Eddie leaned on the doorframe of Dana's room and lightly knocked on the wide open door. "What are you doing?" He asked after receiving no response from her. Dana shrugged, and Eddie walked over to her. Dana was sitting at her desk, blankly staring at the screen of her laptop, scrolling up and down through an empty word document.

"I'm just bored." Dana finally spoke up. She broke her gaze with the computer and glanced at Eddie who was squatting next to her.

"Bored?" Eddie raised an eyebrow at her. "Since when do you get bored?" Eddie smiled, somewhat mocking her. Dana just shrugged again and slightly shook her head. "Did you try math?"

Math was brutal for most people. Teenagers everywhere complained about it like it was a form of torture. Not Dana, though. Dana was a math nerd. It was always her best subject, and it was always something that just made sense to her. When the rest of the world went crazy, Dana had math. And if she was to ever get bored, Dana would do something math related. The activity usually consisted of math puzzles or extra homework problems from school.

Dana reached into her desk and tossed a Sudoku book to Eddie. He flipped through the pages, noticing that every puzzle had been solved. "That occupied me for a little over an hour." Dana pointed out.

"Okay well," Eddie sat the book on Dana's desk and stood up, "in case you were too consumed in your boredom to notice, the doorbell rang. It's for you."

Dana groaned, pushing herself out of her chair. "Doesn't anyone use a phone anymore? It's the twenty-first century - we're supposed to avoid as much contact with each other as possible. That's what the internet is for!" Eddie laughed at her as she disappeared around the corner.

Dana ran downstairs and stopped once she saw who was standing at the bottom of them. Dana sighed and sat down on the stairs. She groaned again and planted her face into hands. "I'm sorry. I completely forgot!" Dana groaned again at her own mistake and looked at the girl in front of her who was somehow still smiling.

"It's okay," Marissa's smile forced a small grin to appear on Dana's face; she couldn't help it.

"No, it's not." Dana pulled herself up and walked the rest of the way down the stairs to meet Marissa. "We were supposed to work on our project today. I'm sorry. I guess I'm just feeling a bit out of it lately."

"No need to apologize. I get it. We all have our good days and our bad days."

"Even you?" Dana's eyebrow furrowed. "You're always smiling, and in a good mood. How?"

Marissa shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I just don't have anything negative to worry about."

"I'm jealous," Dana admitted aloud.

Being bored was a rarity for Dana Thomas. Being 'out of it' was even rarer. Boredom with Dana was boredom with any other normal teenager: just an excuse. It wasn't that she had nothing to do, it was that nothing appealed to her. Dana wasn't bored. She was too busy letting her thoughts get to her to focus on anything else.

Until Marissa showed up.

Marissa was exactly what Dana needed. She was a distraction. A distraction is the best thing that can happen to the teenage excuse of boredom. It doesn't have to be permanent, and it doesn't have to even last that long. It just has to do its job and preoccupy the boredom until life can figure out how to get in the way and fight off all the boredom.

And that's exactly what Marissa did.

Marissa convinced Dana to hang out for the rest of the day. And along the way, somewhere between the zoo and go karting or maybe just before the bet on who could hit the most trees at the driving range, Marissa managed to distract Dana. It wasn't until after Dana had dropped Marissa off and was already on her way home when her boredom began to catch up with her again.

Dana pulled into her driveway just as Jesse's car sped off from Katie's. Dana didn't hesitate to escape inside her home. Katie watched Dana disappear, and made her way into her own house. Katie had been consumed by her own boredom earlier that day, and decided to call Jesse. In fact, Katie's boredom had been consuming her since the last time she and Dana spoke. Katie had experienced her own share of mindlessly switching from channel to channel, never finding a show or movie that could interest her for more than seven minutes before her boredom could catch up again.

Sarah Dessen once wrote "silence is so freaking loud."

Katie didn't know about Dana, but to her, that was one hundred percent accurate.

