I arrived at music room #4, it had been 30 minutes since Abby and I spoke, but it felt like an eternity had gone by. “Done.”

She looked up at me from the couch. “Really?! And what did he say?”

“I don’t know, the manager lady drove me out of there so fast that I couldn’t really speak to him. But he gave me a note back. ”

“Really? Did he at least look happy?”

I couldn’t remember. “Yea, he smiled a bit.”

She glowed up. “Give me the note! Give me the note!”

I tossed the note in her general direction. She jumped up and grabbed it like a dog. But instead of her mouth, she used both her hands. She opened the paper, read it, reread it, looked up, and read it again. It must have been something amazing for her to read it so many times.

“Are you done?”

“Yes. Now…what was the thing you wanted to do?”

Ah yes, ‘my thing’.

Well, it was a simple thing really. Emily would have to bump into Abby, she will start an innocent conversation, while I walked by, completely unaware, until Emily would call me down ‘hey friend! Come join us!’. And, oh, what a coincidence, Abby would be there too. She would get to see me again, I would get to see her, and this time I would have a friend there who would be able to make everything I say seem funny or interesting. Maybe even make Abby jealous.

I didn’t explain my master plan to Emily, all I told her was to meet Abby and to notice me walking by. Really simple.

“Then where am I supposed to meet her?” she asked

“Abby takes an 8am detour every workday at a local bakery where she buys homemade bread for her afternoon lunch. I just need you to meet her slightly outside there, while she's coming back so that I can also pass you guys by on my way to buy some food for Leslie.”

“You….really are what I suspected.”

“Don’t get high and mighty on me, you’re the 20-year-old passing notes in class.”

“How do you know my age?!”

“I googled it, now are you in or not?”

“Okay….I’ll do it, but only because I owe you”

I took out my hand. She shook it. I knew killing her would have been a bad move. “I’ll see you next week.”

We both walked out to a strange girl looking at us. She had bright pink hair, an expressionless face, and a phone pointed at us.

*click*

Did she take a photo? I looked down at Emily. Her face was crimson. “Th-th-this isn’t w-w-what it lo-looks like!”

The girl with bright pink hair turned and walked away. Emily was cemented to the floor, a wire had been crossed in her head and she alternated between standing still and running towards the girl.

“Who was that?” I asked

“T-that was Clare. She’s a member of my group.” She sat down on the floor. I didn’t know why. “I’m in such deep shit if she shows that picture to Daniel, he might think we were doing..it.”

“It? You mean having sex?”

“Y-yea.”

“That's strange you can’t say word sex at the age of twenty, but even more importantly, this doesn’t affect me in any way, so see you tomorrow.”

I started to walk, then a sudden weight attached to my leg. Ah. It was Emily. “Pleaseeeeee, you have to fix this, I can’t have daniel hate me! I can’t have him think that doing it with random men in booths!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see how this is my problem at all. This seems more like a you problem.” I tried shaking her off my leg, but she was heavier than what her tiny frame would suggest.

“Then I won’t do it! I won’t help you talk with Abby!”

“Wha- are you a liar now! We had a deal!”

“I won’t do it! I can’t survive if my reputation is ruined! But, if you help me with this one tiny thing, I’ll make Abby like you so much you’ll think I was made for bringing people together!”

You won’t make Abby like me. I will. “Okay, okay. Just let go of my leg. And stand up, I’m embarrassed to have you lying on the floor like that.”

Emily stood up. Her hair was a complete mess. I shook my leg a little too hard trying to get out of her vice grip and wobbled her around the floor a little. “Let's just go to her and explain that we’re friends, it's not like either of us was naked or anything. Then we’ll kindly ask if she can delete the photo. Now, where can we find Clare?”

“Let's go to the practice room.” she blurted out. “It's where they usually stay….”

“Whatever, just lead the way.”

She took me down the usual path of hallways, doors, and strangely placed portraits. I followed her to another large door with ‘FIRST ISLAND’ written in golden letters on the door. There was something to be said about how much the company decorated the doors.

Emily opened an empty dark room. Except for the mirror, and the dirty smell of sweat, I could have mistaken it for the living room of someone about to move out. A light glared against a pink-haired girl sitting on a couch.

Clair looked up. “I see you aren’t just bringing your boyfriend to booths now.”

“H-he’s not my boyfriend…” Emily's tiny voice barely reached me.

“That's not what Daniel is going to hear. And once he finds out about this…well I guess that's it.”

“We w-weren’t doing anything…we were just talking…”

“About?”

I interrupted “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that we clear up this misunderstanding.”

“Okay, cleared.” She said looking at me “But, I mean, everybody will know about it, so it's not like it will matter much whether it was a misunderstanding or not. It will just be a picture of Emily and a…fan coming out of one of the booths.” She looked at Emily. “It's not like this isn’t something you wouldn’t do.”

“I-I wouldn’t do something l-like that!”

“Sure you wouldn’t, why are you putting up that act, is it because you're in front of this guy? You should be ashamed of yourself.” She looked back at me. “Did you know that she's had multiple guys like you around? How she seems to love seducing men? I don’t know why you think you’ll be any different. She just uses guys and, once she's done with them, she blows them right out” she moved her hands from her mouth to the air, as if blowing a dandelion away. ”Into the atmosphere.”

“Y-you liar!”

“That's exactly what you’re doing to Daniel. Do you think he would ever go for someone, someone so…dirty if you weren’t seducing him!”

“I-I’m not, we just like each other! I’m not seducing him!”

Now I was completely lost. How was this Daniel guy getting these two girls to fight over him? And why was I here anyway? It looked like she wasn’t going to delete the photo. I’m going to have to just 'accidentally' meet Abby then. Really, all this fuss for something that I could have done myself.

As Clare walked past us she looked back. “I’m going to send it to *******. So don’t worry, the misunderstanding won’t matter.”

*******. The newspaper?

Will Abby see it? Will she think that I betrayed her? I would never date another woman, I would never hurt Abby like that. Never. Never. Not even if my heart would be eaten out by a million little ants. But would she believe me?

My knees felt weak. My legs crumpled beneath me as the world spun. What if Abby saw this? I felt Emilie's hand reach behind me as the world turned to black.