Sixth Street ✓

Saturday 14th December

The midnight chimes faded away, and couples sprung apart, but none so quickly as Becca and James.

"You," they seethed together, furious at themselves for succumbing to the heat of the moment. Becca gave him a fierce glare.

"This was a one time thing. It is never happening again. Understood?" She snapped, taking her anger out on him even though she was mostly angry with herself. Her stomach was turning it on itself, curling up at the thought of what she'd just done. She felt like tearing every single strand of her hair out and screaming. The whole midnight kiss thing was no excuse for her actions, she saw that clearly now. She had cheated on Justin, using the dance to do so.

Oh lord. The unspoken words seemed the swirl around her mind, chanting and chanting.

You cheated on Justin.

You cheated on Justin.

You cheated on Justin?

YOU CHEATED ON JUSTIN!

"Oh believe me, I won't be going near you with a thirty foot pole," James sneered before turning and striding sharply away, effectively breaking her out of her stupor. Shaking her head slightly at her own stupidity, Becca fled in the opposite direction to find a good bathroom stall to cry in.

Meanwhile, Kirsty was grappling a similarly awful dilemma. But as she faced her midnight kiss, worried thoughts of Joe were not on her mind.

Because there was Joe, identical down to the mole on his left cheek, standing in front of her in a neat navy suit, but with one obvious difference that made her feel sick to her stomach; the tie he was wearing was rose pink. "Dan?" She said in disbelief.

"Kirsty, I like you," he blurted our before he had a chance to stop himself like he had all those other times. "I know you're dating Joe, but he's just playing you like he plays all the girls. Kirsty, I really and truly mean it when I say I want to be your boyfriend, and I was hoping you'd date me instead of my brother."

Joe wasn't the person that was stopping her though. "Penelope," she whispered. "You're dating Penelope. You're dating my comatose best friend. What kind of person would I be if I said yes?"

Dan looked like she'd just smacked him across the face, but he rebounded back with the expression of a wounded puppy. "Me and Penelope are over," he said desperately. "Kirsty ever since she went into that coma I realised that I could never be her boyfriend because I wasn't thinking about her all the time, I was thinking about you."

"You guys never officially broke up. It would be wrong on so many levels. Strike that, it would be betrayal." Kirsty may have read Penelope's diary. She may have been shocked and hurt by all the nasty things she wrote about her. She may have admitted to herself that Penelope was not the goddess she had put her up on a pedestal to be, that she wasn't always right, that she was actually an awful person. But even though the friendship had crumbled, stealing someone's boyfriend wasn't the sort of thing Kirsty wanted to be known for, whether it was her best friend's or her worst enemy's boyfriend. It just wasn't right.

"Dan, you're a really nice person, and I'd love to be your friend." Kirsty told him firmly. "But as long as you're daring someone, I can't be involved with you. Besides, I like Joe." And as impossible as it sounded, it was true.