Jamia and I ran into each other Thursday morning in the atrium. I was heading to the prepaid cafeteria for some low-grade food while she was going to Einstein's. So when she offered to buy me breakfast from there, I found it really to choose scrambled eggs made from powder and fake turkey bacon over a freshly made egg, bacon and turkey sandwich on any bagel I wanted.

"I'm so glad we could have some time to hang out," she said. "I haven't seen you since Friday when I was a total dork and just fell asleep right into movie night."

I won't lie, I was pretty focused on my sandwich. It was nice knowing I wasn't eating something that would give me an upset stomach in forty-five minutes.

"How have you been?" She asked.

"Good," I said. "I've been mostly working on a project the last day and a half."

"Anything interesting?" She asked.

"No, just time consuming," I said.

"Have you, uh, seen Frank lately?" She asked.

"Monday," I said with a small shrug.

"So, you haven't been busy the past few days?" She asked and I shook my head. "Is there anything new with Andy, maybe?"

"No, I actually haven't heard from him since Tuesday night," I said. "I guess it's not uncommon though, he isn't always on his phone a lot if he's on a gaming binge. I figured that's what he was doing."

"Ya, I know people who will do that," she said. "But you're talking to him again?"

I looked at her before looking down. "You guys just don't get it, love sometimes looks different to other people outside of the relationship."

Jamia didn't say anything.

"How was your ball?" I asked.

"My what?" She asked.

"Your weird family reunion ball thing," I said. "The one we went dress shopping for."

"No, right, right," she mumbled. "Um, yeah, it hasn't happened yet, I just forgot about it with school work. Do you wanna come?"

"M-me?" I asked. "I don't know if I belong."

"Please, me and Frank get so bored, it would be nice having you be there," she said. "Plus, you get to wear a cute outfit."

"Um, I guess I would have to think about it," I said. "When is it?"

Jamia hesitated. "Saturday."

"Oh, that's soon," I said. "I don't know."

"Yeah, yeah, it's soon, I'm sorry," she said.

I finished up my sandwich and crumbled up the tinfoil it came in.

"What time are your classes today?" She asked.

"I only have one but my professor actually cancelled it," I said.

"That's good, I already had my one class. It's short but unfortunately very early," she said. "Did you wanna hang out?"

Andy doesn't want me talking to her at all, he's gonna get mad at me again.

"We can go off campus," she said as though she were reading my mind.

I checked my phone but didn't see any messages from Andy. If he hasn't gotten to me in a day, what are the chances he'll message me when I'm with Jamia for a few hours?

"Did you have anything planned?" I asked.

"Anything you have in mind?" She asked.

"Anything is fine," I said.

We went out to her car and drove closer to town where there were more things to do. We ended up just getting smoothies and sitting on the swing set at an empty park.

"How are things going with Frank?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "W-we're not dating. We aren't together or anything like that."

"I know," she said. "It's just...Frank doesn't have the easiest time with friends. I guess I just wanna know how he's doing."

"He's good, he's nice," I said.

She smiled, nodding her head.

"I'm already starting to plan his birthday party," she said. "Since his is on literally the most fun holiday ever, we always had these big parties and they were awesome."

"What holiday?" I asked.

"Halloween," she said. "And of course you're invited, we always like to have costume parties and it's basically just this really fun Halloween bash."

"Andy's frat usually has a party for Halloween that I go to," I said.

"Oh, okay, well let me know if the night opens up," she said.

I smiled and nodded, kicking the toe of my sneaker into the pale wood chips below me.

"I just want you to know that Frank really does care about you a lot," she said.

I tried to push down a smile as I blushed.

"Don't tell him I told you but I think you're actually pushing me out of my spot as his best friend," she said.

"No, of course I'm not," I said, my heart panging at the thought of ever making her feel bad.

"No, I-I was joking," she said. "But if you want to deal with him then that's fine by me, he's way too energetic and crazy."

