Justin first realized he loved her when he saw her in that cheerleader uniform. It was funny how good she looked despite Justin never figuring her for a cheerleader. And it was odd how neither Alex nor Justin had known Harper was not only on the squad, but held a position of power. Still, even Justin had to admit that the uniform looked good on her. After the rally, he was going to do something about it.
"Hey, Harper," he said, the bubbly redhead looking kind of surprised that Justin was talking to her. Justin knew that although Harper and Zeke had hit it off originally, they weren't an item or anything, and although Zeke was Justin's best friend, he would be totally OK with what Justin was doing now.
"Hi Justin," she said, blushing only slightly. Harper still seemed to have a crush on Justin, but she had mostly gotten over the phase where she acted crazy around him. It took her a long time of course, but she had gotten over it.
"I was wondering, did you want to go on a real date, sometime?" he said, only somewhat awkwardly, looking at his shoes only part of the time.
Harper smiled brightly. "It's the cheerleader outfit, isn't it?" she teased. Now it was Justin's turn to blush.
"Yeah. You could say that," he said. "So, um, what do you say?"
"What were you thinking?"
"Well, you know that new indie silent film? I managed to get tickets," he said, bringing them out of his shirt pocket to show her. "Friday at 8."
Harper's eyes grew wide. "You managed to score tickets? But how? I thought they were all sold out." Her bright orbs searched Justin's for an answer.
"When you're a wizard, you have a few extra resources," he said, smirking.
"You mean you used magic to get them?" she said, sounding disapproving.
"Kind of. I used magic to know exactly when they would go on sale, so I was the first to get there."
"Impressive. That's not a totally sneaky use of magic. I guess I've been hanging around Alex too much. Oh shoot, Alex!" Harper said, looking up at Justin. "She'll never want us going out on a date."
"I guess it'll just have to be our little secret, then," Justin replied with a knowing smile. "Should I pick you up at 7:30, then? There will probably be a line to get in."
"That sounds great," Harper said with a faraway look in her eyes.
* * *
Friday came too quickly for Justin and not quick enough for Harper. Justin was still not ready, still unsure of what he was doing. Most of all he was worried about what his little sister would suspect when he refused to tell her with whom he was going to the movies when she knew that Harper too, was mysteriously busy. As Justin's luck would have it, at around 7 o'clock Alex opened his door, just as Justin was picking out a suit.
"I know you're going on a date with Harper," she said, crossing her arms and looking at him angrily. "Why! Didn't we go over this?"
"How did you know?" Justin said, not that he was surprised she knew.
"Please," Alex said, rolling her eyes and coming into Justin's room. "She couldn't keep that a secret for more than a day. Surprised she kept it that long, really."
"Ah."
"Well?" Alex said, glaring at him.
"Well what?"
"I told you!" she said exasperatedly. "You can't date Harper."
"I thought you were OK with Harper and I being friends," Justin said, still calmly deciding which tie to wear.
"Friends yes, not dating! And even the friends thing I'm not thrilled about," Alex said, blowing some hair out of her eyes. "It's weird for me. I mean, because then I might have to hang out with you."
Justin smirked slightly. "Well I promise not to bring you on any of our dates, then."
"Dates? You're already planning a second one? What's it going to be, a museum?" Alex said with sarcasm. Justin looked somewhat hurt.
"Well if you already know, why bother asking?"
"Ugh, I don't know what's worse, that you're dating my best friend or that you're going to bore her to death."
"Look," Justin shot back, suddenly sounding almost slightly angry. "There's stuff you don't know about Harper. You didn't know she was a cheerleader."
"Neither did you!" Alex retorted.
"Maybe so, but I care to find out things."
"Whatever, you're just doing this to annoy me!" she cried.
"Please, you are so self-centered," Justin chided. "It's not always all about you."
"This time it is. And I'm not being self-centered! I'm just thinking about Harper. You're leading her on just to annoy me."
