Before You Say Goodbye

11

Thousands of different ways to spend a weekend, I never thought I'd spend it slumming it with my Calculus textbook. Well, okay, I did think this was what's going to happen when I decided to take Calculus this year – but come on! Regardless of that fact, I should be able to whine about it a little. I'm a teenager with only three friends, no social life, no apparent interests. This couldn't be what God had written for me. I could only hope things got better for me in the future. Columbia – my dream school is starting to look more and more like a distant dream now, I really hope not.

The excruciating pain I was putting myself through came to a temporary pause when my phone started to ring. Giving myself a fifteen-minute break after only five minutes of studying sounded like a good idea now, I thought. Grinning, I closed the textbook with a slam, almost running to my side table to pick up the phone before it stopped ringing.

Soph calling...

Thanking the Heavens for sending this Angel into my life, I answered the call. "Soph! You know exactly when to call me!"

She laughed. "Why? Did you want my help to go pee, is your sprain still not healed? Or is it because some annoying guests came over without a heads-up?"

"Neither. It's Calculus."

"Ah! The excruciating pain we put ourselves through."

I jumped on my bed and put a pillow under my head, getting comfortable. "See, Soph? I think I know why we're friends. We think alike."

"And you just figured that out?" she scoffed with mock incredulity, "I already knew that. Why do you think I even became friends with someone as lousy as you?"

"Sounds sensible," I said, shrugging, "Our minds could be connected, we should check the prospect."

"Checked that. Science says no way."

"Damn it! We could've sold ourselves for research. We could've been Billionaires."

"Maybe you could have. There isn't enough money in this world that could make me agree for someone to research my mind."

"Aw, why not?"

I knew her like the back of my hand, but at that moment I couldn't have possibly guessed the reason behind the subtle shift in her playful mood. "My mind has all my secrets, Addie. I don't want anybody to know them. Billions couldn't buy my secrets."

"Huh, figures," I sneered playfully, "I forgot you're the heiress to daddy's company. I'd probably sell most of my secrets for a couple of hundred bucks though."

"Even the part where you're secretly crushing on Ezra Harwood?"

I groaned, pulling a pillow over my face. Maybe if I pushed it against my face hard enough, I could faint and no go through this again. I love Terry with my whole heart, but right now I hate her. Somehow, she's convinced herself that I had a crush on Ezra and was now dead set on getting us together. It was getting mildly annoying. No offense to Ezra, I mean, he is a wonderful boy and handsome and kind and nice – everything I wanted in my future boyfriend, but my feelings were something that I needed to decide myself for, Terry's assumptions were only going to get me in trouble later on.

"No, Soph, not you too. Don't listen to Terry – she just loves playing matchmaker."

"Addie, you cannot lie to me. Spill it."

"There's nothing to spill. Ezra is just a friend." I hoped to God I sound convincing enough.

The whole of last week had been a similar story with Terry – her trying to convince me "to come clean" to her about my apparent crush on Ezra Harwood. Me, explaining to her that whatever she has got convinced herself of, wasn't the case and we've only recently even talked to each other for the first time since our partner project last year and if I did like Ezra in the future, I'd let her know. For some weird reason that she didn't clue as to what, she still thinks that I'm lying to her and that she should step in to bring Ezra and me together. A noble cause, really.