"Let me get this straight," Abbie said, "Sorry, poor word choice. You like Heather now?" she asked me, as the two of us walked around the grounds outside of school, after a math lesson that I was so glad was over. Math was difficult, difficult, lemon difficult. I didn't want to have to face such a hideous ordeal ever again but unfortunately it was necessary, if I ever wanted to graduate from high-school.

"What? I don't like her. I like her as a friend. My brother is the one that thinks that I like her," I replied matter-of-factly.

Abbie raised an eyebrow at me.

"What was that?" I asked her.

"What was what?" she replied casually.

"You raised an eyebrow at me, as though you didn't believe me," I stated.

Abbie's eyes searched my expression for a couple of moments, before she replied.

"Your expression says otherwise," she stated simply.

"I don't like Heather Violets," I replied.

Abbie folded her arms in front of her chest, as a slight smirk made its way onto her face.

"Sounds like denial to me," she said.

"You're going to keep persevering here in trying to get me to admit to something but there's nothing to admit to, Abbie and you're going to realise-"

"I think that the only one who is going to realise anything here, Zoe, is you," she said.

I remained quiet as the two of us began to walk on. It was safe to say that Abbie's words had led to me becoming contemplative again.

"Oh, look! Heather's there!" she said.

"Where?" I replied, as I felt my eyes widen slightly.

I looked around to find Heather nowhere in sight.

"You are so mean to me," I told Abbie, as I playfully nudged her.

Abbie released a gentle chuckle.

"Sorry, sorry. Okay, I won't tease you any more about it. I know that you're 'sensitive'," she said, with amusement in her eyes, as the two of us continued to walk on through the school grounds.

"I'm not sensitive," I replied.

"Zoe, darling, you're the queen of sensitive. Remember how upset you got when the two of us watched the last Harry Potter movie and-"

"Stop right there. We don't talk about it," I said.

Abbie raised her hands up in front of her in a sort of mock-surrender.

"Alright, alright. I've got it. We don't talk about it," she said.

The two of us continued our walk until we sat down upon a bench, and a gentle breath of wind passed by the two of us.

A couple of minutes later, Wesley wandered over to join us.

"Hey, you two. Don't you think it's a beautiful day?" he asked us both, with optimism evident in his voice.

I looked up to the bright blue skies above us and figured that it was a rather stunning day, nowhere near as stunning as someone, though. Oh my God, maybe my brother actually did have a point about me.

"It is indeed," I said.

Abbie gave me a look that told me that she was wise enough to work out how I felt about Heather. I was interested to hear what she had discovered regarding that, especially considering that I had told her countless times, now, that I only considered Heather to be a friend. Sure, the two of us may have been closer than most but that was all that we were. That was all that we were ever going to be and I stood by that.

I was wise enough to know that feelings could only ever hurt me. Maybe Abbie was right. Maybe I was far too sensitive. However, I had a good friendship with Heather and I knew that nothing would ever threaten that.

"We have a math test later today. I know I'm going to pass it," Wesley said.

I had always admired how self-affirming he could be.

"I don't know if I will," I muttered.

"Sure you will, Zoe! You need to believe in yourself," Wesley said.

I supposed that I had now been told that enough times that I could begin to believe it. It didn't change the fact that my heart sort of hurt whenever I tried to confront my exam anxiety, though.

"Thank you, Wesley. Are you okay?" I asked him in a caring manner.

"I'm okay," he said.

"Good. I know that you're now the manager of that music store and I was wondering how that was going," I told him.

Abbie looked between the two of us with curiosity in her expression. She was wise enough to know that I was trying to change the subject but I had every right to keep my thoughts to myself. I didn't fully understand why I had so many of them in relation to Heather but I supposed when I spent so much of my time with her that it was bound to happen eventually. It was like how I used to think of Drew a lot. Ever since the two of us had got closure, though, I hadn't thought of him half as much as I used to. It was strange because I thought that I had liked him for so long. I had liked him for so long. I thought that it would have been more difficult to move on but it hadn't ended up that way.

"It's going well, thank you, Zoe. I'm actually pretty great at this job," Wesley said, which dragged me out of my clouds of thought. I was glad that he was finding his job was going well. I knew that Wesley had switched between jobs many times because he hadn't found a good management team, so it was nice to know now that was no longer an issue. He was the manager.

I was relieved that the school bell soon rang out because I knew that if I talked about this for any longer I was undoubtedly going to end up giving myself a headache. That was something that I would really rather avoid.

The three of us walked to English class and I got started on reading through our assigned book again. As I read, though, my mind flickered to other matters. I couldn't help but wish that I had someone else to think about. Ever since my feelings for Drew had become less of a focus for me, I couldn't help but wish that I had someone else to think about, someone else to romanticise. As I thought on that, though, Heather came to mind again and I had to confront a notion that I had previously brushed away. Maybe I did like her. Maybe it wasn't only as a friend.