Sarah had lived a lonely life, no siblings, one parent, and, until middle school, no friends.

As soon as Patty started going to their, admittedly, pathetically tiny school at the start of 7th grade she seemed to make it her goal to befriend as many students as she could. Starting in her first period class and ending by lunch, where she found Sarah sitting alone.

Sarah remembered the day Patty came up to her, she had been sitting quietly in the school lunch room, her long blond hair covering her face as she looked up into the other girls charismatic eyes.

"Hello! My name is Patty!" She had said and put her hand out for Sarah to grab, "What's your name?"

Sarah paused for a moment, finding her words as she stared at the kind face of the girl in front of her. "Sarah," she said, "Sarah Mercer." and she shook Patty's hand as Patty descended to sit on the chair across her.

"I just moved here from Ottawa, it's pretty different here. A lot less noise…" and she kept talking and talking and soon Sarah started replying and talking back to her.

They had become quick friends after that, and Sarah's only, for a period. Then Patty started hanging out with other people, and Sarah followed. Soon Sarah actually knew most of the students in her grade, though she only considered herself to be friends with Patty, Tom and Axel. Patty being her best and closest friend.

By the time 10th grade came around her and Patty were inseparable, in 11th grade her and Tom had started dating and by 12th grade they had all practically built their lives around one another. Those were undoubtedly Sarah's happiest years, she thought.

During the summer after their senior year however is when it started to crumble. Tom had begun to want to leave their little town and began to set his sights on moving. Sarah, understandably, thought this was a horrible idea. She had heard the stories of men who had moved away only to be crushed under the weight of cities and come back penniless and alone. When Tom finally did leave he left without so much as a goodbye, not to her, not to his parents, not to his friends. It had left the whole town bitter for a while.

Most people however got over it. Sarah was struggling, so was Axel. Patty didn't seem to struggle, she blamed it on the fact she had moved a lot as a child before her family settled into Valentine Bluffs, but Sarah knew Patty was also extremely heartbroken, even if it was in a different way than Sarah was.

With Patty being emotionally distant when it came to Tom, Sarah and Axel began to bond over the next few months. Patty was, of course, still there for Sarah, but Sarah figured Patty was mad at Tom for leaving them and wouldn't give the same emotional reactions Sarah got from venting to Axel.

Of course Sarah was also mad at Tom but it was a different type of madness, one born from a great loss. After months and months of Her and Axel bonding through this shared feeling Axel revealed that he too loved Tom in that way. He had been fine with them and their relationship though, as long as he had gotten to be near Tom. Sarah could understand that, she knew the town's thoughts on gay people but she had never given it much thought and decided that, if someone like Axel could be queer the whole thing didn't matter to her and she consoled Axel with a new understanding over their shared feelings.

Soon after learning about Axel, however, Patty began seeing Hollis. Sarah liked Hollis, thought he was a good man and a good friend but she couldn't get over the feeling that spread over her every time she saw the two kiss or hold hands and figured she was just getting jealous over the fact she no longer had Tom to do that with but even as more months had past and it was nearing spring of the next year and she was starting to get over Tom she still felt it.

It was like an uncomfortable fire burned in her head, sweaty palms and an extreme jealousy would take her over. It only lasted for mere seconds and yet every time afterwards shame filled her.

Deciding to go to Axel for comfort one night he told her about how she felt like she was starting to get over Tom yet still felt jealousy burn in her chest every time she saw her friend engage with their partner.

"Its, its like everytime I see them together I end up getting bitter and resentful but I barely even think of Tom anymore!" she pondered over her next few words, "do you think maybe I like Hollis? I don't know, I don't think I've ever made goo-goo eyes at him like Patty does but I just can't think of anything else!" she put her hands over her face, she hated the idea of having a crush on her best friend's significant other, it made her want to vomit and bury her head in shame.

Axel paused, this wasn't exactly the conversation he expected to have with her. He wasn't completely sure but decided to shoot his shot at what he thought might be going on after hearing her words though and began to speak, "Sarah, have you ever considered that it might be…" he paused for a moment, deciding if he should finish his question, "...Patty, who you like?"

Sarah's head flung up at that, wide eyes at the suggestion. "I.." She tried croaking out, "I've never even, never even thought of that!" Stuttering slightly through. She paused, giving it thought as Axel stayed silent.

Sarah's hands flew back to her face, this time in misery rather than an uncomfortable embarrassment. If she liked Patty then that would mean she would never even have a chance! As she sat with her face in her hands Axel wrapped an arm around her. Tears began to drop from her fingers as she sat, thinking of all the time spent cluelessly with Patty. As minutes dragged on in silence Axel began to open his mouth to speak.

"I never imagined we would have so much in common." He said, Sarah chuckled weakly at that, bringing her mood up a little bit from their previous conversation.

"Yeah" she said with a crack in her tiny voice. She continued, "What if- Well, you know how the town views things like that. So what if we pretended, to um, date." She asked. It sounded ridiculous as she said it out loud but Axel saw how smart that sounded.

"I think, I think I could do that." He said.