I caught the melted part of my popsicle which was about to drip down with my tongue. The bzing sun had long retreated past the horizon, but it was still a hot night.

  Non was holding on to a disposable cup with a rectangur block of ice I'd frozen for him in the freezer. Occasionally, he sipped the ice water that had melted into the cup. He'd said that he was fine without anything, but I'd insisted. In this weather, no amount of ice was too much.

  Even he was sweating a little too--I could see the beads beginning to form on his forehead.

  My arms felt sticky with sweat. The back of my shirt had dampened enough to begin clinging to my skin.

  "I hope the beach is cooler," I mumbled. "I'm about to melt into a puddle."

  We'd been here for five days, and it was fun showing him around to all my favorite childhood spots, including the rooftop of my house.

  "It's not that bad." His voice was soft. "I kind of like it when it's hot."

  As we continued strolling, him trailing slightly behind me because I was leading the way to the beach, the sound of faint meowing reached my ears. I disregarded it at first, because many of the residents here in our suburb owned cats that freely roamed the neighborhood.

  Then Non turned his head upwards and began looking around.

  "What's up?" I asked him.

  "Do you hear a cat? It sounds like it's coming from above."

  There were some trees up ahead, to the left of the sidewalk we were walking on.

  The look on Non's face was one of utmost concentration, and he slowly took steps forward.

  As I followed him, the meowing seemed to grow louder until it was undeniably close.

  Finally, he came to a halt at a sturdy-looking elm tree. A familiar-looking calico cat sat on one of the higher branches, repeatedly meowing. Even in the darkness that was rapidly falling over us, I could see its little mouth moving with each cry.

  "Hey, I know that cat," I said. "That's my neighbor Mrs. Vincent's cat. I see her around the neighborhood every time I'm back home on break. She's really friendly."

  "He probably can't get down."

  "Can you hold this for me?" he said, handing me his cup of ice. "I'll get her down."

  Taking it, I beamed at him. "My animal hero. I'll be rooting for you!"

  "I'll try to come back in one piece," he said dryly.

  He climbed up the tree with that nimbleness and agility I'd gotten used to seeing. Non grabbed onto the base of the branch Chestnut the cat was stranded on with one hand, then heaved himself up onto it.

  He stretched out a hand to Chestnut, whispering something that I couldn't hear from where I was. Chestnut stared at him and made no move to retreat.

  Slowly, Non crept across the branch and reached out for her. Chestnut hissed rather loudly and moved one hind leg backwards. Non stopped his movements and said something to her.

  He inched forward again until he was right in front of Chestnut.

  Then he pulled Chestnut into his arms and called out, "Chelsea, stand back. I'm going to jump."

  "Okay," I said, hastily taking several steps back from the tree.

  Without any ceremony, he rolled right off the branch and nded on the ground on both feet.

  "Whoa, that was ... abrupt," I said, my heart still beating a little faster than usual.

  "But I told you I was going to jump."

  "Oh, I don't mean that part." I shook my head. "It's just that you looked like you fell off rather than jumped off."

  He grinned. "The branch felt kind of flimsy. I didn't want to risk breaking it by unching off it. Don't worry, I can nd safely."

  Impressed, I stuck most of my popsicle into my mouth and patted him on the back with my newly freed hand.

  "I know," I said, my words coming out slurred because of the popsicle. "You just proved it to me."

  Chestnut remained in his arms, not struggling to jump down at all.

  "She's really docile," Non said, looking down at him. "I was expecting her to scratch me."

  We started walking out from the cluster of trees, with Non still carrying the cat in his arms.

  "She really is! We have a lot of wandering cats here, but Chestnut is the neighborhood favorite. I heard Mr. Pierce used to give her a whole fish to snack on when she visited his garden."

  When we got to the sidewalk, he gently put Chestnut down on the ground. I returned him his cup of ice.

  "Chestnut," he repeated. "Cute name."

  "Isn't it?" I said, squatting down to pet her. "Do you remember me, Chestnut? I used to feed you cat treats."

  Chestnut sat still and let me pet her back.

  "You bought cat treats to feed her?"

  Non squatted down next to me.

  "No, Ryan did. He gave me some so I could win the hearts of the passing cats. He could walk down the street and end up with five cats following him. He was like a cat whisperer or something."

