James

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Hyland was acting really strange.

During the start of The Amazing Race, she was acting like she and I had to be joined at the hip the whole time. She had sat beside me in the car, talked to me more than usual, and stayed by my side a lot.

But after we were thrown out of the candy shop for a candy fight Rachel and Farrah started, she seemed especially distant with me.

I wasn't sure why. I'd seen her and Harlee talking with one another as we tried to finish the task of filling bags of candy, but I hadn't thought anything of it.

I hoped Harlee hadn't told her something embarrassing about me.

But then again, why would Harlee do something like that?

It wasn't like she had any reason to be jealous. Hyland and I were not as close as Harlee and I were, not even remotely.

Besides, I had been trying to talk to Harlee, but she seemed to have her hands full, refereeing Farrah and Rachel. They were constantly arguing with one another throughout the start of the race and had made us fail our first task when they started having a candy fight at Sandy's Candy.

Although we all kind of contributed to that failure, considering we all joined in to toss candy at one another, they were the ones that started it.

I didn't know what the story behind their constant bickering was, but I planned to ask Harlee about later.

Fortunately, Harlee reminded the girls that we were only allowed one failed task; otherwise, we'd be eliminated. This was enough to get them to pull themselves together. We made it to the final pit stop and were given our final task. All we had to do was guess the combination of the treasure chest Evan's parents had given to Milton, the vintage shop owner, and we would win. Inside the chest were our winning prizes, but we only had three chances to get it right.

An argument about age differences led us to figure out what the answer was. It was the date of Evan's thirteenth birthday. The riddle had been pretty cleverly written out, but we managed to crack the code. The seven of us were ebullient about our victory. It was a huge surprise that we'd actually won after how far behind we'd been. Our prizes were $30 cash gift cards, which made me feel even more excited.

I planned to use mine to buy Harlee's birthday gift.

What happened after we were given our prizes, though, was even more unexpected than us winning.

We'd been pulled into a group hug by Farrah.

As we started pulling away, Farrah grabbed Evan by his arms and kissed him on the mouth.

"Happy birthday, Evan!" she exclaimed happily.

Evan was rendered speechless.

So were the rest of us.

It took a lot of courage to do something like that, and Farrah had just kissed him as if it were something she did every day.

Surprisingly, Evan didn't look offended by the kiss. He actually looked like he would gladly take another one. Rachel, on the other hand, looked very offended by what had happened.

Evan coughed, finally breaking the awkward silence.

"Uh, thanks, Farrah," he said.

"You're welcome," Farrah giggled, walking over to Hyland and Amy.

"Okay, selfie time, everyone!" Harlee declared, changing the subject.

"Yeah, let's do that," I agreed, finally finding my voice.

"We have to show the losers they can go ahead and throw in their towels," Amy remarked.

We all posed together, and Farrah stood in front of everyone while holding her phone's front camera to face us.

"Okay, everyone say...thirteen!" she directed.

"Thirteen!" we all shouted in unison, some with less enthusiasm than others. She took several to make sure we had a good one, then we all dispersed.

"I think I want your mom to come and take me home," I heard Rachel telling Harlee.

Harlee seemed upset to hear this but also like she could understand why.

I surely didn't.

It felt so foreign to be out of the loop. Usually, I knew everything about Harlee's life and vice versa. Now, it was like we were becoming strangers.

Strangers with memories.

I hoped next week would be able to change that.

Right then, Karissa barged into the shop impatiently whining at us,

"Is this game over yet? Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, let's go home and enjoy the rest of my party!" Evan cheered, rushing past Karissa and out the door. Hyland, Amy, and Farrah followed him outside, giggling and talking.

I looked over at Harlee, comforting Rachel. I didn't know if the others hadn't noticed or just hadn't cared, but it felt wrong to just walk out without making sure all was well. Harlee was reassuring Rachel of something I couldn't hear. I walked over to them.

"Is everything okay, Rachel?" I asked politely.

Rachel looked at me but didn't say anything; she just sighed and shrugged her shoulders at me.

Harlee smiled at me like she appreciated my concern.

"No, but it will be. Rachel is just a little disappointed about something," Harlee told me.

"You seemed pretty happy today until a few minutes ago," I commented.

"I was," Rachel said, her voice quiet.

I remembered the hurt and anger I'd noticed flash through her eyes when Farrah kissed Evan. I wondered if he was the reason for the feud between the two girls. But I felt like maybe it was better if I didn't say anything. I didn't know Rachel that well and didn't want to embarrass her.

So, instead of bringing it up, I gave her a consolatory pat on the shoulder, then headed outside. I knew Evan didn't actually like Farrah; he liked Rachel. To me, it just seemed he was so thrilled about receiving his first kiss, and that was why he hadn't shoved Farrah away from him.

Not to mention, it all happened so quickly. There wasn't much time for Evan to resist her. But if Evan had been given the chance to kiss Rachel instead, I knew for sure he would have.

But it wasn't my business to tell Rachel that, so I hoped he would.

