Sudden plans for Saturday.

I woke up sometime around eleven on Saturday morning with a mouth that felt like I'd spent the night eating cotton wool and a headache that suggested I'd probably been more dehydrated than I'd realised. For a few seconds, I lay there staring at the ceiling, trying to work out why I'd gone to bed so late when I'd spent most of the previous evening doing nothing more strenuous than dancing. Then Friday night came rushing back to me, and I found myself grinning like an idiot into my pillow. The school dance, Kat's kiss outside the gym, the walk back towards the school, the editing suite, and Joan. Especially Joan. I rolled onto my side and buried my face in the pillow, trying to contain the ridiculous smile spreading across it. I had a feeling Monday was going to be a very interesting day.

Unfortunately, I hadn't accounted for Heather.

My bedroom door opened without so much as a knock, and my older sister poked her head inside. “Look who's finally decided to join the living!” she announced, stepping into the room with a mug of coffee in her hand. “Mom was beginning to think you'd died in your sleep. It's nearly lunchtime, you lazy sod.”

I pulled the pillow over my head. “Go away.”

“Aw, did somebody have a big night?”

I heard her place the mug on my bedside table before she sat down on the edge of my bed. That was when I realised I wasn't going to get rid of her so easily. Heather was many things, most of them annoying, but she was also frighteningly observant when she thought something interesting was happening. Considering she'd spent a good portion of yesterday helping me prepare for the dance, including buying me a suit, a corsage and a packet of condoms, I probably shouldn't have been surprised that she wanted a full report.

“So,” she said, far too casually, “how was your date?”

I lowered the pillow enough to look at her. “It was good.”

“Good?” She looked offended by the lack of detail. “I spent an entire afternoon helping you get dressed, drove you to the shops, bullied you into looking presentable and even bought you bloody condoms, and all I get is good?”

“What did you want? A PowerPoint presentation?”

“Don't tempt me. I'll get the laptop.” She grinned. “Now, tell me everything. Did Kat like the outfit? Was she impressed by the flower? Did you dance? Did you kiss? Did you—”

“Heather!”

“What? I'm asking perfectly normal questions.”

“Since when has anything about you been normal?”

She ignored that entirely. “You did kiss her, didn't you? I knew it! I could tell from the way you were smiling when I came in.” She paused, studying me more carefully. “Hang on. Why are you so happy about it? You shouldn’t be this pleased with yourself after one kiss.”

I suddenly became very interested in the blanket covering my legs. “It was a good kiss.”

Heather stared at me, and then her entire face lit up. “Oh, my God. My little brother actually has a sex life!”

“Can you not?”

“No, I absolutely cannot.” She leaned closer, dropping her voice into a stage whisper. “Did you use the condoms? How many are left? Can I count them?”

I nearly swallowed my tongue. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“That's not an answer.”

“Kat went home with her mom.”

Heather blinked. “Okay?”

“So, there wasn't exactly an opportunity for anything else.” I didn’t want Heather counting the condoms and finding one gone and Kat leaving with her mom. She’d quickly put one and one together to make three.

She narrowed her eyes, clearly suspicious that I'd answered a different question from the one she'd asked. “You're being deliberately evasive.”

“I'm being deliberately alive, and you're threatening that.”

Heather laughed and stood up, apparently satisfied that she could get no more useful information out of me for the moment. “Fine. Keep your secrets. But if you and Kat are actually getting together, I want to know before Mom starts planning the wedding.” She headed towards the door, then stopped and looked back at me. “Oh, and you should probably message her. Girls tend to appreciate that sort of thing, apparently.”

“Thanks for the relationship advice.”

“Anytime, little bro. My rates are very reasonable.”

“How was The Weeknd?” I remembered to ask my sister about the ticket I found.

“It was good. Great even,” Heather smiled a little too smugly. “Trish and I met a couple of guys there, and they took us home afterwards. That’s how you get laid, little bro.”

I knew Heather was a slut but I was surprised to hear Trish would go home with a guy she’d just met that night too.

“What time did you get back?” I asked.

“Sometime before 5. Why? What time did you?”

I got in after 4. We’d almost come across each other. That would have been bad. “Around 1 am,” I lied.

“Of course you did, loser.”

Heather disappeared into the hallway, leaving me wondering if I had avoided all her questioning and whether or not she would return a notebook and a list of follow-up queries.

By the time I made it into the kitchen, Mom had already started preparing lunch, and Dad was sitting at the table reading something on his tablet. Heather had apparently decided that my love life was now a family matter, because she immediately announced that Kat and I had sucked face at the dance before I could even make it to the fridge.

“Heather!” I protested.

“What? They were going to find out eventually.”

Mom looked up from the counter with a smile. “Well, that's lovely. Kat's a sweet girl.”

Dad lowered his tablet. “Does this mean I should start preparing myself for having another person at the dinner table?”

“No,” I said quickly. “It means we kissed once.”

