Tears streamed down my face as I left Alex alone in the school, hating her for letting me believe things could stay the way they were. I needed to find Dallas. He and I had already made plans to hang out after I was done school, so I knew where he would be. I arrived at the park in record time to find that Dallas was the only one there. He stood by the tree with the bench sitting under it, smoking a cigarette as usual. Though his facial expression didn't change much, I could see traces of concern in his eyes when he saw the state I was in. "What's the matter with you?" he asked.

All I could say in response was, "Why didn't you tell me?"

At once, Dallas knew what was wrong. "So Alex finally told you, huh?"

"Did you know she was going to wait this long?" I asked, trying not to sound demanding and mostly failing.

"Nope. She didn't even tell me until a couple days ago. The rest of the boys and Jessie have known for awhile, though."

I still couldn't believe it. Rather than tell everyone at once and get it over with, she had to make sure both Dallas and I were the last to know. "What the hell was she so afraid of that she couldn't tell me when she told them?" I had made my way over to the bench by this point, sitting down and burying my head in my hands. Dallas moved to sit next to me, but he seemed like he didn't know what to say.

Finally, he said, "She told me it was 'cause she wanted to let us enjoy the time we had left together instead of worrying about the end of it."

I gave a hollow laugh. "Yeah, she said something like that to me before I left. But if we knew when everyone else did, wouldn't that given us more time to process everything? I mean..."

"Hey, I'm no more thrilled with any of this than you are, doll," Dallas interjected, "but maybe we should try and do what she said. Better than bein' miserable the entire time, right?"

I gave a shuddering sigh, trying to wipe away my tears even as they kept coming. "You're not wrong, Dal, I just...I can't not be upset, y'know? And...I know this is probably the worst possible time to be saying this, but I think I've fallen in love with you. And now, to have that be taken away so soon...it's a lot."

"Not saying it isn't."

"I know."

"I love you too, y'know."

I gave a weak smile. Hearing that made me feel a little bit better; his words felt to me like a ray of light within a sea of darkness.

Dallas Winston was in love with me.

And I supposed I could understand where Alex had been coming from, and she and Dallas were both right, but that didn't stop me from being angry with her. Still, a part of me knew even then that I would forgive her at some point. She was one of my best friends, after all.

But it would take time.

Later that evening, I found myself curled up on my bed listening to music through my headphones, ignoring the persistent buzzing of my phone. No doubt it was one of my friends texting or even calling me – I had the phone on vibrate, so I couldn't be sure which.

I was thankful I didn't have homework tonight, since I probably wouldn't even be able to focus on it in this state. The only thing I could do was wrap myself in a cocoon of blankets, curl into a ball and try to drift off to sleep.