Upon returning to the Smiths' house, we were all congratulated for our win. Then we were scolded by Mrs. Smith for the candy fight at Sandy's Candy. Apparently, Sandy had been told on us about the disaster. We apologized, and thankfully, Mrs. Smith wasn't too hard on us about it. The rest of the party wasn't as eventful; it was fun, but nothing could match the excitement and drama that had unfolded during The Amazing Race.

It seemed Harlee had convinced Rachel to stay because they didn't leave early.

But she surely couldn't convince her to smile.

An ever-present frown remained on Rachel's face throughout the rest of the day, and even during cake, she didn't look like she enjoyed any of it.

She did smile, however, when Evan thanked her for the gift she and Harlee had gotten him. It was an Infinity Age anime shirt with a matching hat to go with it. I knew how much he loved Infinity age, and that he was truly grateful for it.

But Rachel's frown returned when Farrah gave Evan a new expensive leather jacket to replace his old one. His reaction to that was to leap from his seat and embrace Farrah in a hug for it. I looked at my measly box with a new video game for him in it and understood how Rachel must have been feeling, somewhat. It wasn't exactly fair game since the Harringtons' were so rich, but oh well.

After the gifts, there were a few more party games that took place.

Everyone seemed to be out of energy by then, though. By the time Lizzie came to pick Hyland and me up, I was emotionally exhausted. Hyland and I were sitting on the porch, waiting on her to drive up as other guests exited the house. Nearly everyone had left, including Farrah and Amy.

After how attached Farrah had been to Evan after he hugged her, I think her departure seriously relieved him.

I thought I heard him thanking God when Mrs. Harrington came and picked her and Amy up.

Or maybe that had been me.

"Maybe I'm too introverted, or maybe it's because every party I attend has drama," I said yawning. "But I think I need to stay away from the party scene for a while."

"A mood," Hyland agreed, nodding her head at me.

"When is your birthday, James?" she asked curiously.

"June twenty-ninth. Harlee's is the twenty-eighth. We were born exactly a day apart," I told her.

"Oh, cool," she replied, her mind seeming like it was elsewhere.

I remembered I was supposed to not be bringing Harlee up as much and clamped my mouth shut. No need to cause any more drama or tension; there was enough of it going around.

Unfortunately, Harlee chose that exact moment to walk over to me. She and Rachel hadn't left the party yet either. Rachel was too busy staring at Evan as he said bye to some of his karate friends to follow her, though.

"James," Harlee said, pulling me aside like Hyland wasn't even there.

"Tonight, at our windows...can we please talk?"

Her voice sounded exhausted but urgent.

So I nodded my head immediately.

"Yeah, of course, we can. Is everything alright?" I asked.

She exhaled like she hadn't expected me to agree to it. Which made sense, given the fact, I'd only just stopped ignoring her about a week ago.

"Hardly. But I'll tell you about it later tonight. Your girlfriend is waiting for you," she said, eyeing Hyland, who I assumed was eyeing us. Harlee didn't allow me a chance to say anything back before she walked away.

I didn't know what to think about the "girlfriend" comment at all.

Was that what the two of them had been talking about earlier?

Had Hyland told Harlee that she and I were a couple or something?

I looked over my shoulder to see Hyland waving at me.

I gave her a passive-aggressive wave back.

I felt frustrated with her. We'd never established labels like that, and she had no business telling Harlee that we had.

I hadn't even told Harlee that Hyland and I had gone out yet.

Just then, Evan ran up to me with a gleeful smile on his face like he'd just had the greatest day of his life.

I smiled back at him. After how the day started, I'd been worried he'd have a disappointing birthday party. So I was glad it had all worked out for him.

"Dude, did you see the way Farrah kissed me? Can you believe she kissed me, James?" he asked, overflowing with excitement.

"I believe it," I said, trying to match his enthusiasm but failing to. "I saw it, remember? So did Harlee, Hyland, Amy, and...Rachel."

The gleam in his eyes vanished. He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he realized the girl he liked had witnessed another girl kissing him.

"Oh no, she did," he said, sounding regretful.

"I'm so stupid! Why didn't I stop her?!" He facepalmed.

"Dude, calm down. She kissed you remember?" I reminded him.

Evan shook his head rapidly. "But still, I hugged her right in front of everyone about the jacket. Gosh, now Rachel probably thinks I like Farrah!" He groaned.

"Yeah, that kind of threw me off too. Do you like Farrah, Evan?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.

"No! Of course, I don't like Farrah Harrington!" he exclaimed angrily like he hadn't just been hugging the girl a few hours ago.

"Well, you just rushed over to me, gushing about her kissing you like you do," I pointed out.

Evan shook his head again and buried his face in his hands.

"That's because it was my first kiss. Of course, I'm going to rave about it," he explained. "But for what it's worth, I really would rather it have been Rachel." He deeply sighed.

So I had been right.

But I didn't know what good that did anyone now, so I just gave him the best advice I could think of.

