Jermaine got home that night feeling both guilty and... warm. He tried to rush upstairs before his brother could call out to him, but he had only gotten halfway up the stairs before one arm wrapped around his throat and a fist found a way into his brown hair. "Where'd you think you're goin' little brother? Seems like you've been trying to avoid me lately, wouldn't be doing that would you?"

The two boys tussled on the stairs while also trying to not fall down them. Thankfully, their mother passed them on the steps, "Get off of your brother, Jonas." She called nonchalantly as she walked into the kitchen, not even looking in the boys' direction.

As the older boy released his brother, Jermaine readjusted his shirt, "You're gonna quit with that stuff soon, Jonas. I don't know if you're forgetting, but I'm a grown man now too. I won't -" Before he could finish, Jonas had him in another headlock, taking both of them down the stairs as he laughed, "Jermaine, you may be a man, but I'm an adult. And your older brother. I don't care how old we get, I'm always gonna be older." With that, he plopped onto the couch, pulling his brother down with him.

Jermaine rolled his eyes. He loved his brother, he really did, but he was always on his case, like they didn't have a dad or something. Plus, he wanted to go to his room and write Elle's letter before dinner. And he needed some down time to think about what he was going to do about the whole 'wanting Lisa even though the bro code definitely objected it' situation.

"Mom, I just want to go do my homework. Can you tell your problem child to release me?" Jermaine called to his mother. It was a childish move, but whatever it took to get his brother off of him. Their mom stepped into the front room, hands on her hips and her short wavy hair pulled back by a thick headband, "Problem child and problem child, both of you leave each other alone. Jonas, you'll have plenty of time to bother your brother after he does his homework. And Jermaine, I promise, if you're going up to your room just to talk to some girl... Well, I'll let your father handle it. Now Jonas, come help me with dinner."

Jermaine smirked triumphantly at his brother, slapping the back of his head before running up to his room. "I saw that, Jermaine Montez!" His mom yelled after him. "Sorry!" He quickly shouted unapologetically before closing the door to his room.

Throwing his body onto his bed, Jermaine kicked off his shoes and pulled out Elle's letter to read it again. As he read the letter, he thought about Lisa. He wondered if the two knew each other. They'd make great friends... in his opinion.

Jermaine felt weird thinking about both girls at the same time, they both deserved their own time, so he quickly got up and wrote his letter to Elle. He could have sat there for hours, just thinking of writing to Elle, but thoughts of Lisa flooded his mind continuously. The only thing he could do was finish Elle's letter so he could have time to think of Lisa.

She was so pretty and energetic. Everything about her intrigued him, and it was worrying. It was bad enough that he had Elle on his plate, but adding Lisa too? He'd never get any mental free time. He didn't really mind it though.