“Your feet haven’t been as banged up as they usually are after practice; is Mother actually driving you home everyday?” Dakota asks in disbelief. She’s perched on the windowsill of Moet’s bedroom, swinging her legs back and forth in the way of a carefree child.

            “Someone’s been giving me rides…” Moet trails off at the end, the mere thought of Leighton making her cheeks flame red in embarrassment. Turning her head quickly, she hopes Dakota didn’t catch the blush that stained her cheeks scarlet. However when she turns her head back around, Dakota’s gazing at her with a goofy grin.

            “Someone, huh? Tell me, little sis, is this a boy someone or a girl someone?”

            “Uh…” Moet averts her gaze to her feet, trying to refrain from answering her. She never lied to Dakota, so she definitely couldn’t tell her it was one of her imaginary girlfriends, but she really, really didn’t want to talk about boys with her big sister right now. It was too embarrassing! And plus, Leighton and her weren’t even friends, just neighbors helping each other out in times of need.

            “Okay, what’s his name?” Dakota sing-songs, full-out grinning at the amount of discomfort she’s causing Moet.

            “Leighton,” the younger sister murmurs.

            “And… does he have a girlfriend?”

            “Dakota!” Moet exclaims as twin blots of scarlet stain her cheeks.

            “I’m taking that as a no?” Dakota asks with an innocent head-tilt of her head.

            “Well, no, but they just broke up this week!” Moet splutters. “And he definitely doesn’t think of me that way—we’re just acquaintances. Neighbors helping each other out.”

            At this, Dakota’s pink mouth opens in an “O”. “He’s your neighbor?”

            “Yes, in the house to our left—Dakota!” But Dakota was already out of the window and climbing down the emergency fire ladder that leaned against it. Panicking, Moet immediately starts climbing down after her.

            “Dakota!” She calls, running after her. Moet sees Dakota standing on the Bakkers’ front porch and before she could do anything to stop her, Dakota’d already rung their doorbell and ran to the other side of the house to hide.

            “Moet?” Hearing Leighton’s voice, her head whips around to the front door where a certain gray-eyed brunette boy with glasses stands rubbing his eyes as if he’s just woken up.

            “Um…” The two stand in silence for a while before Moet looks over Leighton’s shoulder to see Dakota mouthing, Ask him out!

            No, Moet mouths back just as furiously. She looks back up to Leighton only to see his confused face peering over his own shoulder, unable to spot Dakota underneath the dense foliage and dark shadows of the streetlamp.

            “Is someone else out there?” Leighton asks, his brow still furrowed in a confused expression.

            “Um…” Moet repeats. She mentally smacks herself in the head for being so socially inept. Looking over back at Dakota who’s scream-mouthing at her for what to say, Moet repeats after her sister, “Would… you… like to… hang out sometime?”

            “Oh.” Leighton says, rubbing the back of his neck. Just before Moet’s about to die from embarrassment, he continues, “Actually, that’s what I was going to ask you before you, erm, ran away from me this afternoon.” He lets out a nervous chuckle. “So… when are you free?”

            She pauses for a second and thinks. She had practice every night from six to ten Monday through Friday… “Um, I’m free on the weekend.”

            “Cool, I’ll pick you up Saturday at eight?” Leighton asks. Moet nods her head in confirmation. “Um, good night.” He flashes a dimpled smile before heading back into his house.

            Letting out a breath, Moet looks around for Dakota, only to find that she wasn’t hiding behind the bushes as she was a few moments ago. Confused, Moet heads back home using the fire escape ladder again. When she climbs into her bedroom through her window she finds a slip of paper on her bedside table. Opening it, she reads, Not interested, my ass. Love, D.

            “Mother?” Moet called. It was Friday night at dinnertime before they would have to head over to the studio for practice.

            “Yes?” Her mother’s cold, ice blue eyes stared into her own.

            “I was wondering if I could go out tomorrow. A… friend and I wanted to hang out.” Moet bit her lip from nervousness. She had absolutely no clue what her mother’s reaction would be. Would she enthusiastically say yes at the discovery that her daughter actually acquired some friends at school? Or would she say no and launch into a terrible tantrum at the thought of Moet leaving the house for anything other than ballet?

            However, Mother did neither of these things. “Friend?” She inquired, her tone flat.

            Swallowing, Moet replies, “Yes.”

            Her mother blinks twice, then turns back to her papers. “Be back no later than ten.”

            Gawking in astronishment, Moet murmurs a quick “thanks” before running up to her room to think about what to wear for her date the next day like a normal teenage girl.

            “Ella,” Leighton yells in the direction of the stairs. “Have you seen my keys?”

            “Keys?” Ella appears at the top of the stairs. Climbing down, she replies, “I think they’re in the kitchen from when we went grocery shopping yesterday.”

            Searching the tiled kitchen countertops, Leighton spies them hanging from a cup rack. “Oh, thanks, Ella.” Walking out to the door, Ella’s voice stops him.

