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Gemma
didn’t want to look. She felt the bed shift beneath her as she was
joined.
    “So, what’s up grumpy pants?”
    “Ruby, leave me alone.”
    “Not gonna happen, you may as well 'fess up
now.”
    Ruby pulled the towel from her sister’s face
and threw it across the room. Gemma watched it land on the lip of
the laundry hamper. Gravity won and pulled the towel to the floor.
She resisted the urge to stand and pick it up. Their mother hated
mess.
    Ruby placed an ice pack on Gemma’s throbbing
jaw. She winced at the cold, but held it in place.
    “I have a problem.”
    “No kidding.” Ruby’s mockery made Gemma
smile.
    “I like a guy.”
    Her sister gasped and sat up with bright
eyes. “I knew it! I knew you had a crush on someone. You’ve been
all weird and moody for months now. Who is it?”
    Gemma cringed. “Harrison Granger.”
    Ruby looked thoughtful for a minute then
grinned. “Yeah, I think I know him. He is cute. A little
skinny, but cute.”
    Gemma rolled onto her side with a groan.
    “So what’s the problem?”
    “Ruby, don’t ask me that! You know what the
problem is.”
    “Not really.”
    Punching her pillow with a loud huff, Gemma
flicked Ruby’s hand off her shoulder.
    “I never expected him to talk to me. I
thought if he ever did he’d be as weirded out as everyone else, but
he’s…” She turned to look at her sister. “He’s really nice.”
Turning back with a frown, she sniffed. “And I so can’t go there!
Why did he have to talk to me? Why couldn’t he leave me alone?”
    Ruby was silent while Gemma stewed. She could
only imagine what her sister was thinking. She was probably trying
really hard not to laugh behind her back. Gemma couldn’t bear to
look, so kept her face stuffed into the pillow. Eventually her
sister sighed and placed a tender hand on her shoulder.
    “Gem, this is high school. You only get one
shot and you’re completely wasting it. You need to go for this guy.
Have some fun.”
    “How? Mom and Dad will see right through me
and I don’t trust myself to-”
    “You’ve always been the perfect daughter.
They won’t expect you to break the rules. Mom even said she wanted
you to make a friend.”
    “I don’t think she had Harrison Granger in
mind when she said that.”
    “So what? She’ll never find out.”
    Gemma winced.
    “Look, sweetie, you need to enjoy the
opportunities that are coming your way now. I know you hate lying
and that’s why you push people away, but look how miserable you
are. You can’t spend the rest of your life trying to make Mom and
Dad happy. At some point you need to decide when this life belongs
to you.”
    Ruby squeezed her shoulder and pulled her
around so they were face to face.
    “You don’t see Dom and I moping around every
weekend. We know we can never get too close, but we can get close
enough to have a little fun… and you don’t have to lie to your
friends, just avoid the subject of who we are.”
    “But I’ve screwed up before.”
    “Once! You were thirteen! She was your best
friend. It was all new and you were trying to process it.”
    “What if she’d believed me? What if she’d
told someone else?”
    “But she didn’t.”
    Gemma’s eyes filled with instant tears. “No,
she didn’t.”
    She would never forget the look on Zoey’s
face after she’d told her. Her best friend’s voice had dripped with
disdain at Gemma’s excuse for bailing on her. You know, I never
thought you’d lie to me. She’d shaken her head and turned to
leave. If you don’t want to be my friend anymore, you should
have the guts to say so. Then she’d left and three days later
the moving company had arrived.
    “I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t want to
lie. I want to be in a relationship where I can be myself.”
    “Relationship? Sweetie, chillax! We’re
talking about a casual fling here. And stop putting such a negative
twist on the whole lying thing.” Ruby lay down, one arm resting
behind her head. “Do you