"Well, I'm not the one you should be telling that. Tell Rachel how you feel about her if you really like her, Evan," I told him.

Evan nodded then asked me, "But what about Farrah?"

"She deserves to know the truth too," I said then thought about the hypocrisy I was exhibiting.

How could I tell Evan to be honest about anything when I'd been lying to Harlee for years?

I wondered if Amy was right about a comment she'd made back at the costume shop. A comment about thirteen being "such a different age from twelve."

If so, when I was thirteen, would I still be so dumb?

Lizzie's car pulled up in front of the house then, and I told Evan goodbye and wished him luck with the situation. He thanked me and then thanked me again for the video game before he walked off. Hyland hurried down the porch steps, and I resisted the urge to glare at her.

No need to jump to conclusions just yet, I resolved.

The car ride to the Pennington's was mostly quiet. Hyland and I didn't feel much like talking after such a long, tiring day. Lizzie pulled up to the Pennington estate, and I got out of the car to open the door for Hyland.

We walked up to the front door silently, but I sensed she wanted to talk to me about something. I hoped I could get away from her before she got the chance to but had no such luck.

As I was about to say goodbye to her, she asked me,

"James, are you angry at me for something?"

Confusion and concern were written across her countenance.

I didn't know what to say.

I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to be honest and hurt her feelings either.

Then I remembered how my lack of honesty had pretty much destroyed my friendship with Harlee and decided I'd better not make the same mistake with a different girl.

"Why did you tell Harlee you're my girlfriend, Hyland?" I blurted angrily. "We never actually made anything official." I folded my arms.

Hyland looked surprised at the statement as if this were her first time hearing such a thing, and I realized it probably was.

"I...I didn't," she said, sounding hurt by the accusation. "I didn't say anything like that at all." The hurt in her eyes quickly turned into agitation. "Is that what she told you I said?" she asked.

I hurried to clear things up. "No, no. It was something she said that made me think maybe you had," I told her.

"Oh," she replied, then asked. "What did she say to make you think so?"

I sighed, feeling hesitant to tell her.

"She said, 'your girlfriend is waiting for you,' at the end of the party when you were waiting for me on the porch," I said, repeating it word for word.

No lies, no acts, no pretending, I reminded myself. Honesty is key.

Hyland didn't look surprised at all by what I said. She just sat down on the bench and didn't say anything for a few minutes. I cautiously sat next to her after I'd grown tired of standing.

"Did she sound angry at the idea of us dating?" she finally asked.

"Why would Harlee be opposed to us dating?" I said, my voice sounding ruder than I'd intended it to.

Hyland didn't seem fazed by it, though.

"Alright, let me ask you this. Are you opposed to us dating, James?" she asked me.

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out.

Hyland was patient for my answer, but I could see the wheels turning in her head like she'd already made up her mind about me.

"I don't...I don't know, Hyland. Everything is just happening so fast," I told her.

Hyland nodded her head understandingly and then stood to her feet.

"Okay, well, I'll be here whenever you figure it out."

"Hyland-"I started.

"No, it's okay. I'm not angry. Honest," she told me.

A smile formed on her face, but it wasn't authentic like usual. Before I could try and explain myself better, she walked inside and closed the door leaving me outside alone.

Waves of guilt poured over me as I realized I'd hurt another girl I was trying my best not to.

I walked off the porch feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. Hyland may have been older, but she was way more fragile than Harlee. That was why I was trying to be extra careful as her friend, boyfriend, whatever I was to her, but clearly, I hadn't tried hard enough.

And God knows what Farrah is going to do to me when she finds out I hurt her friend, I thought worriedly as I climbed into the car.

Lizzie gave me a questioning glance as I strapped myself into the passenger seat and put my head between my knees.

"Everything alright, James?" she asked.

"Just drive," I sighed.

"Did you and Princess Pennington break up?" she persisted.

"Just drive, Lizzie," I commanded.

After a second, she started the car. She switched the radio on to fill the silence during the ride and sang along to some of the lyrics. I kept my head down the entire ride, trying to keep my snide comments to myself.

I was not about to hurt yet another female, even if it was just my sister.

When we got home, Lizzie parked the car in the driveway, and we both just sat there for a moment.

I kind of wanted to tell her what was going on, but I was also used to keeping most things to myself.

The opportunity for me to stray from that was given once more when she asked, "James, what happened?"

I stayed silent, not really knowing how to tell her I had hurt two people I really cared about.

Opening up was a foreign concept to me.

The only person I ever really opened up to was Harlee.

And that was the person I'd hurt the most.

When I didn't answer quickly enough, Lizzie gave a hopeless sigh and unlocked our doors with the lock button.

"You're never going to solve anything if you keep everything to yourself, James," she said angrily then climbed out of the car. The door slammed, and I knew she must have been very frustrated with me.

Join the club, I thought.

Maybe all of the lectures Karissa had ever given me were deserved.

Maybe I just needed to stay away from the female population for good.