Summary: Her best guy friend (and crush) has been avoiding her for a while now. And she wants to get to the bottom of it. So she texts him what's wrong and he texts back "ILU."

Too bad she doesn't know what ILU stands for.

Her best guy friend had been avoiding her for almost a month, and it had been really bugging her. He wouldn't answer her calls or texts, he'd been steering clear of her in the hallways of their school, he left immediately with a phony excuse if she tried to talk to him, and when they did talk, he would act really strange.

This hurt her, having her best friend in the whole wide world suddenly abandon her. And it wasn't just that either.

She loved him.

And it wasn't that kind of love that best friends are supposed to have either. The love that she felt for him gave her butterflies in her stomach every time someone said his name, the kind that wanted him to give her one of those "I love you so much I can barely stand it" kind of kisses, the kind of love where she would die on the inside if he ever left her.

And that's what she was doing right now. Since he was ignoring her, she felt herself die a little more on the inside as the days passed by.

She knew that at this rate, she'd probably go into a depression. Her grades would slip, she would start wearing dark clothes, she would eat her own weight in ice cream, and most importantly, she wouldn't have her best friend by her side anymore.

Well, if that was going to happen, she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

She took out her cell phone, and texted the number that was implanted in her mind, and always would be. Her best friend's number.

Y have u been ignoring me? =(

Then she waited.

After ten minutes without a response, she texted him again.

I NO UR THERE. It's Tuesday, 4:26. which means that u just came bck from soccer practice. If u don't answer, I'll come to ur house! I'm not kidding, ur only five min. away!

Luckily, he caved and she got a response from him.

I'm not ignoring u. Ur just paranoid.

This made her upset. He never lied to her before. What had she done to make him do this to her? She was starting to get a little teary eyed.

Ur such a liar. I no u've been avoiding me. Wat did I do wrong? I'm sry for wat I did! Just plz talk to me again =(

At this point, she would've done anything to get him to stop avoiding her. It almost made her want to cry.

RING!

She got another text message.

Ok, I have been avoiding u.. U didn't do anything wrong, k? I'm sry.

This made her feel slightly better, knowing she didn't do anything wrong, but she was still sad.

If I didn't do anything wrong y won't u talk to me?

For a while, she didn't get anything back. She started getting worried, and she was about to send him another text when she got a reply.

K, but I'm about to tell u something big.. I'll understand if u don't want to talk to me anymore.

What could be so big that she wouldn't want to talk to him anymore? She suddenly got nervous. What if he some type of psycho rapist/killer? What if he was in a gang and had all these stolen valuables? What if he secretly watched The Hills, a show they both swore off of after watching an episode? Maybe Michael Jackson's death was fake, and he was secretly MJ in disguise. (Then again, she knew him long before Michael died, so that was pretty unlikely.) Or maybe he was just a famous dancing unicorn cleverly disguised as a teenage boy to get away from the paparazzi. She kind of doubted that last one though, mostly because she hadn't heard of any run away dancing unicorns on the news lately. Then again, she never watched the news, so who knew?

U no u can tell me anything. I won't judge u, promise!

Unless that last theory was true, of course. But she left that out.

I think ilu.

This made her pause.

What?

What in the world did ILU mean?

It Lets Us? I Lick Underwear? Iguanas Love Uncles? Inside a Lame Umbrella? Icky Long Unibrow? Or perhaps ILU was just some new word. She didn't know.

Instead of looking it up, she decided to call him instead.

After a couple rings, he finally picked up.

"H-hello?" he stuttered nervously.

"Hey. Listen, about that ILU thing. ."

"I-I'm so sorry! I know you don't feel the same way! I. . Sorry. If you don't want to talk to me ever again, I'll understand."

"I don't know what ILU means!"

"Huh?" he asked, sounding very surprised.

"No one has ever said ILU to me before, so I have no idea what it means. Can you tell me?"

There was a silence on the other end.

"Are you still there?" she asked, suddenly thinking that he might've hung up on her.

