Finding Alex's door closed, Justin knocked with the knuckles of two fingers. "Alex," he said.
A muffled "Go away!" came back immediately.
Justin crossed his arms, then leaned sideways against Alex's door. "I'm not going away until you tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong, except that I've got a stupid jerk for a brother!"
"Max is going to be very upset that you said that, you know," Justin said, shaking his head and grinning a little. "He can be more sensitive than - woah!" Justin put out his hands to try to catch himself as Alex yanked her door open, causing him to fall for a moment, until he managed to catch himself on the doorframe.
"You are the stupid jerk!" Alex hissed at him, smacking him on the shoulder as she did. Justin turned his hands toward her in what he hoped would be a placating way, but it didn't seem to work, as she smacked him again, this time hitting his forearm. "You're just another guy, not paying any attention to how the people around you are feeling, and -"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Justin backed off a step, said, "Alex, I'm sorry. If I knew you were upset, I would have given you the remote. Now please, tell me what's going on."
She stopped and stared at him for moment, then bared her teeth with a frustrated, "Uhh!" and stomped her foot. "Just stay out of my way!" With that, she pushed past him, walked quickly to the stairs, and went down them.
A few moments later, Justin heard the TV turn back on, and sighed a little in relief. Whatever was happening, at least she didn't seem to be determined to blame him for it now. He reached for the knob of her door, planning to close it, then stopped and frowned as he saw something in her trash can - torn-up pieces of what looked like a slightly pinkish envelope.
Looking at it from his sister's doorway, Justin wavered for a moment. Tomorrow's Valentine's Day. Pink envelope obviously equals card… but why would it be torn up? Whatever the reason, Justin was sure that it had something to do with Alex's behavior. Crossing the room, he reached into the trash can, picked out the pieces of the card, then exited, closing the door behind him and carrying those pieces into his bedroom with him.
It took less than five minutes to put the card back together. Granted, he could have done it in a couple of seconds with magic - put he wasn't supposed to use magic without permission, and doing it this way was sort of fun anyway. It was like a puzzle, or like being a spy.
The card itself was a simple one - on the outside was a cartoon baseball bat and catcher's mitt, with "I'll Give You a Walk to First Base." Inside was, "Wanna Try and Steal Second?" There was no name on the envelope, but she'd signed it, and Justin was pretty sure who it had been meant for - Riley.
So why was it torn up and in the trash? What happened today? He wasn't going to get answers from Alex, he knew, but he also knew who would know. Harper. And I can get the answers out of her.
People are more than happy to talk to you about what they think you already know. All Justin had to do was mention "that thing with Riley today" and the floodgates opened. Fifteen minutes later, he knew all about it - how Alex has been wanting to have a special Valentine's with Riley, and she went to slip the card she'd gotten him into his locker after the last bell - only to spot Riley there with some blonde girl, and the two of them hugging closely.
Unconsciously, Justin cracked his knuckles as Harper described this to him. I think I'm going to have to talk to Riley tomorrow.
Riley frowned as he looked through his locker. This wasn't unusual - while Riley was athletic and fairly good-looking, he was far from the brightest of bulbs. Finally deciding that he had everything he needed, he closed his locker door solidly, turning as he did to start toward his first class... only to almost run into Justin, who had been on the other side of Riley's locker door.
Arms crossed, leaning back against the lockers, Justin was doing his best to look like the stereotypical Hollywood teen movie tough guy. Unfortunately, while he had the pose down quite well, his button-down white shirt and red v-necked sweater didn't quite match. "Hey," Justin said, giving Riley a nod.
"Hey," Riley answered back, returning the nod as he stepped to the side and started forward. This wasn't exactly the reaction Justin was expecting, and he quickly stood up off the lockers and headed after the taller boy.
Justin tapped Riley on the shoulder, then jerked his head to the side when he looked. "I need to talk to you for a minute."
Frowning, Riley looked at his watch. "Can it wait? I need to finish up my math homework before fourth period."
"No," Justin said, gritting his teeth in annoyance as he did. "It's about Alex."
"Oh, yeah - do you know where she is? I got her a card, and -"
Justin interrupted Riley with a glare and curl of his lip, leaning in toward the taller boy, his hands balled into fists. "You got her a card? I don't think she's going to want your card, Riley. And I don't want you coming around her, if you're going to be cheating on her with some blonde! And -"
"What?" Riley shook his head quickly, looking mystified. "Cheating on her? Where are you getting this?"
"Harper and Alex both saw you yesterday after school, hugging some -"
Riley put a hand to his face, said, "Oh. Oh, hell, man..."
"Oh, hell is right," Justin said, getting in Riley's face again. "Nobody treats my little sister like that. Nobody. So -"
"Dude -" Riley held up both his hands, said, "Dude, that was my sister."
"Your sister?" Justin blinked and frowned, then said, "Wait... you're cheating on my sister with your sister?"
