"I'm worried about him, Zoey. He doesn't seem right lately, and he won't talk to me. And as hard as it was for me to come to you for help with this, I figured that right now Billy would probably listen to you but he's still kind of mad at me about something, okay so he's really mad and I'm just… rambling. Great," Jane said looking at her shoes, Zoey's godforsaken bracelet, the fire extinguisher at the end of the hall. Anywhere but Zoey's face.
Zoey steadied her breathing and responded as calmly as could be managed, "Jane, don't you think I've noticed this? I don't need your advice on how to act with my boyfriend. I-"
"No, I know you don't. This isn't advice, this is personal desperation." Jane paused to collect herself and replied, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come to you. He just seems so unhappy lately and I can't be there for him because he won't let me, and I just wanted to make sure that someone was. I'm just gonna go now."
"Of course he's unhappy. The two of you are fighting," Zoey breathed out.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I mean that this is your fault. You clearly did something to upset him and he won't talk to me about it. Which is completely unfair because I know for a fact that when he and I and go through a rough spot he always tells you about it. Jane, Billy is miserable because of you, so don't play the scorned best friend with me right now…. I have to get to class."
Jane was fuming. She hadn't been "playing" anything. And she certainly didn't think she had been scorned. She was just concerned. And scared. Even after he came home from juvie, he had never shut her out like this.
"I'm not trying to- nevermind. Don't put this all on me. This is a two way street. I'm miserable too you know!" Jane hissed out. "But I'm going to give him space because that's what he asked for and-"
"He asked for space? God you two sound like a couple more every day. And you wonder why I don't like you Jane."
"Oh no, I know perfectly well why you don't like me. It's ridiculous, by the way, because nothing will ever happen between Billy and me," she said viscously and almost… bitterly?
"Oh my god, you wish it would, don't you?"
"Um, I have to get to class," Jane said all too quickly.
"Do you… like him?"
"Like I said, I'm running really late and I have to go."
Zoey braced herself to ask her next question, because she knew that if Jane said yes, she could never stand a chance: "Jane, and don't you dare avoid the question, are you in love with Billy?"
Silence. Jane swallowed hard.
"Well?"
"I—I can't…"
"But you do."
"I'm sorry. I wish I didn't. Everything would be so much easier." And Jane ran faster than she had ever run before. She ran straight out of the school with no direction in mind except for: away.