CHAPTER 3

"No—No, Mom. I promise it's fine. Go ahead and have dinner. I know you were looking forward to trying the food there...Yes, I'm with him now. He's getting the—yes, Mom, that Phil Diffy."

Phil chuckles. Keely gives him a quick smile before going back to her phone call.

"I know. I know...Mom, it's Phil! He's not going to do anything to me." Keely rolls her eyes at Phil who grins but loses the lighthearted moment when Keely's eyes flash with something unpleasant in direct result of whatever her mother's nasally voice says on the other end. Keely looks away from Phil when she says, "Mom, that was a long time ago."

(A long time ago. Phil never meant for it to be this long.)

Keely's words imply his hurting her in some way. The rich ice cream on his tongue becomes thick and tasteless at the implication.

"Listen, I'll talk to you later, ok? I'll even text you every hour to let you know I'm fine. Ok? Ok...ok...love you too. Bye, Mom."

Keely hangs up the phone and lets out a huff, making her cheeks puff out slightly. "She worries too much. Did you get mine?"

"You're favorite, of course. Strawberry as sweet as you."

Keely takes the cone and gives Phil a light pinch on the cheek. "Apparently you're still a sweet talker."

"It goes with my adorable face." Phil does his best to make the expression that always makes Keely roll her eyes and giggle at him. The one that she's called adorable before.

Keely rolls her eyes and giggles. (Success!)

The two of them meander towards the trees nearer the edge of the park. All the picnic tables, including the ones in the sun, are occupied. Young families, families of graduates, and other random park-goers are among the crowd enjoying early summertime in the small city. The two old friends that settle underneath the shade of a tree are ignored by all except one another.

Phil watches Keely out of the corner of his eye. Sees her curls bounce about her face, sees the sunshine through the trees settle on her skin, (thankfully she has taken off the stifling robe to show off her pale pink sundress), sees her tongue dart out to lick the rapidly melting treat.

She's as beautiful as ever. Still full of life.

"Phil, yours is melting!"

Phil's attention is brought to the ice cream dripping onto his hand, down the cone, and onto his jeans. Keely laughs at he switches the ice cream from one hand to another to try and wipe the sticky goop onto the grass.

"That will only make it worse. Here. Let me—" Keely grabs his wrist holding the cone and keeps him steady as she runs her tongue around the top edge of the cone where it meets the ice cream, keeping more from staining his clothes.

When she looks back up, Phil's eyes stare hard at her. (As beautiful as ever.)

"What?" Keely asks, suddenly self-conscious. Was that not ok? Too much?

Phil gives a small shake of his head and grins. "Nothing—just, thanks. I'll watch it better from now on."

"Good. So..." she says as she settles back against the tree trunk.

"So..." Phil echoes.

"What do you want to do while you're here?" Keely asks. "I mean, there's plenty to do, but anything in particular?"

"Well, considering I came all this way to wish you a happy graduation, I'd say whatever I want to do is whatever you want to do for celebration."

"That's really the only reason you came here?"

Phil tilts his head and gives her a smile. It isn't his adorable one or the grin that indicates mischief. No, this one is genuine.

"Yes. I wanted to see you again. And I got to. Yay!"

Keely giggles and lightly smacks his arm with her free hand. "You say things like that and you'll make a girl blush."

"That's the goal."

Keely hits him again.

"I get a hit every time I compliment you?"

"Not fair, I know. Too bad, so sad." Keely goes back to her ice cream.

This makes Phil remember he had been ignoring his ice cream. He rushes to eat the parts that have reached his hand. "So what do you want to do?" he asks when his ice cream is back in its place.

Keely looks around the park, at Phil, then down at her ice cream, and finally back up at Phil again with an eagerness so like her it's blinding. "Wanna go to Pickford?"

Keely ends up having to thoroughly stomp out Phil's fear that he would be taking her away from the friends and family she should be spending time with while going on this small outing with him. It turns into quite a bit of back and forth. Keely would almost say Phil is scared from how much he protests.

