Perhaps Abbie had a good point. Maybe all of this would be solved if I had been honest in the first place. However, I knew that was more difficult than other people thought. There had been a reason why I had kept my feelings from Drew for so long and the reason behind that was simple. I didn't want to complicate things and ruin our friendship. I knew that feelings had a habit of complicating everything. The fact was that they didn't have the power to only change things between Drew and I, either. I had only just become friends with Heather and I didn't want to destroy that.

I hadn't expected her to become such an important part of my life but she was my friend now and I didn't want to do anything to ruin our friendship.

I was beginning to consider that maybe I had been the one to create all of these problems in the first place. Perhaps it had been my over thinking mind that had led to my falling out with Drew.

While I hadn't ever meant to be so incredibly temperamental, I knew that I couldn't help the way that I felt for him.

Once I got home from the park, after my conversation with Wesley and Abbie, I felt so incredibly alone.

I decided in that moment that it would probably be a good idea for me to go and speak with Riley to see how he was doing. I knew that even if the two of us only ended up talking about his school work, it would give me a much-needed distraction from my situation with Drew and Heather. In fact, Heather wasn't even a key part of the conflict but I knew that she and Drew were close friends and it would more than likely get out to her soon enough. I could only hope that she wouldn't think of me as a bad friend once she found out the truth about my falling out with Drew.

"What's going on?" Riley asked me, which dragged me out of my thoughts.

"Nothing. I just think that I need to leave America as soon as possible," I stated.

Riley's eyebrows creased together at my words.

"Okay, number one: that's not only ridiculous and number two: don't you think that you're being ever-so-slightly over-dramatic?" he asked me.

"No," I said nonchalantly. In all honesty, I had been a little surprised that a fourth grader could have such a developed vocabulary. If Riley was this far ahead in school, then I believed that I needed to work much harder in my own studies. I hadn't helped myself with having the kind of mind that would overthink matters all the time.

Riley gave a slight shake of his head in disbelief.

"It can't be healthy for you to keep all of these thoughts to yourself. What's going on with you?" he asked me.

I knew that if there was one person that I couldn't keep things from, then that person was my younger brother. He had a will and he had a way when it came to finding out what was going on with his friends and family. It was safe to say that even for an eight year old, he could be pretty protective when he wanted to be.

I began to tell Riley the whole drama that had occurred over cheesecake and Riley had ended up believing that it was ridiculous that I had left my cheesecake behind, too. I didn't need more people to point that out for me. I had spent enough time regretting it as it was. The cheesecake had been damn good and I wished that I had waited longer to blurt out what I had to Drew. However, he had been so pushy when it came to getting answers from me. That was the thing about Drew, his stubbornness could be a blessing as much as it could be a curse and I knew that one day he would end up talking me into revealing everything.

If I avoided talking to him all together, then that could never happen. The mere concept of not speaking to Drew again, though, made my heart hurt. He was my best friend and I knew that nothing could ever change that. I only wished that my feelings didn't have to get in the way of everything. As my mother had told me a long time ago, though, we couldn't control the people that we caught feelings for.

"Listen, Zoe, it's going to be okay," Riley told me.

"Do you really believe that?" I asked him.

"You know that you can always rely on me to tell you the truth, right? I shouldn't need to tell you that twice. I may only be eight but I'm wise beyond my years and I think that you need to talk to Drew. Do whatever you need to in order to get his attention- call him, try to talk to him at school, just don't give up on him, alright? I know that the two of you are going to be making your way to university soon and whatever else. The two of you hardly have any time left to fight and worry over trivial matters like this," he said.

"When did you get so smart?" I asked him, in my partial amazement.

"I read a lot. Plus, I'm part of the vocabulary club for under-tens," Riley explained.

I could certainly believe that.

"I knew I could trust you to help me out, Riley. Thank you. You're right. Drew and I really don't have long together, now, and I don't want to spend our final few months of school fighting all the time. I think that I am going to speak to him," I said.

"When?" Riley asked me.

"I don't know, soon," I said.

"Alright, well let me know how it goes, Zoe. Anyway, I need to get back to my studies now, so it's about time that you left," Riley told me.

I knew that the kid meant well but his tone of voice could be incredibly blunt at times.

Either way, I wished him well on his studies (fourth grade math was apparently incredibly serious) and made my way back to my room, where I soon fell fast asleep.