"What's up with Daniel?" Lindsay Weir asked her friend and ex-boyfriend, Nick Andopolis. They had finished eating lunch; just them and their other friend, Ken Miller, at the lunch table, and ventured then out onto the smoking patio. Daniel Desario, their best friend, the leader of the "Freaks", and Lindsay's crush, was sitting on a picnic table, head down, stubbing out a cigarette butt on the wood.

"Oh, he and Kim broke up," Nick explained, watching Lindsay carefully for her reaction. Even though he had broken up with her, he was still in love with her. There was no doubt about that. And, to be fair, her mother told him that Lindsay was going to break up with her anyway, so….

He was still kicking himself for breaking up with her though.

"Why?" Lindsay asked nonchalantly, pulling him back from his thoughts.

"Why do you think? He's an ass and she's a slut," Ken explained, totally serious. Lindsay just rolled her eyes at him and went over to sit next to Daniel on the picnic table top.

"Hey," she nudged him with her shoulder and smiled.

"Hey," he said glumly, barely looking at her.

"Hey buddy," Ken said tentatively. "How's it gooooin'?"

Nick elbowed him in the solar plexus.

"You wanna go do something? C'mon, let's go ditch," Lindsay suggested. All the guys, including Daniel, looked at her, surprised. Lindsay, even though she was a Freak, was a good girl. She was a former Geek, a mathlete, and usually afraid to break the rules. And now she was suggesting they ditch? Weird.

"Nah, it's okay," Daniel said.

Nick, Ken, and Lindsay looked at each other over Daniel. They were really worried now. This was so uncharacteristic of Daniel. He and Kim were always breaking up and making up, usually within a twenty-four or forty-eight hour period. It was usually no cause for concern, but now they were nervous, wondering if it was something bigger this time.

"Come on, man, let's get out of here," Nick suggested.

"What are we gonna do?" a voice came from behind him. He whipped around. Kim Kelly stood behind them, looking as innocent as she could in her blue shoplifted jacket, her hands in her back pockets. Her blonde hair hung over her shoulders and her eye makeup was just the tinniest-bit smudged, something only Lindsay, a fellow girl, noticed.

"Uh, nothin', man," Nick said quickly, nervously.

"Lindsay, can I talk to you for a second?" Kim asked Lindsay, staring at her pointedly.

"Uh…" Lindsay looked at Ken and Nick, hoping for back-up, but they both just shrugged, clueless. "Sure." She got up and walked over to Kim, who led her to a corner near the door to the cafeteria.

"Okay, so you've obviously heard by now that Nick and I broke up. I mean, it was a stupid fight, but it happened Friday night and he hasn't talked to me all weekend. I'm starting to get a little worried. So, did he say anything about me? Has he seemed like he misses me?" she asked hopefully.

"Um, I'm not sure. I mean, he hasn't really said much of anything yet. We were just talking about ditching, maybe goin' to Nick's. His dad's not home and he got his drums back."

"Yeah okay," Kim nodded, trying not to, and failing miserably, to look over at Daniel. Her stomach twisted a little every time she looked at him, even when they were going out. She loved his hair, dark brown and falling a little bit into his eyes, which were so dark they were almost black and so intense, especially when he was high. And the way the corner of his mouth sort of quirked up when he was mischievous or plotting something.

Those were also all the reason Lindsay loved him, among others; the way he treated her like she wasn't just a geek, and the way he sometimes stood up for her when Kim used to attack her.

"Hey man, you okay?" Nick asked Daniel while Kim and Lindsay conversed in the corner.

"Yeah, I'm fan-freaking-tastic," Daniel snapped at him.

"Why are you so grumpy today? Sheesh," Ken said with a straight face.

"Whatever. Come on, let's go," Daniel stood up and headed for the parking lot.

"What about Kim and Lindsay?" Nick asked, looking back to where the girls were starting to walk over to the rest of the group.

"Whatever," Daniel said again, hunching his shoulders in his trademark denim jacket and walking away.

Kim and Lindsay caught up to Ken and Nick, watching Daniel walk slightly ahead of them.

"Wow. What did you do to him?" Ken asked.

"Shut up, Ken. It's not funny," Nick told him.

"No it's fine. We broke up and he's being a baby about it. So what? Maybe we just want different things," Kim answered, trying to sound superior and okay with it. Lindsay watched her carefully.

It was an awkward ride to Nick's house; no one was going to deny that. Kim sat in back next to Lindsey, who was in the middle, with Nick on her other side, while Ken rode shotgun and Daniel drove his Trans Am. Apparently, in the midst of Kim and Daniel breaking up, everyone else forgot how Lindsay and Nick were still in the awkward post-break-up stage, and both most certainly still had feelings for the other one.

In Nick's basement, he immediately went to sit behind his drums, a thirty-three piece set of every type of drum imaginable. And he could even play. Sort of. Kim and Daniel sat on opposite couches, and Lindsay and Ken went to sit with their respective genders.

