3:07 PM

"There you are!" Lizzy shouted throwing her hand up into the air. She approached me, pushing her glasses up. "Where were you?"

I slowly came to a stop in front of Lizzy. While she was still my best friend, I definitely had questions. She had never said anything about hurting Jordan to me. Students passed around us in the hall, and I fixed my gaze on them all. When I didn't respond immediately, Lizzy placed a hand on my arm, eyebrows scrunched up together in concern.

"Hey, is something wrong?"

I look at her and sigh. I needed to give her a chance to explain herself. Maybe she had some sort of reason why she never told me.

"I've had a long day." I say, and I drag her to my locker. As I crouch down to open it, I add, "We need to talk."

Lizzy shuffles slightly. "Okay I guess?"

I grab my notebooks and binders, then slam the door shut and turn to Lizzy, who looks really confused.

"What do we need to talk about?" she asks, "Is this about another fanfic you're writing or something?" I shake my head, but smile a little as the two of us start walking down the stairs, doing our usual routine of going to the local ice cream place, Federico's, after school.

"No, I'm still working on the Chipotle story. Mia is begging for me to start writing the next chapter," I chuckle, thinking to my other friend Mia who I had met at Trinity. "But I have a question about what really happened between you and..." I look around at the stairwell, making sure no one we knew was within earshot, "Jordan."I whisper. Immediaely, Lizzy stiffens and she pauses midstep before continuing down the staircase and opening the door for me.

"Why?" she asks coolly. I turn to her as she follows me out the door and we are finally out in open sunlight.

"I was stuck in an elevator for like," I count it out on my fingers, "Four hours."

"Wait what?" Lizzy blurted out, turning to me shocked.

"Yeah."

"Oh god, wow. That must have been really scary and stressful." Lizzy responded. "I'm gonna pay for your ice cream today."

I start to protest, but she puts up a hand to silence me.

"It'll make me feel like a decent person, and besides," she teases, "I put others' happiness before my own." I roll my eyes at her and kick at some leaves on the pavement as we walk toward's Federico's. "But still, how exactly does that relate to Jordan?"

I stare at my feet in silence for a few moments.

"I was stuck in there with him." I say, and Lizzy goes dead silent. All that you could hear was the crunch of the autumn leaves under our shoes.

"For four hours," she finally said, and I sigh.

"Yeah..."

"And I'm guessing you two talked." I nodded. We approached Federico's, opening the door towards the mildly crowded place. We grabbed a small table in the back. Lizzy pinched the bridge of her nose. "What exactly happened?"

"Oh, um...well..."Lizzy looks at me expectantly, tilting her head to the side. When I don't make any effort to finish my statement she sighs.

"Look, I am going to buy us some ice cream," and I open my mouth to protest but she holds up a finger. "No, no, no, no. This doesn't change the fact that I'm getting you ice cream ok? And by the time I come back, you better be ready to tell me exactly what happened." And with that, she walks towards the end of the line.

My mind races, trying to figure out what exactly I was going to say to her. Because while I knew I could trust her, I didn't know how she would take the sort of bond that had developed in the span of...oh god, I had become friends with Jordan in the course of only four hours! It seemed as if it had been longer. Certainly four hours was not enough time to know each other well enough to get into a situation where we had nearly...ugh.

I gaze at Lizzy who is looking at her phone, eyebrows scrunched up again, but now she's also biting her thumb. Which meant something was going on. I watched as she tapped away on her phone screen before looking up and catching me watching her. There was something different in her expression that I couldn't quite place, and she pressed something on her phone before placing it back in her pocket. She mouthed to me from across the room. You better have an explanation for me. I look at her confused when I feel a buzz in my jacket pocket.

I reach for my phone, which was currently at 23%, and saw a message from an unknown number. I respond immediately. Somehow I felt this was related to whatever Lizzy had been doing on her phone.

Unknown Number: Hey.

                Me: Um, who is this?

Unkown Number: It's Jordan.

I'm shocked for a few moments, staring at the open conversation on my phone. Then I go and add the number to my contacts.

Immature Ass: Hello?

                Me: Oh, um hi?
                Me: How'd you get my number
Imature Ass: ...           
Imature Ass: I asked Lizzy.

Immediately I groan placing my phone downwards. That's why she looked at me like that. Oh gods, what was I going to say. I glanced over at her as she grabbed two cones of ice cream from the cashier across the counter. Quickly I texted a response to Jordan.

                Me: Whatever this is about, text me later.

A couple seconds later he shoots back a response.

Immature Ass: Ok

I have just enough time to slip my phone into my pocket when Lizzy slides into seat across from me, handing me the ice cream cone.

"Thanks," I mumble avoiding her gaze. She gets comfortable in her chair, holding up her vanilla ice cream.

"Well?" she asks expectantly, licking her ice cream. "Are you going to tell me what happened first, or should I just ask why my ex asked for your number?" Lizzy asks casually, and I sigh finally giving in.

"Fine..." I mumble before I launch into the entire story. Well, nearly the entire story. I just sort of left out the part of when the...thing almost happened. By the time I finished telling the, "entire" story, I had finished all two scoops of my chocolate ice cream. Lizzy studied me from across the table, crumpled napkin left forgotten.

"Huh..." she mumbles, placing her chin on top of her hand. "I just," she began, her gaze drifting off, "I can't believe he told you about all of that." I raise an eyebrow at her, shooting her a hard look.

"You can't believe that he told me?" I scoff, incredulous. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Her gaze slowly shifted until her eyes met mine, completely filled with emotion I had only ever seen her wear once before. The very day Jordan had broken up with her. Immediately my expression softened.

