Monday morning, I got to school early, practically dragging a half-asleep Larry behind me. I headed towards my locker, willing to wait right there until the bell for Mario.

Well, I intended to. When I got close, I was interrupted by George and his friends, who happened to be walking down the hallway.

"Hey, gorgeous," George said as he wrapped an arm around my waist with a smile.

"Hi, George. Justin. Harvey. Calvin." They all nodded at me but didn't say anything.

"So, what are you doing here so early?" George asked, bringing me down the hallway with him and his friends. They were probably heading to the cafeteria for food, so I guessed I was, too.

"I was, um." I trailed off. Mentioning anything about Mario felt too weird when I was with George. It almost felt as if they were two parts of my life that I needed to keep separate.

George knew me too well. "Mario," he said, something in his tone making the name sound like a swear. He fell back, letting his friends go ahead of us, and pulled me to the side of the hallway. "I honestly don't know why you feel you need to talk to him. He's up to something." His friends stopped at the cafeteria entrance, but he waved for them to go on in.

I blushed. "We're friends, George. Like us. I didn't text him all weekend, and I want to know if he's still mad at me." Sort of.

He frowned. "Daisy, I know you guys are friends. There's just something about him that doesn't sit well with me when you're with him. You never did tell me what you guys fought about, by the way. Would you care to tell me now?"

I ducked my head and fought the urge to take a step back at the hostile tone of his voice. "Um." I groaned quietly and looked away. "You're just going to get mad."

He gave me a blank look. "Mad at who?" His finger gently nudged my chin so I was looking him in the eye.

I swallowed, feeling a little scared. This could be the end of us, but I was oddly at ease about that. No, what scared me was what he might do to Mario when he found out. "Um." I pulled away from George. "What happened was, I let him come with me to that concert after the play, and we got locked out of his car. While we waited for his dad to come with the spare key, we sat on the ground and were talking. He leaned over really close, and then abruptly got up and began to apologize. I haven't spoken to him since."

George ran a hand through his hair as he studied me. His gaze felt like it was trying to find the lie, and I saw when he found it. "He tried to kiss you?"

"Well, kind of, but not quite. It seemed like it at the time, but now I'm not sure."

He narrowed his eyes. "You're not sure." I stared at him. "Stop lying to me, Daisy. You never have before. I thought you were always honest, if not to everyone, then at least to me." He shook his head and looked away. After a long moment of silence, he said, "Tell me one thing."

"Of course."

He studied me for a minute. "Do you like him?"

"As a friend, yes." That was very true. I loved him in that way.

"Nothing more?"

"No." As far as I could tell, we were friends and that was it.

He studied me a moment longer before letting out a breath and stepping closer. His hands touched my waist and I let him. "Daisy, lying to me makes me assume things, so, please, don't lie to me like that again." He kissed my cheek and held me a moment in a loose embrace before releasing me. "Well, I guess I'll see you in class." He began walking backwards before finally turning and jogging into the cafeteria.

I turned around and saw Mario and another, shorter guy in front of our shared locker. Mario was opening the door while his friend was talking to him. He glanced up as I got there. "Hi," he said, slightly breathless. The word made the friend stop speaking and turn to look at me.

"Hi," I said back, my voice slightly shrill. I removed some books and stuffed others into their place. The shorter guy watched me closely. Okay, more like he was staring at me openly, actually. It was a little odd and just this side of unsettling. "Um, who's your friend?" I asked Mario quietly.

"Oh! Daisy, this is my brother, Jimmy. Jimmy, this is Daisy." Mario made himself busy stacking his books neatly in the bottom of the locker.

I turned to Jimmy with a smile. "Pleasure to meet you. Between Mario and my brother, I've heard a lot about you." A bit of a stretch, but it was the polite thing to say. I'd heard next to nothing about him.

He grinned. "Trust me, the pleasure is all mine." Mario elbowed him, making him grunt. He rubbed his side and shrugged. "I've heard a lot about you as well. Nice to meet you."

I gave him an unsure smile and turned to Mario. "I want to talk to you."

Mario straightened and looked at me. "We're talking." He resumed putting stuff from his bag in the bottom of our locker. "You can say whatever you want to."

