It was the best of weekends, it was the worst of weekends.

After the bell for first recess went off, I approached my friends without hesitation. They put away their books and stood up.

“Shall we?” Grace asked.

“Oh, um… I have to go to the restroom first,” I said. “I’ll meet you there?”

“Sure.”

We parted ways at the stairs. The girls went down while I made my way to the restroom. Just a quick pee, wash my hands and go meet them. I didn’t expect to run into Thomas washing his face at the sink.

“Thomas. Good morning,” I greeted.

He turned to see me with shock on his face. There were bags under his eyes. He looked tired. “Ah. Oliver. Good morning.” He greeted me with a smile. A **** smile. I managed to tell.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Did you have a bad night?”

“It’s…” he was about to dismiss it with a laugh, but something cracked. He bit his lip and closed his eyes. Something bad had happened. “Oliver? Can we talk?”

“Of course.” I didn’t hesitate. I took my phone and sent a message to Grace, telling her something came up with Thomas and that I wouldn’t go to the old music room this recess. I hoped they didn’t mind, but… this looked serious.

I did my business while Thomas finished washing his face. We couldn’t go to the usual place since the girls would probably be there, and Thomas definitely wanted to talk alone.

We went up the stairs to the roof. The door to it was locked, so no one came around here except to talk things in private, just like we were doing. We sat down at the steps, and I waited for him to tell me what had happened.

“Had a good weekend?” he asked me.

Why? Why ask me that? We’re not here to talk about me! Still, I nodded. “It was… incredible.”

He chuckled. “I’m glad. I mean it.”

“Thomas. What happened?”

“Nothing serious. Only… Well, no sugarcoating it. I got dumped,” he said with a weak laugh.

“W-What!? L-Lyla broke up with you?”

Thomas nodded. “We got together at my place yesterday. I invited her to spend time together, but she… she broke up with me.” He tried his best to keep his voice casual and easygoing, but it was starting to crack.

“B-But why? You two seemed like such a happy couple.”

“I thought so too,” he said with a weak smile. “But it seems sex is more important than I thought.”

Oh.

“You remember what I told you, right? Well, she said that if our… compatibility was that bad, then it was better that I looked for someone else to be with.”

I grimaced. “Are you serious?”

Thomas nodded again. “I couldn’t sleep last night. My head was all over the place.” He rubbed his temple. “The more I thought about it, the more it hurt, but it also started to make more sense. Lyla wouldn’t admit it, but… now I know she didn’t like me in the way I liked her.”

“What? How so?”

“She’s cute, smart, funny, easy to talk to… I liked her because she was fun to be with. I asked her out six months ago, and she said yes. I guess I was too caught up in my own happiness to realize that Lyla only said yes because I’m popular.”

“Oh no…”

“Yeah…” Thomas chuckled humorlessly. “I’m the guy who’s friends with everyone, captain of the basketball club, tall, good looking,” Well, at least he knew those things, “She only said yes because fucking Thomas Pierce asked her out.” He was starting to sound more and more frustrated. “When she realized we barely had anything in common and that she didn’t like having sex with me…!” He let out a loud groan, then sighed to calm himself down. “Maybe I’m not being fair, maybe I’m making dumb assumptions… I don’t even know if she really tried to make things work between us or just didn’t dare to break up with me sooner.”

“...Would you feel better if you knew?”

“I don’t think so,” he laughed weakly. “Any answer would probably make me more frustrated. All I know for sure is that Lyla didn’t like me the same as I liked her.”

…Dammit. What the fuck do you say at times like these? How do you help a friend who’s going through a rough time? While I was having the weekend of my life, Thomas was going through this. I didn’t feel like the most adequate person to help. Thomas had a hundred more friends. Surely someone else could help him better, right?

…

But that didn’t feel right, either. I didn’t dare to turn my back on him, especially when he had been giving me advice with all this weird stuff happening with the girls. But what could I even do?

…

Well, if there’s something I know, is that when something bothers me, I rather be thinking about literally anything else.

“Hey, Thomas?”

“Hm?”

“Want to do something after school?” I offered.

I saw his lips curl into a small, genuine smile. “You know what? Yeah. I don’t have practice today. What do you have in mind?”

“...” Shit. I didn’t have anything in mind. What could we do to keep his mind off his ex? “...Want to play basketball at the park?”

There were a few half-courts there. It was the first thing that came to mind, since my mind kept associating Thomas and basketball.

That got a soft laugh out of him. “Do you even know how to play?”

“I know the rules. I haven’t played in years, but I’m guessing the captain of the team can coach me a bit?”

“Alright, alright. That sounds like a good time. And who knows? Maybe you’ll end up joining the team.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

We laughed together. I wasn’t as naive as to believe that Thomas had suddenly forgotten all about his ex, but this was the least I could do, the only thing I could think of doing.

“Sorry, Oliver,” Thomas suddenly said, head down and arms resting on his legs.

“Hm? Why?”

“For throwing all this at you all of a sudden. I needed to get it off my chest.”

“I have ears at the very least,” I told him. “I can listen. If you want to complain more, I’m here. If you need to get your mind off things, we can do something else. If you prefer to be alone, say it. Just… tell me if there’s any way I can help, alright?”

“...Thanks, Oliver. Really.”