"FINE" LIES

Find A Door

Tuesday, October 14

I walked to English alone. I told Kaiden that I didn't want him to walk me to class anymore. I'd rather have as much time away from him as I could. He said that it was okay, because he was almost late for his History class yesterday.

I sat at my desk. I was feeling better than yesterday, but I was still feeling bad.

"Hey," Andy said.

I didn't say anything.

"You never answered my text last night."

"I know. I did it on purpose."

"But do you?"

"No, I don't."

"But-"

"Just drop it, Andy. I don't want to talk about it."

Hannah walked into class. "Hi, Andy," she said.

"Hey," Andy said.

Hannah sat at her desk.

Andy looked between Hannah and me.

"What's up between you two?" Andy asked.

"We're not friends anymore," Hannah said.

"Oh."

It made he happy to hear that Hannah was on the same page as me, but a part of me still felt like she didn't truly understand why we weren't friends anymore.

The bell rung. Andy slid his desk over to mine. We finished the last scene. It was a nice ending that made the two characters fall in love with one another.

"So explain that red stuff yesterday," Andy said.

I sighed. "Didn't I say drop it."

"Yeah, but I want to know. I care about you."

"But you're not my boyfriend. I already have one of those."

"Yeah, but he doesn't know how to treat you right," Andy mumbled.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't like Kaiden."

"He doesn't like you either, so it's fair game."

"All that's matters is that you like me as a friend."

I wanted to smile, but I was so sad I couldn't.

"So, I'll type up the story tonight," Andy said. "And I'll let you read it tomorrow and fix any mistakes."

"Okay, great," I said.

At lunch, I didn't go to my lunch table, I went out in the hallway and sat down on the floor. Anna must've known I wasn't coming to the table, because she came and sat with me.

"Hey," Anna said.

"Hey," I said.

"The table isn't the same without you."

"I know."

Anna chuckled. "That's the sense of humor I miss at the table. It's so tense, because we don't want her to snap on us."

"I stopped being afraid of her snapping and just snapped back."

"Yeah, but not all of us are as courageous as you, Danielle."

"I know."

She gave me half of her ham sandwich. I took a bite.

"How are you and Kaiden?" Anna asked.