Heather drove me back home. The day had gone by so quickly but I was fairly sure that was because the two of us hadn't been at school for most of it. I loved school most of the time but I wasn't sure if I wanted to be there right now anyway, especially not during all of this drama that was going on between Drew and I.

The sun was beginning to set and I turned my attention to the pink sky out in front of us, as a form of distraction. The sky was beautiful but it only distracted the two of us for so long. I could tell that Heather was worried, judging by the expression upon her face, I could tell that she had a little bit of guilt about the events that had passed by today.

"Maybe I shouldn't have bunked off school, my dad is going to kill me. I'm such a disappointment! I'm going to get my golden student card revoked," Heather said.

"Heather, Heather. You're being a little dramatic, don't you think?" I asked her. "Hey, I trust you to not get us into trouble and you can trust me. Nobody needs to know."

"Nobody needs to know, until the school call up my father and give him another reason to be mad at me, besides me being gay," she said, with a sigh.

I gave her a look of sympathy, but I wasn't sure what I could say to make things better. It wasn't as though I could go over to Heather's house and demand for her father to respect her. Drew had always been the demanding one out of the two of us, he had just been demanding in entirely the wrong way.

"I need to go home and get started on my studying and..." Heather trailed off, as she met me with an apologetic expression, "I mean, you get that, don't you?" she asked me.

I gave a nod of my head but I really did wish that things were easier between the two of us. Unfortunately, matters weren't going to change over night. Heather wasn't all of a sudden going to be accepted by her father and Drew and I weren't all of a sudden going to start talking again. Thus, I decided that it was probably time for me to get on with some school work too.

Of course, after I had said goodbye to Heather and headed into my house to get started on my studies, I ended up somewhat distracted. I began to draw in the margin of my notebook and sighed.

A few moments passed by and I soon received a text from Heather again.

: Hey Zoe, I had a really good day today. I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly but just know that I'm always thinking of you. Now, I've got to go, my dad wants to talk to me. I hope you're alright, though.

I smiled down at the message but I still felt my stomach twisting around in my nervousness.

I didn't want to end up feeling sad over the whole Drew situation, though, so I lay down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling above me. I knew that I probably should have been getting on with some work but my mind was considerably distracted. It would probably be night time by the time I got around to any actual work.

I wished that I had my brother Riley's work ethic. The kid may have only been eight years old but he was already more productive than I had been in a lifetime.

However, I knew that it wasn't wise to waste the afternoon dwelling on my current problematic friendship with Drew. I couldn't sacrifice my future for some boy, even if that some boy was my best friend. Well, he was my best friend, at one point. I wasn't sure if he wanted to be my best friend anymore, though. If he did, he was going a funny way about it.

I would always be there for him, though. I supposed that I could just be too kind like that. I could never stop caring about Drew, either. You can't simply forget a friendship like the one that we had for so long.

I opened the window and allowed a gentle breeze to drift in through my window as I began to add to my notes. As much as I may have wanted to concentrate on my work, though, my mind was still wondering whether things would be good between Drew and I ever again. It could have been argued that if he didn't want to be a good friend to me, then he wasn't worth having around. However, I couldn't simply forget the past eighteen years with him. That hurt me more than my previous conversations with Drew had.

As I wrote, I listened to the rain as it began to patter down outside my window. I switched on my desk lamp as the sky grew darker. It seemed fitting that it was raining when my mind kept considering everything that had occurred over the course of the past twenty-four hours. There had been highs and lows. I had been thankful that I had been able to spend some time with Heather again.

That being said, it didn't change the fact that anxiety crept in when I thought about the fact that Drew and I hadn't spoken civilly in a while.

Usually I was a fairly easy-going person but this whole situation made me feel anxious. That wasn't the only thing on my mind, either, of course. I couldn't help but think about the rumours that were beginning to spread about Heather and I. I guessed that was partly because this was all new to me. Nobody knew that I was bisexual apart from Heather and Riley and Abbie. I wasn't sure whether I was exactly ready to let everyone else know. I guessed that part of that was because this whole thing with Heather had always been something so special to me. I cared about her so much. I liked her so much. I didn't feel comfortable in broadcasting who I was to the world and I knew that Heather wouldn't want to, either. Nevertheless, I trusted that the two of us would figure something out. We always did.