I looked at Jimmy. He watched me, amused. "Okay, then." I didn't want to talk about this in front of a crowd, and everyone knows three is a crowd. But he said to talk, and I needed to tell him. "George knows what happened Friday."

Mario stood up so quickly I knew he had to be dizzy. "You told him?" I nodded. He rubbed his brow. "Okay." He glanced at his brother and looked at me. "Does he know, um." He stopped, apparently not sure how to finish the thought.

I nodded. "I told him you apologized, too."

Jimmy crossed between us to lean on the lockers. "Would anyone care to hear what I have to say?"

Mario asked me a question with his eyes, and I shrugged. "Sure," he told his brother.

"In my humble opinion, you shouldn't have apologized." Mario shot Jimmy a look, which he ignored. "That's, like, the cardinal rule when attempting to kiss someone, even if you are sorry." I felt myself get very red. "And Miss Daisy, here, you did right in telling your boyfriend, since there shouldn't be secrets in a healthy relationship. Do you still want to be friends with Mar?"

"Of course."

"Then be friends. I don't think he'll do it again. At least, not any time soon." Mario turned so red I was able to see the color despite the rich tan of his skin. Jimmy either didn't notice or refused to. He just glanced between the two of us. "Well, it seems my work here is done. Catch you guys later." He walked away.

Mario looked ready to crawl under a rock. He wouldn't look at me, either. "Mario," I said quietly.

He shook his head. "I don't want to do this now."

"Mario-"

He turned to me and placed one hand gently on my shoulder. "Daisy, I'll drive you to work. We can do this then, okay?" I nodded slowly. He gave me one nod before slamming the locker and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Let's go to class, then." He walked off at a brisk pace, leaving me to trot after him.

I couldn't get a word out of him after that. Even at lunch, where he normally talked to everyone else about as much as Susan did, he said nothing. Dan ended up talking the whole time. After class, still nothing. We walked in silence to our locker and then I wordlessly followed him to his car. We got in and he began driving.

After he got out on the road, he finally spoke. "I'm sorry about my brother." His cheeks grew darker.

I shrugged. "It's okay."

"No, it's not. Not to me." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. A few minutes later we arrived at the salon. He turned the car off and turned to me. "I, um."

"You like me." I felt almost giddy at the thought.

He sighed. "Yes. I like you. A lot."

I fought the grin that was so close to erupting. Words had left me entirely. Mario liked me. I suppose the feeling maybe should have made me jump out of the car, or tell him why anything between us was impossible because I had already given my word to George. Instead, I sat there, staring out my window at the salon door with possibly the weirdest looking smile.

"I can understand if you don't want to hang out anymore." I looked at him, frown replacing the smile. Not hang out? "George probably wouldn't be happy about it, anyway."

"Mario." I reached over and touched his arm.

He shied away. "Don't."

I pulled my hand back and tried to just use my words. "Mario, I don't want to stop hanging out with you. Unless you want to."

He chewed furiously on his lip. "I don't, but it would probably be better." He studied me a moment. "I won't say I wish I could take it back, because that would be a lie, but I do wish it would have happened another time."

We fell into silence for a long moment. "Why?"

He sighed. "You're in a relationship now. Well, about to be. I know you like him, not me. You don't have any reason to." He shrugged. "It's fine, though. Just, if we hang out, I don't want to hear all about your dates and stuff."

I nodded. "I can understand that." If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't want to hear about his dates with another girl, either. I reached to open the door but paused with my hand on the handle. "Mario?"

"What?" he asked quietly.

I turned to him. He was watching me intently. I swallowed and nearly forgot what I was going to say. His eyes just had that effect. "You say I don't have a reason. Give me one." His lips parted a tiny bit, and I got out before he could say anything.

---

That week passed much like the one before: Mario drove me to work, I dealt with the odd customer, and my brother took me home where I did my homework. Wednesday came and I noticed an odd appointment on Friday. I talked to my boss to be sure, and at lunch the next day I told my friends.

"Apparently, Scott's 'Dos and Nails is doing hair and makeup for the cast of Pieces every week now."

Susan literally dropped her fork while Don just stared at me, both of them with their mouths open. The whole table gave me matching looks of surprise. Then Susan shrieked. My eyes grew wide as I glanced around and saw everyone staring at us. "That's amazing!" She looked ready to jump across the table and hug me.

