"Maria, wanna come with me to the supermarket?" Maria looked up from the couch at her mother and smiled. She quickly got up and slipped on her shoes at the door then they both headed out and her mother drove to the supermarket.

"Is there anything specific you want to have for dinner?"

"Well... I have missed your lasagna." Maria said with a pleading look, "It was to dieeee for."

Her mother laughed, she said she'd make it for dinner and Maria sat up with a giant grin. Once they got to the supermarket, her mother grabbed a cart and they entered. To Maria's surprise, the supermarket had completely changed. The colors were much more subtle and natural, it was very nice and much bigger than she remembered.

The two women walked down several aisles until they ended up by the fresh produce, as Maria inspected some tomatoes, her mother had spotted her best friend with her son. A sudden loud scream startled Maria, causing her to glare at whoever had caused the noise but what she saw made her soften her expression. Her mother and Tony's were hugging and then started talking about absolutely everything up until Tony's mother realized that Maria was watching them.

"Is this the Maria?" His mother asked with a grin.

"Yes it is, Julie!" Maria's mother said proudly.

"Oh, how you've grown! You're such a beautiful young woman!" Julie gushed. Maria smiled and thanked her sweetly. Julie smiled and turned her attention back to Anita. The two continued to talk to each other and so Maria decided to just continue to pick tomatoes but when she turned, a tattooed hand holding a ripe tomato was in front of her face and she quickly moved her gaze up to Tony.

"This one's good." He told her.

"Thanks." She said and took it out of his hand, she put it in the bag she was holding and tied a knot on the end. Maria put the bag in the cart and slowly looked over at Tony who was busy playing on his phone but when he felt her looking he put the phone down and back in his pocket.

"I've got something to show you."

Maria chuckled, "Here?"

"No. Actually, it's just down the road."

"I'm helping mom at the moment..."

"These two talk for hours, c'mon, it won't take long."

Maria thought for a second, she nodded and followed him out of the supermarket because what harm could he do? Everything that had happened was in the past, she didn't remember it, he was like a new person to her that she had never met in her life and so she didn't see why she should act bratty and not go with him.

Outside the sky was covered in a blanket of gray clouds, it was about to rain but that didn't phase either of them as they walked together on the sidewalk. They didn't share a word to each other, they just walked until there was a small hill and Tony told Maria to walk up it. She followed Tony up the hill and once on top, he turned to her with a small smile.

"We used to hang out here all the time when our mom's were at the supermarket."

"Is that why you brought me here? To relive old memories?" Maria asked with a slight chuckle.

Tony nodded, "All the memories we have up here were good."

Maria smiled and hugged herself as the wind hit her flesh, she sat down on the grass and patted the space next to her for Tony to sit. "What are they?" She asked him as he sat down. Tony looked at her for a second and started to smile, "One time, you wanted to skip school because your teacher had been mean to you and you called me," Tony started, "I picked you up and we came here even though if one of our mom's saw us we'd both be in trouble. Thankfully, no one saw us. We laid on the grass and looked at the sky for nearly an hour, I asked you what exactly had happened and you told me everything in a heartbeat. You used to really trust me." Maria turned her attention to her lap and then back at Tony.

"Did... Did you know I used to like you?"

Tony blinked at her and sat up from his relaxed state, "Yes, you told me."

"What happened after I told you?"

"Things got messy," He said honestly, "I was too old for you back then and because you liked me I stopped spending time with you. I thought it wasn't good for either of us, especially you because I didn't want to lead you on."

"Hmm... What else?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"I just really want to get to the bottom of this."

"Okay, well, even though I stopped spending time with you and all, you would always text me, asking if I was alright, angry at you or anything like that. I felt bad for never replying but I wanted you to get over me and then I found a girl that liked me who was my age. She and I started dating, but I mostly dated her so that you'd get angry and give up which worked in the end and after that you were gone."

"Wow, I was so dumb," Maria laughed, "You were doing all this for my own good and I was just an emotional teenager with problems who couldn't see the goodness in what you were trying to do."

"I wouldn't really call it good..."

"Why not? Not only was it good for me to get over you -a grown man- but for you. If anything had happened you would have gone to prison. I'm glad you did that, Tony."

"Maria, I was a dick. I should have just told you straight up instead of making you play the guess game and get hurt in the process. I knew how fragile you were back then and I still did that."

Maria sighed, she could tell Tony was a good man just like her mother had said. She felt bad that she had been an emotional mess towards him and let her stupid younger self get carried away but he was right, back in those days, she was too fragile and was in way too much of an emotional rollercoaster to really feel anything other than sadness.

"Well thanks for telling me all that, I finally feel like there's nothing missing between you and I."

"There's a lot more missing, the good that is."

Maria laughed, "That's fine. Can we both put everything behind us now and start absolutely fresh?"

"Don't you want to know about us?"

"Not really... I don't like my past self and I can see we've both really changed since 6 years ago. I think we -mostly you- shouldn't live in the past."

