It was a strange sight, six beautiful girls sitting at a table in a run-down little restaurant. They were supremely out of place in such a shabby diner: each in their own way looked as if she could have been a supermodel, or on the front page of some fashion magazine, or on the television--something bright and clean and high-profile. The other patrons, mostly sweat-stained men and the odd strung-out woman, stared openly at the six. The girls didn't seem to care: they only had eyes for the young man bringing their drinks. They shot a few remarks his way and giggled as he fumbled his way through a response, and still their eyes followed him when he left to bus the other tables. Only one of the girls seemed at all able to tear her gaze away from him, and she turned back to her friends with an incredulous expression on her face.

"Him?! Really?"

The girl next to her rolled her eyes and drummed her glitter-coated pink nails on her jeweled phone. "Mika, don't be such a bummer. What's not to like?"

Mika turned and watched the busboy delivering waters to another table. She looked him up and down one more time: black, close-cropped hair... not tall, not short... uniform not well fitted... face neither ugly nor particularly remarkable at all. He just seemed... normal. Kind of boring.

"I just, he looks..." Mika searched for words, frowning when she discovered she'd already forgotten his unremarkable face. Perhaps it was no surprise she hadn't recognized him from their school. "Kind of average? I don't know. I always thought you went for older guys, Rina."

Rina blew a kiss towards the busboy and smirked when he blushed and stumbled, nearly losing the glasses and plates he carried. "Yeah, y'know, I used to, I did, but he's different." She stuck her tongue out at Mika when she continued to stare with an incredulous expression, prompting the girl to round on another of her friends.

"And you, Keiko? I thought you were..." she lowered her voice and leaned in, glancing around. Some of their onlookers had the good nature to look away. "...were, you know... interested in girls, not guys."

The girl she addressed flinched back slightly, a blush coloring her pale cheeks. She swept a hand through her long black hair and bit her lip, looking almost embarrassed. "Yeah, normally... but I don't know, there's just something about him. You really don't see it?"

All eyes turned back to the busboy. Still Mika couldn't see it, but they could all see the disaster before it started: a stray shoelace, a platter of (thankfully empty) plates and the rest was history. He went sprawling and plates shattered all over the dirty floor. A chorus of sucked-in breaths and gasps echoed around the girls' table. Mika almost started towards him to see if he needed help but he was already standing up on his own--only to come face to face with a livid manager. His scolding could be heard from every seat in the diner. The patrons turned back to their business, seemingly used to the spectacle.

"What a klutz," one of the girls snickered, and Mika rounded on her.

"Exactly! Who even trips on their own shoelaces? Nel--"

But Nel was already shaking her hand, eyes warm behind her glasses and overlong bangs. "Don't get me wrong! I think it's charming. He's so uncoordinated!" She smiled at the busboy, now apologizing to his manager, and shrugged when she caught Mika's stare. "What? It is."

"Emma," Mika started, but stopped as soon as she saw the moony expression on her friend's face. "You too?"

Emma blushed and nodded her head slowly. She was half-hidden behind her school books, but her eyes visibly tracked the young man's every movement. She caught her breath and blew it out in one long, slow puff. "M... me too."

"You know," the sixth girl leaned back against the diner seats, arms folded behind her head. "That clumsiness is actually how we met the first time around. If he wasn't the way he is, I might still be indulging my bad boy craving." There was murmured assent around the table, but Mika was happy to take the bait.

"How did the you meet him, Ally? In fact--how did all of you meet?"

"Well," Ally drawled, "I was driving my bike down the street when he stepped on his shoelace and pitched right into the road. Almost rolled right over him." Several of the girls shuddered. Emma let out a muffled shriek. "Anyway, he was fine. I stopped in time, but I had a mind to tan his hide." She paused, long enough that Mika gestured for her to continue on. "Well..." Ally coughed, the brash girl seeming almost embarrassed. "I didn't. We, uh, started talking, and he said he knew what it was like to lose a parent..."

This time Mika did interrupt. "He knew about your dad?"

"What? No way!" Ally shook her head. "We just talked and the conversation sorta... went that way. And he made me feel better, and I figured why the hell not, I could go for a normal guy once in a while. You're always telling me to."

Mika looked ready to interject, or at least to push for more information, but her friends were jostling to share their own stories. "It was like that for me too y'know," Rina mentioned after she finished blowing a pink, bubblegum bubble. "Like, I was out taking the subway and I just happened to look up from my phone, and he was just about to walk off the platform right onto the rails! I yelled and he stopped, like, just in time. Super lucky." Emma let out another gasp but Rina just flicked her hair and rolled her eyes. "A-nyway, we chatted up a bit and I gave him my number and we've been texting ever since. I don't know, he was just a really good listener, and I kinda needed it after I messed up my midterms so bad. He showed me a pic of his midterms and he got two points lower than me, lol."

The girls turned to watch as the object of their affections dusted himself down and began to pick up the broken pieces of the plates he'd dropped. "Shouldn't we help him, or something?" Mika muttered, but Nel shook her head.

"It's his job," she said as she blew the bangs from in front of her eyes. "I tried to help last time I was in here, but he just got yelled at more. 'Now you're making the customers pick up your slack,' yadda yadda. But we talked a little when his manager wasn't looking." A simple, peaceful smile spread over her face as she reminisced. "He really got me, y'know? Not everyone does. Almost no one does, actually, but he knew just what to say." Mika snorted slightly, but found to her surprise each one of her friends was nodding along to that statement as if it perfectly summed up their experience. And one by one, each of their stories followed the same pattern:

Emma relayed how he'd dropped a bunch of books in the library right in front of her and when they'd talked, she'd found a kindred spirit in him to discuss obscure philosophers with.

