ONE

"I thought we were going home." Miller says as he walks beside Letty.

"You can go wherever you want." The brunette tells him as she continues down the cement in the familiar neighborhood. "I'm going this way."

"What's this way?"

"Your murder site, if you don't stop harassing me."

"Aw, come on, Scar. You know you can't live without me." He has a smug smile on his face as he slings his arm over her shoulders. "We're a pair, two-of-a-kind, two-peas-in-a—" The blond boy groans as he rubs his ribs. "You're a bitch." He grumbles, and she smiles up at him before shrugging out from under his arm.

"Leave me alone, pest." Letty jogs ahead of him, then walks up to her best friend's house.

An hour later, the brunette's laying on said best friend's twin-size bed tossing a foam football up into the air and then catching it. Eric, on the other hand, is standing by the white desk in his room, talking on the phone with a girl from their school. Letty's bored out of her skull as she waits for him to stop talking to the other girl, not that he's noticed her mild irritation. Or would really even care at the moment, if he did notice.

"You will?" Eric asks, and Letty can hear the smile in his voice as he speaks into the receiver.

...

"Okay, great."

...

"Yeah, me too."

...

"Alrighty. Okay, bye." Eric then hangs up the phone. "Yes!" He cheers as he jumps up into the air, clearly happy with how his conversation went.

"Yes!" Cory yells excitedly as he makes his way into the boys' room. He starts talking about a baseball game. His favorite team — the Philadelphia Phillies — just won.

"I'm going out with Heather Ralston." The older boy tells his brother.

"You know what that means?"

"It means every guy in the tenth grade wants to be me." Eric says — the two boys are definitely not talking about the same thing.

Eric then plops down onto the side of his bed and smacks Letty's leg. She nudges his side in retaliation,​ and he pushes her foot away from him.

"It means if they win Friday night, they're in the playoffs." Cory says, still talking about the Phillies.

"Uh, look, Cory, we gotta talk about something." The older boy tries to cut in.

"That makes the game we're going to the most important game of the year." He continues, beyond excited about this turn of events.

"Look, Cory, my date with Heather's Friday." Eric tells him.

"Now, look," Cory starts as he turns back to his brother. "I got a slight case of detention from Feeney, but I'll just meet you at the bus." He says, not listening to Eric, but then it suddenly sinks in. "What?" He questions.

"It's the only night she was available."

"You're not going to the game? That's terrible." Cory sits down on the foot of his brother's bed.

"Wait for it." Letty mumbles, still tossing the football into the air above her.

"Actually, Cory, it, uh..." Eric sighs as he places his hand on his shoulder. "It gets worse."

"She's going to the game with us?" Cory asks, but he knows where this is going.

"You're really close."

"She and I are going to the game?" He says, and Eric sighs again.

"Come on, Cory, it's my first date with her. It's really important to me." He says as he gets up off of the bed and walks past him.

"And there it is." The teenage girl says, now simply staring at the ceiling.

"Shut up, Letty." Eric shoots her a dirty look, narrowing his light brown eyes.

"But, Eric, going to the Phillies game's, like, our special thing." Cory tries to reason with him, now on his feet as well.

"Cory. I'm trying to get a special thing going with Heather." Eric tells him, and his best friend scoffs as she listens to the brothers' conversation. "Now, look, you can be happy for me and accept this like a mature guy, or you can—"

"Dad!" Cory yells as loud as he can and then turns for the door and runs out of their​ bedroom.

"—overreact." Eric finishes.

"I hope he makes you take Cory." Letty says as she sits up, letting her feet hang over the side of the bed and rest on the carpeted floor.

"What's your problem with Heather anyway?" He asks as he then looks over at the brunette.

"I don't like her."

"You don't like anyone." He says, and she nods.

"Yes, this is very true​." The brunette stands up, and he narrows his eyes at her.

"She do something to you?" He asks as he moves closer to her, and she shakes her head.

"No."

"Then what?"

"Nothin'." She shakes her head again as she forces a small smile. "I'm sure she's great. I hope you guys have fun." Letty says as she walks past him, and then they both head downstairs.

