I needed while they talked. When I set the bell peppers in the cart, I noticed Vik's eyes were glued to Liah. I could practically see hearts floating above his head. It was adorable.

We met up with Liah just as the woman behind the deli counter handed her the wrap. "These are the best things ever," she said, biting her lip and gazing longingly at her order.

"Get a room," I teased, heading to checkout.

"I should find my grandma," Vik said, glancing half-heartedly around the area like he didn't really want to leave.

"Wait," Liah said, stopping him. He looked relieved that she did. "Do you have plans for Halloween?"

He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Have you heard anything I said?"

"Let me give you my number," she said, hand out for his phone, which he handed over without hesitation. "There's a bowling party. I'll text you the details."

If this was a cartoon, his heart would've been beating so hard, there'd be a heart-shaped imprint on his chest. "Cool. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool."

"Yes, very cool." Liah smiled, handing his phone back.

An announcement blasted from over head, interrupting whatever contemporary-pop-song that played, "Will Vikram Lahiri please come to checkout six, your grandmother is looking for you. Vikram Lahiri."

Vik looked up at the ceiling, mortified. I folded my lips into my mouth to keep from laughing.

Liah wasn't as subtle. "Your grandma has perfect comedic timing."

He looked a little less embarrassed since Liah wasn't laughing at him and turned on his heel to leave.

It wasn't until we were back in Liah's car after checking out that I remember why I crashed into Vik in the first place. I was still begging her to tell me who'd been asking about me when we stumbled through my front door, groceries in hand.

"Harlow!" Gray immediately wrapped me in a hug as soon as I came in. My brother was huge. Like linebacker huge. He used it to his advantage when scaring guys away from me. People used to think we were twins when we were younger. We had the same dark brown skin and eyes that always made us look half asleep.

I was confused by the random physical contact. We never hugged. Maybe Corey was right about something being off. Then he quickly whispered, "Mama has a boyfriend."

"What?" I was aware my volume was loud, even without Gray shushing me.

"Be cool," he said, relieving me of the grocery bags.

Mom came out from the kitchen just then, looking a little more put together since I left. Before, she was in sweats and an a t-shirt. Now she wore jeans and a nice sweater. She treated Gray coming home like a special holiday, but she never really dressed up before. "Liah, are you coming for dinner later? We can't eat all this ourselves."

I was too stunned by the white man standing behind Mom to catch what Liah said. My eyes darted to Grayson and, even though we hadn't been close in years, we could still communicate the "WTF?" through our looks.

Was he the real reason Mom raced around, making sure everything was perfect? How could she spring a boyfriend on us like this? A million thoughts ran through my head, none made it past my lips.

Liah left, promising to come back later for the stuffed peppers and lemon cake. That left me alone with a brother I hated and a mother who'd been hiding her boyfriend, Hudson, for three months.

Hudson seemed nice. Tall, brown hair, and blue eyes that looked at my mother with nothing less than admiration. He worked in an office near the bank Mom worked at. They would go to the same café for their lunch breaks. One day, Mom left her purse on the back of a chair and Hudson returned it. Things went from there.

As a sucker for any and everything romance, I completely ate the story up and warmed up to Hudson quickly. Grayson, on the other hand, stared at Hudson like he stole his bike. That didn't stop Hudson from trying, though. Mom must've told him how uptight Gray could be at times because Hudson came prepared.

All it took was one word: movie. Gray had seen just about every movie ever made ever. He considered himself a movie critic, had his own website and everything. I thought maybe Hudson gave himself a crash course on the cinematic universe before going head to head with my brother, but it quickly became clear that he wasn't messing around.

The men argued about which heist movie was the best while Mom and I got started on dinner. She was boiling noodles for the stroganoff while I cut peppers. I glanced over my shoulder at her. She hummed to herself, happy as ever. That brought a smile to my face. It'd been too long since I'd seen her so happy.

• • •

Liah showed up as promised, just as Mom set tonight's Grayson approved meal on the table. What I wasn't expecting was Corey coming in behind her.

It made sense that Corey was there, being Gray's best friend and all. But after spending the last couple days trying to kill every flutter that came from the thought of him, I didn't want him in my house. I didn't even want him in my line of sight. But he was there and those four words echoed through my skull. Ugh.

We all sat around the dining room table, eating and talking. I talked about painting sets, Corey talked about construction side of things, Liah talked about the costumes she'd get to wear. Through all of it, I noticed how quiet Gray was. He'd barely eaten his stroganoff. He used to whine for Mom make him some every other day.

He perked up bit when Mom asked him a question about school, but even I could tell he was faking his way through it. Maybe being at college was hard on him.

After dinner, while everyone had cake, Grayson surprised me with the cookies I asked for. As someone who didn't really like cake, cookies were my dessert of choice and these looked delicious.

There were five in the box, all about the size of my hand and all different flavors. "You are the bestest big brother ever!" I said, eyeing the five cookies and trying to figure out which I wanted first. The peanut butter one looked especially mouthwatering.

"Remember that when Christmas rolls around." He smiled and it looked real that time.

• • •

Dinner finished a while ago. Liah had to get home, taking the rest of the lemon cake to her siblings. Mom and Hudson were cleaning up the kitchen, though I mostly just heard giggling and music. Gray and Corey had gone up to his room to play video games. I guessed they were done trash talking the game because Corey currently blocked my path up the stairs.

"That's not what I meant." He hissed.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.

Corey glanced behind him, the sound of video game violence coming from Gray's room, and nodded toward the front door. I followed him out to the porch.

"You were supposed to talk to him," he said, keeping his voice low. "Not have him running errands for you."

I thought I saw him giving me a look when Gray gave me the cookies, but I couldn't be sure as I was drooling.

Still, what part of mine and Gray's relationship wasn't he getting? "I opened the line of communication. And besides, if he had something to say, he'd say it to you, not me. We don't talk like that."

"Exactly. If you of all people pointed out that he hasn't been himself, maybe he'd open up."

His concern in my brother's well-being was nice. But he was barking up the wrong tree. Gray and I didn't share our feelings. I was still on the fence about us sharing DNA. Before I could say as much when his hand landed on my shoulder. It was like every one of my nerve endings gathered in that spot, sending signals to resurrect the butterflies in my stomach.

"Could you try, please?"

Maybe it was the pleading in his eyes or the softness of his voice. Or maybe it was just him touching me and shutting my brain down, but I found myself nodding. "Okay." The word came out more breathy than I would've liked. I shrugged his hand off me, reminding myself of who I was talking to. "But I want payment."

I could tell he was holding back an eye roll as he scratched his brow. "Let me guess. You want a lock of my hair for a voodoo doll? My soul? My first born?" He stopped, realizing, at the same time I did, what he suggested.

"Are you going to Myisha's party?" I asked, ignoring the idea of having his babies.

He lifted a shoulder. "Don't know. Why?"

"If you decide to go, let me pick your costume."

He stared at me for a long while, eyes narrowed. I thought for sure he'd be against it, but he surprised me yet again. "Deal."

He held his hand out for me to shake. I ignored how warm and rough and big his hand was. "Deal."