"What? No!" Riley's face creased in an expression of disgust as he said, "Man, eww. How could you even think something like that?"
Flushing slightly, Justin said, "Oh, um, uh... never mind." He backed off a step, folded his arms again, looking serious. "Well, okay, so you're not cheating on her... but Alex thinks you are. So you're going to need to do something really nice for her."
He paused for a moment, opened his mouth just as the first bell rang. "Okay, umm... look, meet me after first period. We'll talk about this, okay?"
Riley nodded, smiling a bit, and clapped Justin on the shoulder. "Sure. Thanks, man."
"Yeah. No problem," Justin said, but he wasn't smiling as he did.
That night, at a quarter after eight, Justin was sitting in his room, kicked back in his desk chair with his feet against one leg of the desk (actually putting them on the desk would be unsanitary). Slowly, he moved his left thumb and index finger together, waving the picture held between them.
His phone rang, and he looked at it, frowned when he saw that it was Harper calling, then shrugged. What the hell. I might as well answer it. She'll just leave a dozen messages if I don't.
Thumbing the green phone button, he held it up to his ear, said, "Hi, Harper."
"Hi, Justin! Happy Valentine's Day! Did you get the card I made you?"
"Yeah. Thanks." He glanced over toward it, a lace-covered confection of pink, red, and white, and cringed a little mentally.
"I should be mad at you, since you didn't get me one, but I understand. You were busy."
Justin eased his chair back toward upright, said, "What? Well, I'm always busy," he started, feeling a sudden bit of guilt that he hadn't gotten Harper anything, then annoyance at himself for the guilt. She's not my girlfriend. I don't even want her to be.
He looked at the picture he was holding again, then tossed it onto his desk. "Well, yes - but I know what you did today. Alex may not know it, but I know Riley was telling some other guys about how broke he was a couple of days ago. So you tell me... how did he get money to buy two dozen roses, candy, and take Alex out to dinner?"
"I have no idea," Justin said, looking at his wallet where it sat on his desk, considerably thinner than it had been that morning. Yeah. Big chance I have of seeing that money again. Ah, well, it's not like I needed the money for anything today, he thought, with only a tinge of bitterness as his eyes slid to Miranda's picture, laying where he'd tossed it.
"Uh-huh. Well... wherever that money came from, I thought you should know that Alex just called me, and she's very happy. She liked the candy a lot."
"Good," Justin said, and his chest moved in a silent chuckle. She should. Skipped third period to go get that. The things I do for her.... "I made sure - uh, Riley made sure everything in it was something she liked."
"Uh-huh," Harper said again, and this time, Justin could hear the smile in her voice. "Anyway, since you were busy being such a good brother today, you can give me my flowers and candy tomorrow."
"What? I'm not -"
The smile was still there as Harper interrupted. "Justin... you know, Alex is really happy right now... but if she were to find out that Riley wasn't really that thoughtful, then... well, we don't want her to find that out, do we?"
Harper paused, and for a moment, they were both silent. Justin opened his mouth, the words, You do realize that's blackmail? on his lips, then closed it again as he realized that yes, Harper did know that, but she didn't really care.
"Of course," he said then. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Good. Good night!" Harper said, but Justin simply lowered the phone, thumbed it off.
He heard voices then, drifting up the stairs: brightly merry chattering that he couldn't quite make out, but the voices were undoubtedly feminine. That'll be Alex, coming home from her date, telling Mom all about it. He took his foot off the desk leg, let the chair fall to upright, then picked up the card he'd gotten her the night before, went to his door and opened it, leaned against the doorframe.
A minute later, Alex came up the stairs, bouncing slightly from foot to foot, smiling happily, and Justin felt an unaccustomed pain in his chest as she stopped and looked at him, flipped her hair and smiled. "I had the best date. Riley was so nice." Her voice shifted a little, to a gently mocking tone. "So what did you do? Stay in your room and read?"
A perverse urge ran through Justin, and he matched Alex's tone, said, "No. I gave the prettiest girl in school flowers and candy. She doesn't know they're from me, but I have it on good authority that she loved them."
Alex frowned at that, then shook her head and rolled her eyes. "So, what? Did you give her a card signed 'anonymous' with it? Or maybe 'from your secret admirer'? You need to get past the whole fourth grade thing, and actually tell her you like her."
"I got her a card. Even signed it," Justin said, smiling. "I didn't give it to her with those, though. So she doesn't know it was me." He paused, said, "By the way, here's your card."
Alex reached and took it from him, held it without opening it. For a moment, neither of them spoke, and then she said, "You know - you don't have to get me these any more. I actually have a boyfriend now."
Justin shrugged, said, "I know. But you know me... I get into habits."
"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes as she went into her own room. "Weirdo." But she said it with a smile, and a moment later, Justin heard the envelope being ripped open.
And somehow, that was enough.