"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT."

This must have been the hundredth time Liam had said those words during this car ride.

"I can't believe it, I really can't," he said again. He gripped the steering wheel even tighter.

"It's not that–" Darren began.

Liam turned to Darren, furious. "She's the worst, y'know?" he said. "I've known her for so long now – we've been to high school together, but also went to the same middle school – but she..." He shook his head and turned on his blinker. "Okay, maybe I don't know her that well, but I never thought she would do this."

Darren didn't even try to protest and let Liam rage. As long as he took them home safely, all was fine.

"Plan a date and just never show up?" They stopped before a traffic light. Liam slammed on the steering wheel. "This, just..." He grumbled loudly. "I can't believe this!"

"It's green," Darren said, pointing to the traffic light that had the lowest of the three lights turned on.

Liam let a breath escape. "Thank you," he said as calmly as he could.

"Can you..." Darren began, "not be mad?"

Liam's jaw tightened. "That will be very hard," he said, trying to keep himself together for Darren. "How come you ain't mad?"

Darren shrugged. "It's just life," he said.

Liam didn't look at him.

"I might not have gotten to go out with Dakota, but I still had a good day," he continued. "I mean, I got a new shirt, Aimee did my hair..."

Liam pressed his lips together and glanced at Darren's shirt before his eyes returned to the road. "It looks real good too, by the way."

"Thanks." Darren smiled, feeling like he was finally getting through to Liam. His host brother seemed more upset about the evening than he was. "So, not all is wrong. My evening isn't totally screwed up. We're home now, and we can still have a good time."

Right as he said that, they turned into the familiar street where the McCosta family lived. Liam slowed down and parked the car, after which he laid his hand on Darren's shoulder before he could get out of the car. "You know what," he said, "we will."

Darren didn't know what that meant, but he followed Liam inside anyway. The whole McCosta family was sitting on the couch in the living room and turned their heads towards the duo that entered, pity visible on the faces of Aimee, Isaiah, and Adelaide.

Adelaide was the first to speak. "Darren..." she said, getting up and walking up to him with open arms. "I'm so sorry." She embraced him, and Darren hesitantly returned the gesture.

"We feel for you," Isaiah affirmed.

"At least we can't blame your looks for it," Aimee chimed in. "She doesn't know what she's missing out on."

Darren freed himself from the hug and smiled. "Really, guys, I'm fine."

"They always say that after a breakup," Aimee said. "They never are."

"This wasn't a breakup," Liam corrected.

"It wasn't even a date!" Darren added. If only he got a dime for every time he said that.

"It wasn't?" Isaiah asked. He turned to his family. "I heard something else. Why are we all here, then?"

Adelaide sent her husband a warning look. "Darren needs us."

Darren shook his head. "I'm fine." He took off Liam's denim jacket.

Adelaide followed his every movement with her eyes. "Are you going to your room?" she asked.

As he indeed was about to, he nodded.

"Don't go yet, please," she said.

Aimee pleaded the same thing. "We have something planned."

"Especially for you," Isaiah grinned. He patted Darren on the shoulder. "This night is going to be the best one ever."

Before Darren could even ask, Liam explained. "We, the McCostas, have a tradition, and while usually we only do it on Saturdays, we're happy to make an exception for you."

"What is it?" Darren asked, looking at each member of the family.

Aimee threw her hands in the air. "Movie marathon!"

"We stay up all night to watch as many movies as we can," Isaiah said. "Or until we fall asleep."

"Wait, are we really staying up all night?" Adelaide asked, shock covering her face. "We all have to get up early tomorrow. When will we sleep?"

"Who needs sleep?" Aimee laughed. Her eyes widened when she thought of something. "Pop, d'you remember the movie marathon after which you fell asleep during the sermon on Sunday?"

Isaiah bit his lip. "We really shouldn't have movie marathons on Saturday," he pondered. To Darren, he added, "This has been following me for years."

"He isn't kidding," Adelaide chimed in. "It happened when the kids were nine and seven."

Liam groaned. "You know, we aren't kids anymore," he said. "Why are you still calling us that?"

Adelaide laughed and pinched the cheek of her son. "You'll always be my kids. Even when you're sixty and wrinkly."

Liam pulled away and didn't say anything.

"Should we get this movie marathon going?" Aimee asked, jumping on the couch.

"Just one movie, though," Adelaide warned. She laid her hand on Darren's back and guided him towards the couch, where he sat in the middle of the family.

"You can't call that a movie marathon!" Aimee complained. "We have to do at least three – no, four."

Adelaide shook her head. "You have to be at school tomorrow! Those grades of yours really need some work."

Liam burst out laughing. "Burn!" he hollered at Aimee.

Aimee folded her arms over each other and stared straight ahead. "Like yours are any better."

