Life

CHAPTER II
AMBER
The second day of Summer School for Smart Kids went by without incident from Ben, and today was going the same way. Good? Bad? I didn't know. I knew that I was thinking as much about his silence as I was his word, and that was unhealthy. We were about to leave; the teacher would dismiss us any minute, now. As I shut my computer down, Ms. Underhill called out that we could go. I hung back a minute to wait for everyone else: Sarah, Nicki, Joe, Caleb, Ben, Sean, and Katie. As we gathered, we began chatting about Joe's demented drawings and what we were going to do when we got home. Still no comment from Ben. Then, as I left for the front of the school, while everyone else angled for the back, Ben said, "Bye, John-lover." I decided to blow it off — I didn't want him to know what an effect that had on me. He had just made three things obvious; 1) "Dropping hints" is over, blatancy is in, 2) There would be more conversations about this tomorrow, and 3) John trusts him, therefore I should. Then he blew me away, when he shouted, "John doesn't care about you." Reeling, I stumbled to the front of the school, not quite knowing how to react.
~~~~~
I ignored the conversation on the way home and let my mind race of it's own accord. Could that be true? Did John really not care about me? He had to care about me as his friend... unless I shattered our friendship with that ugly little note. But what if he was just testing me? On the note I put that I didn't care what anybody else thought anymore. So he could have been trying to see if I was telling the truth, because my candor on that would indicate how honest I was during the rest of the note. Still dazed, and coming to no conclusions I got out of the car and walked inside, not believing we were home already.
~~~~~
Quickly, I tapped out an e-mail to my best friend and confidant, Kathleen. I detailed all that had happened the past couple of days, and sent the e-mail. Later that night, I checked my mail and she had replied.
So ask Ben. Obviously, if John trusts him enough to tell him that means anything YOU do will be relayed back to him. Act natural. Ask questions. Question their authority over you; ask him why he's asking.

I sighed. Right. And that would be so easy.