"Dammit Luca get back here you idiot!" I shouted at my brother. He was older than me, technically, but only by three days. We were both adopted and we were just about as close as it got.

"Make me!" He shot back, running a few steps ahead of me, holding my phone above his head. I put on an extra burst of speed and tackled him to the ground. He tried to get up but I sat on his chest and snatched my phone from his hand. "Oh my god you're heavy. Can't. Breathe." He dramatically gasped as if he were suffocating. I rolled my eyes and stood up, my phone clutched triumphantly in my hand. He sat up and looked at me, his head tilted to the side.

"What?" I asked.

"You're not trying to kill me right now."

"You stole my phone. It's not like you did anything that bad." He looked at the ground, suddenly becoming very interested in a blade of grass. I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. "What. Did. You. Do?" I said, my voice a very clearly false calm.

"Well um I—"

"Spit it out Luca!" I unlocked my phone to find it open to a text stream with Alex.

"You'll thank me later," Luca said quickly before running away from me as fast as his legs would carry him. I looked down at the outgoing text that had been sent from my phone.

It read, "hey. I was wondering if you would maybe want to get lunch with me sometime. As a date. It's fine if you don't but um yeah." My heart raced.

"Luca you bastard!" I shouted, but he was long gone, knowing better than to stick around near me when I was pissed. I didn't look it but I was very strong, and very fast. Lots of potential energy in my petite little body. I looked down at my phone in shock again. "Skdjdbejbd," was all I could manage, or some other unintelligible sound like it. Luca has complete misunderstood. I had been talking about Alex a lot lately, sure, but not because I liked him. Ugh. I trudged back to the house.

When I arrived, I went straight upstairs to Luca's room and slammed the door. He was sitting on his bed. When he saw the mutinous look on my face he immediately stood up, almost like a soldier at attention except more scared.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just thought—"

"No. Don't pretend like you thought anything at all! Gah! You're such an idiot sometimes!" I shouted, glad our parents weren't there to see this.

"Well you were talking about him a lot and you always looked so happy when you were thinking about him. You do like him right?"

"No I don't you complete fucking idiot!"

"Oh." Luca said. He seemed to be at a loss for words as the realization of just how monumentally he had fucked up dawned on him.

"Yeah. That's what I thought! If I had liked him I would have asked him out myself!"

"But then why—"

"Am I always talking about him?" I finished.

"Well yeah. I mean—"

"No! Shut up. I talk. You listen!" Luca nodded mutely as I gathered my courage to say what I was about to say.

"I thought that if I got closer to him I would get closer to Charlie," I said, no longer yelling. Luca looked confused for a moment and then his eyes widened as he realized what I was saying.

"Oh. Oh my god. So you—. You like—. Not—. Oh shit." He said. I just looked at my shoes. "I really messed up this time huh?" Luca said with a nervous laugh.

"Yes. You really, really did." I felt the beginnings of tears in my eyes but forced them back. No crying. Never crying. Bad things happen when I cry and just because it hasn't happened in years doesn't mean it never will again so no. No crying. Luca wrapped his arms around me.

"I'll fix it." He promised.

"Oh? And how do you expect to do that?" I responded with a slight sniffle.

"I'll—. I'll tell him the truth," he said finally.

"You'll what?" I said, pushing away from him.

"Oh no. Not the whole truth. Just the part about me stealing your phone. I'll tell him that I sent the text and that you had nothing to do with it." Luca looked at me for a moment before putting a hand on my shoulder. "I really am sorry."

"I know."

"Forgive me?"

"Always." He smiles at me. "But you're still an idiot." I added. He chuckled and a moment later we heard the front door open.

"Luna? Luca? You guys home?"

"We're here mom!" Luca called back. Both he and I had been calling our parents "mom" and "dad" for around two years. It was really nice.

"How do the two of you feel about spaghetti for dinner?" Our mom called from downstairs.

"Sounds good mom!" I shouted back. I heard mom come up the stairs and, in preparation for what I knew was coming, had a quick but silent argument with Luca. Charlie was twin sister. I hadn't come out to anyone yet, least of all my parents.

"How were your days? Anything interesting happen?" Our mom asked. I sent one last glare over to Luca and he gave a slight sigh of defeat.

"Not much. Just the usual stuff. Do you know when dad's getting home?" Luca responded. Mom looked from Luca to me with that skeptical 'I am your mother and I know you're not telling me everything,' look that mothers all around the world have perfected but she let it slide.

"He said he'd be home around six tonight," she responded.

"Cool. I'll be in my room if anyway needs me," I said, walking past her and into my room across the hall. I closed my door and sat at my desk, lost in thought.