I sat in the back seat of Tyler's Saturn next to Jake Sheldon, thinking about the double date I had just gone on. It was nice, better than I expected. We went to Mr. Gatti's, which wasn't a surprise considering who we were double dating with.

Jake is intelligent, a pleasant surprise. Most football players aren't too bright. We talked about music and political issues mostly. He's cuter and less buff than I remembered from the few times I'd seen him in the hallways and in pictures. He's nice too; he offered to share his tokens with me. I told him we should just share all our tokens. He agreed. He even won me a teddy bear.

But the whole duration of the date, I was thinking about Brodie. Jake is nothing like him, but he still reminded me of Brodie. Brodie's definitely more fun; he's way more outgoing and carefree, whereas Jake's self-conscious and it seemed like he was holding back from enjoying the date. Maybe it was because of his recent break-up.

"Darcy," Jake said. I had just realized we were stopped. I looked out the window. We were outside Hannah's house. Tyler got out to walk her to the door. They kissed just outside the door. I looked back at Jake.

"Yeah?" I said. He put his hand on top of mine. I tensed for a second, then relaxed.

"I really like you. I don't know how you feel, but I think we should go out on another date, just the two of us," he said. Tyler had just parked.

I thought about it. In other words, I thought about what Brodie would say about it. But it's not like Brodie and I were dating. I got my address book out of my purse, went to the Notes section, and wrote down my cell number and home number.

"I'd like that. Call me sometime, okay?" I said. Tyler got in.

"Okay," Jake said.

"Next stop, Jake's place," Tyler said. He knew I lived closer to where we were than Jake. I wondered why he was taking Jake home first.

Jake and I sat silent in the back seat, holding hands. We got to Jake's house. Before he got out, he kissed my cheek. "Sorry I couldn't walk you to your door," he said. He didn't know where I lived, and I was thankful for that. I only knew where he lived because I'd seen him in his yard many times on my way home from band practice.

Tyler and I waited until Jake was safely inside and turned in his driveway.

"Why did you take him home first?" I asked. Tyler glanced at me in the mirror.

"I wanted to talk to you. You're not really going to go out with him again, are you?" he asked.

"I was planning on it, why?" I said.

"You're in the marching band. He's on the football team. Big social status difference there, Darcy," he said.

"Um, HE asked ME out for the second date," I said.

"Brodie won't like this."

"Brodie has nothing to do with this."

"Oh, but he has more to do with this than you know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped. At that exact moment, my phone rang. A new text message from Brodie.

Hey just checking n on u. i got 2 talk 2 u asap honey.

He does this a lot. I didn't think anything about it, but it was strange because he knew I was on a date that night.

"I know I'm not too good at this, but i've got the feeling what he wants to talk to you about probably isn't band." I scowled at Tyler, but deep down, I knew he was right.

R&R please! But don't be mean... D