I returned home and felt a little disheartened but my mood was ultimately lifted when Bow walked over to the front door.

He demanded cuddles, as could be expected.

I picked him up from the ground and kissed his squishy little cheek.

"How are you doing, mister?" I asked him.

"I made cake today!" he said.

I felt my eyes widen slightly, as I looked towards Callie for confirmation.

"He did. Not just out of play-doh this time around," she told me, as a grin became apparent on her face.

"Ay! That's amazing. That's why I love you so much, Bow. You're so talented," I told him, as I placed him back down and ruffled his curls.

Bow beamed back at me, then, as his cheeks reddened slightly. He clearly wasn't too sure how to handle my compliment but he looked happy with it, all the same.

"Let's go play outside!" Bow said.

I nodded in agreement. I knew that I needed to study, too, but right now Bow was the post important thing.

Besides, I knew that it would be a good opportunity for me to distract my mind from all of the thoughts I frequently had of Emmy. It was as though she lived in my mind and she didn't even pay rent.

I was glad the afternoon was mild, as the sun set and caused the sky to become a gorgeous amber shade.

The gentle breeze helped soothe me a little. I would probably take a nice bath later, though, too.

"Callie, come play with us!" Bow called out to my sister, who stood in the door-frame.

"Oh, alright," Callie agreed, as she wandered over to the sandpit so that she could trace her fingers through it. She spelt out words and drew shapes, too. Callie met my gaze and her expression became a little more sympathetic. I had a feeling that she could probably tell simply from my expression that I was thinking about Emmy and I didn't know what to say to her.

Either way, I knew that I wasn't going to start talking about in front of Bow. He had a tendency to start asking questions. He did get brownie points for being my biggest ally, though. I had brought girls over a lot in the past, who ended up just becoming friends with me, and Bow had always wondered if they were my girlfriends. Bow was supportive like that. He had never seen anything wrong with me liking girls because he looked at it as though it was just like me liking boys. Bow was the greatest evidence that hate wasn't inherited, it was taught.

I was proud of my brother for being as accepting as I could have ever hoped him to be.

"You know I care about you, Phoebe. You can talk to me if something is bothering you. Is something bothering you?" she asked me.

"Phoebe no sad!" Bow said, as he rushed over to cuddle with me.

I couldn't help but grin at that. He was so damn adorable.

"Nothing is bothering me," I said.

"Girls, Bow! It's dinner time," she called the three of us.

Bow raced into the house. You didn't have to tell him twice.

Callie and I walked into the house a little more slowly, while Callie continued to look at me with concern evident in her gaze.

"I understand if you're still upset about the Emmy situation," she whispered to me.

"I'm going to ask another girl out so...none of that even remotely matters," I said decisively.

"Yeah. That's what you keep saying and I do believe you. You need to put yourself out there. Just like I need to," Callie said.

As we went into the kitchen, I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Let me guess. You broke up with Ben?" I asked her.

"That I did. I also blocked him on, well, everything. I told him to have a nice life, not that I meant it," Callie sighed, as we began to serve ourselves some lasagna and then walked back out into the garden to eat it.

We sometimes ate together and my mother was fine with it because she knew that we were adults now and could do what we wanted to. She also understood that sometimes Callie and I needed to speak to each other alone for a moment. That was something that I had always been thankful for.

"If you need any help, just let me know," Callie said, as she took a bite of her lasagna.

I decided that now would probably be a good time to bring up the whole Courtney thing. So, after taking a bite of my own lasagna, I decided to bring it up.

"Cals. There's this girl," I said.

"This girl? A girl that isn't Emmy?" she asked me.

I nodded.

"Don't seem so surprised," I said.

"It's just you were so hung up on Emmy that I was convinced you wouldn't even talk to another girl. What's going on, Phoebs?" she asked me.

"Her name is Courtney. She's new. She started a few months ago and she's pretty...interesting, to put it one way. I still don't know if she even remotely likes me but the two of us do talk quite a lot," I stated.

"Interesting, interesting," Callie replied.

"I suppose in some strange way I want to impress her," I said.

Callie's eyes flickered with something then, but I wasn't sure what it was.

"What?" I asked her.

"Huh? I didn't say anything," she replied.

I tilted my head slightly, as I gave her a look of curiosity.

"Yes you did, Cal. What was that look all about?" I asked her.

Callie seemed thoughtful for a moment, before she spoke again.

"It just sounds like you might like her," she said.

I felt my eyes widen instinctively, then.

"What? Courtney is only a friend, if you can even consider her that. I don't know where you get these ideas from. Anyway, I'm going to eat my lasagna and then head up to bed and we're going to pretend we didn't have this conversation," I stated.

Callie released a soft laugh before she replied.

"Alright, Phoebe," she said.