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"Zac! It's been too long." I greeted my best friend as he got in the passenger seat, Zacharias Sin, who just came back from Hong Kong, his hometown.

"I know Kade," he gave me a warm smile and glimpses of his straight white teeth.

"How was it over there? I can't believe you suddenly left just like that! I thought we were going on a road trip for the summer. We had everything planned," I said to Zacharias as we drove to school just like last year. I did not mind that our plans did not go accordingly. (Okay I was a little upset but it's life).

"It was so much hotter and humid there, but it's nice to see my family and spend some time there." Zac said. Zacharias changed to our school during middle school, a seating plan threw us together and we had been best friends ever since.

"What did you do? Did you travel anyway?" He asked me, turning his dark chocolate eyes on me.

"Nope, stayed here whole summer, helped out the church and hang out with other friends, pretty boring." I said airily, I parked my car in the school's parking lot and we got out.

Weniville high school was not much of a sight, your pretty typical public school that was not too bad but a far cry from private schools. There were crowds of students slowly going in, everyone still floating in the summer mood, the weight of school not fully sank in yet.

Zac and I went in, Zac began telling me about what he did in Hong Kong. Friends and teammates greeted us as we went in, "still joining the volleyball team this year right?" a teammate called out as he passed by us.

"Yes of course," I shouted back, Zac echoed a 'yes' too.

We continued our talk until we had to part ways as we arrived to our lockers; just a few feet away from each other; two lockers between us.

Zac and I took our time walking to our homeroom, which fortunately were the same; but our schedules were quite different. Zacharias took AP English, literature and Art, while I took music, AP calculus and additional mathematics.

The day went by like your typical first day of school, everyone was excited to see their friends and chaos ensured with the teachers trying to "get to know us".

I only had homeroom, PE, general science and lunch with Zac; which meant that I barely saw him.

I stood by Zac's locker and waited for his Art lesson to end, tapping my foot impatiently. Finally, in the distance, I could see a familiar mop of dark hair that stood several inches above everyone else's lighter hair, coming towards me. He shoot a smile at me but some guys stopped him before he could come any closer, clapping his back and pulling him away to catch up. I tried not to feel annoyed as I peeled myself off his locker and stalked towards them.

"Kade! It's been a while! That party at Jean's were wild yeah?" One of the guys said as I approached them.

"Yeah, it definitely was a night," I replied, not really interested in the conversation.

"If only you were there man," the other guy said to Zac.

"I'm sure his next party will be as crazy," Zac answered with his signature smirk that drove all the girls crazy.

"Yeah of course, and you will go yeah?"

"Of course, why would I miss it?" Zac laughed and the other guys chuckled with him, a smile tugged at the corner of my lips at Zac's infectious laugh.

"Okay I'll see you guys tomorrow in history yeah?" Zac said to them, noticing the arms crossed over my chest.

"Yeah see you tomorrow Zac, Kade." They gave both of us claps behind our backs and at last they left.

"Finally," I rolled my eyes. It was nice to be popular, there were definitely pecks such as getting invited to all the parties and avoiding the possibility of not having any friends in certain classes; but it made it hard to be alone by ourselves, there were always someone around us.

"Oh you enjoy the attention too," Zac nudged me playfully as we walked towards our car.

I didn't bother denying it and instead changed the topic, "Mom insist that you eat dinner with us tonight, since it has been 'too long since she has seen her favourite son'" I animated air quotations as I repeat what my mom had said this morning.

Zac laughed again, a deep, resonant sound that he let out easily, causing my smirk to turn into a smile. "Yeah sure of course, I won't dream of disappointing mom." Zac and I had been to each other's house so often that we weren't even guests anymore. My mom always jokingly said that Zac was her favourite son since Zac was charming, nice and a gentleman. If only she knew that he partied as hard as me, and probably had been with more girls than I did.

"Yeah, yeah. Do you need to stop by your house or can we go straight to mine?" We both got in my car and we were out of the parking lot.

"It's fine, we'll go straight to yours," Zac got out his phone and called, "Mami?" His Chinese accent seeping into the word, "Yeah I'm eating dinner at Kade's..... yeah okay.... yeah, bye."

"Mom asked me to ask you to come for dinner tomorrow night," the Chinese accent had vanished and his flawless American accent was back. I was a little disappointed, his Chinese accent was lovely and I loved it whenever he use it.

"Yeah sure," and easy conversation flowed between us, steady and comforting as a river flow. He told me about the wonders he saw in Hong Kong, the constantly busy streets, tightly packed and the fast pace the place always seemed to be in. In return, I told him of the parties I attended, some shenanigans in church and lazy days at home.

We arrived to my house, your typical two stories high house in America. With a small porch, backyard and a garage for the two second-handed cars we owed. I parked my car in the garage and we both got out, arriving to the kitchen where my mom was already cooking.

"Zacharias! Come here my boy," my mom pulled Zac into a hug, "oh you have grown so much, and gotten tanner! And you are still too skinny, dinner will be ready in two hours." Although this was how my mom greeted Zac every time, he still looked uncomfortable with my mom fuzzing about him.

"Hello to you too, mom." I emphasised the last part, Zac shot me a helpless look, I only smirk at him.

"Oh hey Kade," my mom said with a nonchalantly tone, but her eyes told otherwise. She finally released poor Zac.

"It's nice to see you too, Wendy" Zac finally spoke, "and I brought you some souvenirs from Hong Kong." He pulled out some snacks from his bag and handed them to my mom with both hands.

"Oh Zacharias! You didn't need to, really thank you." Mom pulled Zac in a hug again, but lucky for Zac, it was a quick one. After my mom harassed Zac some more, we could finally go up into my room.

"Yeah Zacharias when did you grow so tall?" I tilted my head up to look at him. He did grew taller during the summer, I never had to tilt my head up to him in the eyes, but now I came just below his nose.

He rolled his eyes, "you want your souvenirs or not?"

"Okay okay," I put my hands up in surrender and flopped onto my bed. Zac sat more gracefully besides me and threw a bag of something at me.

I caught it before it could hit me, "white rabbit?" I spoke out loud, reading the only English writing on the bag of something.

"It's some type of milky candy, quite famous from China," he pulled out a bottle of something, "and this is the Hong Kong styled milk tea."

"Thanks Zac you are the best," I accepted the bottle. Zac had talked about the milk tea from his hometown so many times that I felt like I had tasted it even though I never been to Hong Kong.

He watched me intently as I tipped the bottle back and the liquid hit my unsuspecting tastebud. It's strange, a bit bitter, yet sweet, and after taking a second gulp I could taste a hint of condensed milk.

His dark chocolate eyes were still watching me and they flickered onto my lips, "so what do you think about it," his eyes met mine.

"It's not what I expected," I took another gulp. Licking my lips, I could still feel his stare. "It's definitely different from the milk tea here." I said.

"Do you prefer the Hong Kong one or the American one?" He took the bottle from my hand and took a sip himself.

"I don't know, there's a difference but I don't have a preference. Both's fine for me," I took the bottle back and took another gulp, there was just a little left. I handed it to Zac. He finished it off.

"Oh well, now tell me about that game you had been playing all summer," Zac said and as usual, we played video games until my mom called us for dinner.