Today is Friday, February 8th. Valentine's Day definitely draws near now. In the meantime, I managed to stop by a few places last weekend when I made the time to do so, and I bought some jewelry and clothes and candies for April. Just like Quilene, I want to make sure my beloved feels special. I'm sure Aerolynn wants to do the same for Auston. After all, I've been hearing her phone conversations with the guy ever since I gave her his phone number. It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't doing this within my hearing range. Still, I have to hope for the sake of myself and Quilene that Aerolynn doesn't experience heartbreak with him or else she'll out Quilene to Jonah in an attempt to sabotage the relationship. I can only hope.

So since it's my Friday off, I have an opportunity to at least explore the streets around Rutgers some more. Uncle Steven once told me about how he'd taken a walk in Morgantown, West Virginia, and he'd gotten a good look at some monuments and landmarks, especially a Don Knotts statue that he said brought back memories of when he would see him play Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show." Man, I can't help but think about West Virginia whenever I remember that. Sometimes, I think it would be nice to be spending time over there instead of over here, especially given my current situation. Has life always been so hard or has it only gotten harder the older I get? Who knows?

As I drive around the places in close proximity to Rutgers, I just can't help but think about what it is that makes Rutgers (and by extension, New Brunswick and Piscataway) so special to me. I can see, for example, the Ravine Bridge on the Douglass campus and the Zimmerli Art Museum. At some point, I'll have to visit that museum either during this semester or the next one. I also drive past the Dana Library, the Global Piazza, and even Voorhees Mall before eventually deciding to stop by the New Brunswick Mini Mall on 195 French St. I mean, I'm sure I could get a few more things for April while I'm here, so this could be time well spent.

The first store I stop by in the New Brunswick Mini Mall is JCPenney, where I can immediately see Quilene rummaging through some rows and rows of clothes.

"Hey, Quilene!" I call out to her.

Quilene jumps and turns around to see me standing there. I can't tell what must be going through her mind at this very moment, but I'd have to imagine my presence must have caught her off-guard.

"Oh, Hope!" Quilene exclaims. "I didn't realize you were here, too. I'm actually glad, too."

"Why's that?" I ask curiously.

"Well, I just realized that I left my phone back at the dorm. Could you call Aerolynn and ask her to bring it to me?"

I just shrug. "I mean... I don't see why not. I'll give it a shot."

I pull out my iPhone and type down Aerolynn's number and call. I wait a few seconds for her to pick up. I'm not sure how I should be asking her to stop by the JCPenney inside the New Brunswick Mini Mall to give Quilene her phone. For all I know, she might not care about her former friend's plight and just let Auston plow her instead. She seems to have responded well with me, though (at least, aside from the blackmailing). Surely, there shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? A few more seconds go by, nothing. A few more seconds go by, nothing. It then goes to voice mail.

"Okay, guess we'll have to try that again..." I mutter to myself.

I type down Aerolynn's number again and call. After waiting a couple minutes, Aerolynn finally picks up.

"Hello?" Aerolynn sounds.

"Oh, hey, Aerolynn," I respond. "It's me, Hope. I'm calling because Quilene just realized she forgot her phone. Would you mind stopping by the JCPenney inside the New Brunswick Mini Mall and dropping it off with her?"

She pauses for some reason, then responds, "Sure. Where is it exactly?"

"195 French Street."

"Oh, cool, thanks."

With that, Aerolynn hangs up. She doesn't even give me a chance to tell her bye. That's kinda rude, isn't it? Whatever, at least she sounds like she's on her way. Quilene and I decide to hang around by the doors for a few moments and wait patiently for Aerolynn to arrive. It takes about four minutes for us to wait for her and for her to finally arrive at the doors and bring us Quilene's phone.

"Okay, guys," Aerolynn says. "I hope you appreciate the effort I went through to give it to you."

"Yeah, we're, uh, pretty grateful actually..." Quilene says. "I don't like leaving the house without this thing."

Suddenly, I can't help but notice that Aerolynn's eyes seem much more moist than they were yesterday. Has she been crying? I hope nothing bad has been happening between her and Auston. I can't bear to think about the fallout that might follow from something like this.

"Okay, whatever," Aerolynn says while rolling her eyes. "Just don't lose it again, okay? You know how expensive that shit is? My phone cost $2,000 and there's no way I can afford to lose it."

"Okay, okay, just go." Quilene starts dismissing Aerolynn with the wave of her hand. "You've already served your purpose. Go back to whatever or whoever you were doing before."

Aerolynn just leaves in a huff, and Quilene and I soon find ourselves alone again.

"Alright, I guess it's back to shopping," Quilene announces. "Let's see what we can find while we're here."

"Good idea," I reply.

Quilene and I arrive back in our dorm at around 4:30 PM. It's fairly good timing for us since Quilene is supposed to be leaving for night classes soon. We talk for a bit about what we've managed to buy at the New Brunswick Mini Mall. I managed to buy some new makeup for April, and Quilene managed to buy some new school supplies for Jonah (especially the essential ones to help carry him through the rest of the semester and the entirety of the next one). We also talk about how we think our respective Valentine's Day will go. Of course, we also have to keep in mind that not everything will go as planned, but that's life for you.

"Hey, why don't you call Jonah real quick?" I suggest. "You might want to go over your plans with him one more time."