Keiko shared how he'd missed an important goal kick and cost her the soccer game, but then the two of them had mutually confided their career woes.

"This is nuts," Mika said after she'd heard it all. "Some guy bumps into all of you and just happens to know exactly what's wrong? Just happens to have the same issues going on or--or knows the same random things you're into? He sounds too good to be true."

She was expecting some kind of realization or distress from her friends... but instead Mika was bombarded by laughter. Even Emma giggled behind her books. "Too good to be true is right!" Rina smirked. "Like, would he have all of us interested in him if he wasn't?" And more laughter.

"You like him too or something?" Keiko asked. "Because I think 5 of us is enough."

And they laughed, and they laughed, and they laughed.

At the end of it all, Mika was left staring in mixed confusion and horror--exacerbated by the carefree expressions on her friends' faces. They had straightaway shifted into gossip and chatter, all with a singular focus... their new object of affection. Mika tried to steer the conversation once, twice, but to no avail: it really seemed like the girls didn't have any interest in talking about anything else. Mika stood up all at once, biting her lip and blinking quickly. "Well," she bit out, "I'm going to head home."

"Oh?" Ally pulled herself away from some story about the boy. "Lotsa homework?"

"That's right," Mika nodded, forcing a smile. "I'll see you all in class."

They waved her goodbye and she walked out, feeling absolutely sick to her stomach. She was so focused she almost walked right into the topic of her friends' conversation: with a "whoa!" and a general clatter, the two ended up in a tangle by the alley beside the diner. Mika picked herself up first and found the third casualty of their collision: a collection of boxes and empty bottles. Mika bent down to help him collect them, casting a suspicious glare as she did. Although she looked him up and down again, once more she couldn't find anything amiss about him. He looked apologetic enough, which only made her more annoyed. He started to say "sorry", and she snapped.

"Oh, skip it. I ran into you, not the other way around." She glared at him, half expecting a sharp retort... but just got a smile in response. His voice was soft when she heard it, and calm.

"Rough day?"

Mika blinked, then set a frown on her face again. She picked up a box and righted it. "Yeah, I guess."

"I get that." He nodded and picked one up beside her. "I'm having a bad day too. Did you see me drop those plates?"

"I did."

"I noticed," he said at last, "you were about to get up and help me before Nel stopped you. I wanted to thank you for that."

"Oh." Mika blinked. "Well, you're welcome. I didn't help after all--"

"But you were going to. That means something."

"Yeah, I guess."

They'd reassembled half of the boxes now. A couple passerby paused to watch them, but no one helped. Why should they? It wasn't their problem.

"Tell you the truth," he grunted as they stacked the boxes, "I was having a rough day before the plates."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. My friends got into this new thing that I don't even understand and..."

He trailed off, fully absorbing himself in picking up the bottles, now that the boxes had been righted. Despite herself Mika pressed further. "And?"

"And it's like they're not my friends anymore," he sighed. "Honestly, I don't even recognize them these days."

"Yeah, I get that." And she did. I'm losing them to you, she thought but didn't say.

"I don't know. It's stupid, I guess," he chuckled. "Maybe I'm the one changing."

"No way," she said, temper flaring. "If they're all changing without you, that's not what friends do. If they're leaving you out? Maybe you're better... without them."

She spent a long moment picking up bottles, head turned down and face hidden. He gave her the time. Then, "I guess you're right. It's just hard to lose them, you know? After so long."

"So long," she agreed, and bit off the rest. Those five had been her friends for so, so long. And now was it just going to be like this from now on? For a stupid boy? This stupid boy, she reminded herself. He was the problem.

"It's not forever, though." He said it so sudden--or maybe she was so caught in her thoughts--she looked up in surprise and caught him smiling. What was it about his expression? It was at once tender and sad, flush with a secret hurt that she understood. That maybe only she also understood. "It's not going to be forever," he reiterated, and something about his tone made her almost feel like he knew it was the truth. "We've had problems before, and we'll have others in the future. I think we'll look back at this in a year and laugh, you know?"

"Yeah... yeah, you're right." Now that she thought about it, he absolutely was. They'd all had their disagreements before, but the six of them were inseparable. Split apart by a stupid boy? No way! They'd be back to normal in a week. Ally would find some biker guy, Keiko's eye would get caught by a girl in her sports team, Emma would go back to burying her nose in a book... it would be alright.

They'd collected all the boxes, all the bottles. The two of them stood and dusted themselves off. "I can't thank you enough for this," he sighed. "Maybe now my manager won't yell so much at me."

"Sure," she shrugged. "It was my fault, anyway."

"Actually, I think it was mine."

"It was mine."

"It was--" he stopped at her sudden faux glare. "Fine," he laughed. "It was both of our fault."

"I'll take it." She nodded and started away, giving him a casual wave. Maybe he was right. Maybe everything would turn out just fine and her friends would go back to normal. Maybe they'd be laughing and chatting just like always in--she didn't know, maybe a week. Two weeks at the most. At least he didn't seem too bad of a guy. Actually, he'd been really helpful. Maybe that was why everyone liked him so much. She could see it--almost see it. Maybe it was the way his eyes lit up when he smiled, or the way she could see something deeper, something just little painful behind the expression.
She smiled without even knowing it as she went walking down the street, kicking a rock in front of her as she thought of him. The clumsy busboy.

Behind her he watched, half in the alley and half out, covered by shadow.

Grinning.