Any sane person would avoid someone after they fight and decide to give up on each other. That was something impossible for Katie. When you live in a town small enough for you to know everyone in your school, avoiding someone was unheard of. Katie could pretend all she wanted that Dana wasn't there. She could pretend that they didn't have half of their classes together, that their lockers weren't right next to one another, or that they didn't have the same group of friends. Katie could pretend all she wanted to but, at the end of the day, they did.

They did have half of their classes together. Their lockers were right next to each other's. They did have the same group of friends. And above all of that, Katie did feel something.

She didn't know if what she felt was good or bad. She didn't know if what she felt was just lust or truly longing. All Katie knew is that Dana had been right. Having someone make themselves a part of your life, and then having them change their mind and walk away hurt.

But it didn't matter.

It didn't matter what Katie felt. It didn't matter what she pretended. It didn't even matter that Dana had been right.

What matters it that whether you like it or not - somehow, someday, someway, eventually - something will happen in your life and no matter what you do to stop it or distract yourself, the boredom will catch up.

The boredom always catches up.

☼ ☼ ☼

Ashley was rambling through the phone, but Katie couldn't hear her. She had zoned out minutes ago. Katie heard a car door slam and made her way to the window. She watched Dana step out of her car with Marissa and Zach following her lead. "Katie?" Ashley's voice snapped Katie back into focus.

"Sorry, Ashley. I'm just a little out of it." Katie's voice was dull and monotone, a hint to Ashley that something was wrong.

"What's on your mind?"

"Nothing," Katie lied. "I'm fine."

"I'm coming over." Ashley had been Katie's best friend since they were in diapers. Ashley always knew when Katie was lying. She hung up on Katie and was at her house in less than ten minutes. Katie was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling when Ashley arrived. Ashley sat in the chair at Katie's desk in silence for a moment. "So are you going to say something or do I have to do all the talking?" Ashley spoke up. "I mean what is it with my friends and making me pull teeth to get them to talk to me?"

"When you look at Mason," Katie finally spoke up, "what do you feel?"

Ashley was taken aback by Katie's question. "I don't know. I never feel just one thing." Ashley could tell her answer wasn't what Katie wanted to hear. "When I look at him," Ashley attempted to explain her feelings, "I can't help but smile." She smiled just thinking about Mason. "Even when he pisses me off and I try my best to be mad at him, he looks at me and I smile. Because no matter how crazy he makes me, he's still Mason and he still loves me as much as I love him." Katie didn't respond. "Why?" Ashley asked after Katie's silence.

"What if Mason wasn't the guy who made you feel like that? What if you were with him and he loved you but he wasn't your reason to smile?"

"We're not talking about me and Mason, are we?" Katie shook her head. Ashley moved from the desk chair to sit next to Katie who was still lying down on the bed. "If Jesse doesn't make you happy then what's the point? If someone else is on your mind, then why not be with them?"

"Because I messed up." Katie heard herself admit it out loud. "I didn't realize how great they were until I let them walk away."

"So tell her."

"What?" Katie sat up abruptly, surprised by Ashley's response.

"Tell Dana you were wrong." Ashley's advice nonchalantly flowed out of her mouth.

"How did you-"

"Katie, you're my best friend. I've known you didn't like guys since eighth grade. And I've known you wanted to be with Dana for a while now."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Katie didn't know why but that was the only question she had for Ashley.

"You didn't even know. I wasn't about to accuse you of anything before you admitted it. You weren't ready to tell me so I wasn't ready to ask." Ashley explained herself with a smile.

Katie flew across the bed and smothered her best friend in a hug. Nothing was said. Katie just hugged Ashley and she felt a tear of happiness roll down her cheek. "Thank you." Katie finally spoke through a choked voice. "Thank you for being my best friend. Because I clearly don't deserve it."

Ashley pulled away from the hug and asked Katie about what had happened while wiping the tear from Katie's cheek. Katie explained everything from the moment that she first met Dana to avoiding her for the past three weeks. Ashley listened to her friend finally confiding in her and smiled. After Katie explained herself, Ashley gave her a confused look.

