It's Complicated

Chapter 5

"Okay, spill," Susan told me the moment she could get me alone. I looked at my bedroom mirror and watched a red flush creep into my cheeks. "Mario's here tonight and he looks happier than at school earlier today. Explain."

I turned to her. "Of course he looks happier now. He's not at school!"

She shook her head, crossing her arms and leaning on my shut door. "That's not what I meant."

I sighed. "Look. We're not dating and we're not interested in each other. We're only friends." Or were we? I bit my lip as the thought crossed my mind. "If it makes you happy, I'll go downstairs and ask him to leave."

She shook her head. "Why would that make me happy? I don't care who you date, but George does. If people see you and Mario out at a lot of places, it will get back to him, and then things will just be super weird. Even though I'm in drama, I hate things being weird."

I hurried to calm her down because her eyes were getting big and she was bordering on a freak-out. "I'll talk to him. Things won't get weird, okay, Susan?" She slowly nodded, closing her eyes and trying to even her breaths. "George and I are still as much into each other as ever." I sighed, realizing not for the first time that I had weird friends.

On the other side of the door, I could hear Mario and Larry coming up the stairs, talking and laughing. They went into Larry's room and, judging by the sounds spilling into the hallway, I was pretty sure they didn't close the door. I glanced at Susan and found her looking back. We grinned at each other, realizing we were both eavesdropping. I motioned for her to follow me and quietly opened my door. We slipped into the hallway where we could hear better.

"So then she turned to me and was like, 'My ice cream!'" Larry said and they both laughed.

"Ya, that sounds like her," Mario said a moment later.

I frowned. Larry swore he'd never tell anyone that story. I was ten and a girl I used to hang out with had a collection of brand-name shoes. I bugged Dad until he got me a pair and then Larry and I went out for ice cream – something we still did a lot – and the ice cream cone I'd gotten wasn't stable. I licked the top scoop, which was blackberry, and it was dripping. It dripped all over my shirt, my jeans, and then the top scoop fell onto my new white shoes.

In the end, I had to throw out that entire outfit, yet I was far more concerned about my ice cream than the all the money Dad had paid for that outfit plus the shoes.

But, then again, Mario laughed. I like his laugh. I smiled to myself. "You said the story about the ice cream was locked in the vault," I told Larry as I walked into his room. He spun his office chair to see me. "It appears someone opened the vault." I crossed my arms as I leaned on the door jamb.

Mario looked at me. His eyes were sparkling. "It appears so," he said, his accent coming through.

Larry just had a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Oops."

I stepped into the room and punched his arm before turning and jogging out and down the stairs, laughing. When I hit the bottom, Larry was right behind me. He wrapped his arms around me to keep me from running away again. "Dad!" he called, laughing as I tried to break free.

"Stop!" I pushed him and hit him again, still laughing, too.

"She's hitting me!" he called.

"Let your sister go," Dad called back in a tired voice. He'd been through this before with us.

Larry let me go, shaking his head. "How about we settle this with basketball?"

I rolled my eyes, but walked to the door. He grabbed his ball from the hall closet and followed me. Larry and I – plus the other two that had come downstairs to see what would happen – went outside. Larry told me the rules again while I rolled my eyes. "Let's just play," I said. "Unless you're afraid of losing again."