Chapter 15: Friction

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There were few occasions when Rey had been afraid to tell the truth

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There were few occasions when Rey had been afraid to tell the truth. For starters, there was the afternoon when she accidentally backed Maz's station wagon into a light pole, which she claimed to have appeared from outer space inside the parking lot of an Orlando Wal-Mart. That was before her guilt took over later that evening, and Rey found herself breaking down on bended hands and knees, begging Maz for her forgiveness.

Then, there was the mishap when she had thrown Maz's honeycomb, wool-knitted sweater into the dryer: one that Rey's father had gifted her aunt the Christmas before his passing. Not only had it come to be a surprise that Maz's reaction to her confession turned out to be better than she'd anticipated, but Maz had reassured her the garment had never fit properly to begin with. Maz wound up re-gifting it to her after.

But Ben wasn't the bumper to a car with a significantly-sized dent lying smack dab in the center, nor was he a shrunken wool sweater that was thrown into the dryer by mistake.

So, how does one go about fixing all of the lies that'd been told, while not jeopardizing the life of the person whom she'd come to develop romantic feelings for? It was a question she hoped Sabine would shine a little light upon after insisting that she treat Rey to a belated birthday outing; which was spent searching for the perfect costume Rey was to wear to the Halloween dance being held at Mishawaka High within the next coming week.

Since Maz traded in her day-shift hours for those on nights, Rey had more than enough time to kill before she was due at Ben's later that evening. Informing her aunt of the earlier half of her Friday night plans had been the easier of the two confessions she planned to admit, hoping to earn a few brownie points towards her redemption.

It was after Rey admitted her intent to stay the night with him (for convenience purposes of course), since they would be going to the ranch early the next morning, when she'd been most certain that Maz was toying with the thought of strapping her into some modern day chastity belt; even though Rey had been on the pill for the last two years.

It took all but selling Hades her soul to assure Maz that she was wholly aware of the birds and the bees, though her fingers remained crossed under the table when she had to promise not to go beyond the line of holding hands that was marked on her sixth grade abstinence card.

At least it had been the lesser of her frustrations that day, considering her and Sabine had gone to just about every Halloween store in town, and left empty-handed. That was when Sabine declared it time to make an official coffee run to Starbucks, treating Rey to a double chocolate chip Frappuccino, along with Sabine's preferrably hot caramel macchiato, before making their final stop at Halloween Plus in University Park Mall.

"You know, if it comes down to it you could just throw a white sheet over your head and cut out a couple holes for eyeballs," Sabine teased as they both claimed a heavily-cushioned seat next to the window inside the café's half-empty lounge. "You could go as that little ghost from Charlie Brown. It'd be cute."

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