"You're way more miserable than you realize, you know that?" Katie didn't understand what Ashley meant. "And wait, you knew about Grace and Jesse way before I did." Ashley realized that Katie had accused Jesse of cheating the day they got back from the cruise and the two of them broke up. She pointed out to Katie that she met Dana that same night and forgave him right away. Ashley also pointed out that Jesse and Katie got into another huge fight the day that Dana and Grace spent the night, and Katie forgave him the day after she had confronted Dana.

"Oh my god, I just solved the mystery that is you!" Ashley proudly proclaimed. "You keep pushing Jesse away, but as soon as he's far enough away for something to happen with Dana, you pull him back because you're afraid of being with Dana!" Ashley smiled at herself, proud of her discovery. "Oh my god, you love her!"

"No I don't!" Katie objected.

"Yes you do!" Ashley's smile continued to grow. "You're blushing just thinking about it! I'd hate to break it to you, babe but I'm going to do it anyway. You, Katie Torres, are in love with Dana Thomas."

"I am not," Katie objected again. "We kissed like twice, and other than that, nothing has happened between us."

"Oh my god, in our science class we sit in the back left corner of the room and she sits in the front center of the room. You stare at her all through that class, don't you?"

"Not all through the class."

"It all makes sense now." Ashley couldn't help but laugh and poke fun at Katie. She continued to tease her every chance she got for the next few days. Katie was slightly annoyed by it, but at the same time, Ashley's teasing could make her smile.

Katie found Dana Monday morning and ran up to her. Marissa had hugged Dana goodbye when Katie caught up. Katie stood in the hallway staring when Dana noticed her. "Hey." Dana walked up to Katie, hoping she'd respond.

"Do you like her?" Katie blurted out, referring to Marissa.

"What?" Dana didn't enjoy the fact that Katie's first words to her in weeks were accusing her of liking someone else.

"Do you like Marissa?" Katie repeated.

"No. Maybe. I don't know. Why does it matter?" Dana asked, realizing she didn't need to answer Katie's question. "You have no right to care about who I may or may not be attracted to. You gave that right up when you called Jesse three weeks ago and then told me that you didn't want to be with me." Katie felt her eyes drop. "You know," Dana continued, "when I saw you standing there I thought, 'hey, it's been a few weeks. Maybe she's ready to finally talk to me and tell me what the hell is going on.' I guess I was wrong." Dana didn't mean to sound so bitter - it just slipped out that way.

Katie had continued to stay out of Dana's way for the next couple of days.

During lunch on Wednesday, Ashley had promised Katie to help her with a research project for one of their classes. As Katie made her way into the library to meet Ashley, she spotted Ashley sitting beside Dana laughing quietly. Katie shyly took a seat on the other side of Ashley, pulling her dark hair behind her ear. Dana acknowledged Katie's presence, but excused herself so she wouldn't be a distraction.

Marissa walked into the library as if on cue. Dana saw Marissa walk by and swiftly twisted her chair around and got up to examine the same bookshelf Marissa was heading towards. Katie looked up and noticed Dana and Marissa talking and attempting not to laugh. Katie rolled her eyes and scoffed then directed her attention back to her computer. Ashley noticed Katie's reaction and rolled her chair closer to her. "You okay?" Ashley sent her a smile.

"I'm fine," Katie lied - something she was used to doing by now.

"Katie," Ashley hesitated, "Dana and you-"

"I know," Katie cut Ashley off. "I have no right to care. I've already gotten this lecture from Dana."

"Wait," Ashley's smile began to fade, "there's one thing I don't get." Katie looked at Ashley, waiting for further explanation. "You want her, right?"

Katie looked up at Dana and sighed. "Yes."

"So be with her."

Katie sighed again. "It's more complicated than that, Ashley."

"It doesn't have to be."