The next week, I was miserable.

Diana had left for California absurdly early on Monday morning. That meant that, for a few days, there would be no more of her walking past my house, no more watching her walk by from my bedroom window with a sigh.

No Diana at all. For half a week.

I spent my time either playing our grand piano or thinking up answers for Emily's clue. Her stupid, stupid clue.

I pestered her day and night to tell me more, but she adamantly refused every time (in the back of my mind, I knew I was probably being very annoying, but Emily hadn't exactly been the perfect younger sibling). I even asked if she could tell Ryan and have HIM tell me, but Emily wouldn't budge. Why did I have to be cursed with such a stubborn sister?

As frustrated as I was with Emily, I knew I was glad to have her around. I was glad she was being such a great friend to my crush. Plus, I could still talk to her, even if she refused to help me out a bit, and she was kind of my connection to Diana. She would text her once a day - sometimes more - and she even let me say "Aaron says hi" once or twice. After all, I didn't have Diana's number - if I did I could have been considered a bit of a stalker - so I had to use Emily's phone if I wanted to say something to her.

By Wednesday afternoon, I was tired of thinking about bad clues and impossible love stories, so I sat at the piano for the umpteenth time.

I had no idea what to play until Ryan and Janine got ready to walk out the front door. It was too perfect.

I slowly began keying the "Wedding March" and watched closely for their reactions.

Janine's ears perked up a little behind her dark hair, and she turned around.

"You little..." she said, laughing and making a face. Ryan walked over to me and gave me a high five.

"Cheers to the almost-happy couple," I grinned. Wait, that didn't sound right. "Er, the happy almost-couple. Have fun going wherever."

"We're just going to lunch," Ryan told me. "Be back in about an hour."

"Bye," I said.

"See you, almost-brother-in-law." Janine laughed at me again as she followed Ryan out the door.

"Who's leaving?" Emily asked from the kitchen. As soon as she trotted into the living room to see what was going on, I changed to the "Imperial March" from Star Wars.

"You are purely evil!" She accused.

"Don't say that. You're the one with the creepy theme music," I smirked.

"Whatever."

"Anything else you can tell me?" I hoped, changing the subject and taking my fingers off the piano.

"Not at the moment," she said. "However, I'm considering spilling a little more info to you. It's kind of sad, the amount of time you're taking to figure this out."

"I'm doing better than you would. And can you quit thinking about it and just tell me already? This is really starting to get on my nerves."

"Why do you care so much?"

"You know why I care."

"Yeah, I guess I do," she sighed. "I shouldn't have said anything besides how she broke up with James."

"Well it's too late for that now. Why can't you just tell me?" I tried again.

"Well, how would you feel if I told Diana you liked her?"

"Yeah, I get that, but... Oh, never mind. I can see it from her perspective now. I would definitely hate that."

"I thought so. So you'll stop bugging me about it?"

"Okay, fine."

She heaved a sigh of relief. "Good! Maybe I'll reward you with another hint later..."

"You're trying to tempt me," I guessed. "Is this some sort of test?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. She's coming back tomorrow. Just you wait. You can ask her yourself if you really want to know."

"You are purely evil," I mimicked her.

"Thank you. And you should be excited. You'll see her at frisbee tomorrow for sure."

"How does she know about frisbee?"

"I told her via text message. She'll be there. Two o'clock, right?"

"Yep. And no stupid boyfriend to get in the way this time," I added under my breath.

Emily heard, then laughed and returned to the kitchen.