            “Where are you going?” She inquires with the blank look on her face that’s been showing through more often these days.

            “I’m going on a date,” Leighton replies. He might as well call it that, there was no avoiding it now. He was going on a date. A week after he broke up with his former girlfriend. Geez, that sounded bad. He thought.       

            “With who?” Ella asks, a smidgen of curiosity coloring her expressionless face.

            “Moet, the girl that we gave a ride to the other night.” Leighton watches as Ella’s face grows pale.

            “Moet Holmes?” Her face has turned an unnatural shade of white, giving off the impression that she’s about to faint any moment.

            “Ella, are you alrigh—” Before Leighton could finish his sentence Ella’d already ran up the stairs and slammed the door of her bedroom. Right when Leighton’s about to follow her to check if she was alright, Ella’s voice sounds throughout her bedroom door.

            “I’m alright, Leighton. Just go. Have fun,” Ella calls weakly.

            “Alright,” Leighton replies unsurely. “But call me if you need anything, alright? I’m just gonna be at Linda’s.” Locking the front door, he starts heading over to the house next door.

            Picking at her sweater, she nearly jumps out of her seat when the doorbell rings. Patting down her hair and rubbing her hands on her jeans, she stands up and goes to answer the door. Opening it, she finds Leighton dressed as casually as always which was a relief since she didn’t bother to dress any different than usual.

            “Hi,” Leighton smiles and gives her a little wave.

            “Hi,” Moet smiles back and grabs her phone before stepping through the door. “So… where are we going?”

            “A friend of a friend’s holding an acoustic session in the café down the street today. He’s pretty incredible; thought I’d take us there.” Leighton said with a smile.

            “Sounds lovely,” Moet replies in her usual quiet voice. Reaching Leighton’s car, they climb in, and start driving away to Linda’s.

            “Leighton!” A girl with a head of wine-red hair yells when the two enter the quaint, cozy café. The girl gives Leighton a big friendly hug while Moet looks on, wondering what it’d be like to have a friend that’d be that happy over seeing her.

            “Isobel! Hey, we came to listen to Laurie tonight. I heard he was doing an acoustic show.” Leighton glances around the dimly-lit store. Several lights were aimed at the stage whereas candles were set in the middle of each rounded table.

The red-headed girl, Isobel, nods enthusiastically, “Yeah, he’s backstage warming up right now. The show should be starting soon—oh! Hello! Who’s this?” Isobel notices Moet and whispers in a loudly-on-purpose way, “She’s cute,” to Leighton who looks mortified with embarrassment as Moet starts her usual blushing. “Hi, I’m Isobel.” The girl hands out a hand for her to shake.

            “Moet,” she replies shyly, shaking Isobel’s pale hand.

            “Well, Moet, it’s very nice to meet you. Why don’t you two sit down right there and I’ll be right back with your food.”

            Confused, Moet starts saying, “But we didn’t order—“

            An amused smile graces his lips as he leads Moet towards their table and into a seat. “Don’t worry, I guarantee that whatever she brings out, you’ll love. She has a gift.”

            “Oh…” She replies, looking down at her hands. All of a sudden, applause erupted from throughout the room from the customers. Looking up, she sees a skinny boy with honey-colored eyes and matching hair walk up towards the stool on the center of the stage with an acoustic guitar in his hands.

            “Hey guys,” The boy says, absentmindedly strumming a few chords on his guitar. “I’m Laurie Oliver, and this song I’m going to play for you is called ‘The Boy with the Broken Wing’.” He starts finger-picking lovely-sounding chords as his soothing, smooth voice sings a simple melody over his guitar. Enjoying the music, Moet closes her eyes for a moment and soaks it all in: the smell of coffee, Laurie’s voice, and the wonderful feeling of happiness that currently wraps her in a big, furry blanket of comfort. It was the best she’s felt in weeks; she never wanted it to end. Opening her eyes, she sees Leighton watching her with curious eyes and smiles at him just when Isobel shows up with two desserts and two drinks.

            “Hello again! For Leighton, here’s your usual coffee with cream and two sugars and your apple turnover. For Moet, I figured you were a sweet tooth girl so I brought over a nice iced tea and my mom’s special chocolate-caramel cake sprinkled with sea salt.” Isobel grins as she hands it to Moet obviously waiting to hear her critique on her “gift”.

            It was perfect.

The cake was the size of her palm and was a lovely beige color with a piece of chocolate sticking out from the top next to a plump dark magenta-colored raspberry and a juicy red strawberry slice.

            And she couldn’t eat it.

            The calories in it could easily have encompassed the amount that Moet was allowed in a day by Mother. It looked so lovely and delicious and she hadn’t had chocolate in years, but she knew she had to lose weight before the recital if she wanted to look good for Mother. Looking up at Isobel, she tells her, “Thank you… It looks very delicious… but I can’t eat it.”

