Logan sat there; she didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry, I'm pathetic, tell me about you now. Please." Bailey gave Logan a tug on her foot. Logan shrugged.

"There's not much to tell."

"I'm sure there is, I'd love to hear everything, every detail. We have all night."

---

Logan sat up on her bed and scooted closer to Bailey. "Well..there is a little bit to tell I guess. But a lot of it is just about me and my friends in band, you probably don't want to hear about it. It's basically all my memories of marching band, because that was the time in my life things starting looking up for me and getting interesting." Bailey smiled.

"Go on..I don't mind. I'd enjoy listening."

Logan took a deep breath, then got up and picked the pillow up off the floor that she had thrown earlier. She hugged it to her chest and began to pace back and forth. "Sorry, I have to move when I'm telling a story."

"It's okay." Bailey promised, her eyes following Logan back and forth.

"I was always a tomboy; I don't remember having any girl friends; I was surrounded by boys in our neighborhood. There were no girls that I remember, and if they're were they were either too old or too young for me to play with. This was when I lived in Wisconsin." She added. "I had a best friend, he was my next door neighbor and he and I were the same age. His name was Hunter. Once we played dress up; it was a wedding, and my mom has an embarrassing photo of me and him kissing on the lips. We were like six." She shook her head and laughed, still pacing.

"I'd love to see them-"

"Well you're not going to and anyway," she interrupted, "I grew up surrounded by guys, so you catch my drift. I was one of the guys. I didn't grow up playing with dolls; I was out there getting muddy in the dirt playing GI Joes with the boys. I guess I'm still like that."

"But your room-"

"I know. It's sickening, isn't it? I insisted on it being totally black, walls and carpet and all. But my mom objected and demanded I should get this pink bed and stuff. I don't know, but the book shelves were my idea. You don't know me like Lan- I me, well you don't know me like my other friends do-"

"Wait, are you saying you think of me as one of your friends?" Bailey ventured out of the blue. Logan stopped pacing. She stared at her.

"Of course."

"Good, because I think of you as my ..never mind. But I think of you as a friend as well."

"No, what were you going to say?"

Bailey licked her lips and she could feel her face flushing. "I don't remember."

"Yes you do. You can tell me." Logan walked over and sat down beside her on the bed. Bailey sat crumpled and small and lonely beside her. Then Bailey looked up and she had tears in her eyes.

"Logan, you're my best friend."

There was a lingering silence as those words echoed in both their heads. Logan swallowed hard. She didn't know what to say; she had only known Bailey for a week. Logan wiped the tears away with the back of her hand and sniffed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get all emotional." She was blushing. "Maybe I should go home."

"No! I..I think of you as my best friend too." Logan lied; she felt instantly guilty for saying it. Bailey's eyes glistened with ephemeral sadness, then her face changed and she smiled, her mouth stretching wide across her wet cheeks.

"Really? You're the nicest person I have ever met: I knew right when I met you that we would be best friends; I just knew it. You're the best friend I ever had." Bailey leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Logan. Logan sat there dumbfounded. All that had happened in a mere minute.

Bailey sat back and sat there smiling. She was so naïve. 'She has nobody.' Logan thought. 'I'm her only friend.'

"Okay, sorry, you can go on, I didn't mean to interrupt." Bailey urged her happily. Logan had no choice; she didn't know what else to say about the best friend matter.

"On my seventh birthday my mom and dad told me that we were moving to Tennessee. So I packed up all my stuff and we left. That was it. I didn't get to tell all my friends bye, not even Hunter. " She paused, letting the sadness of that sink in, then continued. "So we came here. Then I made a new best friend in fifth grade. His name is Oliver, you may know him: he plays the saxophone."

"I don't know him personally but I've heard of him. I do know another guy that plays the saxophone: that Jack guy." Bailey thought back to that cherished day when he and she had talked in the bleachers. Her arm hairs pricked when she thought about him.

"Yeah, Jack. He and I go way back. I met him when I started high school. We went out last year for-"

"A year and a half."

"Yeah, how did-"

"He told me. He also told me that he knows someone that likes him. You'll never guess who." Bailey couldn't wait to tell Logan; she imagined that Logan would be so surprised and be glad that she informed her. That's what friends are for.

"Who likes him? A lot of people do. Can I guess? Is it Laney? Boy if it is she is so dead-"

"It's Oliver, Logan." But Logan acted as if she hadn't heard and kept going.

"I'm going to call Laney up right now! What is she thinking?" Her voice quickened and she began acting funny. She picked up the phone and she fumbled with it in her hands like she couldn't hold onto it. "I'm..I'm so gonna call her…she..is so dead….Oliver.." Her voice cracked and she dropped the phone, then flung herself onto the bed screaming and burying her face in her pillow. "Oliver!" She screamed so hard that her voice was hoarse and rough. "Oliver!" It didn't even sound like her saying it.

Bailey hurriedly scooted up to Logan and sat there not knowing what to do. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything!" She had to scream over Logan's crying. "Logan, I'm sorry!" Then all of her shyness and awkwardness left her at that split moment in time, and she lay down beside Logan on the bed and wrapped her arms around her, cuddling close, her fingers clenched around Logan's arms. Both girls needed someone to hold on to. They had both been alone their whole lives.