I shrugged as I smiled. "I think he's pretty cool."

"That's because you didn't know him when he wet the bed," she said, making me laugh softly. "But he likes you and likes spending time with you."

"I don't know," I mumbled. "I feel like sometimes I'm a bit of a hassle with all my drama."

"You don't have drama, Andy likes to start drama," she corrected. "Frank is beyond nice, though. He'll help out a friend no matter what."

"That's true," I said. "He's a good guy."

"The best guy I know," she said. "Maybe if things were different then we would have actually fallen in love and gotten married like our moms dreamed."

"If things were different?" I asked.

"Frank likes guys," she said. "And me, I don't know. I wouldn't mind settling down but I don't think I really find it as a necessity for myself. I can be happy on my own making my way through life."

I smiled but really all I heard was that Frank likes guys. For some reason it was completely leaving my mind whether or not I actually knew that. Did he tell me and I forgot? Am I that bad of a friend?

Is there a part of mine and Frank's relationship that doesn't seem so platonic now that I know he's also attracted to men?

I know Andy always perpetuated the idea of me cheating on him with Frank but I don't know if the idea of him actually being gay came up or if he just said that because I'm bisexual and into guys. Was there truth to Andy's words and in the underlying reasoning for my actions, I actually did like him and was kind of cheating on him in a way in terms of feelings?

"Gee, are you okay?" She asked.

My lip quivered as I looked down.

"Did I say something?" She asked.

"I didn't know Frank was gay," i whispered. "I'm so terrible for not noticing. Or if he did say I just forgot I don't remember."

"You're not," she said. "Frank is open, yes, but doesn't outright let people know. His family is accepting but not exactly, they're okay with him being gay but don't want him making a fuss about it, they think it's embarrassing. He probably didn't even bring it up, if he did it was probably casual."

"W-was Andy right and I was actually flirting with him without even realizing?" I asked.

"You are nothing but faithful, Gee," she said.

I sniffled, setting my smoothie down on the ground.

"Maybe I should call Andy just to make sure everything is okay," I said.

I sent a few feet away and dialed Andy's number but it rang before automatically sending me to voicemail.

"Hey, Andy, I was just calling to make sure you were okay," I said. "Call me back and I'm sorry if I did anything wrong. I love you."

I hung up and looked over at Jamia as she texted someone on her phone. I took a deep breath and walked over, sitting back down in my swing.

"You know, maybe the ball can be fun this weekend," I said.

"Really? Oh, that'd be awesome," she said. "Did you wanna borrow one of my gowns?"

"I'll probably just wear my suit," I said. "If I'm gonna be around Frank's family I don't know if crossdressing would be the best idea."

"You can be whoever you want to be, Gee," she said.

"Thank you, Jamia, you're so sweet but I'm okay in a suit," I said. "It's probably good I broke my suit out again, it's probably getting dusty in my closet at home."

She smiled, nodding her head. Her phone started ringing and I saw the contact was Frank with a picture of him from when he was a kid.

"Sorry, let me take this for a second," she said.

She was the one to walk off this time as she answered. I tried not to pry but it was a force of habit to not pull out my phone in fear of being rude. I couldn't help but notice the whispered arguing. I looked down as she started to walk back over, phone still pressed against her ear.

"Okay, call my dad," she said. "Here, let me put you on speaker and you can say hi to Gerard."

She pressed a button and I could hear the quiet static from the other line.

"Hey, Gee, how's it going?" He asked.

I stared at the still image of the child on the screen as I fought in my head over what to say. For some reason my brain just decided to not say anything at all.

"Okay, I'll call you later, call my dad, don't forget," Jamia said. "Bye, Frank, leave us alone."

I heard Frank laugh before hanging up. I could feel my body relax a little as I looked around. What if someone was following us?

"Do you think you could take me back to campus?" I asked.

Jamia smiled and nodded and we drove back to my dorms. She gave me a hug, wishing me well before I went up to my room to try and get into contact with Andy again.