"Besides, I don't know why you're dumping on me." Cory's saying as the two teenagers walk down the last few steps. "I'm not the one who sold out my only brother for some girl."

The boys' mom immediately turns her attention to her eldest child. "Eric, she said yes." She smiles as she rushes over to him, obviously excited for him.

"Yup." He tells her with a smile, returning her half-hug.

"Congratulations." She tells him, and Letty rolls her dark brown eyes as she walks over to sit down next to Morgan on the couch.

"You were in on this?" Cory questions as he looks at his mom and brother.

"Oh, come on, Cory, don't you think you're making a big deal about this game?" Eric asks, and his friend tries to ignore them as she helps Morgan comb the hair on her doll.

"I don't care about the game, I don't care about the tickets." Cory says as he walks away from his older brother and their mother. "I wouldn't take them if you offered 'em to me."

"Alright, look, I'll just take Heather somewhere else. Here, you want the tickets?" Eric asks as he pulls them out of his front pocket and holds them out to his younger brother.

"Yeah!"

"Get real!" He quickly moves them before Cory can get his hands on them.

"Dad!"

"As entertaining as this all is, I think I'm gonna go bug Shawn." Letty says as she stands up from the couch. "Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. Bye, Morgan." The brunette smiles at them as she walks toward the front door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Eric. And, hey, Cor... Good luck, kid."

Each of the Matthews say different variations of, "Bye, Scarlett." And she then leaves her best friend's house.

Letty heads across town, and Miller runs up on her left side with a wide smile on his face as she's walking into the trailer park. "And where have you been?" She asks, and he chuckles.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"You have lipstick on your face, moron." She tells him, and he groans as he starts wiping at his skin.

"Shit." He hisses, knowing that he's not getting rid of it. "Help me. Come on."

The brunette sighs as she comes to a stop, and he turns to face her. She then uses the sleeve of her sweater to clean his jaw of the pink lipstick that's smudged there. He's obviously still rather pleased with himself as he looks down at her.

"You're gonna get us both in trouble." She tells him, and he shrugs.

"What I'm doing with my time isn't any worse than you hanging out at that Matthews' kids house all the time." Miller argues. "One way or the other, we're both at fault here."

"I don't come home the way that you do."

"Yeah." He nods as they start walking again. "That's because you're hung up on a guy who'll date every girl who isn't you." He says, and she grinds her teeth as she looks up at him.

Miller grunts when she slams her elbow into his ribs like she did earlier. The blow isn't hard enough to bruise, but it hurts enough to shut him up as she picks up the pace and walks over to the Hunters' trailer.

"Hey, sweetheart. Miller." Mrs. Hunter smiles when she opens the front door and sees the two teenagers as he catches up to Letty. "Are you guys hungry?"

"Starved." The brunette tells her, and she chuckles.

"As always." The older woman muses and then lets the teenagers inside.

Letty and Miller have dinner with Shawn and his parents, like they do so often. The five of them talk about school, Letty tells them about work at the Market Giant, Miller talks about the teams that he's on, and Shawn complains about his sixth grade teacher. It's a rather typical dinner with the Hunters, and the two teenagers absolutely love it.

"Well, we should probably go. Thank you for dinner." Letty says with a smile. "It​ was nice, as always."

"Delicious." Miller adds, always a fan of lasagna night.

"Have a safe walk home." Mrs. Hunter says with a smile.

"I'll see you later, bud. Try not to miss me too much." Letty says as she hugs Shawn and kisses the top of his head.

"Ew." The younger boy tries to push her away, like he always does, but it doesn't tend to work in his favor. The brunette laughs and leaves their home with her housemate.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Her father asks as Letty and Miller walk into their trailer.

"We were at the Hunters'." She tells him.

"What were you doing there?" He questions before taking a gulp from his beer can, his bright blue eyes moving between the two teenagers.

"I was tutoring Shawn." She lies, but as far as he knows, that's exactly what she does there.

"Go to your room." He orders.

"Yes, sir." She nods, and Miller grinds his teeth as they both quickly comply with the command.

—

Friday night rolls around, and Letty ends up at Eric's house. His eyebrows furrow as they walk up to the front door together. "What are you doing here?" The older boy asks.

