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Our trip seemed to end even faster than it had begun. The next thing I knew, I was throwing my arms around Matt's neck and telling him how much I missed him as we were reunited at the Vancouver airport.

"You look a little red, Beck," he teased, brushing a hand swiftly over my darkened shoulders.

"I may have fallen asleep on the beach yesterday," I shrugged. "No big deal. I'll be back to my usual pasty self in no time."

"I brought you some blueberry tequila!" Josh announced. "It's in my suitcase. It would probably look bad if I whipped it out right here."

Matt grimaced. "I'm going to level with you, that sounds absolutely disgusting. But I'm willing to try anything once. So that takes care of Josh's souvenir, but what did you bring me, Beck?"

"The return of your roommate isn't sufficient?"

"Not even close."

I laughed. "I've got a few things for you, actually. I'll give you them at home."

"I knew you wouldn't forget about me!" He grabbed one of my suitcases and began to heave it from the airport.

"How could I forget about you? You would make living with you unbearable if I didn't bring you something," I pointed out.

He couldn't deny the truth to my statement. We all piled into Matt's truck together, both Josh and I competing for Matt's attention as we tried to tell him stories. Our voices fought to be heard, and we gradually increased the volume to try and outdo one another.

"Guys, stop!" Matt commanded, starting the engine. "I want to hear everything, but I can't listen to either one of you right now. Becky, you can tell me all of your stories when we get home. Josh, go ahead."

I crossed my arms and pouted. Both boys laughed at my attitude, but Josh took his opportunity and began to tell Matt about the whale watching trip. My scowl deepened as he recounted details of my weak stomach.

I found that I was actually happy when we pulled up in the parking lot of Josh's building. I still wasn't sick of him after the entire week of us being alone, but I was looking forward to having time with Matt. I'd missed him a lot.

"Bye guys," Josh smirked as he got out of the truck.

I climbed out after him. I really didn't like doing anything mushy in front of Matt. Even though we were fine with our current situation, I still felt awkward. I always made sure that we kept the relationship stuff to a minimum when the three of us hung out together. Once Josh had taken his bags from the box of the truck, I gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Thank you, Josh. We needed that. I had an amazing time."

"I'll call you later," he kissed me again. "Go have fun with Matt."

I climbed back into the truck and closed the door. "To the Bat Cave, Robin!" I yelled, pointing forward through the windshield.

"Oh, go fuck yourself," Matt laughed. "You're Robin. I'm Batman."

I smiled. I guess, in a way, I was the Robin to his Batman. In high school, he had been the only reason that anyone knew who I was. I had followed him back to Vancouver as soon as he'd offered. He was usually the one that talked me into doing stupid things. But that didn't mean that I would give him the satisfaction of knowing it.

"I missed you, Matt."

He looked over at me suddenly. He seemed to be evaluating me. "Yeah, I missed you too. God," his voice turned a little bit wistful. "What do you think is going to happen when we don't live together?"

"We'll annoy whoever else we live with because we'll always hang out. Just like we did in high school. But I guess even back then we were together at school. How about we just never move out?"

"Right," he snorted. "I bet our future spouses will love those living arrangements."

"I think we've got awhile before either of us gets one of those."

Matt's gaze got a little more sketpical. "Seriously? I'd have thought that you would have come home with a ring today. You guys seem like you're in it for the long haul."

I gaped at him. "Are you kidding me? I almost had an aneurism because I thought he was going to propose! I'm not ready for that!"

"Okay, okay," he held up a hand in resignation. "I wouldn't want to be engaged right now either. I guess I see your point." He pulled into a side street and continued driving.

I frowned. "Why aren't we going home?"

"Leilani made me promise that I'd take you to see her right away. I hope you remembered to get her something, too," he laughed.

"I'm pretty sure that I remembered everyone. I bought a few extra little things, just to be safe. But really, I don't have all that many friends. It wasn't hard to get enough presents to cover everyone."

I continued to tell him all about the trip until he pulled up in front of the restaurant. I didn't quite understand why Leilani couldn't wait until I returned to work the following day, but I was excited to see her nonetheless. Aside from Matt, she was my closest friend in Vancouver. Matt came inside with me, and we headed straight back past the dining room and kitchen, toward the office.

"Becky!" Leilani got up from her desk as soon as I slipped inside the small room. She stepped around the furniture and caught me in a tight hug. "It's been a week already? How was it?"