"I'm not leading her on," Justin said softly, but faltering a bit. "I really do enjoy spending time with her."
Alex narrowed her eyes. "Fine. But if you hurt her, you're answering to me." She stormed out of the room. In all, Justin considered that that went pretty well, really. He continued getting ready for his date.
* * *
It was precisely 7:30 when he knocked on Harper's door. Justin knew because he synchronized his watch with the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado, which he retrieved off the NIST government web page. It wasn't as cool as listening to WWV on his shortwave radio, but it was a lot more efficient because he didn't have to wait for the timing reports. He also had a digital clock at home that synchronized the data with the signal automatically, but he didn't like to set his watch against that because it introduced another possible source of error, since he would be setting his watch against a clock set against the clock in Boulder. This way he was just setting his watch against the clock in Boulder.
Harper answered. She was wearing a rather nice dress. Nice but not extremely formal. Still, it went with his suit so Justin was somewhat glad of that, although it was somewhat strange that he was worrying that his date's attire went with his own. He did know that most of the people in the theatre would be in semi-formal attire.
"Wow," Harper breathed. "You look great dressed up," she said.
"Not as good as you," Justin returned. They both blushed slightly. Justin took her arm. It wasn't far to the theatre, but it was just far enough that Justin didn't want to make Harper walk. And being a gentleman, he was going to spring for a cab. He even tipped the cabbie generously.
"Showoff," Harper accused when they left the cab driver behind. But she smiled when she said it, and her smile lit up her whole face.
During the show, Justin couldn't pay attention to the movie. He kept thinking about her. The girl he loved. How her eyes lit up whenever he was around, despite her attempts to hide it, and God was she beautiful when that happened. How she was always around for him, despite her best friend not even realizing this. Justin couldn't believe he hadn't really seen it sooner, though it gave him a somewhat queasy feeling too. What would people think, especially his love's aforementioned best friend? Still, that was why he was on a date with Harper, to see if he could get close to another girl to see if the feelings were genuine. And Harper was such a nice, sweet girl, he felt he should be able to, even after his breakup with Juliet. Of course, that breakup had been entirely without animosity, because they both knew she had to move on to another city. They would remain long-distance friends, but neither of them felt a relationship would work out well given the circumstances. So they had parted amiably.
After the show, Justin saw her back to her house.
"I had a great time tonight, Justin," Harper said somewhat shyly.
"Me too," Justin croaked. Nervously, he leaned in, and Harper leaned toward him, too. They shared a small kiss, and then they both broke it off. They didn't quite look at one another for a bit. "I'll see you on Monday, OK?" Justin said, finally looking at her again. Her eyes were quite lovely, after all.
Harper smiled. "OK," she said. "Good night." She went inside, and Justin walked back home.
* * *
"OK, spill," Alex said, waiting on the couch when Justin came in. It was now 10:30 according to Justin's nigh-perfectly accurate watch. "Did you kiss her?"
Justin was taken aback. "What? That's hardly any of your business," he managed to say.
"I bet it was all awkward and nerdy."
"Again, none of your business."
"Aha! So there was a kiss!" Alex said, triumphantly. "You know if all she does is talk about you tomorrow I swear I'm going to get back at you."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah. We're going shopping. But I'm not bringing her here. I'm sure you two would just stare off into each other's eyes or something sickening like that."
"Yeah. We'd do that," Justin said, slightly sarcastically. He went upstairs before Alex could say anything else.
In his room, he flopped down onto his bed and began to think about that kiss he had with Harper. He wondered if she felt any sparks. He couldn't get it off of his mind. What was he supposed to feel? How could he tell if this was the girl for him? How could he get his mind off Juliet and other girls he'd liked? He really liked Harper, shouldn't he have felt those sparks everyone talked about? Or maybe they were a myth. He wasn't even sure if he should talk to her about that. It might hurt her feelings, and then Justin would have to put up with whatever Alex did. Ah Alex. What would he be without her? Probably happier.