"I had really liked him..." she mumbled softly. I let my napkin that I had been clasping in my hand fall to the ground as I get up from my chair and go to her side, placing my hand gently on her shoulder.
"He was my best friend, and I really liked him."

"Oh, Lizzy, it's ok." I sigh, rubbing her shoulder. Her hand taps the notes to Für Elise quickly on the table, and I place my other hand on her arm. "What actually happened between you two?" I ask quietly.

"We...we just sort of ended. The two of us had had discussions before that point, but they always ended up with him asking for me to forget he even said anything in the first place. And so I did." Lizzy scoffs, turning her head to the side. "I was so stupid. I should've done something, I should've but I did nothing. I...I thought we were fine. Then he went and ended it...and I became a mess."

I didn't quite know what to say to her after that. I just stood there rubbing her shoulder doing my best to comfort her. I squeezed her arm, and I bit my lip as soon as I saw her eyes clouding over.

"I loved him catastrophically. And when it was over it destroyed me,"she mumbled. "And I tried coping the best I could. I tried to pretend that nothing had happened. And when that didn't work, I tried convincing myself that I hadn't been the reason for the end."

"Oh gods, Lizzy..." I mumbled, before giving her a bear hug. "That's why you didn't tell me...you were trying to cope." I feel her nod, before she pries me off of her.

"Stop feeling sorry for me Gels, I got over this a long time ago," she reassures me. "And besides," she continues, tilting her head and letting out a small smile,"I'd like to know why he asked for your number." I cast my eyes downward.

"Oh...I, uh, don't really know." I mumble, fixing my gaze on the table. Lizzy scoffs.

"Please. Something happened in that elevator didn't it?"

    "Um, no?"

"Oh my god, something did happen didn't it? Tell me!" she gasps, slipping back into her usual chirpy self. I look at her, and while she seemed sincere enough, there was a certain glimmer in her eyes that I wasn't quite too sure of.

"Uhh..."

"C'mon, just tell me!"

"Oh, fine!" I give in, "Jordan and I sort of bonded in the elevator!" Lizzy narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean bonded?"

"I mean," I begin, "I guess we're...friends?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Friends? You and Jordan?"

    "Yeah, I guess."

"Is that all that happened?" Lizzy asks, crossing her arms.

    "Actually, uh, we kinda..." Lizzy leans in closer to me, arms still close.

"Kinda what?"

    "We almost..." I trailed off, not being able to bring myself to say it. I glanced up at Lizzy. She sucks in a breath, eyes wide with realization as she leans back in her chair.

"You and him. You almost..." I nod my head once. " You almost had your first...oh gods Gels," Lizzy gasps, "With him of all people."

"I don't know ok!" I confessed, placing my hands in front of my face. "It was a spur of the moment thing, I don't know what happened. One moment we were talking about Ajax, then the next he was hugging me-"

"He hugged you?!" she asks, incredulous. "He fricking hugged you, then nearly kissed you?!" I look to the other people in the shop, uncomfortable with the fact she was saying these things out loud in a public place.

"Can you keep it down!" I hissed, and she immediately looks embarrassed.

"Sorry, I just...wow. It only took four hours for you to become friends. Four hours, and then that almost happened. You didn't even talk to each other before today for gods sakes!" She points out, throwing her hands up in the air. I nod.

"Yeah..."

"You know, in the eight months that we dated, we had never..." I turned to her, wide eyed, "We had never kissed."

"Really?"

"Yeah, we were mostly...just really like we were already. Best friends, but more."

"Oh," I say, looking downwards.

"Do you like him?" She finally asks. "I mean, I can understand if it's the spur of the moment, but I just...I want to know if you like him."

I look at her as she looks at me intently. I sigh, biting my lip.

"I...I don't know," I confess. Lizzy studies me, seemingly searching for something before she nods her head and leans back.

"Ok."

"Ok?" I ask, confused.

"Ok,"she repeated, nodding her head.

"Ok, what?"

"Just ok."

"What?"

"You're confused about your emotions and that's ok. You need some time to think about it," she says as she gets up from her chair and picks up her bag.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Home," she calls over her shoulder, and I trail after her out the door, quickly slinging my own book bag over my arm. I scrunch my eyebrows up in confusion.

"But we just got here?" I say, and she pauses midstride, before turning to me.

"Have you checked the time lately Gels?" she asks, crossing her arms. I shake my head, and start pulling my sleeve off of my left wrist. I lift it up and gasp when I see the time.

"4:45! Fudge I didn't realize it was so late!" Lizzy laughed at me, walking towards the train station.

"See you tomorrow, Angelica." I give a small wave at her retreating figure before I start running towards the direction of the bus stop. "Angelica!"
Lizzy calls, and I stop to turn back to her. From a block away, she shouts at me. "Tell me what Jordan texts you, ok?"

Oh. I had completely forgotten that I had promised to text him later! I give her a thumbs up before I turn away and start making my way to the bus stop once more. As I walk, I pull out my phone from my pocket and send a message to Jordan. Within seconds, he responds.

                Me: Hey, um, I'll text you when I'm free ok.

Immature Ass: Ok, but we really need to talk.

                Me: Why

Immature Ass: We just do.

                Me: That isn't an answer.

Immature Ass: Whatever, just text me by 11:30 ok.

I roll my eyes and put my phone away, not bothering to respond to him. As I wait for the bus to arrive, I think to myself.

What the hell was going on between me and Jordan?

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Ok this chapter got pretty lengthy, but I wanted to put some stuff out before school started again. Anyways the picture above is the closest I can find for an interpretation of Lizzy. Anything else looked too much like Angelica.

So hope you like it! Remember to read, vote, and comment!

-winter millennium💙