It sat there… allll alone.

The cold metal glimmered in the dying rays of sunset like a perfectly glossed mirror. The light inside it glowed from my previous touch. The little screen shone in my face for a moment before blinking off to become dark. I stared at my face in it and… was that a zit? I bent in close to study my nose in the cell phone screen.

“What… are you doing?”

I jumped at the voice at my door. I leaned back and glared at whoever dared disturb me in my wait.

“Hey, Audrey.”

It was Renee.

“Hey…” I greeted in puzzlement, “Who let you in?”

“Always nice to see you too.”

“Yeah, well.”

Oddly enough, that was enough to get us both chuckling at least a little bit. She came and plopped down onto my bed beside me.

“Your sister let me in, by the way,” she began quietly, “I, um… I just wanted to come by to make sure you’re okay.”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”

She pulled one of her legs underneath her… oh, no… Whenever Renee did that, bad news was at hand.

“Well, because…”

“Oh, thanks for the explanation!” I fairly laughed after a moment with just those two words hanging in the air.

But she didn’t laugh… another bad sign!

“Renee, come on! Laugh! That was a joke,” I pleaded.

“But it’s not funny, Audrey!” she snapped.

I leaned back, stunned at her response.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised! Come on, yourself! Audrey, I’m serious about Josh!”

I rolled my eyes in my classic, patented sign of annoyance. Maybe that would get her to catch on quick in the game.

“Why?” It was my turn to be snappy. “Because you had a bad feeling? Renee, I’m tired of arguing! So, please, if you don’t have more evidence than just ‘I feel bad about this’ then… can we just agree to disagree?”

Renee sighed and sent me a look of discomfort… something else I wished she hadn’t done.

“Well… there’s something that Danny and I haven’t told you about Josh…” she began.

I hated it when she said things like that. She always had to make every grand announcement by milking every ounce of suspense before just handing over the information. I was a fraction away from voicing that complaint before-

“Josh has been talking to Will and he told him everything! Josh wants what we thought he wants!”

All I could do was stare at Renee. It was like everything in my body had been frozen by mere words… oh, wait… everything in my body had been frozen by words.

“What? Will? As in Will Parker?”

Will was the ‘bad boy’ of the youth group and a true rebel. He was the kid that would climb into the air vents just to get in a peak into the girls’ bathroom or play hooky at school to go into the attic to drink. Yes, the only reason he went to church was because his parents practically had to tie and gag him to get him there.

“Will Parker?” I repeated.

“Yes, that Will.”

“But, Josh doesn’t talk to anybody at church accept me! I know! I’m with him the whole time!” I argued. Finally, my reason was returning.

She just shook her head sadly.

“I don’t know how but… somehow they’re talking and he told Will everything.”

I crossed my arms defiantly.

“Okay, two things: how do you know what Josh has been telling Will if he’s been telling him anything and… what exactly did Josh, if he were talking to Will, say?” I leaned forward to rest my head in my hand. I meant it to be intimidating, but Renee wasn’t even looking at me. Instead, she had pulled out her cell phone and was scrolling through her old texts.

“Here. Read the text Will sent me.” She handed her phone to me.

I sighed heavily before squinting to read the small words:

“Jsh told me that he was going 2 get rlly close 2 audy & then get her in bed.”

My hand began to shake as I lowered the phone away from my eyes.

“It’s Will,” I said finally, still refusing to give in to this nonsense. “He lies as much as he breathes.”

I shoved the phone back in her hands. The second I did so, my cell phone began to ring. I picked it up and read that it was Josh calling. Before answering it, I cast a small smirk upon Renee before retorting with, “I’ll prove to you that you’re wrong, Renee. You’ll see… you’re just jealous and so is Danny. That’s the only reason you’re doing all this. I promise I will prove to you both that that’s the only thing going on here. Bye!” I gave her a small wave before flipping my phone open.

“Hey, Josh!” I greeted him warmly.

“Hey, baby!” he replied.

My heart did that wonderful flutter feeling and I knew that talking to him would make everything fine once more.

I heard Renee sigh beside me before rising stiffly to her feet and walking out my door and eventually out of my house.

“How are you?” he began. I did what I always did then: I imagined him standing right in front of me, speaking every word.

“Much better now that I’m talking to you.”

The rest of the week was probably the weirdest week of my life. I didn’t talk to Renee once after Monday at school. I didn’t talk to Danny either. Although, he was easier to avoid because he was home schooled. The best he could do to talk to me was call like crazy… which he did. But all I had to do to get him to leave me alone was not answer.

Wednesday was harder to avoid him, though, because it was the mid-week service at church and he was there. I just always made sure I was talking to somebody whenever he was about to come up, which generally would keep him off to the side for a while until I could find somebody else to ‘discuss the weather’ with.

Unfortunately, Josh couldn’t be there Wednesday because he had to work. And although I was sad about it, everything was okay because he called me at least once a day. We would just stay on the phone and talk for hours… Yes, if you could see me right now I would be sighing dreamily and then laughing at Danny and Renee’s strange efforts to satisfy their jealousy.

My only regret throughout all of this was… how had I chosen two perfectly awful friends to be classified as the ‘best’ out of all of the ones I could have?