Nine A.M. found me with my hair in a mess and still in my pajamas. I was just heading downstairs to breakfast. The smell of bacon and eggs wafted up the stairs and woke me up.

Larry and Dad were upstairs, and Aunt Millie was in the downstairs office, which was in a corner of the living room. There was a knock on the door, so I got up and went to see who it was. When I opened the door, Geo grinned at me, hands in his pockets. "I thought you'd be dressed by now," he said, eyeing my over-sized tee and yoga pants.

I felt my cheeks grow hot with a deep blush. "I just got up. Wanna come in? I was in the middle of breakfast." I backed up so he could pass.

"Why not?" He walked in, looking around at things as if he hadn't ever been in my house before. We went to the kitchen, and he sat next to me, watching me eat.

Aunt Millie came in and he looked up at her. "Hello, George," she said, smiling at him. "Good to see you. I thought it was you I heard. What's your plans for today?"

He returned her smile. "Skating at a new rink near Denver. There's a snack bar and arcade there. Susan is coming with us."

She nodded. "Sounds like fun."

I hurried to eat while no one was watching. Which, naturally, led to me choking on a tiny piece of crispy bacon. George patted my back while Aunt Millie watched with concern. Once I knew I wasn't going to die, I pushed my plate to George. "I'm going to get ready," I told him quietly. He nodded as he ate the eggs I'd left.

Upstairs, I hurried to put on a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved shirt I had had made a few years ago with a picture of John Denver playing a twelve-string guitar and the words Rocky Mountain High in cursive on the top, a pair of sneakers, and then I grabbed my roller skates from the closet. I hated renting shoes, so I bought my own. They were brand-new, but I'd made them look vintage. I'd also painted the wheels a brownish-red color that made me think of fall. No one could mistake them for theirs. Not to mention I had scratched my name into the underside.

My hair was next. I brushed the waves and curls before putting gel into it. I hated when I had it in my hair, but I liked the effect more. Once they were semi-straight, I moved on to makeup. Just a touch of liner and mascara, a little gloss on my lips. Done.

I stuffed my skates into a backpack that I used as a purse on days like this along with my wallet and a tube of lip gloss. I was ready. When I stepped out of my room, I heard voices drifting down the hallway to me. Dad and Larry were in Dad's room, having it out, it seemed. I glanced at the stairs, knowing I should go down to where George was waiting, but instead I went to the door to listen.

"If you were with Maria, then why did you lie to me?" Dad was asking loudly. Silence. "Answer me!"

"I didn't want you to be mad," Larry replied quietly.

"I wouldn't have been mad then, but I'm mad now. Think of your actions! You lied to me, saying you'd gone by to pick your sister up, but she didn't come. Then, when I got her, she said she never saw you. If you were in my shoes, what would you have done?" Silence. "Let me tell you, then. You would have believed the one you trusted to be more honest, and then punished the other. I trusted you, and I was on my way to ground Daisy this morning when you came in here."

"I'm sorry, okay?" Larry said.

"Good. I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, though. She is. Because of you, I got mad at her. When she gets home, you're going to apologize and tell both of us exactly what you were up to. In the meantime, you're staying home today. I'm off so I'll be here all day. You're grounded today for lying, and I'm grounding you for two weeks for being out well past your curfew. That means school and home. No calls, either. You're not allowed to use your phone for a week."

"What about Daisy? I pick her up from work in the evening."

"She'll have someone else pick her up, either me, George, or Millie. You're not going anywhere."

I backed up and hurried to the stairs. So Larry admitted he'd lied. That was unexpected. I was sure I'd be grounded today at some point. That worked out better than I thought it would. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be happy I wasn't getting in trouble, or upset Larry lied in the first place. All I honestly felt was sadness and frustration.

George was at the bottom of the stairs, waiting. Now wasn't the time to think about it. I was going out with friends.

---

Jimmy and Mario were at my locker when I arrived Monday morning. "Hey, Jimmy," I said as I got to them.

