PERHAPS DARREN SHOULD HAVE KNOWN better than to follow Liam's advice, considering that the first time his host brother had advised him, it had caused the fight between Darren and Dakota. Yet, Darren had listened again, and he found himself in the same situation as before: ignored.

Dakota had read his message about him having written to her mother almost immediately, as the two blue check marks testified, but she hadn't answered, just as he had gotten used to over the past few weeks.

Still, Darren felt the need to ask her about it during English. "Did you read my text?"

She stared out straight ahead and humphed.

"Is that a yes?" he asked.

She made the same sound, and she didn't take her eyes off their English teacher who was intently reading Pride and Prejudice, like the model English teacher he was.

"So, what do you think?" Darren asked. He shifted in his seat so his entire body was turned towards her.

The muscles in her jaw tensed, but now, she didn't even give a nonverbal reply.

"About me writing to your mum, I mean."

"I got that."

The first three words he heard from her lips in all of November. Progress, he thought with slight satisfaction. Her voice sounded just like it always had, light and silvery, although it lacked any emotion. He was used to it being filled with excitement when telling a story and a wide range of intonation to bring her story across better. However, these three words were flat in tone.

"Great. So you read the text?"

No reply.

"Have you changed your mind about not wanting to meet your mum?"

Quiet.

"She's lovely, really."

He knew he shouldn't even expect an answer to that, so he went back to his strategy of asking questions.

"Do you want to know what your mum wrote?"

Silence.

"Or what I wrote?"

At this point, the silence went on for so long Darren expected to hear crickets in the background. He looked around to see if anyone was listening in on their one-sided conversation, but all other class members were too busy doing something else to notice them.

"Let me show it to you." He didn't yet know how he was going to, considering Dakota still didn't look at him or had turned his way, but he got his phone out of his backpack and opened up Facebook.

"No."

Fourth word.

"You don't want to see it?"

Back to silence again.

"I can read it to you."

She let out a dramatic sigh.

"She asked about you, you know."

When she thought Darren didn't see, she rolled her eyes.

"She's curious about you and really wants to get to know you. I think you'll really like her."

She clenched her teeth, but withdrew from saying anything. It looked like four words would be the final number of what she would say to him.

"Wait, I'll show you a picture." Darren exited the Messenger page and enlarged Rebecca's profile picture. He zoomed in so the boy standing next to Rebecca was cut off and Rebecca's face filled up the screen.

Dakota took a deep breath, and suddenly, the frozen statue that used to be the lively Dakota Sheely once came to life. She turned to him and her eyes stared into his so intensely it was the only thing he could see. "Listen, because I'm only going to say this once." Her light blue eyes seemed to fill up with fire, and her voice was much darker. "I don't want to know her. I told you that already, but maybe you're deaf, so I'm telling you again, but for the last time. I don't want to see a picture of her, read her message, know what she asked about me, anything. And I especially don't want to hear it from you, whom I told about this already long ago. So, stop talking to me or her." She held his gaze for a few seconds. "Go back to Scotland or something."

The words had fallen out of her mouth like a waterfall, and it felt like all of them came crashing down on Darren. He had even lost count of the number of words she'd said, which was definitely a record since she'd said an astounding zero words to him ever since Halloween. The sudden outburst had taken him aback. He didn't know what to say, but before he even had the chance to gather his thoughts and bring up a carefully thought-through reply, she'd turned away from him again, with her back against the chair and her eyes staring out straight ahead, as if he'd stopped existing.

Go back to Scotland or something. Was that where they stood? Darren had always assumed the fight between them could be resolved, but she wished him to go to the other side of the planet, as far away as possible from her. Was keeping her life the way it was, with just Dom and her friends but without her mom, that important to her?

"Just think about what you're passing up on." Darren leaned forward and searched for eye contact with Dakota, but she avoided him. With a non-existent courage, he continued in a weak voice in an attempt to convince her of his side of the story. "It's your mum. I'm not saying you should go live with her, throw your whole life upside down and welcome her back into yours, but I just want you to not regret this. This is an opportunity."

She sat still like a statue, and during the silence Darren left to give her the chance to answer, she only blinked every once in a while. Her chest rose up and down in a slow rhythm, as if she was calm and hadn't just had an outburst of anger.

"You can understand where you came from," Darren continued. He didn't know where his drive to keep going came from, but he hoped that talking to her in a calm tone might eventually entice her to talk again, in a less angry tone perhaps. "Why you ended up in the orphanage, for example. And she might be able to connect you to your father, so you could get to know him too." He realized too late that he'd used the word "orphanage" in an environment where not many people might know she grew up in one, so when he asked his next question, he did so quietly. "What are you afraid of, Dakota?"