He fell into an uneasy sleep.
* * *
Saturday came and went with nothing strange happening. Justin was still having thoughts about Harper, wondering if he was doing the right thing by dating her. He really did like Harper. And he did keep thinking about her, so that was a good sign. Still, he couldn't help but think about other girls he liked, comparing them to Harper. It wasn't a very nice thing to do, he knew, but he couldn't help it! And he was really glad that Alex was away with Harper all day. That would keep her from bothering him as much as possible.
Unfortunately she was home for dinner. When she came home, the first thing she did was go over to Justin on the couch and punch him.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Harper indeed couldn't stop talking about you. Ugh, I thought it was bad when she just liked you, but now that she's dating you..." Alex punched him again.
"It's not my fault that I'm such a ladies' man," Justin grinned. Alex rolled her eyes, as is custom.
"I hope this is just a phase. For both of you!" she said, before going upstairs to wash up for dinner. Justin turned back to his show on dinosaurs. It was discussing taxonomy, which was always an interesting topic.
Dinner was unusually silent. Alex didn't make any quips at Justin and she didn't complain about him dating Harper, either. She just glared at him, evilly. That was uncomfortable enough. Justin wanted to break the silence but wasn't sure what to say. Anything he did, Alex would probably use against him. That's why he didn't bring up the usual dinner topics he used, such as the energy crisis or the problems surrounding reform bills. But he felt that if he said anything about those, Alex would say, in an annoyed huff "Sheesh Justin, can you for one minute not be a huge nerd?" or something similar. So he suffered through supper in silence.
After supper, he called Harper. He didn't know why and he knew he was supposed to wait three days or something like that, but he wanted to talk to her.
"Hey Harper," he said to her when she answered.
"Oh, hi Justin!" Harper said, recognizing his voice. Justin smiled at that. "What's up?"
"Nothing really. Just, um... did you like our date?" Justin said sheepishly.
"Heh, yes Justin," Harper said, chuckling.
"Oh, that's good. I was worried I'd done something wrong," Justin explained.
"It's so sweet that you'd worry about that! But no, everything was just perfect." She sighed contentedly.
"Everything? That, um, kiss wasn't too awkward?"
Harper laughed again. "No, it was just how I'd imagined it would always be. So perfect." She sounded like she was in a dream.
Justin swallowed, hard. That was what he was afraid of. She had felt that special thing that everyone says you're supposed to feel with the girl you love. Maybe Justin was just incapable of it. But he knew who he loved, and he didn't think he needed a special feeling to tell him. So he forged on ahead. "I hope I'm not being too forward with this, but are you busy next Saturday?"
"No," Harper said slowly. "Why?" Perhaps she was too slow.
"Well I was hoping to take you out to dinner," Justin explained.
"Oh! I would love that."
"Could I pick you up at six? I'll make reservations at Luigi's."
"Gosh Justin," Harper said, touched by this gesture. "That's an expensive place!"
"Don't worry," Justin said. "I actually save money, unlike Alex." They both had a bit of a laugh at her expense, and then they both sighed a sigh of happiness. Then they said their goodbyes, and Justin went to sleep.
But it still wasn't very restful.
* * *
Sunday after church (the Russos were Catholic) Alex was yelling at Justin before they were even changed out of their nice clothes.
"You made another date with Harper!" she yelled at him, which was an odd complaint. At least he would think that it meant he wasn't leading her on. He wasn't going to just kiss her then leave her. He paid utmost attention to Alex's complaints, because sometimes they were hilarious.
"How did you know?"
"She texted me during the service. You know, since she forgets when Catholics have Mass." (Harper was Protestant.)
"Oh. Well, you should have been paying attention to the priest."
"You're one to talk! Do you even remember who delivered the sermon today?"
