What are you keeping from me?

Back at Anthony's hometown, the tour had come to an end and only one thing was left to do, for Rebecca to meet Anthony's friends. He had been nervous to ask her about it, but considering their heart to heart earlier in the day, he felt more confident that she would accept and actually enjoy meeting them. However, before that, he would actually have to ask her, and that was proving to be more difficult than he had hoped. He had been called clueless for most of his life and he had shown plenty of times, that he deserves to be called clueless. So, in order not to come across as a clueless person to Rebecca, he was thinking very hard about what the right course of action would be.

After visiting his high school and the park where he would play basketball with his buddies back in the day, they had visited all the important places from his childhood. Essentially finishing the tour he had planned out. But since Rebecca didn't know that, and had no idea when they would reach their final destination, he had found a way to buy himself a bit more time. Since he didn't know if and how he should ask her about meeting his friends, he had decided to just continue their walk to the place where they were supposed to meet his friends. He figured either them arriving at the meeting spot would force him to spit it out or he could use that time to find a way to ask Rebecca how she felt about the final important destination on their trip down his memory lane. Although that is what he thought, the situation he found himself in right now, was making either scenario quite difficult to turn into reality.

Anthony and Rebecca were close to reaching the local diner where the meeting was supposed to take place, but he still hadn't been able to ask her. Although it wasn't for a lack of trying. It was just that Rebecca had told him just after they had left the park, that she was quite jealous of his childhood and his clear abundance of friends, because she herself didn't have that many. Her parents didn't provide her with much of anything growing up. Including things like nice clothes, toys or lunches for that matter. This resulted in her being known as the poor kid in class, leaving her with very few people who would consider her their friend. After all, kids can be quite cruel in that regard. If you couldn't keep up, if you were different from the rest, if you lacked the resources to keep up with the latest fads, it was quite easy to be excluded. The one friend she did have, moved away when she was about 10 years old.

With how much she had going on in her life by then, being disappointed by those those closest to her, being ignored and practically abandoned, by both her parents and now her only friend as well, it took its toll. Afraid of being rejected. Afraid of being abandoned by yet another person. Afraid of becoming yet another person's burden. In the end, this event made her become even more closed off than she already was. Resulting in her having no friends at all for the remainder of her childhood. Receiving the final blow when her grandmother passed away and being kicked out by her own parents.

So, after listening to her say that, how could he possibly bring up the topic of meeting up with all of his friends? Pushing what she lacked, and desired, right in her face after dragging her past all his happy memories all day.

But although Anthony was known for being clueless, Rebecca wasn't. In fact, she was the opposite. She was very sensitive to other people's small mannerisms because of her tense home situation growing up. She didn't want to become a bigger burden to her parents than what they already considered her and her brother to be. So, she would always pay attention to every little detail, from the way their feet landed all the way to the movement in their brows, in order to read their mood. That is why it was so surprising, that she had managed to be unaware of Anthony's feelings for such a long time. Although a big part of that had been because of denial. But now, she clearly noticed that there was something that Anthony wanted to say. At first she had been a bit preoccupied with her own thoughts and feelings, but now that she had looked up at Anthony's face, she noticed how there was something off.

Rebecca stopped walking, and since they were holding hands, it didn't take long for Anthony to notice. He turned around with a confused look on his face and said, "What is wrong?" To which Rebecca replied, "I should be asking you that question." Anthony's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open a little as Rebecca's words registered and he saw the look on her face. Rebecca continued and asked, "What are you keeping from me? I can tell there is something you want to say, so just say it. Seeing you like this is only making me anxious."