✩

Teachers should know after years of experience that 'group projects' in the ears of students sounds like 'let's chat'. Nothing productive ever happens when you put a group of teenagers together to work on a task.

Even in the case of Nova and Darren, two excellent students who like to work hard to achieve their dreams of getting into the Ivy League, this was true. After working seriously on an experiment about thermochemistry for twenty minutes, they got sidetracked into a conversation about spicy food, which was apparently Nova's favorite.

"But doesn't your mouth, like, die?" Darren asked. That was what eating spicy food felt like to him.

She shrugged. "You get used to it," she said. "And it's a thrill."

"A thrill to eat spicy food?" He'd always found the burn inside his mouth terrible, and the food lost all its flavor because of it.

"Call me a pyro-gourmaniac," she said.

He frowned. "What's that?"

She laughed. "That's how my family and I call spicy-food lovers."

"Well, I'm not that familiar with the world of spicy food, so excuse me for not knowing the terminology."

Nova followed the instructions of the experiment and added a transparent liquid to the mixture they had going on. "As long as you don't get in the way of me and my peppers, all's fine." Her head had been bowed down, her eyes fixed on the project, until she suddenly thought of something else that would derail the group project. "By the way, didn't you have a date yesterday?"

"It wasn't a date," Darren said. "I was going to hang out with Dakota."

She narrowed her eyes. "I don't like the tense you used."

Their conversation got the attention of someone else: a girl sitting before them turned around. "Darren!" she said, abandoning the project she'd been working on and focusing solely on the boy. "How did it go with Dakota?" It was Marley, one of the first girls Darren had gotten to know in the States and a friend of Dakota's.

"It didn't go." He looked away. "She canceled. At the last minute."

Marley frowned. "Why?"

He shrugged. "She forgot about the time, she said."

Marley rested her head on her elbows that she had put down on Nova and Darren's table. "That's so weird," she said. "So unlike Dakota. I mean, she isn't here today either."

"She isn't at school?" he asked.

Marley shook her head.

Nova frowned too. "She just skipped class? How?" The possibility of not going to school in the first week would never enter the mind of a straight-A student.

"It happens regularly," Marley said. "She just does what she wants, I guess." She tilted her head and pondered. "I'm surprised though that she bailed on you. I don't understand why she would do that."

"She said she'd gotten back together with a guy, Bennett I believe."

"Bennett?" Marley closed her eyes and sighed. "I can't believe this," she mumbled.

"Hadn't she just broken up with Bennett?" Nova asked, who nervously brushed her hand through her ponytail.

Marley nodded. "Last Saturday."

The day of the football game.

"To be honest, we shouldn't be surprised." She turned to Darren. "She's been on and off again with him for two years now. Both of them can't commit to anything. It's a disaster of a relationship, really." She sighed. "It's really shitty of her to cancel on you because of him."

"It's all right," Darren said. And it was: he'd still had an amazing night with the McCosta family, which wouldn't have happened if he had hung out with Dakota.

"I'll talk to her about this," Marley warned him. "She can't get away with this. You're too sweet for that."

Darren thought to himself that he and Marley had never exchanged words before today, so she couldn't know if he was sweet, but he smiled at her overprotectiveness anyway. "Thank you," he said, "but that's not necessary. Let's just forget about it and move on, okay?"

"She deserves her ass to be kicked, though."

He smiled. Marley seemed to be more pissed about it than he was, but he told her again she didn't have to. He quickly moved on to another topic that he had meant to ask her about. "How are you?" he asked, his tone genuine. "After what happened Saturday–"

Marley laughed. "Right, Saturday. Not a good day."

"Did you have to stay at the hospital a long time?" Nova asked.

Marley shook her head. "They examined me, did some tests, I don't remember the rest, and by the time morning came, I could go." She sighed deeply. "I'm never drinking alcohol again, though."

Darren suppressed a laugh. He'd heard that one before. "They know for sure it was the alcohol?"

Marley nodded. "It messed me up, man." But she could laugh about it too.

"Was that why you weren't here Monday?" Nova asked.

"Yeah, I was still sick from it," Marley said. She let a silence fall to think and corrected herself. "Well, I had been throwing up all night the night before, so I was really tired. I needed Monday to catch up on my sleep."

Nova made a 'phew' sound. "It doesn't surprise me you were exhausted," she said. "I only heard about what happened Saturday, but still..."

Darren could still remember Marley, laying on the ground, weak and small with her skin tinted in an unhuman color. It had taken what felt like ages before the ambulance arrived, and he'd felt so helpless. Seeing Marley like that also had terrified him and ruined his second experience with parties.

Marley let out a relieved sigh. "I know, right?" she said. "I never want to go through that again. And I don't even remember most of it."

Darren just sent her a caring smile. "I'm glad you're okay now."