Not too long after that, we reached the end of the school day. I was always grateful for the fact that Emmy tended to give me lifts home. As I was generous with providing her with food that my mother or I had baked, she was generous in the art of providing me with a method of getting home. I mean, I could walk but it would take forever and I only had little legs. It was practically a crime to get me to walk a far distance like that. I simply would not do it.

Emmy dropped me off at my house and then smiled towards me with a playful glint in her eyes.

"What?" I asked her.

"Nothing. I just think this is all going to be interesting, is all. You're finally going to ask a girl out. You're growing up from being a baby gay. It's adorable," Emmy told me.

I smirked, as I gave a slight shake of my head.

"I could just ask you out. You're a girl. It would work," I said.

Emmy released a soft laugh.

"You know our love will only ever be a platonic one. Besides, you know that I would say yes. You can't cheat like that. You need to go and face your fear of rejection head on, girl! I'll be right there to support you. Well, maybe not right there, right there. I'm not exactly going to hold your hand through the process but you've got it," Emmy said.

"I'll see you later, Ems," I told her.

"You too, munchkin. See you later," she said and drove away.

Oh, man, what had I got myself into?

There was no easy route out of this one. I couldn't take the path of a coward and decide that I wasn't going to do it. I had made a promise to Emmy and I intended to fulfill that promise.

Callie met my gaze, as soon as I had stepped into the house.

"So, how did your first day go?" she asked me.

"Aw. Do you care?" I asked her.

Callie crossed her arms over her chest, as she grumbled something under her breath.

"Of course, I care about you, Phoebe. So, how was your day?" she asked me, with a compassionate expression.

"Extraordinarily difficult. That was just the mathematics lesson. Don't even get me started on the rest of it," I said.

"What's the rest of it?" Callie asked me, as I closed the front door.

I just narrowed my eyes at her.

"I should have known that you were going to ask that," I said.

"Well, I'm curious. I understand the whole math thing, though. It's difficult," she told me.

"Always," I said.

Maybe I really did need a tutor. Where was I going to find a tutor, though? I didn't even know where to find the cool flannels in the clothing shop, let alone know where to find a girlfriend yet that was something else I was now trying to do.

"So, what else happened?" Callie asked, as the two of us walked into the living room.

I exhaled with slight worry, which led Callie to look towards me with concern.

"People weren't homophobic towards you, were they? I'll fight them, if I have to!" Callie said.

My sister and I were fairly sensitive people. It wasn't difficult to upset either one of us but the people that did usually never got away with it. Callie had her ways of finding out information about them and well, she probably shouldn't have but she wouldn't hesitate to egg someone's house if they upset me.

That was the thing, as much as we may have had little jabs at each other from time to time, my sister and I were very close. I loved her so much.

"No," I said.

Callie took a deep breath, as the tension left her shoulders then.

"Well, I'm glad," she said, "Now, talk to me, Phoebe. You know that you can trust me. So, what's happening?" she asked.

"I may have made a deal with Emmy to ask a girl out by the end of the week," I blurted.

Callie's eyes widened at that and the sun that shone in through the window brought out the gold tones within them.

"You did?" she asked me, "That's kind of impressive, actually. Now you need to do it, though," Callie reminded me, as though I didn't already know that.

I swallowed.

"I know," I said.

"It'll be fine though. You're a sweet person. So, how did school go aside from that?" she asked me.

"Pretty well. I saw Ryder again," I said.

"Oh, really?" Callie asked, as this spark filled her eyes.

I already knew that Callie had really liked Ryder. She probably already did, if her eyes were any evidence of how she felt.

"How is he?" she asked me.

"He's Ryder. He's been training for the sports team, which I believe that Emmy will be joining soon," I said.

"So, Emmy still hasn't caught on to the fact that your homo-romantic love story goes a little deeper than friendship?" she asked me.

I sighed.

"Listen, Callie, Emmy only wants to be my friend. Besides...maybe not all hope is lost, you know? There's still a chance out there for me that I'll find a girl that likes me," I said.

"Trust me, you will," Callie said with optimism.

I appreciated it but it did sort of hurt that she had brought up the whole Emmy situation again. I had never told her that I liked her. I valued our friendship far too much to mess with it. Besides, if Emmy wanted us to be friends then I supposed that was understandable. Friendships didn't complicate matters. Of course, relationships shouldn't be complicated, either, but we were teenagers. We were still figuring all of this out.

"Thanks, Callie," I said.

"You're welcome. You know I'm here for you, girl," she told me with a warm smile that I had to return.

It was nice to have someone to talk to about these things.

Callie soon had to go and take a nap, she was tired from her day at work.

I made my way upstairs to my room and logged onto my laptop.