  Chestnut's eyes were closed as she enjoyed the gentle strokes I gave to her back. She was even more mellow than I remembered. In the past, she always took a couple of days to warm up to me again whenever I came back on school breaks. She was probably eight years old now.

  "Was? What happened?"

  "He got that telescope he wanted for his birthday."

  Non grinned. "Alright, I can get behind a reason like that. I'd probably still find time to visit the cats though."

  I beamed at him. "Of course you would.”

  “Wow, that was amazing!”

  I looked up in surprise at two girls who had just approached us, stepping off the street and onto the curb. I’d noticed a few other people walking on the other side of the street earlier, but they were too far away for me to really pay attention.

  Whenever I came back home on break from Fairwood, I’d always interacted more with the elderly residents compared to children my age. I did get to know some peers around my age, but since we didn’t go to the same schools and didn’t see much of each other most of the year, they tended to stick more to their own established groups. However, these two girls didn’t look familiar to me.

  Anyway, they looked a few years younger than us so we probably wouldn’t have spoken much even if we had seen each other around.

  “We saw how you just saved Chestnut,” the brown-haired girl said, addressing Non with a warm smile before turning it on me. “That was so kind of you!”

  While I smiled back at her, he shrugged.

  Chestnut, who evidently had her fill of pets, got up and padded over to the bck-haired girl. She sat down at her feet and stared up at her.

  “Oh, is she yours?” he asked, rising to his feet as well.

  “No, she’s our grandmother’s,” the bck-haired girl said, bending down to pick Chestnut up. “We don’t live here, but we come to visit every few months.”

  Chestnut didn’t struggle, settling easily into her arms.

  “Oh, you’re Mrs. Vincent’s granddaughter?” I asked.

  “Me too,” the brown-haired girl beside her said, draping her arm over the other girl’s shoulders. “We’re sisters. I’m Rebecca. She’s Kate.”

  “I’m Chelsea,” I said, before waving at Non, “and this is Non. I used to py with everyone’s cats whenever I was home from school.”

  “Thanks so much for saving her,” Kate said. “I think I’ve seen you around here the past few days, actually.”

  I stared in confusion when she elbowed Rebecca in a somewhat subtle motion.

  While looking only at Non, Rebecca stuttered, “Uh, I was wondering, uh …”

  Kate nudged her a little more.

  “You’re like, really cute,” she blurted out. “We’re going to watch a movie tomorrow. Want to come with us?”

  My jaw fell to the ground, and I couldn’t pick it back up. She was bold.

  I would never have dared to say that to Non when I first realized I liked him.

  Okay, stop. That wasn’t the point here. The point here was that she was hitting on him, and she was doing it right in front of me.

  I was too shocked to even speak.

  Stepping closer to me, Non slipped his arm around my waist.

  “Sorry, I’m not interested,” he said. “I already have a girlfriend.”

  The color drained from both of their faces as they turned to me.

  "I'm so sorry!" Rebecca gasped, the most horrified expression coming onto her face. "We thought you were his sis—"

  She stopped the second Kate gave her a look.

  “Becks,” Kate whispered sharply.

  “Sorry!” she excimed again, giving us an apologetic gnce.

  “Sorry, we didn’t know,” Kate said, tugging her arm. “Come on, Becks, let’s go. Sorry, we better get Chestnut back to our grandmother.”

  Pushing through the stone that was my face to smile at them, I said, “Sure, no problem.”

  They turned around and hurried off, but before they got out of earshot, I heard Kate whispering to Rebecca, sounding incredibly mortified, "What?"

  “I shouldn’t have—"

  "I really thought she was his older sister—"

  "Kill me now—"

  Their voices faded away as the distance between us increased.

  I gnawed on my lower lip.

  The way Non's eyes followed them with a somber gaze told me that he'd heard them, too. That was a given since his hearing was so much better than mine.

  We gnced at each other.

  “Well, let’s go,” he said.

  “Yeah,” I said lightly. “The beach is waiting for us.”

  As we took the next couple of steps forward again, Non’s arm slid off my waist and returned to his side. My fingers itched to reach out for his hand, but I clenched them and stuffed my hand into my pocket.