"Edwin?" I called, opening his bedroom door

"Hmm...?" He replied, with his eyes still shut.

"The baby's not awake yet, but you have to remember you're taking care of him this morning. George is at work and Mom's out."

"Mmm, when he wakes up."

I rolled my eyes and made my way downstairs. Casey was the only one awake so I shouted a quick goodbye to her and then left the house to meet Salma.

Me and Salma were now having an early lunch at a café near the swimming pool we had just been to.

Salma was new to our school this semester, but she was my best friend already. Her family got transferred here from England and ethnically she was half-Palestinian and half-Bangladeshi, something like that. She was really beautiful; she had olive-brown skin, dark curly hair and piercing green eyes. For a 'pretty and popular' girl, she was really trustworthy. Trustworthy enough that she knew - about Derek.

"Liz, I've told you this before and I'm telling you again - you need some new man-candy!" She said, before taking a bite out of her salad.

I chuckled. "You know what, maybe you're right... If I can find one that's interested." I said, playing with my own food.

"Who're you kidding, Liz? You're hot! Hey..." she said, wafting her fork as a gesture, "What about Jamie? He's starting to get really attractive ever since he joined the hockey team, y'know. And didn't you say that the two of you used to be pretty close?" She grinned.

"Yeah... That was before almost every other person in school wanted to get 'close' with him too. I doubt he'd be interested."

"Nah, he still has the hots for you, I can tell." She said, nodding as reassurance.

"Hmm, it might be a bit weird, we are just friends... But I suppose if it can get my mind off Derek, there's no harm in just asking him to hang-out, right?"

"Exactly."

"But until then, how can I get myself to stop acting weird around Derek?"

"Come one, Liz. You've been living with him for four years. You weren't weird around him then, even when you liked him. You said it was ever since he came back from college, right?"

I nodded.

"Well," she continued, "next time you see him, take a deep breath, and remember how you would've acted around him a year ago. Act like that."

"Okay. Thanks Salma, that's actually really good advice," I smiled, "It's like I've been having some sort of recent mind-block where I start panicking and can't think for myself."

"No problem." She giggled.

When I got home Derek was sat in his chair, watching TV. I looked around; Edwin was sat on the sofa with the baby on his lap and Marti was sat next to him. Mom was washing the dishes in the kitchen.

I remembered what Salma had said. "Hey, guys!" I smiled, going to sit near Marti.

"'Sup, Liz?" Derek rhetorically asked.

"Hi." Edward and Marti chorused.

"So Liz, what were you up to this morning?" Derek asked, finally ungluing his eyes from the TV screen.

"I was swimming, with Salma. You met her last Christmas?" I reminded him.

"Oh yeah, the Indian chick." He replied, looking back at the TV.

"Hot Indian chick." Interrupted Edwin, whilst playing with the baby.

I rolled my eyes. I was beginning to think this maybe wouldn't be so hard. Maybe this whole time I was just making it hard, by making myself think it would be. Salma was right: why should anything be different? It was so much better how it used to be, I just wanted things to go back that way.

A few minutes later, Casey and Emily came in. "Hey, everyone!" Emily greeted us exitedly.

"Hey." Chorused Edwin and Marti, again.

I got up to hug her. "Wow, you've gone so pretty!" She gasped, as we hugged.

"How are you?" I smiled.

"Good, really good." She replied.

Then, Derek got up. He just eyed her up and down: checking her out. The thing was, she was doing the same. I felt a slight pang of jelousy, but Derek had been with plenty of other girls, so I was pretty used to it. "Hey." said Derek, grinning.

"Hi." Said Emily, smiling at him dreamily.

Casey sighed and then pulled me and Emily by our arms upstairs, and into her bedroom.

We had definitely 'caught up' by the time I was done in there. Most of the conversation revolved around the subject of boys - a subject I wasn't too keen on at the moment. And then, of course, hair, college, boys, fashion, makeup and boys.

I really needed to get away from all of that - and it could've gone on for hours, Emily was staying for dinner - so I tagged along with Edwin and Marti to the park. By the time we got back home, George was also back and it was time for dinner.

At dinner things felt like they were really getting back to normal. Food was chucked around, Derek and Casey's old rambling was back - I think we even caught one of her classic "Derek!" moments.

I was reading a sports' magazine in my bedroom before going to bed, when Edwin came to the door. He said there was a call for me.

"Thanks." I said, recieving the phone from him.

"Hello?" I asked, going back to my bed.

"Hi, Lizzie. It's Jamie"

Hmm, this was a bit too much of a coincidence.

"Oh, hey. Haven't spoken to you in a while, how's it going?"

"Good, good. That's actually why I called, we haven't spoken in a while. I was calling because i thought if your staying in town, we should do something, like we used to."

Like we used to. That was music to my ears, I really wanted my life to be how it was before, didn't I? "Oh, really?"

"Yeah... and Salma IM'd me today... She said you wanted to hang out with me?"

Oh Salma. "Um, yeah... I think you may have come up in conversation, and I might've just mentioned it." Thank goodness this was a phone conversation; he couldn't see me going red.

"So why don't I come by tomorrow?"

"Yeah sure, I'll be at home."

"Cool, see ya then. 'Night."

"'Night."

I put the phone down and got under the covers, still smiling. Things really are going to change, for the good, I just know it.

I know this is off topic, but... Prince William got married today, hooray! I watched it on TV, it was so cute, hehe x)