All day the next day, your friend had given you the cold shoulder. You had tried to greet her in the morning like you did every morning, but she didn’t even give you a glance. She changed her shoes and walked past you as if you weren’t even there. It made you really upset how she chose a boy over being friends with you. What ever happened to ‘chicks before ?’ Not that L.Joe was a or anything, but you thought she wouldn’t be this dramatic over the fact that he had confessed to you. You did turn him down, after all.  The main reason being that your friend liked him. Not knowing him well was only a minor reason. You could have given him a chance, but you didn’t. He seemed like a nice guy, maybe a guy you could see yourself liking, but you didn’t want to hurt your friend. Though, he did tell you that he wasn’t going to give up on you. And, the girl who talked to you about what she heard didn’t mention anything about that. She only said that she heard that L.Joe confessed to you, and that she was jealous, nothing more, nothing less.

            You couldn’t help but wonder why L.Joe even liked you in the first place. You didn’t really stand out from the crowd, you were average. There weren’t any special events that happened between the two of you that you could recall. So, why?

            Sighing, you set down your pencil on your desk and glanced over in the direction where your friend was sitting. She was talking to some other girls that sat near her. Her head turned and she quickly looked at you, giving you an icy glance before going back to the conversation she was having.

            Fed up with her behavior, you stood up from your seat and waltzed over to her. You said her name to get her attention. She didn’t even stop what she was doing to see what you wanted. The girls she was chatting with looked at you questioningly before giving your friend back their attention. You grabbed your friend’s forearm, tugging on it to get her to stand up. You said her name once more, “we need to talk.”

            “Fine.” She pulled her arm out of your grip.

            The two of you stepped out into the hallway. You stopped and faced her. She bored stared at her finger nails as if they were more interesting than you. You never knew that she could be such a . She never acted like this way before to you, or anyone else. Or, at least she never showed this side of her to you.

            “Are you seriously acting like this because of yesterday?”

            “Well, before yesterday I never knew that you were a liar. Why should I be friends with one? I mean, you could be lying to me about everything and I wouldn’t have known!” Her voice rose and some other students that were lingering in the hallway stopped to stare at you both.

            “What are you talking about? I’ve never lied to you.” Your friend just rolled her eyes at you.

            “You hid something from me, which is pretty much the same thing as lying. You could have told me that it was L.Joe who confessed to you.”

            “I didn’t want to hurt you! That’s why I didn’t say his name!”

            “It hurts more that you didn’t straight up tell me and I had to hear it from someone else. Aren’t friends supposed tell each other everything? I guess we weren’t really friends if you couldn’t tell me something like that.” With that, she her heel and went back into the classroom. You raised your hand to stop her, but then let it fall back down to your side. You got the message.

            You stared down at your shoes, feeling heartbroken that you had just lost your very important friend.

            Your head was hung as you headed towards the gates of the school to head home. You watched the ground beneath you as you walked. Someone’s shoes came into your vision next to yours as they walked with you. You didn’t bother to see who it was; you were still too bummed out about the incident from before.

            “You know…” You slightly jumped, not expecting someone say something to you. “You’re bound to bump into someone if you’re not looking where you’re going.”

            It was L.Joe who was walking with you and who had spoken up, you found out when you glanced up. You looked away from him and increased your walking pace. Honestly, you were a little angry at him. Basically, he was the reason why your friend and you had a fight and now are no longer friends.

            L.Joe matched your speed, and you tried to go faster, which just made him continue to walk the same speed as you. The two of you did this for a while, but soon enough, he just took a hold of your wrist to stop you. You gave him an annoyed expression and tried to wiggle out of his hold on you. He just held on tighter. L.Joe gave a small frown at the face you were making. The frown turned into a little smirk and he began to race down the sidewalk, dragging you along with him. You asked him what he was doing, but he didn’t reply.

            When he finally stopped, you were completely out of breath. L.Joe let go of your wrist. Your hands were on your knees as you leaned over to catch your breath. For a guy with short legs, he could run a distance.

            Once you were breathing normally, you noticed that you were standing in front of a small bakery shop. Why did he bring you here? You voiced the question, and just told you that his brother’s girlfriend worked there and he could get free cake.

            The two of you entered the shop. The bell that was attached to the door made a little ringing noise when the door was opened and when it closed.

            “What’s your favorite kind of cake?” L.Joe asked and you answered him with what it was. He told you to go sit down and he would get some cake for you both. Instead of turning around to leave, you found yourself making your way to one of the round tables, setting your backpack on the floor next to a chair and sitting in that chair.

            While waiting for L.Joe to join you, you glimpsed around the shop. It was cute and homely. You liked it. Maybe you would come back here sometime with your friend. She liked cute places like this. And then you remembered you two weren’t friends anymore. You stared down the chair that was empty that was across from you, trying not to cry. You had held in your tears during school, but you didn’t know how much longer you could hold them back.

            The once empty chair that held your gaze became occupied when L.Joe finally came to the table where you sat with two little plates of a slice of cake on each. He set the plate that had the cake you had said was your favorite down on the table in front of you. You blinked, the feeling of crying left you as you came back into reality.

            Muttering thanks to him, you picked up the fork that was resting on the side of plate and scooped up a piece of the cake. It was completely delicious, maybe even one of the best cakes you had ever tasted. You took another bite, placing your hand on your cheek in delight. You heard L.Joe let out a chuckle. Your attention went from the slice of cake to him. He was giving you a smile.

            “It’s good, huh?” L.Joe asked, taking a bite of his own cake. You nodded, agreeing that the cake was indeed good.

            You both continued to eat your treats in silence. L.Joe decided to break that silence when you were just about to finish your slice.

            “I’m sorry.”

            “For what?” You looked at him, resting your hand that held your fork on the table.

            “I saw the fight you had with your friend today and that I was the cause of it. For that, I’m sorry.”

            Oh, yeah, that’s right. Why the hell were you having cake with a person that had just made your friendship end with your now ex-friend? You were supposed to be angry with him, not be all calm and relaxed while he gave you free cake, which was still really delicious, by the way.

            “Thank you for the cake, but I need to leave now.” You got up onto your feet, grabbed your backpack and speed-walked to the door.

            “Hey, wait!” L.Joe followed after you. “Why are you leaving!?”

           “Why do you think!? Now stop following me!” For a second time, he grabbed onto your wrist to stop you.

            “I’m going to make it up to you, okay? I made you lose a friend, so I’ll take her place, only I’ll be closer. I’ll be your boyfriend. I told you that I’m not going to give up on you, didn’t I? I’m going to make you fall in love with me.”