Always, Never

Last Summer

"Hailee... I'm serious, this girl likes me for real", Adam says as we walk down the hall.

"Oh yeah? How can you be so sure?"

"Because of the way she looks at me. I can tell. I mean, it's not the way you look at just anyone, you know? It's special, it's... strange, mysterious. Trust me, I know what I'm saying. I still don't know what to do about it, though. We're going on a date this week and you know... I really hope everything goes well. I may finally stop being single!"

I nod my head and say, "Okay, cool. She better not break your heart, though"

Adam's always been my best friend. We met when we were four, at kindergarten, so we've been friends since we were toddlers and have been inseparable since. We do most things together and we know basically everything about each other. He's the chatty type, he's like an open book and he's a nice guy, a little too annoying at times but still pretty nice.

"What are we talking about?", Grace asks, joining us.

Grace is our other best friend. We met her the first year of elementary and she's been a part of our group since. She's funny and also an expert at annoying Adam.

"His love life", I respond.

"Oh, interesting. Who is it now?"

"It's... uh... Sadie... from English", he says, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh, Sadie from English?", she responds raising her voice.

He rolls his eyes, "I'm out of here"

"No, actually, she's kind of my friend.", she jokes, "I can tell her about your huge crush on her if you want.", she looks to her right and points in that direction, "Oh, perfect. There she is. I'm gonna go tell her", she says threatening to walk towards her.

Adam pretends not to hear her and walks into a classroom.

"Where are you going?", Grace asks.

"I have math.", he forces a smile, "And just so you know, she already knows about it, so you can't do anything to ruin it"

"The bell hasn't even rung yet, come on, don't be a party pooper"

"He's gone, Grace", I tell her, "Now, what the hell is going on?"

"With what?", she asks

"Sadie from English? You're losing your chance!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about! You know you still like him"

"Of course I do, but the best thing I can do now is annoy the hell out of him and make fun of him. My brain doesn't work well when I'm around him and... I don't know, Hailee... why can't I get over this stupid crush even after what happened two years ago?."

Two years ago Grace told Adam she had feelings for him after a while of hiding it. Long story short, he rejected her. He told her she was awesome and all but that he didn't feel the same way, and after that, he apologized for that. A few months went by and she pretended her feelings for him were gone, she actually convinced him of that by setting him up with several girls. She tends to bottle up her emotions, which is probably why it really never got weird between the three of us.

"So you do still like him, then?", I ask her.

She sighs, "yeah, but it's never gonna happen anyway"

"Never say never, Grace"

"He's crushing on someone who likes him back and I really want him to get with her, and he actually might, so he's gonna be in a relationship, you know? So that makes the chances of him and I dating go down to 0.000000001%"