After Aaron left, Katie spent a good twenty minutes wandering around the apartment picking random things up and then setting them down again. It was like she expected everything to be different, but as she examined everything Aaron had ever given her, she realized that nothing had changed. Maybe she felt different, but gravity hadn’t ceased to exist and polar bears hadn’t suddenly become extinct; horns were honking every so often outside and the world went on as if nothing had changed.

Even if Katie’s little bit of the world had.

She showered and put on some jeans and a t-shirt and was sitting on the couch, fiddling nervously with her hair when the phone rang.

“Okay, so tell me.”

“Brendanator! What’s up!”

There was a moment of shocked silence. “You haven’t called me that since we were twelve. Are you sane?”

“Not really.”

“Dude, what happened with Aaron?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. Don’t play coy with me, missy. Aaron wasn’t in his room this morning when I went to see if he wanted to go to breakfast with me and Crocker. So? He must have been with you. Or some hooker he picked up off the street, which seems unlikely, given that Aaron’s not really into the whole ‘paying for sex’ thing like some.”

Katie laughed a little and picked at the hem of her jeans, for lack of something to do with her hands (which couldn‘t seem to be idle this morning for some reason). “Nothing happened with Aaron,” Katie replied slowly. “How was breakfast?”

“OHMYGOD!”

Katie pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. “You don’t have to scream like a girl at me, Brendan.”

“You had sex!”

“I did not.”

“You minx, you. I’m so proud.”

“Brennnnnnnnndan,” she whined, curling a piece of hair around her finger. “I already feel SO weird. PLEASE, please, please don’t make this harder on me than it already is.”

Brendan didn’t reply for a moment. “So you must have told him how you feel. And I assume you feel pretty good about him if---”

She cut him off. “Don’t even. I screamed across the street that I was in love with him.”

Brendan started laughing hysterically, and when Katie swore at him, he calmed down. “You’re good, Kit Kat,” Brendan said eventually. “I’m sure that had Aaron going out of his mind with lust.”

Katie groaned loudly. “Oh, please.”

“You know it’s true.” She groaned again and he continued. “Why do you feel weird?”

“Because it’s Aaron.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And he’s been my best friend since before I even liked boys. It’s…so weird.”

“But you’re in love with him.”

In spite of herself, she blushed; she was going to have to get used to this whole best friend turned into boyfriend stuff. “I am, yeah.”

“You’ll get used to it, then,” Brendan stated matter-of-factly. “In no time, the two of you will be disgustingly sweet together and kissing all the time, and I’ll be throwing up.”

Katie laughed. “Aw, Bren.”

“It’s alright,” Brendan sniffed dramatically. “Don’t worry about me. Oh, hey. Tell Aaron I said ‘Way to go, man’ and that I want details when he’s through with you.”

“Eww, Brendan. Stop.”

Brendan chuckled. “I’m only kidding. I’ll talk to you later. I probably won’t see you until the Golden Goggles ‘cause you two will be shacked up, but---”

“GOODBYE, Brendan,” Katie laughed.

He snickered. “Bye, Katie. Make me proud.”

Aaron arrived by way of knock at the door accompanied by a rousing rendition of “California” by Phantom Planet about five minutes later.

Katie opened the door, laughing hysterically. Aaron’s singing voice was not up to par with, let’s say, any good singer, but he certainly had the whole dramatic dance down (complete with high-pitched divaish over-the-top singing).

“CALIFORNIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. CALIFORNIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. HERE WE COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME! OH OH OH OH!”

He was laughing as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close to him as she could go.

“Hey,” he whispered, tickling her neck with his breath.

“Hello,” she replied, pulling him into the apartment and shutting the door.

“I feel like ravishing you but I figure we should get the shopping out of the way first. What do you think?”

Katie grabbed a jacket from the coat rack and nodded. “I think you’re right.”

“Are you alright?” He asked, opening the door for her.

“Yup.”

“You seem different.”

She turned around and scowled at him. “You’ve been talking to Brendan.”

“Maybe.” He grinned at her and took her hand as they walked down the stairs to the street. “I’d forgotten you called him Brendanator.”

Katie laughed a little. “Yeah, due to his obsession with the Terminator years ago.”

“Oh, yeah. He was crazy back then.”

She turned to him seriously. “He still is.”

Aaron leaned down and kissed her quickly. “True.”

“Did Brendanator say anything to you about wanting details?”

Aaron nodded very seriously. “Yes, he said he’d castrate me if I didn’t tell him more than you did.”

“I told him nothing.”

“His point exactly.”

“Aaron, we had sex.”

Aaron stopped walking and looked at her, his mouth slack. “You noticed that too!?”

She laughed and hit him playfully on the shoulder. “I mean, WE had SEX.”

“Yes.” He nodded a few times. “Yes, we did.”

Katie continued walking on, dragging Aaron behind her because they were still holding hands. It seemed she was lost in thought, and while Aaron’s arm was starting to ache, he felt it best to just let her drag him along until she realized she was, indeed, dragging him along.