It was almost unnoticeable, but for a split second, she narrowed her eyes while keeping them focused on the back of the head of the boy sitting in front of her.

"Is that it? Are you afraid?" Darren continued to ask, and he made sure no one else would hear him. He could imagine she wouldn't be happy admitting to being scared around her classmates. "If that is it, I'm happy to go with you. Or not, if that's what you want. Just tell me what you need, and I'll be there. I'll do it, whatever it is."

Slowly, her head turned, and her eyes met his. No words this time, but her eyes said it all. I want you to go.

☆

"What would you think of me coming home?" Darren asked his mother. The call had barely started, and they hadn't even greeted each other yet when he asked the question.

"To Scotland?" she asked. "When?"

"Now."

She frowned. "I thought you were going to stay there for the whole year. Christmas is the only time you've planned to come here." Quickly, she added, "Although, if you want to come home, I'll welcome you with open arms."

Darren chuckled. He didn't doubt that for a second. "I just thought it would be better, with the wedding and all..."

"The wedding isn't until Christmas," Elle said. "We chose that date because you were going abroad and we wanted you to be there."

"But I could help out more," Darren said. "There's probably a lot to do, and if I can help, I'd happily go back."

"And what about the rest of the school year?" Elle asked. She had a hint of suspicion in her voice, as if she was onto something.

"I would stay too."

"You would just cancel your entire plan for the year? You were looking forward to going abroad for a year."

"Maybe it's too long," he said. "I'll just finish this school year in Scotland, and if I get accepted into Princeton, I'll go to university here. And if I don't, I'll go to a university closer to home. I also applied to Oxford and Cambridge, so maybe I'll get in there. The University of Edinburgh is also a great option, even closer to home, and although I didn't apply for early admission there, I could still -"

She sighed. "Darren," she said in that all-knowing motherly tone. He never wanted to reach through the screen and hug her as much as he did in that moment. "What's going on?"

"Who says there's something -"

"I do." She shifted in her seat and leaned closer into the screen. "Tell me, what's going on?"

He swallowed. "I messed up, mum." He bit his lip to stop the emotions he felt rising. "Really, really messed up, and I don't think it's going to be okay again."

"What happened?" she asked. It was not pressing, but more of a concerned question, and somehow, she managed to mix some motherly love into her tone as well that made him feel at home even though home was a thousand miles away.

"This girl... She trusted me, and I broke her trust - twice." He buried his face in his hands.

"Have you talked to her?"

"Yes," Darren said. The word was muffled by his hands covering his mouth, but Elle understood her son even without the verbal answer. "She won't talk to me. I've tried for weeks."

"She might, if you give her some time..."

He shook his head. "No, mum, she won't." The sigh escaping from his lips was exasperated. "This won't just blow over. What I did to her was terrible - not just the average going-behind-her-back thing. Te-rri-ble." He would know, because all day, he had been mulling over the events, as well as the conversation he'd had with Dakota during English. The emotions he hadn't wanted to let free during school now all came crashing down, and on top of that, he felt guilt for making his mother the victim of all of this. Even when he told himself he shouldn't feel guilty, because his mother would rather him tell her than keep it a secret, he couldn't shake the feeling.

"And is that the end of the world, if she won't talk to you?"

It felt like it was.

"There are other girls if that's what you're worried -"

"She's not my girlfriend." Darren stressed every word.

Elle exchanged looks with him, but when Darren didn't budge, she decided to believe him. "She'll come around," she promised.

"And what if she doesn't?"

She raised her shoulders. "There are plenty of other people on the other side of the pond besides her. If she doesn't want to talk to you, there are plenty of people who will."

He just breathed in and out, his expression not changing, but his thoughts wandering around.

"That doesn't help, does it?"

He snickered. She knew him too well.

She tilted her head. "Have you asked for forgiveness yet? Maybe she doesn't want to talk to you because she still needs to hear something from you first."

Had he asked for forgiveness? Darren tried to recall all the conversations he'd had with Dakota - which wasn't hard, because there weren't many, and the few he'd had with her were engraved in his thoughts - but he couldn't remember him asking her for forgiveness. He'd said he was sorry, yes, but was that the same as asking for forgiveness?

Elle saw him thinking. "You should try it." With a warning tone that was her way of joking, she added, "Don't come home before you do. I will send you back on the first plane."

And with that, she'd managed to make him laugh for the first time that day.

So, I have a little question to ask you... Usually, at the end of stories, I like to recommend other stories that are kind of similar to the one I wrote (similar genre, similar target audience). This time though, I have not a clue what stories I can recommend that readers of Kiss Me Twice might enjoy! Could you help me out by sharing some books you've enjoyed recently? I'll check them out, and maybe you'll find them at the end of this story 😊 It would help me a great deal!

Thank you, and a big hug from your author,

Jessy