I smiled widely. "It was so much fun! I have a whole bunch of stories to tell you." I stopped talking when I noticed that her eyes were somewhat critical as she looked me up and down. "What's wrong?" I asked her.

She glanced up at Matt, and I saw him shake his head minutely. "Nothing is wrong," she replied, her smile warming up its usual brightness. "I was just concentrated on what you were saying. So you had a good time?"

I planted my hands on my hips. "No, really. What was that all about?"

"Nothing!" Leilani sounded almost too defensive.

I rolled my eyes. "Here. I got you some paintings for you and Mike. They have these people that just sit on the sidewalk and paint with their fingers. I got a few of them specially made for you guys," I held out a small box that contained four painted tiles.

"Thank you!" She immediately tore into the box, pulling out the tiles and arranging them on her desk top. "These were made with someone's fingers? They're beautiful!"

"Yeah, we got to watch the whole process. It was really cool."

There was a tiny knock at the door. A blonde girl stuck her head through the doorway. "Leilani? I'm really sorry to bother you, but I have a problem. A customer wants to see the manager."

"I'll be right there, Shannon. By the way, this is Becky. She'll be returning to work tomorrow, and she'll help you with your training from that point on, alright?"

The girl smiled at me politely. "Nice to meet you."

I nodded in greeting. "Same to you. We should head home, Matt. It seems like everyone's busy here right now. See you guys tomorrow. Oh, and tell Mike that I said hi."

Leilani waved as she hurried from the room in Shannon's wake. "I'll be sure to do that. See you tomorrow."

Once we got home, I immediately started unpacking. I gave Matt the various gifts that I'd brought for him, which consisted of a shirt, a set of shotglasses, a key chain, and a bottle of tequila. He cracked open the bottle that Josh had brought him and held up one of his new shotglasses.

"If I have to try this stuff, so do you."

I took the glass from his fingers. "Deal. Bring it on, Webb."

We had a good part of the bottle gone by the time we were interrupted by the phone. My head was buzzing pleasantly as I answered it.

"Hello?"

"You're home! Thank God, I was starting to lose my mind a little bit!"

I started giggling at Markie's overdramatic nature. "Yeah, I'm home. How are you?"

"That's not the issue here," she ignored my pleasantries. "What does it look like and how did it happen?"

If I had been sober, I might have caught on. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You've got to be kidding me, Becky. You're not engaged?" She spluttered incredulously.

"Oh," I breathed in understanding. "No, he didn't propose. And it'll be quite some time before he does."

Markie huffed loudly. "I'm sick of you two beating around the bush. You're going to marry him anyways, why not just get it over with? How long can you possibly date?"

"They say that you need to date for at least two years before you really know the person," I stated.

"Well you're been with him for like a year and a half. Plus you dated for awhile in high school. I'd say you know one another pretty damn well by now," she argued.

"Give it time, Markie. I've got to go. Matt and I are getting trashed, and I just can't miss that. Talk to you soon, okay?"

I hung up the phone and narrowed my eyes at Matt. "Leilani was looking for a ring, wasn't she?"

He took a wedge of lime out from between his teeth, giving me an innocent stare. "I have no idea. What makes you assume that?"

"Is there anyone that didn't expect the two of us to come home engaged?" I sighed, feeling exasperated. I sat down next to him and reached for a fresh chunk of lime.

"It's not that bad, Beck," he squeezed my shoulders firmly with one arm. His eyelids drooped as the alcohol took effect over him. "You would think the same thing if it was anyone else."

I hugged him briefly. "As much as I would love to continue this little drunkfest, I have to work in the morning. And being hungover while training someone is pretty much the worst torture ever. Especially if that girl turns out to be a slow learner. We'll have plenty of time to talk and drink tomorrow, okay?"

Matt watched as I got up and tossed the peel of my lime into the trash. "Goodnight. It's good to have you home, Beck."

I began to head to my bedroom, but stopped to glance around the living room. We had kept most of the pictures around that Markie had framed, but for the first time I noticed that a few were missing. Now there were mostly pictures of us with the rest of the band or some other friends, as opposed to the ones that portrayed just the two of us. I ignored the change, knowing that some of them had been taken when we had been dating, and they were a bit inappropriate these days.

I was tired from all the travelling that I'd done that day, and the tequila was only making it worse. It felt strange not to have Josh's arms around me while I slept. I wasn't used to being alone in my bed anymore.

I closed my eyes and waited for my consciousness to slip away. Maybe the lonely feeling that had taken me over so suddenly would dissolve with sleep.