Friends

Zoe couldn't figure out exactly why she was knocking on Adrian's door. Her conversation with Adrian at school today was still fresh in her mind and she needed to do something about it. She could remember the look in Adrian's eyes as all the girls that Ricky slept with gave her the invitations back. She had given her the invitation back too. She would be lying if she said she liked Adrian, but after taking some time to think about it, how could she really bring herself to hate Adrian, when Adrian was just like Zoe? The two of them were almost the same in her head. They both used sex for everything and they both tried to hurt the people around them before they could get hurt. When she took the time to think about this she realized that she could have been pregnant just like Adrian. She slept around with guys just like Adrian did, and that thought scared her.

She knew that Adrian had no friends. Why would she? She was the school slut. Everyone saw her as mean and manipulative, and maybe she was, but Zoe couldn't bring herself to say that about her anymore. She saw something else in her, something more. Zoe had a reason for using sex for everything, and that led her to believe that maybe Adrian did too.

The door opened and Zoe found herself holding her breath. There was Adrian, standing at the door as she rubbed her belly.

"Zoe?" Adrian looked at her in confusion. Zoe and her were not friends, and they probably never would be. She made that clear when she gave her the invitation back, although Adrian had only given it to her to show off the fact that she was happier than ever. But still, she couldn't understand why Zoe would be here right now.

"Hi Adrian." Zoe had a list of things that she wanted to say but at the moment she couldn't think of them.

"What are you doing here? How did you even find my house?"

"Can I come in?"

"Why, so you can tell me that I got what I deserved today?" She sneered as she looked at Zoe.

"No...But if you're going to have me waiting at the door all day maybe I should just leave."

Adrian sighed, "Fine. Come in."

Zoe stepped inside as she looked around at Adrian's house, well, her parents house anyway. It was small and tidy. She noticed a DVD laying on the coffee table and she looked at it curiously, "You like Titanic?"

Adrian shrugged, "I can be a sucker for romantics sometimes. The book's better though, they capture the emotion perfectly...How did you find my house again?"

Zoe tossed her a smile, "Titanic is my favorite movie. And I asked around. I talked to that friend of yours, her names Grace right?"

Adrian nodded.

"Yeah well she seemed a little cautious about giving me the address but I eventually convinced her."

Adrian muttered a curse word under her breath, she would have to talk to Grace about all of this later, "And why did you come here again?"

Zoe sighed as she turned towards Adrian. The two of them didn't say anything and Adrian waited impatiently for Zoe to tell her why she had come.

"I wanted to say that...I know I took the invitation back, but do you think it's possible that I can still come to the baby shower?"

Adrian was surprised to hear this from someone like Zoe. The whole conversation felt strange, like it shouldn't be happening at all.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Adrian asked. This being a joke would make more sense then Zoe suddenly being nice to her.

Zoe took a seat on the couch and Adrian awkwardly sat next to her, keeping as much distance as possible.

"Look...I just think that you're going to need someone. I know you have Grace and maybe to some extent that Amy girl, but you can always use more friends than enemies Adrian."

Adrian let out a bitter chuckle, "Are you saying you want to be my friend?"

"I don't know yet Adrian...but what I do know is that we have much more in common than you'd think."

Adrian rolled her eyes at Zoe, "Why because we both slept with Ricky? If that's the case then I guess all those girls in the hallway today should be my friends. Ha! We could all have a slumber party and talk about how good Ricky is in bed, you'd like that wouldn't you?"

"Don't be an ass Adrian, I'm trying to reach out to you right now."

"And I want the real reason as to why you're doing that. You have something planned, now what is it?"

"Adrian there's no scheme ok! I just started thinking today and I realized that nobody should be going through a pregnancy alone. Just hear me out alright? Do you want to know what you and I have in common?"

Adrian was going to say no in a heartbeat but she remained silent, and so Zoe continued to talk.

"It's not the fact that we slept with Ricky at all. It's the fact that we sleep with people in order to get something. I slept with Ricky to get revenge on you for sleeping with Mac, and I'm sure you slept with Mac because of some falling out that you and Ricky were having at the time. I try to use sex to forget about the things in my life. My parents are so strict on me, and I always rebel because I hate being told what to do. I don't know why you sleep with so many guys, but I know that there's a deeper reason," Zoe explained.

"You came to that conclusion all by yourself huh," she responded in a sarcastic tone.

Zoe rolled her eyes, "You're an asshole, and you can drop the tough girl act Adrian because both you and I know that you're not as tough as you make yourself to be. I know the fact that nobody wanted to come to your baby shower hurt you more than you'll ever be willing to say."

She was right, she was completely and totally right, but Adrian couldn't bring herself to tell Zoe this. This was her enemy. What if this was all a trick? What if Zoe just wanted to see Adrian vulnerable and then the minute she let her guard down Zoe would tell everyone in school? Then again what did Adrian have to lose? Everyone already talked to her, and what if Zoe was really trying to be her friend? She needed that right now.

"I have sex with guys because in that brief moment I feel loved...I feel like for once someone can actually love me." She almost didn't realize that she had said this out loud, but she kept going, "All my life I've felt like few people loved me. I felt like my parents didn't care about me, like I was some type of mistake. But when I slept with someone, I had never felt closer to them. I thought I was so close to Ricky...I thought he cared."

Zoe sighed, "Adrian you don't have to sleep with guys to feel loved. You have to love yourself. I'm sure everyone whose ever had sex with Ricky thought he cared. That's the thing with us girls. We think that we can keep someone by sleeping with them, we think that we can be the ones to change them, but we usually can't. They have to learn how to do it on their own."

Adrian couldn't believe that she was opening up to Zoe about all of this. It felt ridiculous and amazing all at the same time. Zoe really did understand where she was coming from, because she had made some of the same mistakes as her.

"I thought Mac really loved me. So when I found out that he cheated on me with...you, I was hurt and pissed off and I just wanted to say screw you to the world. I gave Mac everything that I could possibly give a guy, and he took the one thing he wanted from me again and again, and then he took it from other girls too. And that hurt. I think that's why I hated you so much. I spent all this time hating you for that and yet I never said anything about it to Mac."

A bitter laugh slipped out of Adrian's mouth, "I did that with Ricky too."

The two girls laughed but inside they knew they wanted to cry. Laughing was how they got rid of the pain though. It was hard to laugh at matters like this, but they managed to.

"I'm going to be different," Adrian said, "I'm going to be different because my baby needs me too."

Zoe smiled in admiration, "Adrian...I know we're not really friends or anything, but I have to admit that I've always admired you."

Adrian raised an eyebrow at Zoe, "You admired the school slut that slept with your boyfriend?"

Zoe laughed, "Well when you put it like that it sounds crazy but...I always admired that you were strong. Even going through this pregnancy, you don't let anyone see you cry or break down because you know that's what they want."

"Wow...thanks Zoe."

Zoe nodded and the two had fell silent. All Adrian could think was that this had been a weird day and Adrian wondered if maybe she could be friends with Zoe after all.

A/N: This thought just came to me while I was watching an old episode of Secret Life. Thanks for reading!