"You sure you're ok to drive? You fainted earlier. Are you dizzy?"

"I'm fine. The ice cream really helped. And also getting out of the robe."

"What about your friends?"

"I'll see them all tomorrow. They'll all be there. I won't miss out on anything."

"But wouldn't you rather—?"

"Phil. There is nothing I'd rather do and no one I'd rather be with. Besides, you said you'd do whatever I want to do. I want to go to Pickford with you. I've missed you and I want to spend time with you in our old stomping ground. End of story, mister."

This thankfully silences Phil, and Keely manages to get him in the car. They begin the three hour drive back to Pickford. Keely turns on the radio which becomes their background noise for a while. She quietly hums along to the latest pop hits.

"I see your taste in music hasn't changed one bit."

Keely sticks her tongue out at him only briefly in order to keep her attention on the road. "No judging."

"Who's judging?"

"Change of subject!" Keely breaks the lull in conversation. "Tell me what your family's up to. Did they settle back ok?"

A small pang ripples his heart, half fondness—half longing. "Dad's back in his business. And Mom's—"

"Wait, wait, wait. What exactly is your dad's job again? Some sort of mechanic?"

Phil readjusts himself in his seat. The air conditioning in the car is a breath of fresh air. Literally compared to the stifling heat of the day. It's finally cooled down enough to be of some help. "An engineer, actually. He works for the company that makes the majority of the parts for skyaks. You know the one we had?"

"Yeah?"

"A total steal. My dad got it for practically nothing thanks to a small default in the design he could fix and his employee discount."

"Nice! That should have been my graduation gift. A skyak."

"What I got you isn't enough?"

Keely briefly glances his way to give him a look that clearly says, You're not serious. I know you're kidding, because if you're not you're an idiot and I don't think you capable of being an idiot. It doesn't last because her attention is demanded back on the road.

"A skyak, Phil. Do flowers compare to a skyak?"

"I was kind of thinking," Phil clears his throat, "I was the present. The flowers were a bonus."

Phil watches Keely's profile lose its smile. There is a brief yet loud pause. "Phil, you're more than enough. You were more than I dared hope for."

Phil can't stop the internal happiness from fluttering against his ribcage.

"So what's your mom doing?" Keely asks, beckoning the cheerful atmosphere to return.

"The twenty-first century influenced Mom a little more than the rest of us," Phil informs her. "She's really gotten into old-timey things. Remember when I told you about her being 'The Hostess with the Mostess'? Yeah, things like that she's been trying to get her friends to try. Scary thing is, she's been succeeding with some of them."

Keely laughs. "I can totally see that! Does she rope you into anything?"

"Thankfully, my quick thinking gets me out of most of her brilliant ideas for my participation. She keeps claiming how cute I looked in twenty-first century outfits and that I should try it again—"

"But you are in a twenty-first century outfit," Keely points out.

"Yeah, well, this is different. This is to blend in. Incognito. I'm a master of disguise, or did you forget?"

"I forgot nothing, Phil Diffy," Keely huffs lightly. She gives him a coy grin.

Phil returns it with a smirk. "Bold words for someone who can barely stutter through a cover story when I needed her to lie for me, Miss Teslow."

"Hey! I got you out of detention more times than I can count by going along with your schemes. If I were you, I'd be thankful instead of all judgy."

It's Phil's turn to laugh. "Ok, fine. You got me there."

"And now we come full circle. What's Pim up to, dare I ask."

"Pim? She's..." Phil's eyes glance upward at the car's roof, then out the side window, and finally straight ahead. "Actually, she's doing pretty well. She's in a leadership position. Sort of."

"Sort of? How I she 'sort of' in a leadership position?"