Heather snorted into her coffee. “Once. Right.”

I glared at her while Mom laughed. Thankfully, neither of my parents pushed the subject any further, and the conversation moved on to ordinary family things: what we'd be doing during the week, whether Heather was actually going to attend college for once, and what Dad wanted to watch on television that afternoon. I gradually relaxed, although Heather occasionally caught my eye and waggled her eyebrows in a way that made me seriously consider moving out.

It was only when I returned to my room after lunch that I finally checked my phone properly. There were messages from Michael and Lyndsay, several notifications from the group chat, and one message from Kat that had arrived about twenty minutes earlier.

I laughed and opened Kat's message.

I read it twice, trying to decide whether there was some hidden meaning behind the smiley face. It was ridiculous. I'd known Kat for ages, and now I was analysing a text message as though it were an ancient document written in code. Heather's advice about messaging her had been annoyingly sensible, so I started typing.

I hesitated before sending it, wondering whether it sounded too forward, then decided that if I was going to do this, I might as well be honest. I pressed send and tossed my phone onto the bed, immediately regretting it. It buzzed again before I'd even finished standing up.

I grinned.

There was a pause long enough for me to wonder whether the conversation had ended, then another message appeared.

That was a dangerous question if I'd ever seen one.

I sat down on the edge of my bed. It was a fair question, and one I'd been avoiding thinking about because the answer wasn't quite as simple as I'd expected. I liked Kat. I'd enjoyed the way she'd looked at me during the dance, the way she'd held my hand, and how natural it had felt to kiss her goodbye. Part of me wanted to see where things might go. Another part of me was still trying to understand what had happened with Joan the previous night, and I wasn't entirely sure what that meant for the rest of my life.

I didn't want to lead Kat on, but I didn't want to dismiss something that might actually become important to me either.

Her reply came a moment later.

I smiled at the screen.

I put the phone down, feeling a little lighter. Whatever happened next, Kat and I had at least agreed that the kiss hadn't been a meaningless goodbye. We were going to see where things went, and for now that was enough.

Of course, Michael wasn't going to let me enjoy the moment in peace.

I laughed and sent them a brief reply confirming that Kat and I had kissed and were considering a proper date. Michael responded with enough celebratory emojis to crash an older phone, while Lyndsay sent a simple message telling me not to overthink things.

For once, that seemed like genuinely good advice.

The doorbell rang about half an hour later, and I didn't think much of it until Mom called from the front of the house that Rebecca was looking for me. I was still holding my phone when I stepped into the hallway, and I barely had time to put it down before my next-door neighbour appeared around the corner, wearing a casual outfit and an expression of completely innocent curiosity.

“Hey,” she said, smiling. “What are you up to?”

“Not much. You?”

“Nothing exciting. Mom sent me over to ask whether your family wanted some of the food she'd made, and I thought I'd see how you were doing.” She glanced at my phone. “Busy?”

“Just messaging Michael and Lyndsay.”

“Ah.” Rebecca nodded, then looked at me again. “So, did you have a good night?”

There it was.

I leaned against the doorway. “Yeah. It was good.”

“Good?” She gave me a little smile. “You went to the dance with Kat, didn't you?”

“I did.”

“And you two seemed to be having a nice time.”

“We were.”

Rebecca nodded, looking briefly towards the kitchen before turning her attention back to me. She was trying to appear casual, but I knew her too well not to notice the little pause before she spoke again.

“So, are you two going to date now?”

I raised an eyebrow. “That's a pretty direct question for someone who just came over to deliver food.”

She laughed nervously. “I'm allowed to be curious. You're my best friend.”

“Of course you are.”

“So?”

I hesitated before answering. “We talked about it earlier. We're going to try going on an actual date and see how things go.”

Rebecca's smile remained in place, but something in her expression shifted. It was subtle, and I couldn't quite work out what it meant. She looked down at her hands before meeting my eyes again.

“That's good,” she said. “Kat's lovely. You'd make a nice couple.”

“Thanks.”

There was a brief silence before she gave me another smile.

“So… when are you guys thinking of having this date?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t talk about that. Maybe when I see her at school, we can plan it. Next weekend perhaps.”

“No!” Rebecca suddenly looked way more animated than she had before. “You can’t leave it that long. Do it tonight!”

“Becca,” I said, trying to calm my best friend down. “That’s too soon. I don’t even know what Kat’s doing tonight. She could have plans for all I know.”

“She does.”

“See! That’s what I was saying.”

“No, silly. She has plans with me. We were going to see a girly movie tonight. Materialists. Come along with me. It will be fun.” Rebecca told me her plan.

“I don’t know. I should just text her.”

Rebecca cut me off. “No! Don’t text her. It will be a surprise. I’ll drive. Be ready at 6.” There was no stopping Rebecca now as she turned and started walking off to the front of my house. “Agh! I need to change what I was going to wear now. I have the perfect outfit!” I heard Rebecca saying to herself as she trailed off.