"Okay." Quilene activates her phone and proceeds to instantly call up Jonah. She waits for him to pick up, but nothing happens. Several seconds pass by, but still nothing. Several more seconds pass before finally going to voicemail. "Huh, that's weird. It just went to voicemail. I wonder why he didn't pick up."

"He's probably busy or something. Don't try to call him again right now."

"Okay."

And so we decide to wait for Jonah to call her instead of the other way around. Knowing Jonah, he's probably busy going over his assignments with Theo and studying for exams. The last thing he needs right now is to be distracted. Eventually, Quilene leaves for night classes, and I'm left alone... but not for long. Aerolynn comes out of her room at this point and flops back on the couch.

"Has everything been okay with you and Auston?" I ask curiously. "Your eyes seemed... misty earlier."

"Oh, he just dumped me," Aerolynn replies while trying to hide the hurt and betrayal coming through her voice.

I can't help but feel concerned after hearing this. "Why did he dump you?"

"I told him that he needed to focus his attention on me at all times and not talk to any other girls. He got really mad at me when I told him that because he said that was controlling and possessive. Oh, and I also called him the n-word."

Excuse me? She called him what?

"Uh, Aerolynn, you shouldn't be calling people the n-word," I tell her. "Especially after they call out your behavior. That's racist."

"Whatever, his loss. He'll never find another girl like me."

"I think that goes without saying. Anyway, please tell me you didn't actually go through with outing Quilene to my brother after all."

"I had to take my anger out on something. What better way to do it than to hack into my former BFF's phone and send Jonah a text telling him she's a freak and he's gay?"

My pupils constrict and my breathing goes shallow. "You didn't..."

"I wish I could say that, but what's done is done, so..."

I take a deep breath and pull myself together. "Listen... it's not that you told Jonah that Quilene's intersex, okay? I don't care that you think Jonah finding out about Quilene being intersex would be a big deal, Aerolynn. The thing is, though... that's not your decision to make. Quilene and I were planning to tell him ourselves, and now we can't because you took that chance away from us."

Aerolynn just rolls her eyes at me, not seeming to understand the gravitas of the situation. "Gee, sorry. I'm just saying, though. Quilene's got balls and I mean actual balls, and that makes Jonah gay."

"Quilene is just as much a woman as you and I are. When it comes to being intersex, genital shapes and chromosomes don't matter. These are human beings, Aerolynn. They're not something you can point and laugh at so you can feel better about your own miserable life. What is wrong with you?!"

"Well, if she didn't want people to laugh at her so badly, why couldn't she just get that fixed?"

How else do I respond to that without going off on her again? Would she even care if I responded to that?

I try my best anyway. "Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome isn't obvious at birth, so it's not actually diagnosed until the onset of puberty. Besides, intersex people don't need surgery to quote-unquote fix them despite what some parents and medical professionals might think. Like I said, these are human beings. They're not playthings that you can just fix if you find something to nitpick at."

"Well, then that's her problem, isn't it? Always has, always will. This isn't even the first time I've done this to her."

My heart drops into my stomach, and my jaw slides open. I can't find the right words to respond to this. How do you even respond to something like that anyway, especially when they almost seem proud to just betray their so-called BFF like that? I just have to walk away to my room, and I have to slam the door. There are more than 171,146 words currently in use in the English language, but none of them could ever describe the kind of sadness, hurt, and betrayal like I'm experiencing right now. I decide to focus on my schoolwork, anything besides Aerolynn right now.

By the time I've finished with all of my work, the sky is already pitch black and there are countless stars in the sky. I've spent so much energy on my schoolwork that I can barely keep my eyes open. I want to fall asleep at my desk right here, right now. However, there's a knock at my door.

"Hope, are you in there?" I can hear Quilene call out to me.

I just mutter out a "yes." She takes that as an invitation to come in.

"H-Hey, Hope," Quilene says. "I found out about what Aerolynn did on my phone."

"You must have been so angry when you found out, huh?" I ask. "I don't blame you. Also, about what Aerolynn said about this not being the first time she outed you... was that the reason you and Aerolynn stopped being friends?"

Quilene solemnly nods. "Now you know. We'd been so close up until we started attending Piscataway High. I had a crush on this guy named Beacon Davis. He was so handsome with blue eyes and black hair and that chiseled face. I wanted him so badly to notice me. Problem was, Aerolynn felt that way about him, too."

"So... Aerolynn outed you the first time because she was jealous of you?"

"Yeah. She saw how close Beacon and I were getting, and she disclosed to him what had been my recent diagnosis. She also called me a 'hermaphrodite' and some really messed-up slurs. As if in the blink of an eye, Beacon turned on me and told me he hoped I got raped. Before I knew it, everyone was making death and rape threats against me. It got so bad that my family had to pull me out and homeschool me until senior year."

"Oh my God, that's awful."

"Yeah, tell me about it. The worst part is that she's never apologized once for all the pain she's caused me."

"That's so fucked up. I tell you what, when she gets back, we're going to tell her that she went too far and that she has to leave right now."

Quilene nods, this time more hopefully. "Okay. I just hope Aerolynn's got a plan on where to go next."

I wrap my arms around Quilene and embrace her, and I let her do the same for me. I never want to make her feel like how Aerolynn made her feel.