"It's...kinda weird. She got stuck on the idea of ruling the world. You know her logic on how she thought since she was from the future she could rule the past world? She applied that same logic to the future, saying since she has all this past knowledge, she can apply it to ruling the future—or present for us."

"Oh my gosh, that sounds exactly like her. I'll be honest, I'm surprised she's succeeding. Her schemes didn't always...pan out well."

"Nope, but hey, anyone can find their place. She found hers in politics."

"I'm glad to hear she's putting her scheming mind to good use."

"Yeah, good use." Phil clears his throat. "But hey, that's my family. What about yours? Your mom?"

"Same thing as always."

"What about our friends? Tia! Are you two still close?"

Keely's face changes to shock then melts with her laughter. "Tia? I haven't seen Tia in two years."

"You two don't still talk?" Phil asks, surprised. "But you two were practically joined at the hip. Even after she left you kept calling each other. I remember having to find you Via just to get you a different friend to do girly stuff with."

"Hey, you cannot deny how impossibly smooth your skin was after all those facials, Phil Diffy. You should have been thanking me."

Phil scoffs. "Oh yeah, big thanks there. What—What happened with you two?"

Keely shrugs. "Nothing happened. Life happened. We're still good friends, but we aren't joined at the hip as you so nicely put it. We get together now and again, but we aren't like sisters anymore. That's more me and Via."

Phil shifts a little in his seat. He's got plenty of room, all things considered. It's a decent sized car. A used one. An older car that was advanced for its day but now is a dinosaur in the eyes of anyone in their teens or early twenties.

"You're telling me you and Via are closer than you and Tia were? Hard to believe, Miss Teslow."

The edges of Keely's face smoothed with laughter wrinkle slightly. "We had a few bonding experiences after you left."

"Bonding experiences?" Phil doesn't miss the dip in her tone. "What, did you have massages and waxing sessions along with those mani-pedi marathons? I'd say our skyaking was far more entertaining of a bonding experience. What could be more bond-inducing than skyaking?"

Keely bites her lip. There's a heavy pause before she fills it with a voice too shrill to be genuine. "Oh nothing! Just—you were gone and we, you know, got closer 'cause I lost my best friend and was sad or whatever. No big deal."

Phil feels his gut sink. He works his jaw, and glances down at his hands. He doesn't want to ask his next question, but it probably should be spoken. "Does that have anything to do with what you told your mom earlier on the phone?"

"What did I tell her?" Keely asks.

"That it was a long time ago?" Phil notices Keely's grip on the steering wheel is tight enough to make her knuckles pale. She takes the next turn a little too sharply. "Keel? Please tell me."

Keely's eyes remain glued to the road as she speaks, refusing to acknowledge him beyond words. "We only were together two days. My best friend and first real and true boyfriend whom I genuinely cared about with my whole heart left for forever. For the future and I couldn't tell anyone where you'd really gone or why we couldn't keep in touch. I ended up telling them you moved to some remote location with no access to any technology and had to live like—like Curtis! I was hurt and sad, and Via was there for me even if she didn't understand why you leaving gave me no hope for ever seeing you again."

If the quiet pause from before was heavy, this one is the weight of the entire world stuffed into the moderately-sized car.

Phil swallows thickly. Blood is rushing in his ears and his heart racing, telling his body to do something to relieve the stress his mind is experiencing, but there's nothing to be done while strapped into a car seat.

"Ke—"

"And I don't want to hear about how sorry you are or how fine you were after you went back to your wonderful future with all your great gadgets after having finally gotten free of this restricting time."

"That's not what I was—"

"So maybe I freaked out a little when you came back because I crushed absolutely all hope of ever seeing you again. And then suddenly you're there and it's like five years of repressed shock strike me like a million lasers and bam! I'm bawling like an idiot in front of everybody. And I faint. I haven't fainted since high school!"

