Yeah (Lie)

"Yeah..."

The simple word that came form your mouth seemed to mollify the person in front of you but only served to make you feel the complete opposite. You stood there and watched as he turned his head away to dab at the tears from his eyes and to avoid the need to fix his makeup, all things that were once amusing and completely foreign and alien to you now, as a young 18 year-old man, standing and watching this unfold in front of you. Your body didn't know what to feel, exactly.

Your mind, however, had no problem. _Friend...friend..._you weren't sure what the word even meant to you. Does a friend string you along, teasing and tempting you, only to cut you off and leave you hanging with some of the worst blue ball feeling? Then, on top of that abandonment that was semi-sacred among men, does a friend then expect you to fall in line and forgive, just because they said "soz"? Didn't that make you something like a little puppy? What were you, a person or a dog? There was once a time you knew where you stood with Randall and he with you. Now, all the bro-stuff aside, you weren't even sure you were both standing on the same planet.

Was it possible to feel "ice cold"? That would be an apt description of your feelings toward your former best friend, especially since now he had come clean about his interest in being friends with George Hanson, though you knew how much further than "friends" was in regards to the teacher. You supposed that the new life Randall was thrown into had finally settled into him and he had begun to accept it. You two weren't on the same wavelength anymore, there was no more late night gaming sessions that could happen without the thought of him doing something with Mr. Hansen...or anyone else that Randall's body might fancy. Hell, you had fallen for it too earlier.

"Well...I better get going, don't want Mr. Johannsen to decide I'm his bitch of the week. Hate to think what a 4 page report on oxidation numbers would look like," you tried joking, though the tone in your voice made it sound a bit more sarcastically pointed than you would've liked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't wish John on anyone like that..." Randall laughed a bit, having completely missed the old joke that the two of you used to share, though you hadn't missed that he had referred to the man as 'John'. "Here, let me give you this..." He wrote out a note and then handed it to you with a smile. "It'll be better, believe me."

You nodded your thanks and after turning and moving past a few curious students coming into the room, you made your way down towards your next class, still unable to shake off the cold bitterness creeping into you. Randall had made his choice after all, everyone could do that and should do that, you mused as you entered the Chem room and handed the note to Mr. Johannsen. There was a table where the two of you used to sit together but since the accident, it had been left empty. The man looked at the row of tables before he spotted an empty seat. "Why don't you sit with Ms. Hollingsworth?"

You looked down at Jennifer Hollingsworth, the girl you and Randall often joked about having 'fled the Connor trap' though you had no idea really what that meant. The two of you had known each other even longer than you had known Allison (and that had been a long time!) She just smiled and acted at ease with you, something no one else throughout all the grades of school had accomplished, so it was quite a shock to see you hook up with Allison instead of her. Jennifer had been more than happy to be your best female friend/wingwoman in that endeavor but you had your other ideas, some that Tabitha had shared with you during a comparison shooting the shit session one night. She swore that you were better suited with Jennifer than Allison.

"Hey Tim!" she called out as you approached, smiling widely at you and instantly causing more than a few puzzled, and lingering glares, from other guys around you. You just returned the smile and sat down next to her. "Listen...I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about Randall. I know it's been awhile but I can see you're still bothered by it."

_If you only knew..._you thought but thanked her and then, with a wink, you placed your hand on hers and gave it a squeeze. The slight gasp and happy stare at you told you enough. Randall could make his choice.

So could you...