Chapter Seven: I Just Miss My Friend

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I don't really have much to say about this chapter, but every other chapter's had an author's note...haha :) Please leave a review if you read this, I need to know what you like, what you hate, what you'd like to see, what you wish was different. I love the feedback I've received so far, you're all so lovely and so helpful! Thank you! Enjoy!

"I missed you, Dahlia." Adam said, breaking the silence of the last few minutes.

"I..." Dahlia sighed and turned to sit so she was facing Adam instead of the lake. "You have no idea how much I wish I could believe that."

Adam turned to face Dahlia. "I missed you every day."

"Then why did you leave in the first place?"

"Look at me!" Adam yelled. "Could I go back to school in Everdale looking like this? There's about 300 people in that town, they all know me as Gracie! I needed to make a new start, as Adam. As me."

"So the whole time you knew me... you weren't yourself. You were just pretending." Dahlia said, looking at the ground, trying to focus her eyes on the grains of sand so she wouldn't cry.

Adam gently lifted Dahlia's face with his hand. "Dahlia. Look at me. You were the only person who ever really knew who I am. I was always, always myself with you. I just... had to be Gracie, too."

"You could have just told me."

"I wanted to... believe me, I tried to. I just... I knew the reactions people have to this kind of thing. People call me a freak, and they call me a tranny, and they don't understand me. And I deal with it, and put up with it, because this is who I am. But... with you...if you had..."

"I never would have."

"...I was afraid to risk it. It would have killed me. Not that leaving without you didn't kill me anyway."

There was a silence for a moment, and they both sat in the sun, listening to the waves.

"Well... you seem happy now. With Clare and Eli. They're lovely."

Adam smiled. "Yeah. They are. I got really lucky." Then he looked back at her and his smile went away. "What about you, though? What happened to you? What are you doing with Bridget?"

"What do you... I don't know what you're talking about." Dahlia said, staring intently at the water.

"Dahlia, she's horrible to you. She treats you like a slave, like you're her property."

"No, you don't understand. You don't know her."

"I don't want to."

"She needs me!"

"I need you!"

"You abandoned me!" Dahlia yelled, finally turning to look back into the sky blue eyes of her former best friend. "You left me. Alone. Completely alone, with no one, and nothing! What was I supposed to do, I couldn't stay alone forever, I needed someone to take your place!"

"Take my place?" Adam asked in amazement "You think Bridget is a replacement for me? I loved you, Dahlia. No matter what she's brainwashed you into believing, she does not love you."

Dahlia shook her head sadly. "It doesn't matter anyway. It's not like we can ever go back to the way it was. With you and me."

Adam felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach, but masked it well, and Dahlia went on.

"Remember in grade six, when those annoying girls were teasing you because you wore pants and sneakers to the dance, and I fought them off for you? What would happen if I did that now? I can't. Now they'd just see it as a girl fighting your battles for you. Everything is different now. Everything's changed." Dahlia stood up and wiped the sand off of her dress.

Adam stood up and grabbed her hand as she went to walk away. "Not everything..."

Dahlia waited for him to say the words she needed to hear. She didn't think it was too much to ask. There were only three.

They didn't come. So she walked away.

Adam turned in the other direction and walked along the shore.

Before long, he heard a voice behind him. "Adam...Adam!"

Clare ran up beside him, a bit out of breath.

"Clare? What are you doing at the beach?"

"Looking... for you...you idiot." She said, trying to catch her breath. "We were... worried sick."

"Oh. Sorry. Did you see..."

"Dahlia? Yeah. You okay?"

"I will be." Adam answered

Clare pulled Adam into a hug and held him there for a while.

At the same time, Eli was running up behind Dahlia.

"Hey... Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Eli... hi! Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"Fair enough." Dahlia smiled "What do you need?"

"I just wanted to see if you were okay. Clare and I came here to look for Adam, and we saw you two talking."

"Yeah...I'm okay. I got what I expected, I suppose. Which isn't much."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... I guess he cares... he did come find me. But everything's different now, there's no way it will ever be like it was with Gracie."

"That's true. Gracie's gone." Eli said.

Dahlia looked a bit surprised. She wasn't used to such brutal honesty from people she'd just met, even though she had assumed that Adam had told Eli everything.

"But if you try to get to know him," Eli continued "Adam's pretty amazing too. And I'm sure he and Gracie can't be that different."

"Gracie was amazing. You didn't know her. Adam's... I don't know." Dahlia searched for the words to say how she felt. "Just...how big of a coward does a person have to be to just... leave town without telling their best friend? Their girlfriend?"

"A coward?" Eli tried not to yell. "Do you have any idea how brave Adam has to be just to get out of bed every day? Do you even know what he's gone through? He's already tried to pretend to be Gracie because it's easier on other people. It killed him, Dahlia. I'm not saying what he did to you is okay, I just want you to look at the situation through his eyes. He is Adam. Always has been."

Dahlia sighed, flopped down onto the sand and looked out at the lake. Eli sat beside her.

Dahlia put her head on Eli's shoulder. Even though she'd just met him, and he'd just told her off, she felt safe with him.

Even though he'd just met her, and she'd just called his best friend a coward, Eli felt protective of Dahlia. He put his arm around her.

"I just miss my friend." she whispered.

"I know." Eli answered "I'd miss him too."