The next morning started just as every day started, yet everything was different.

I'd walked home the night before feeling like a million bucks, despite what happened with Jane earlier. That was forgotten by now. I'd just kissed the girl of my dreams, whom I hadn't even known was her until that moment. My first kiss. I wanted to keep it in my mind forever.

When I got home Polli was sitting on the couch, on her phone as usual. I stood watching her for a moment and she looked up.

"What?" She asked in annoyance.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Having a full on battle with this bitch who commented on my Instagram."

I flinched at the word 'bitch'. I was fine with cursing, did it myself even, if you hadn't noticed, but Polli was thirteen. She'd even already had more first kisses than I could ever hope of having.

I sat down next to her, but she didn't seem to notice. She was too engrossed in her phone. "So what did this girl say?"

Polli scoffed and looked over at me. "She said, and get this, 'nice pic.'"

I waited for a moment, then realized she was done. "And that's... bad?"

"She said it with a period, Marty!" Polli groaned and leaned her head back against the couch. "That's code for sarcasm! Everyone knows that." She shook her head and continued typing.

"So what are you doing for revenge?" I asked curiously.

"Obviously I'm sending her a picture of me and Jonah," she muttered, not bothering to look up from her phone.

"Because...?"

She huffed and finally put her phone down to glare at me. "It's simple, Marty! Sending her a pic of my boyfriend reminds her of how she's still all alone, and how I don't need her. It makes her feel bad about herself and her actions."

I sighed. "Polli, come on. Don't you think that's a little extreme? And who the hell is Jonah?"

"It is not extreme," she said simply. "And he's my new boyfriend."

"What happened to Derek?"

Polli rolled her eyes and picked up her phone again, typing furiously. "Derek and I broke up like two weeks ago. He's not even my last boyfriend. Keep up with the times, will you?"

"Well, I'm sorry that you don't like talking to me."

"Fine." She looked over at me. "Derek and I broke up because he was getting all boring, studying for his math test or something. Then I started dating Sam, but he cheated on me. It's okay," she interrupted before I could speak. "I was cheating on him, too, with Maxwell, but god was he an idiot. So I dumped him for Jonah, and we've been dating ever since."

"And how long a time did all of this happen?"

She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "A couple of weeks or so. I don't really pay attention."

"Polli..."

"Oh, shut up." She turned to glare at me. "Don't go all protective brother on me now. You've been marching around with that Hazel girl for weeks, and it's getting to be absolutely exhausting. You two need to seal the deal or I'm gonna get seriously bored with you and ask for a new brother."

I waited for her to be done, then realized she was finished and spoke. "Hazel and I kissed."

"WHAT!" Immediately the phone was dropped and forgotten, and all attention was on me. I've never seen her eyes shine so eagerly before. "Tell me everything! Where? How? When?"

"On the roof of her house."

"Ooh, roof sex is amazing."

"Polli!"

"What?" She shrugged, as if she didn't realize how wrong her statement was.

"We didn't have sex."

She groaned and went back on her phone. "And you're boring again."

I stared at her then looked down. "Sorry," I muttered. I don't think she heard me.

I got up and walked upstairs to my room, but a movement beside me caught my eye before I could get there.

"Mom?" I asked quietly.

She was sitting on the floor of her room looking at her wedding album, but she quickly put it behind her upon hearing me. "Oh, hey, Marty," she said with a small smile. I felt a pang in my chest when I saw the tears on her cheeks. She seemed to realize what I was looking at and hastily wiped her tears away.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course," she whispered.

I went to her side and gently took the album from her, setting it on the floor in front of us. "Remember how Dad almost threw a piece of cake at Uncle Arty?" I asked softly.

She smiled and nodded. "To be fair, he was being an ass."

I mock gasped and stared at her. "Mother!" Thankfully, she laughed, and I smiled.

I turned the page, revealing pictures of two year old Polli hugging me so tightly it looked like I was turning blue. Polli has always been the strongest in our family, even as a baby.

The next page showed Uncle Arty and Aunt Talia eating the cake with looks of disgust on their faces. Mom explained to me that they'd complained that the cake didn't taste vegetarian safe and was going against all they stood for, and we laughed hysterically.

At one point Polli came upstairs on the way to her room, but Mom called her in and, get this, she came. After a few minutes she actually put her phone down.

We sat like that for a while, on the floor turning pages of many photo albums. I don't think we'd been that way for a long time. Maybe not since Dad died.

It was nice.

It was a good night, overall (like I said, I wasn't focusing on the Jane thing).

If only we'd known what was going to happen the next day.