water under burned bridges.

“Probably not as bad as when I put rice in my rice cooker without any water. Toasted!” 

“Yeah? Give us a minute. What’s up, man? I’m glad I caught you here–Gracie’s been bugging to see you. Think you can drop by sometime this weekend? I think she drew you in class again. With your big head.” 

“God, scraping that burnt rice out of the pot was a nightmare. I still think about it every time I make rice.”

“There’s always a new QB, and he always gets the last point! By I don’t even know how far. It keeps me up at night, M! Someone needs to do a longitudinal study about that whole situation.” 

“I’m glad you like it! Sure, let’s get another two. My treat!” She waves the bartender down. “Could I get the next one on the rocks, please? On my tab, for both of us.” Catarina smiles, finishing her drink. “So! Good week? Long week?”

“I’m surprised no one has already. The rival schools have to be pissed by now, right? There’s gotta be some coaches out there who are one more loss from Marigold High away from an early retirement.”

“Hey Morgan!” Hannah embraced him in a quick hug, “Oh god, no. Not me,” she smiled brightly but waved him off, “For the sake of everyone’s ear drums, I will not be singing karaoke. I’m not nearly enough drunk for that,” she teased, “But what about you? You’d kill it up there on stage.”

“What? What d’you mean not you? Karaoke was made for people who can’t sing.” But he finds the loophole, so he grins. “Alright, can I get you a drink then? It’s on me.”

“Just a few fun facts! Like, if they asked about me on a documentary. You could be like, aw, man. That Dante. Let me tell you about the time he put my laundry in without any detergent. And I’ll be like… he knows me! He really knows me.” 

“After a few more drinks, all right? Only once you’ve gone up and hit your Dexy’s Midnight Runners level.”

“My man really put in dirty clothes to swish around in hot water and that’s it! Yeah, I’m gonna lead the documentary up with that. Everyone will know the real Dante Medero.”

“All ten thousand! It’s true. What else would? The Bumblebee’s complete inability to lose a game for the last several decades?”

“Here!” She extends her straw. “I’ve never had it before, but I can always trust a little guava.”

“Okay, that really is a mystery to me. How do they do it? Every single year, with new kids all the time? What are they feeding those kids? I should’ve played football in high school and found out.”

“Morgan, do you really know me if you have to ask? Just asking. Like, in a real way.” He laughs, tipping his drink slightly as he maintains his joke façade. “Between you and me. Do you know me?” 

“I wanna say that I know you at least a little bit. A couple of fun facts worth.”

“Bingo night’s for all audiences, I guess. Marigold’s just home to a very honest, albeit mysterious bunch.” 

“Um, yeah! It’s today’s happy hour deal. Guava Squeeze, I think? Want to try?” 

“We gotta keep all ten thousand of us on our toes, right?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets?” She drops the cliche with a laugh, twisting the glass in her hands by its stem. 

“Maybe they had a bingo night half an hour ago that no one told us about.” Tilting the glass safely towards him, she shrugs a shoulder. “This is vodka, guava, and ginger ale. A little lime, bitters and mint? That’s about it." 

“A man of mystery...” Morgan grins at Catarina a moment later, before asking the bartender for the beer on tap.

“Hi, Morgan! Pretty good, right? There’s so much unconventional swagger.” 

The second the bulldog hears Morgan’s voice, he seems to sniffle and focus on him, staring adoringly. Catarina doesn’t waste a second in laughing into the back of her hand. “See? He’s so happy to have your attention. Everyone wins!” She tips her vodka and guava juice in a small toast. “It’s so busy here today. What’re you drinking?” 

“Hey Rina,” he says distractedly, still taken by the bulldog of the century. “That’s a look. How does he do it?”

Predictably, the dogs were overjoyed to see Morgan. Eveline grinned at him. “You know, if I didn’t know any better,” she joked. “I would think you’re more excited to see them than me.” Not that she could blame him, really. “Must be their charisma.”

Trying to pet all three pups at once proves to be difficult, but Morgan tries his absolute best. “What? No, no, it’s definitely even! Definitely even,” he repeats, grinning. 

“I mean… you never know, right?” She doesn’t necessarily need to tip her head toward the extravagantly dressed bulldog sitting next to their owner at High Tide’s bar counter.

“This could end up a town trend pretty quickly. You’d be surprised how things catch on.”

“No fucking way. That’s a legend, right there.” Morgan can’t remember ever seeing that bulldog before, but he’s about to be on the lookout for the rest of his life.

Taking her morning walk, all three dogs in tow, was Eveline’s favorite part of the day. It gave her time to think, and today she was so lost in thought that she didn’t register the other person’s presence until her dogs came to an abrupt halt, tugging her forward and nearly toppling her. Right herself, she flashed them a polite smile. “Morning.”

When Morgan sees Eveline’s dogs from over a block away, there’s nothing stopping him from catching up to them.

“Why wasn’t ‘Wall’ an option?” There was no real expectancy for the question to be answered, just talking to to talk as she ate. “Uh, that seemed a little presumptuous and I don’t really like left overs. I’ll usually take them home and let it sit in my fridge ‘til it goes bad.” It wasn’t like she had anyone to pass her leftovers over to nowadays. 

“Sometimes we hit him with a ‘Wally’.” But Ace is a good sport about it and usually puts on an old man persona to match the name.

“I try my best,” she smiled sweetly and laughed. Hannah knew what it was like to get shit from older siblings so she had Morgan’s back when he needed it. “Yeah, Molly’s with my parents for the day so the plan was to get as many errands done as possible,” she took another bite of food, “Which you might have just derailed but again, I’m not complaining. I don’t typically eat this kind of food around Molly or else french fries is all she’ll want to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

"Grandparents time? Nice.” It’s funny to see his parents with his nieces and nephew in comparison to how they raised him and his sisters. It’s like they are completely different people. “I won’t keep you too long. Don’t want you to get behind.”

“Annnnnd I won’t tell her you said that!” she smirked, taking another bite of food, “Your secret’s safe with me,” she teased, “Anything else on the agenda for you today? Or are we just going to kick back, relax and stuff our faces for the next hour or two?”

“You’re an angel, Hannah. I can always count on you.” He grins right back at her before starting in on his burger.

As the youngest of four, Hannah could totally empathize with Morgan on being the baby in the family. “You don’t have to ask me twice,” Hannah said reassuringly, plopping down in the seat across from Morgan. “My alarm didn’t go off this morning so both Molly and I woke up late as hell. Had to rush out the door so she’d make it to school on time. This is my first meal of the day and I’m starving. You’re a saint Morgan Zhao,” she offered him a smile and immediately stuffed an onion ring into her mouth.

Morgan’s happy to see a friendly face he knows will come through for him. He grins as Hannah plops down across from him, and starts in on his fries now that he’s got someone to share this buffet with.