"Look at him," Kim complained quietly. "I mean, he's just pining. He just wants people to feel sorry for him. I bet he and Ken are talking about some really deep shit. Or he's probably just telling Ken all these lies about me. It figures. He's such a drama queen! He blows everything out of proportion and now he's probably going around saying what a slut I am!"

"Hey man. You got any weed?" Ken asked Daniel quietly.

"No. Nick probably does, though," Daniel nodded his head to Nick, who was sitting behind his drums, looking awkward, tapping his drums quietly with his sticks.

"Are you kidding me? He does not. Do you know how much of a wuss he's been since he and Lindsay broke up? She complained once while they were dating that he smoked too much, so he gave it up for good. And now I've got no connection, 'cause Mark's out, too."

"Thanks, Ken," Nick called out. He could hear every word the king of the mutton chops just said. "Hey, how are things with you and Tuba Girl?"

"Real funny," Ken said sarcastically. He and his girlfriend, Amy, who played tuba in the school band, had broken up a couple weeks ago, and it was still a sore spot for him. "Hey, Lindsay—"

Nick ran over and pummeled Ken before he could finish his thought.

"What are they talking about?" Kim asked Lindsay, watching the guys beat up on each other.

"I don't know," Lindsay admitted. "So…hey Kim?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened between you and Daniel, anyway?"

Kim flopped back against the couch.

"Ugh. I don't even know. We were at a concert Friday night, okay?" she sat up and began, snapping her gum. "And he went off to get me a beer. So there was this really cute guy who came over to me and started talking to me. And I was trying to tell him I wasn't interested, but he was really cute. And he was funny, but I couldn't hear him, so he leaned in close and I was laughing at something he said when Daniel came back in the room and he and the guy got into this huge fight and then Daniel started freaking out on me, calling me a slut and everything, which was just so bullshit!"

"So why'd you and Kim go splat?" Ken asked, absentmindedly playing with a Rubik's cube.

"All right, so we went to a party Friday night, right? And, y'know, I'm bein' a gentleman and I go get her a beer. And when I get back, she's laughin' it up with some twenty-four-year-old who's practically sticking his tongue in her ear. So I went over to him and he started this whole fight."

"Wow. That's tough man," Ken said.

"Tell me about it," Daniel admitted. "I broke his tooth and he got pissed and walked away, and then Kim starts on me about bein' such a jerk. So I asked her if she was on her period, and she slapped me and walked off."

"Did you at least get his name?" Lindsay asked Kim.

Kim nodded triumphantly. "Judah Michaels. He's in a band."

"That's cool."

"Yeah, As a matter of fact, he's supposed to pick me up soon. I'll see you later," she got up and walked out of the basement without another look at Daniel.

Lindsay, Daniel, Nick, and Ken hung out for a few more hours, drinking beers and making fun of random people in Chippewa. Just before five, Nick ushered them all out of the house; his dad was going to be home soon. Lindsay rode shotgun in the Trans Am while Daniel dropped Ken off at his house, then went towards Lindsay's.

"Listen, I just wanted to say I'm sorry that you got caught up in it. I know Kim was venting to you. And I just wanted to thank you, 'cause I know you're always there for me," Daniel said suddenly, concentrating maybe a little too hard on the road and his driving, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.

Lindsay stared at her hands, folded in her lap, not knowing what to say. "Um, it's no big deal," she said shyly. Daniel pulled up in front of her house and cut the engine.

"No, it is a big deal. I mean, most girls would just side with Kim, just because she's a girl, but you're different, Lindsay. You're a lot different than any girl I know."

She looked up at him to find him staring intensely at her. His dark eyes almost made her melt in the seat. Slowly and suddenly at the same time, he leaned into her and pressed his mouth to hers. It wasn't like kissing Nick. Nick was too passionate, pressing up against her, trying to make her understand how he felt about her. But kissing Daniel was so unlike Daniel it was amazing. He barely touched her, but she could feel an electric current pass through her at his touch, His lips parted slightly and she leaned into him, parting her lips also. They kissed for a few seconds, but to her it was at least a millennium and a half.

He pulled away from her, his eyes half-closed, cupped his hand around the back of her neck, and leaned his forehead against hers.

"I really like you, Lindsay."

"I really like you too, Daniel."

"We should go do something," he told her.

"Um, I have to get home, but maybe later tonight?" she asked hopefully. She was so scared that if she gave him enough time to think about it, he'd get back together with Kim, or realize she wasn't for him or something equally horrible.

She backed out of the car, closing the door slowly and walked into her house.

When she got to her room, she flopped down onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. She wasn't used to this side of Daniel, quiet and brooding and sweet, but this was what she had been hoping for all along, wasn't it? But what about Nick? How would he feel about this? And why did it matter what Nick thought? He had broken her heart, so why did it matter to her?

"Hey, Lindsey. Is everything okay?" Her brother, Sam, asked from her bedroom door. She lifted her head up to look at him.

"I have no idea, Sam," she groaned. "I'm so confused right now."