He smiled and gave me a quick side-hug. "Hey, Daisy. How was your weekend?"

I grinned. "Great. We went roller skating in Denver and then George and I watched movies with his mom."

Jimmy smiled at me and raised one eyebrow. "His mom, huh?"

"She works from home, and she was on the corded phone in there because the cordless was dead."

"Ah." He glanced at Mario, who hadn't looked at me yet. "My weekend was quite boring. Mario beat me at mini-golf, Maria didn't come because she's grounded, and so is your brother."

"I nearly was, too."

Mario turned around as his brother asked, "What happened?"

"Larry lied to my dad about coming to get me, and Dad believed him. He said he came and waited for me, but I never came out and then he left after a little bit, but I was watching the whole time and never saw him."

The brothers looked at each other. "Why didn't he ground you?" Mario asked.

"Larry confessed the next morning."

Jimmy nodded, impressed. Mario turned back to the locker and combed his hair in the mirror he'd put on the door a few weeks ago. "Hey," Jimmy said, hiking his bag higher on his shoulder. "I wanted to show you something in my locker. We still have a few minutes." He stared at me.

"Um, okay," I replied, pretty sure that whatever it was he needed to show me didn't exist.

He led me down the hall and around a few turns. We stopped and he opened his locker. "I wanted to talk to you." He opened his bag, pulled out some stapled pages and book, shoved his bag inside, and shut the door. "Mario told me what you told him the other day."

"What did I say?"

"To give you a reason to like him. Look, the reason I wanted to talk to you about that is because he's my little brother. We butt heads a lot and rarely agree on much, but he looks up to me and I love him to death. I don't want him to get hurt. Telling him that kind of thing makes him think he's got a shot, and at the moment he's beginning to realize he doesn't. You're playing with him, Daisy, and that's not good."

I felt my face heat up and I knew it was probably really red. Talking to my brother is hard enough, but talking to Mario's brother? I felt like I had to explain, but I really didn't want to. "I'm not trying to 'play' as you put it. I meant what I said."

He lowered his head, looking up at me in what appeared to be suspicion. "You meant it."

"Of course I did!" I took a deep breath and glanced around. "I'm not the type to play with people's emotions. Please, keep this between us." He gave me a long look before nodding. "Promise me."

"I promise."

I nodded once. "I don't want anyone to know, but I do like your brother, a lot. He's amazing. I know I have an obligation to George, and I know that, in the end, I'm going to hurt one of them, and that's tearing me apart. I can't take it." I felt tears welling and I looked away from him. This was the most real I'd let myself be in a while, even with myself. Which, I think, burst the dam that I'd built up.

Before I could even think about what was being said, words came pouring out, words I hadn't let myself think. "George is one of my best friends and he loves me, I know he does, and I know I loved him. Mario showed up and now I don't even know what's up or down. I don't know how to tell George anything. I want to keep them separate and in their own spaces where no one gets hurt but, no matter what, I think I'm going to be hurt more than either of them. I don't know what to do. I want Mario but I don't know how to tell George goodbye when he's been there for me and helped me out so many times and knows so much about me."

Jimmy turned me to him. I couldn't read his face or his eyes, but I could tell I was more welcomed by him than I ever had been. When I realized that, I also realized that there was some sort of knowing. As if he's had this same problem. "Oh, Daisy." He hugged me, which I needed. I was a few inches taller, which made it slightly awkward for me, but welcome all the same. After a moment or two he gently pushed me back. "I know how it feels to be torn." The bell rang and we both looked up. "You'd better run. I'll take you to work and we can talk then, okay? I'm supposed to go to the Math Club meeting – they had a last minute rescheduling – but I can skip today."

"Math club?"

He grinned at me and nudged me down the hallway. "Go to class."

I did. I barely made it to my seat before the second bell. Mario didn't even look at me, and he didn't look at me until lunch. I wasn't paying attention and I caught a mop bucket the janitor was using to clean up, causing me to trip. Mario caught me, steadying my tray. I tried to thank him, but he just walked away. He didn't speak to me until we went to leave.

