SOMETHING NEW

Chapter 1

"So what's actually up with you two, anyway?"

The sky was a pale shade of blue and a single star was pulsating quickly outside Libby's east-facing bedroom window as the sun set. Libby slid off her bed, still keeping a watchful eye over Cindy, and switched off the stereo that had been playing some old Graystar in the background as they had talked and painted their nails, their normal Friday evening activities.

"I don't know, Libs." Despite Cindy's hesitation, Libby could tell that she had been dying to bring up the Jimmy topic all afternoon. "I don't think it's going to work out. I think I'm - in - Libby, I think I love him."

"Okay," Libby said coolly.

Cindy looked at her friend for a second. "I thought this was an earth-shattering announcement," she said slowly as she flipped her loose hair back behind her shoulders. "I mean, it's kind of a... big thing here. It's getting serious."

"Yes, and Cind, you're only slightly more subtle than a bulldozer." Libby smiled.

"Oh, come on, even all those years when we were kids? And we fought? I prided myself on being pretty subtle back then." She managed a weak laugh.

"That wasn't an execution of subtlety - it was a neon sign. You know how it is at that age - 'he's only mean to you 'cause he likes you' - "

"Oh. Well, I always thought that was just a guy thing."

"Obviously not." Libby swung herself back up onto the bed to sit next to Cindy. "So you're in love with him. Which is... a great reason for you to break up. Right. I don't follow."

"I'm not breaking up with him, are you kidding?" Cindy said with a nervous titter. "So I'm scared that maybe it won't work out, okay, but I'm not saying anything to him about it. I want it to work out, you know? And I'm not telling him that I'm in - love with him. I mean, have you ever been in love with anyone?"

Libby rolled her eyes and ignored Cindy's query. "Honestly, girl, you haven't changed much in five years. You can barely say the damned word. What's so wrong, anyway, with the whole relationship? Come on, you're crazy about him."

Cindy sighed. "That's the problem, Libby. I love him " - she said this with marked certainty and speed - "but he won't even look at me anymore. It's like he sees me, and then he's always looking past me to find whatever he saw in me before. Just as I get really serious, he gets all... distant. Like he used to be when he had his eye on Betty. Like I was okay, but she had everything I didn't and I was the consolation prize because things between them didn't work out."

"Betty graduated last year, Cind," Libby said. "He doesn't see her every day like he used to. She's not a threat anymore, and their breakup was mutual - they're not getting back together. Sure, they write each other - "

"They write each other?" Cindy yelped. "Shit, he told you that they're writing each other? Why didn't he tell me? I bet they're big fat love letters filled with - "

"Relax, Cindy," came Libby's attempt at calming her friend down.

"Relax?" Cindy cried. "Relax when Betty Quinlan, Miss Popular and Pretty and Perfect, is writing Jimmy bigass love letters and trying to take him from me?"

"I doubt she's trying to take him from you," Libby sighed.

"Well then, he's trying to get her back, obviously. That's what's going on with him - because she's so beautiful and sweet and - "

"Oh, come on," Libby laughed. "It's not like she's Cinderella and you're the horrid step-sister, at least in the looks department." Cindy had always been the jealous type; Libby knew that, and she had always tried to stick by her friend. This, however, was taking things too far, and she couldn't let Cindy believe such things anymore. Cindy's relationship with Jimmy had to be in bad shape for her to be such a nervous wreck. "Honestly, though, if this is the way you get about him, then a little bit more sweetness wouldn't exactly hurt you - or him. And besides, you know Betty. She's friendly enough, probably just trying to keep in touch with what's going on with Jimmy without the romantic interest."

"Just because she's not interested doesn't mean that he's not," Cindy countered with a sigh. "I don't see what she sees in the damned dork anyway. I mean, he's obviously not her type. Why doesn't she just go and ride off into the sunset with Nick or some other jerk she deserves - "

"Geeks get the girls," Libby murmured with a smirk under her breath. Cindy didn't hear. Libby wanted to defend Betty and also remind Cindy that there was a time in her life when she wouldn't have been too unhappy to ride off with Nick herself, but she restrained herself.

"And I'm not exactly Cinderella material here - look " - Cindy slipped off the bed and paraded herself in front of Libby's mirror - "at this... I'm flat, see, I look like I'm still twelve - and I'm little and my face is too round and - look, I'm so short - even Jimmy's outgrown me now - "

"Chill out." Libby forced Cindy back onto her bed. "You're fine. You're gorgeous. And Jimmy and Betty have nothing. Some people don't just walk out on their exes. Some people learn to get along and be friends."

"Oh, yeah, Libs, which is exactly why you've been totally avoiding Sheen for the past two months." Cindy turned her head. "Besides, I'm not sure I believe that two people who were once in love could ever stay totally platonic friends."

"Really?"

"You know, I asked you a question earlier that you never answered."

"What question?"

"Have you been in love?"

"What, with Sheen?"

"I don't know, with anyone."

Libby smiled but quickly caught herself. Had she ever loved Sheen? There had never been anyone else for her; no one else had ever caught her attention. And he had hurt her rather badly, although she blamed herself for that; she had known about Sheen's womanizing tendencies since practically the fourth grade. The pain she had felt implied that she had loved him, or at least cared very much - enough to demand exclusivity. There had been potential. And if she ever had, then she didn't anymore, that was certain.

"Not a fair question," she said finally. "But my personal life isn't the one under scrutiny here - back to you. What are you going to do about this whole situation? You can't just remain silent. You'll die. You've got to talk to him."

"I don't really think I can do it," Cindy said, sighing again. "If you haven't been there, you can't possibly understand it."

"Come off it, Cindy, I'm a musician. I've heard and performed enough songs about tragic unrequited love to have a good sense of what it's like. And honestly, he probably suspects it already. Things can't get worse, can they? Just tell him what's going on, ask him what's going on with him, you know. He's not going to judge you or hate you - he's a nice guy and he definitely cares about you."

"Actually, I was hoping... you could talk to him for me. Ask him if he's in love with me, what he's thinking, what Betty's up to these days - " Cindy flipped her hair over her shoulder again and evaded Libby's reproachful gaze.

"Wait a minute, here. Cindy, we're sixteen and not in elementary school anymore - we're too old to have friends go snooping around boys for information. You're going to have to talk to him yourself or he's not going to take you seriously."

"Damn," Cindy whispered and fell back onto the bed. She heaved another sigh and appeared to blink back some tears.

Libby swallowed and thought for a second. She wasn't about to tell Cindy, but the part of her that she always compared to an over-protective bear was telling her that there was only one thing for her to do: exactly what Cindy had asked of her. Tomorrow morning, she thought. And if Jimmy wouldn't let her in, she was going to bust down the door to find out exactly what he thought he was doing to her friend.