"So what you're trying to say is..."

"You and I should be friends, make new memories. Besides, I have no one else in San Diego and we're definitely going to see each other more often." She laughed.

"Fine, that's cool with me." He grinned.

They got up and started walking down the hill to get to the supermarket when Maria suddenly stopped in front of Tony and said, "Oh! And don't worry, this time I will not like you and you won't have to make me stop." They laughed in unison and continued walking to the supermarket. Once they arrived they saw their mothers standing by Anita's car and the sound of Tony's ringtone alerted them to look their way. Tony got his phone out and answered the call. Maria started walking fast towards her mother to give him privacy and when he had ended the call he met her by the car.

"My band mates are throwing a small get together, do you want to come?"

Maria gave his question a thought.

"Sure, yeah."

"Sweet. I'll pick you up at 8, is that okay?"

"Yup."

"It's just a small pizza party, their girlfriends are attending and I don't wanna be the only one alone, you know?"

Maria chuckled, "I completely understand."

---

The house where the get together was held was nice and cozy on the outside but once Maria and Tony stepped inside they both felt like they were in a warm cocoon which was good because the cold of the night was biting at their cheeks. The owner of the house was the first to greet them, he was really nice and friendly and surprisingly had no tattoos at all which really shocked Maria when the owner, Victor, lead the two friends into the living room where two other men were seated on a sofa and had various tattoos just like Tony. Both men stood up and said hello, one with spiky hair is called Jaime and the other Mike who is Victor's younger brother. Another surprise for Maria as Mike is way taller than Victor and looks much older.

"Where are the girls?" Tony asked his band mates after looking around the room.

"They went to get the pizza's and beer, said something about having 'girl time.'"

"Could've waited for Maria to do that." Tony said sarcastically.

"We did tell them but they thought it would be awkward for a first meeting and they wanted to make their best first impressions."

"They sound like nice girls." Maria commented.

"I'm sure you'll get along with them." Mike said to her.

Some minutes passed before the girls arrived. The boys and Maria were sitting on the couches watching TV when they entered with 5 boxes of pizza and four boxes of Corona. The girls set the pizza's and beers on the table in the kitchen and then raced to the living room where they each introduced themselves and greeted Maria into the group. One was a red head, she was Vic's girlfriend and her name is Olivia. The other two are very different from each other, one has short dark brown hair and is Jaime's girlfriend, her name is Jane and the last girl had long bleach blonde hair and belonged to Mike. Her name was far too simple for what she looked like; Abby. Maria thought that with her looks she deserved a glamorous and very unique name as well as Jane but Jane was a nice name and it seemed to fit her very nicely.

The boys and Maria stood up from their seats and walked over to the table, each guy sat next to their girlfriend while Tony and Maria sat next to each other. The group was really friendly, everyone seemed to get along well and it made Maria happy to be a part of it for a night. They all talked about each other so they could get to know each other with such questions as, "What's your favorite singer?" ranging to "What's your favorite drink?".

Olivia had beautiful light green eyes that looked at Maria and Tony a lot throughout the night. She flashed a smile before commenting on how well they looked together which only made Maria laugh out loud.

"Why are you laughing?" Olivia asked.

"Because we aren't together."

"You're not?" She asked baffled.

"No, Olivia. We told you before we arrived that she's just Tony's new friend." Jane chuckled.

"Oh, yes, you're right!" Olivia looked over at Maria with a pout, "I'm sorry for misunderstanding."

"It's alright."

Olivia smiled, "Do you have a boyfriend, or someone you're interested in than?"

"No and nope. My last boyfriend was over a year ago, we just drifted apart naturally and since then I haven't met or seen anyone that's caught my eye or attention."

"Maybe Tony could be the one! You never know!"

"I doubt it," Maria laughed, but not wanting to say why, she covered it up with: "But you're right, you never know." After saying that she looked up at Tony who was chewing on his pizza and looking around the table uncomfortably. "Do you have any single guy-friends?" She winked at Olivia and the whole group started to laugh, even Tony who was now feeling much more at ease.

"I have a couple, I'll set you up on some blind dates if you'd like!"

"Sure why not?"

"Great! I'm an amazing match-maker, just ask Abby and Mike."

"She really is. We've been together for two years now." Mike said with a smile as he looked at Abby.

"Well," Maria rubbed her hands together, "I'm excited!" She laughed.

In Tony's car later that night as they headed home, Tony kept making jokes about who Olivia might pair Maria up with. He said many of Olivia's friends were pretty wild and he didn't think that Maria would like them but she only shrugged. "I won't know until the time comes, right?" She said to him. Tony nodded in agreement but still kept making jokes. When they reached Maria's house he parked beside the sidewalk and they sat there for a few seconds while Maria thanked Tony for having invited her to the get together and told him how much fun she had had. They exchanged numbers and then she got out of the car but he stayed there until she was inside to make sure she'd be safe.

Notes