"Ah. Er. No," Justin finished lamely. It was true. His mind was on something – someone – else, even during church. He used to be such a good person. Now, he wasn't sure. This love – or this girl he thought he loved – was starting to change him. "OK, you got me there." Sulkingly, he went upstairs to change. Alex followed after him, clearly not done tormenting her brother.
"You know, Harper isn't like other girls you've dated."
"Oh?" Justin said, turning on his heel, pausing in his traversal to his room. "How so, pray tell?"
"Well she's weird. I mean, in a good way, of course."
"Alex, I've dated a centaur, a werewolf, and a vampire. I'm pretty sure Harper isn't that weird."
"Oh please. That centaur you went to one dance with. And Juliet was really normal for a magical girl. I liked her."
Justin smirked. "Ha! You admitted to liking one of my girlfriends."
"What's so odd about that?" Alex said, but she blushed slightly.
"You never like my girlfriends," Justin explained slowly.
"Well that's because so many of them were unlikable! Juliet was different."
"Of course, you like Harper too," Justin said, turning again to go back to his room.
"Well of course I do! But I don't like her as your girlfriend!" Alex called after him, and went to her own room to change out of her church dress. They both changed into work clothes, because it was time for their Sunday shift. The Sub Station had strange work shifts, which was why someone had to keep track of the shifts, and that someone was usually Justin, the trustworthy one. But he wasn't so sure he could be trusted now. If thinking about this girl was really affecting him as much as it seemed to be, who knows what he could mess up with next?
* * *
The week was pure torture. Between not being sure if he was doing the right thing, his constant distraction, and his sister still mad at him for dating her best friend, Justin found his attention slipping. Even his teachers noticed it, but they mostly chalked it up to stress at being such a good student all the rest of the time and figured that even he needed a week off. Besides, even his minimal effort was more effective than most students, so they said nothing.
Finally though, the day of Justin and Harper's second date came. Justin knocked on the door at the appropriate time, as prompt as ever. Harper looked nice again, but was wearing a different dress. Justin frowned at the fact that he was wearing the same suit, but Harper didn't seem to mind. They exchanged the usual pleasantries and Justin called them another cab.
"I can't believe you can afford this place," Harper said in wonder.
"Well, between saving up and my employee of the month boni, I think I can afford to splurge occasionally."
"Boni?" Harper questioned. Justin blushed.
"Plural of 'bonus', because it comes from Latin, and 'bonus' is a second-declension adjective. Sorry."
Harper smiled at him. "I love how smart you are, it's OK."
"Harper, I'm not all that smart," Justin said, as though admitting a deep secret. "I just study and work hard. Sometimes, well... I think Alex is smarter than me, and if she actually tried she'd blow me out of the water. So I have to try twice as hard just in case that ever happens."
"Than I," Harper said.
"Huh?"
"You said 'Alex is smarter than me.' It should be 'than I.'"
"Oh." Justin smiled. "She's not the only one, apparently."
"Oh poppycock," Harper said. "You are smart. And having a good work ethic is just as important, and I for one admire you for both."
"Thanks Harper."
They sat down to a nice meal. Luigi's was, of course, an Italian place and Justin, being Italian, felt that he had a good grasp of what to order, so he helped Harper decide. They were polite, got along well, and seemed to enjoy being around one another.
But, Justin was beginning to admit that he wasn't sure he loved her. Harper picked up on this. After the main course, she looked at Justin seriously.
"Justin, you like me a lot." It was a statement. Justin nodded anyway.
"But you don't love me," Harper continued.
Justin sighed. "No," he breathed. "I'm sorry. You really deserve a great guy. I wish I could be him! I really do. I was trying to date you to get my mind off the girl I do love, because I shouldn't love her."
"Don't let anyone tell you who you should and shouldn't love! Justin, I know I've had a big crush on you, but I want you to be happy. Who is it?"
"You can't – I don't... I can't tell you," he said flatly. Harper nodded.
"It's Alex, isn't it?" she said softly, understanding. Justin looked at her in shock.
"How did you know?"