"Miller was driving me crazy during dinner at Chubbie's. I told him I was coming here so he'd leave me alone." She tells him, and he nods. "Then I figured I might as well actually come here. I have no life anyway. So, how was your date?"

"You don't care." He mutters as they walk inside.

"No, not really." The brunette shakes her head. "So?"

"Did you know that I'm a loser?" He looks at her, and her dark brows furrow in confusion.

"What?"

"You're friends with a loser. How many times do I have to say it?"

"You are not a loser, Eric." Letty says as the two make their way up the stairs, heading toward his bedroom. "Did she say that you are?"

"No." He sighs. "But the date was a dud, and I was a total idiot." He tells her, and then they hear his younger brother yelling die inside the boys' room.

The teenagers walk in and see Cory sitting on the foot of his bed as he's playing video games. He shoots something on the tv, then he shoots his brother when he looks up and sees them. Eric sighs, knowing that he's still mad at him for not taking him to the baseball game, and Letty smirks as she looks at his tv.

"You missed the puppy-looking thing in the corner." The brunette tells him, and he shoots it.

"Die!"

"There's one we won't have to neuter." Eric says as he shrugs out of his jacket and walks over to their white desk; Letty chuckles as she sits down on the foot of his bed.

"Five to three." Cory turns his attention to his older brother. "Phillies are in the playoffs."

"Yeah, I heard." He nods as he leans against the desk.

"What do you mean you heard?" He questions. "You were there."

"I really wasn't paying that much attention to the game, Cory." Eric tells him, and Letty looks down as she picks at the chipped polish on her nails.

"Why not? It was a great game."

"It was not, however, a great date."

Cory's eyes widen as he leans forward. "You had a bad date?"

"No. I had a great date." Eric says as he grabs a small storage crate and sits on the side of it in front of his brother. "Heather was beautiful. She knew what to say, she knew what to do. Unfortunately, her date spilled food, tripped over chairs, and had nothing interesting to say for nine innings."

"Eric, you're much too cool for some girl."

"News flash: I'm not cool." He tells him as he gets to his feet. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Okay, you're not cool." Cory says as the older boy walks over and sits down in the chair by their desk. "And now you know better than to go to a game without your brother."

"You're right." He nods.

"I am?" He questions, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah. It's my first and last date with Heather. I never wanna see her again."

"Good." Cory picks up the toy gun for his video game as Letty gets to her feet.

The brunette lightly smacks the back of his head as he starts shooting at the tv, and the younger boy turns to complain, but instead sees her motion toward his brother. Eric's head is down as he fidgets with a magazine cover in his lap.

"You don't mean that." He says, causing his brother to lift his head.

"Yes, I do." Eric lies as Letty walks out of the boys' bedroom.

Letty's in the kitchen a couple minutes later, and Cory walks downstairs and looks at her. Her brown eyes meet his as she looks at him over the glass of orange juice that she's drinking from.

"Can I help you, rugrat?" The brunette asks as she sets the glass on the island counter.

"You didn't say anything the whole time we were talking about Heather."

"I didn't have anything to say."

"But you're his best friend. You always help him when he has a problem... Do you not want him to fix things with Heather?"

"I want him to do whatever will make him happy." She tells him.

"Scarlett... Do you like Eric?" Cory asks, and she offers him a small smile.

"Don't you like your friends?"

He shakes his head. "That's not what I mean."

They hear footsteps coming down the stairs then, and Eric has a wide smile on his face as he walks over to his best friend. "Guess what." His smile widens as he stops in front of her.

"Your face is about to split in two?" The brunette quirks an eyebrow as she looks up at him.

"I called Heather, and we talked. I think I made things better." He tells her, and she offers him a small smile.

"Good for you, Eric."

"I really don't get it. Why don't you like her?" He asks, obviously confused by her reaction to what he believes is good news.

"I don't like anyone."

"You like me." He argues, and a mischievous grin replaces the fake smile she was wearing before.

"Mm. Do I?" She chuckles when he narrows his eyes at her. "I gotta get home. I'll see you guys later." Her eyes flicker briefly to Cory before she turns and starts toward the backdoor.