            Isobel’s grin immediately morphs into a concerned look, “Oh, I’m so sorry, are you allergic? Oh, I should’ve thought of this before…”

Feeling even worse now, Moet immediately interjects with, “No, I’m not allergic, the cake is great, it’s very beautiful, but I have a… dance recital coming up and I need to lose weight.”

Outraged, both Isobel and Leighton start spluttering things along the lines of “You’re stick thin!” and “You’re perfect! What are you talking about?” and “Who’s making you do this?” It was very flattering and it made Moet feel wonderful, knowing that these people thought she was perfect; something that she could never see herself as. After a bit more encouragement from Isobel, she takes a bite and almost faints from the explosion of flavor in her mouth.

Sweet, salty, tangy, and deliciously bitter tastes flooded her mouth and she hummed in appreciation before opening her eyes again and facing an amused Leighton and a smiling Isobel.

“Told you you’d love it,” Leighton says.

Moet was too busy stuffing her mouth to reply to her date.

“She’s a keeper,” Isobel commented before she bid them good-bye and left to greet some customers standing by the storefront.

“So,” Leighton begins. “If you don’t mind me asking, I’m really curious as to what made you ask me out.” Nearly choking on a piece of cake, Moet’s eyes widen and she quickly swallows the offending piece of dessert before it could mutilate her windpipe any further. Did she really want to tell him that her delinquent sister was the one who rang her doorbell and urged her to schedule a meet-up between the two? Did she trust him enough not to ask too many questions? Moet decided she did.

“Well, you know how I kept looking over your shoulder?” Leighton nods in confirmation. “Actually, my sister was there and she’s been telling me lately that I’m no fun and all I do is practice so she thought it’d be fun to make me ask someone out.”

“Oh.” Leighton pauses for a moment to mull over the new information. “So, you have a sister? What’s her name?”

“Dakota. Dakota Holmes.” Moet retorts softly.

            “Oh. Quinn Vaughan’s girlfriend? The one who graduated last year?” Leighton asks, a spark of recognition crossing his face.

            Feeling uncomfortable at the mention of Quinn, Moet uneasily replies, “Yes… How did you know?”

            Chuckling softly to himself, Leighton answers, “My little sister, Ella, has the biggest crush on him. Quinn. All last year I had to listen to her mope about him and unrequited love and the wretched Dakota that was making her life hell.” He stops for a moment to send a small smile to Moet. “It was amusing, really. However now that I mention it, she hasn’t talked about Quinn ever since school started.” His small smile quickly transforms into a small frown. “In fact, she hasn’t been speaking to me much at all lately…” Changing the subject, Leighton quickly questions, “So your sister… what’s she like?”

            “She’s reckless, impulsive… wild. She’s not afraid of anything. The boys at school all loved her, but the girls hated her. And she thrived off of that; she loved it, the hate. Dakota always said it made her stronger… I could never see that.” Moet always talked about her older sister like she was a form of higher being. She absolutely adored her just like little sisters should, but she knew no matter how lovely her perfections were, her flaws were terrible, ugly beasts that Moet knew existed, but simply choosed to bypass. “How about you? What’s Ella like?”

            Leighton sighs. “Well, lately Ella’s been acting very strange. Usually she’s extremely talkative, as in she’s one of those people that answer their own questions, never run out of breath, interrupt you when you’re speaking, all that good stuff.” Moet gives a brief, quiet laugh at that. “But now… she’s so emotionless. We used to be so close--as close as siblings could get. Now, she won’t even be in the same room as me. And when she is, she doesn’t even talk. Not a word! And her face… it’s always blank and her tone is always monotone and it just infuriates me that she can’t tell me, her brother, what’s bothering her when before she’d be ranting so much that I’d be the one wanting to leave the room all the time.” He sighs again. Then flashes Moet a weak, apologetic smile. “Sorry for that little rant there. I just needed to vent.”

            “I understand.” And Moet did understand. She also found it fascinating to listen to others talk about their families since her own was so dysfunctional. “Can you promise me one thing?”

            “Hmm? Yeah, sure.” Leighton responded with a curious undertone.

            “Can you take me to meet Ella one day? I’d love to.” Moet smiled, something she rarely did.

            “Of course; she’d love that. Oh wait, you better promise me one thing in return though.”

            “What’s that?” Moet asked warily.

            “Promise me you won’t mention that you’re the infamous Dakota’s little sister, alright? Or else I’ll have to put up with another year of her raving about her puppy love woes.” Leighton smiles as Moet lets out a small, but actual, giggle. Wow, that was a first, she thought.

            The rest of the night passed in the sharing of more family woes, another one of those delightful chocolate creations, the sound of a soothing voice over the plucked notes of a guitar, and many, many wide smiles. And Moet had fun for the first time in years.

            And it was a wonderful feeling.