Mario smiled to himself, George squeezed my hand he was holding under the table, and Dan grinned. "Shh!" I gave Sue a panicked look. She was still shouting, and I was beginning to worry a teacher would think something was wrong. That was the last thing I needed.

Susan didn't care, though. "I don't believe it! Can you get their autographs for me? Shoot, where's my book?" She began rummaging through her bag, searching for the sketchpad she kept with her to get signatures from as many actors and actresses as she could. It was her 'book of inspiration'.

"No! I'm there to work, not to have fun. Besides, I don't get to see everyone. There's two teams."

She deflated a little. "Oh."

"That's cool, Daze," George said. He smiled at me before going back to eating.

"Really cool," Mario added next to me. I looked over at him. His eyes were glinting. I felt myself go a little soft.

Dan was the only one who didn't speak. He just ate with this look on his face I couldn't quite place. It was mostly for his brother, I was sure, since that's where his eyes kept going.

After lunch, Mario and I kept up not speaking to each other until we were in his car. We discussed school and assignments on the way to my job. He dropped me off, I worked, went home, and, well, you get the idea. Friday afternoon, when he dropped me off, he said he'd see me that night at the play.

I practically danced through work. Well, until the kid. Around four, a woman came in with her child. I looked at the computer. "Mrs. Allen?"

"That's me. Sorry I'm late," she told me, putting the boy down. "Charles wasn't feeling well and I had to pick him up from daycare." The kid looked up at me, the skin around his huge eyes dark.

"Aww. Don't worry, Mrs. Allen, I'll watch him while you're back there." I stood and came around the counter. When I got down and held out my arms, he ran right to me with his arms out. Children usually loved me. I grinned as I picked him up. "Right this way." I showed her to the chair.

Shay looked up and saw Charles. She pouted. "Oh, he is handsome. Such a handsome little man." She turned to the woman. "How old is he?"

Mrs. Allen was grinning. "He just turned three."

Shay placed a hand on her heart and sighed. "I adore kids. I have two at home, myself. Jake and I are thinking about a third, but we haven't decided yet."

The phone rang. "I need to get back to the counter," I told them as I walked out. When I picked up the phone, he tried to grab the cord. "No, no," I told him sweetly, trying to turn away some and get it out of his little hands. "Scott's 'Dos and Nails, Daisy speaking."

A woman giggled. "Caught you with your kid, huh?"

"Not mine, but yes." I smiled and sat him in the chair next to mine. He stared at me in amazement. "I was just watching him for a client. How may I help you?"

"I need a hair appointment for next week, if it's possible."

I sat in my chair and looked at the calendar on the desk. "We have openings for Tuesday at the earliest and then we have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday."

"What times do you have Thursday morning?"

I pulled the day up as she spoke. "We have ten and eleven."

"Eleven will work."

"May I have your name?"

"Eileen Covey."

I typed her in and added the appointment. "Okay, we've got you at eleven on Thursday. Anything else I can help you with, Ms. Covey?"

"No, thank you dear. Have a good day."

"You, too." I hung up and turned back to Charles. He looked a little green. I moved him to my lap and gently stroked his hair as he buried his face in my stomach, clutching my dress with both hands. "Oh, poor little Charlie." I held him to me with one hand while I gently but firmly massaged one wrist. When I've done that for myself, it helped settle my stomach, and I hoped it was doing the same for him.

I hoped he wasn't stretching my dress. It was my favorite. It was a dark purple floral with a low waist and a belled skirt that hit right above my knee. I unclasped his hand and turned him so he faced away from me. As I began to massage his wrist again, he threw up. All over my lap. I closed my eyes and felt it as chunks clung to my legs and slid down.

My lunch threatened to come back up. "Shay!" I called.

"What? I'm busy!"

"Tell Kenny to come here!"

"Kenny!" she shouted. A muffled response. "Daisy wants you up front!"

A few moments later he jogged up and stopped when he saw the scene. He glanced at me and picked up Charles. "Come on, little man. Let's get you cleaned up." He looked at me. "I'll get Mr. Scott."

"Please hurry and thank you." He nodded as he walked away.