"Keely, wait—"

"And here I am in the car nearly—Hey! Use your blinker!—and here I am in the car nearly out of my mind because I cannot possibly fathom the one thing I kept myself from believing would ever happen has happened. You're sitting in the seat next to me, looking fantastic with that stupid smile you've always had, and I'm not sure if I should be happy or nervous or cautious, but I'm so glad to see you and..."

Keely trails off. The tense look in her eyes and thin line of her lips keeps Phil from saying anything despite his previous attempts.

There is an off-ramp Keely takes and parks along the gravel side. Her hands remain on the wheel as she stares ahead despite the car being in park.

This...This is what Phil feared when going back. Keely's wrath. The first part of the day exceeded expectations. Keely is talking to him, laughing with him, enjoying his company. She isn't shunning him which was in Phil's Worst Case Scenario folder. This scenario right here is also in the folder. Keely holding his leaving against him, seeing it as abandonment.

Phil opens his mouth to say something, but Keely beats him to the punch.

"When are you going back?" she asks. Her voice is flat and entirely too calm with a hint of casual. It brings up memories of Keely's reporter voice. The one she uses for interviewing those for her news segment. Phil would be warmed by the memory if the current situation was different. "Because I'd really like to know. I'd like to start preparing myself now for the goodbye."

"I'm not leaving again."

Keely's head snaps in his direction. There is no joy on her face like Phil expected. (He's got to stop giving himself such high expectations if they get crushed like this.)

"Don't you dare lie to me, Philip Rupert Diffy. You owe me the truth."

Phil winces at the full use of his name. Not the affectionate exasperation of "Phil Diffy" or the casual "Phil" but the full-fledge-middle-name-included address.

"I'm giving you the truth," Phil says firmly. He fights against his seatbelt to angle himself towards her. His knees bump too many hard surfaces in the small car. "I...I wasn't sure if you would be on board with the idea. It—I mean, I've been away a while, I get it. That's why I wasn't sure if I'd be welcome—" Phil chokes on the words, "—back in your life."

Keely's green eyes grow. Tears finally appear. Phil isn't sure if that's a good sign. Keely used to be able to cry at the drop of a hat. What do the tears mean now?

But then she's unbuckling her seatbelt and scooching herself over the middle of the seat to wrap her arms around Phil's neck. Phil himself gets a little tangled in his seatbelt, fighting it to get a better grip on Keely because hugging is a good sign and it feels so good to hold her again.

"Phil, you're always welcome," Keely says in a quaking voice. "I'll always want you in my life. If you're staying, you're never allowed to leave it again. You understand me?"

"I'll never leave. I'll never want to leave," Phil mutters against her shoulder. He hopes the sincerity comes through. Because he means it.

After a few minutes like that, Keely finally pulls away. She gets an odd look on her face and immediately goes back to her own seat. She pulls down the visor and lifts up the flap to look at herself in the tiny mirror. The sigh she gives is longsuffering.

"This is the second time today I ruined my makeup."

"You look fantastic," Phil says. Keely gives him the same You're not serious expression from earlier and Phil defends his words. "I mean it. The raccoon look really works for you. I bet you're the only one who can pull it off."

Keely pinches his arm and Phil gives a small yelp. "Alright, that's enough out of you." Keely puts her seatbelt back on and puts the car into gear. "Let's get going."

They get back on the main road and drive in silence for a while, allowing themselves to recover from the recent high emotions.

"Phil?"

"Yeah?"

"You sure you're staying?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

Phil's pleasure at seeing her content expression dampens when he looks in the rearview mirror. He never mentions the black car that's been following them since the beginning of their drive.

A/N: This chapter is in dedication to the reviewers who showed love to this story. It's because of you I finished another chapter! Thank you! I'd like to give a special thanks to Lee who is a guest reviewer. Sir, wherever you are, thank you for your kind words about my story. They are EXACTLY what I was hoping for when writing it. I hope you enjoy what's to come! For you, I promise to do my absolute best to finish this story. (And I really hope you look back on this story and see that I'm still posting for it!)