"I don't think I can take you to work today," he said quietly. "George asked me to hang out."

"That's okay. Jimmy was going to take me, anyway."

He looked at me, but I found I couldn't look at him. "Why?"

"He wants to talk."

"What about? And since when do you hang out with my brother?"

I shook my head. "It's between us, and since I had to spend the day with him while my brother and his new girlfriend left us. See you tomorrow." I sped up, leaving him behind. I went to Mario's car, which was idling with Jimmy behind the wheel. It was weird to see him instead of his brother.

"Like I was saying earlier," he said as he slid a CD into the player. In a moment One Direction began playing. Surprising, but I liked them. "I can understand feeling torn. Yes, whoever you choose is going to hurt the other one, but there's something you should keep in mind." He backed out and got in line to leave. "That thing is this: you can never keep two people in limbo. In other words, having two or more guys you're juggling will only lead to problems. The sooner you can make up your mind, the better, is what I'm trying to say. Playing with people is not kind."

"I'm not trying to play with them."

"But you are. Maybe you're not doing it on purpose, but you're doing it." He pulled out finally and we were on our way to my job. "Whenever they see the other with you, it bothers them. It bothers Mario, at least. I'll let you in on a little secret. He's not going to tell you this, and he'd kill me if he found out I did tell you. But that night you two were locked out of the car, and you thought he was going to kiss you, he hated himself. He genuinely thought he'd ruined a good friendship. He hasn't had many friends. Mostly he's had sycophants, or people that would sell him out in a heartbeat."

"Why's that?"

He pressed his lips together. "That's something he'll have to explain. Anyway, he thought he'd ruined what you two had. He was upset at me, too, when I interfered that Monday, but at least it got you two to talk again."

"We had been talking. I texted him and told him we were cool."

He shook his head. "That didn't do much for him. At some point after that, he switched from wishing he could go back and change that night, to regretting that he didn't kiss you. I don't know when. All he's told me is that now he wishes he had kissed you, anyway. It may have ruined everything, but at least he would know where you two stood." I swallowed. "When you guys were out and saw George, and he'd thought you two kissed, he told me that was the only time he hated you."

"He hated me?" I asked in a hoarse voice. I felt tears welling up again, but I blinked them back.

"Only for a moment," Jimmy assured me. "But now you're about to go on a date with George to some play. I don't know if he's told you this, but his whole life the theater has been some sort of sanctuary for him. Now George is taking you there. He's not happy. Beyond unhappy, actually. I'm kind of worried. It seems like he's pulling away a little. You, my dear, need to make a choice." He parked. "George or him. Sooner rather than later, too."

I eyed the front of the store and sighed. "I'm going on a date with George. He has the tickets and all of that. I want to at least give him that." I turned to Jimmy. "If I decide I want Mario after that, I'll call him when I get home."

"Fair enough." He patted my shoulder. "Be careful." He looked past me. "I know those people too well. I don't think hanging around them after work is a good idea."

I shook my head. "I don't think I'll be doing that again. It was so awkward. We had nothing to say to each other. They talked on and on, but it was lost on me." I sighed. "I wish Mario had come."

"He didn't?" He sounded surprised.

I turned to him. "Nope. Well, he came to the theater, but I didn't see him until we were leaving."

"Why didn't you take him?"

"He was sitting in the car, watching. I saw him as we were driving away."

Jimmy frowned. "That's sad." I nodded. He sighed and shook his head. "But Mario walking through pouring rain while he feels sad is him in a nutshell. I bet he was sitting there wishing it was raining to make the scene perfect. He's just a tad dramatic once you really get to know him."

"I know him pretty well."

Jimmy grinned at me. "Not as well as you thought. You don't understand his mind yet. Yet. Then, the moment you do, you'll probably head for the hills." He chuckled. I just smiled. "You're late. Get out."