"Uh . . Yea."

"Well, what does ILU mean?"
He hesitated, and then sighed.

"I said that I think Ian likes you."

Ian was a cute boy in their class. He was friendly to everyone, and was one of the smartest kids in their grade. But after being paired up with her, he had shown a bit of interest to her, and shown a little jealously when seeing the two best friends together. But she didn't think of him anymore as an acquaintance. She admitted that he was good looking and sweet, but he was nothing compared to the boy on the other line. This made sense, but she was still confused.

"Why would you think I'd stop talking to you after finding out Ian likes me?"

"Er-well, you know . . I uh . . Thought maybe you'd like him too, and wouldn't have time for me?" he said, sounding unsure of himself. The girl sighed.

"You are such an idiot. You know that, right? I would NEVER abandon just for some boy. I don't even like him," she said.

"Yea . . Well, anyways, I have to go."

"WHAT? Are you going to ignore me again?" she questioned.

"No, I really have to go. Homework and . . stuff. But we can hang out tomorrow at my place after school. How's that?"

She blushed and had a grin on her face. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she thought of tomorrow.

"Yea. . I'd like that. But, before you go, I need to tell you something."

"Huh? What is it?"

She screamed into the phone and put the phone back on her ear.

"That's what you get for abandoning me!" she explained, then hung up giggling.

She loved him and all, but it was just unacceptable for him to just abandon her like that, and then go on without punishment.

A couple years later, she was in her dorm room at Stanford University. She had finally made it to collage! Unfortunately, her best friend was not with her. He was in some community collage back in their hometown. She was really sad that he didn't get in. She knew it was pathetic, but she still liked him. Don't get me wrong, she had been dating and stuff, but she could never bring herself to actually enjoy it. If they didn't break up with her first for being so painfully obvious that she wasn't interested, she would break up with them.

Luckily though, the best friends still talked on the phone every single day. Sometimes, he would call her just to hear her voice. Whenever he said that, she always felt her heart flutter. She knew he didn't mean it that way though.

She was currently on her laptop, IMing her mom back home.

iheartroses: Hey sweetie! So how's collage life?

pretty_in_blue: honestly?

pretty_in_blue: I'm working my ass off. it's tough!

iheartroses: LANGUAGE MISSY. But yea, sorry to hear about that. Collage is supposed to be hard, it's not like you just go there and gossip all day. It's work. It's okay though, I trust that you're working and not just partying. Or you better be, because I'm not letting you stay at my house while you're forty years old, fat and unemployed!

pretty_in_blue: don't worry, it's not going to happen. or well, it shouldn't. I'm working too hard for that to happen! but anyway, what about you? what's going on at home?

iheartroses: The usual. I'm just playing around on the computer waiting for the chicken to be done already.

pretty_in_blue: sounds like fun.

iheartroses: Yea, it's always the highlight of my day.

iheartroses: OMG! Sorry, I have to go, I spent too much time on the computer, and there's a suspicious burning smell coming from the kitchen, and I have a feeling it's the chicken!

pretty_in_blue: oh, go now! I wouldn't want you burning down the potential place I might be living in when I'm forty!

iheartroses: You better be joking on that one. Anyways, I have to go. ILU!

She raised her eyebrows on that. Huh? What did her mom mean by that? Her best friend had said it before, but it stood for "Ian Likes You." Her mom didn't know who Ian was, let alone think he liked her.

She had to have meant something else.

pretty_in_blue: wat does ilu mean?

iheartroses: I Love You. Whenever someone says ILU, it means they love you. Leaving now, bye!

iheartroses has signed out.

She stared at the screen in shock.

Could he have meant . .?

She blushed at this thought while having a really goofy smile on her face. She was so glad that her roommate was out right now, she would've made fun of her for this.

Was it true, and if it was, did he still like her?

She didn't know. But what she did know was that she had to talk to him.

She made a grab for her cell phone, and dialed the one number that would always be implanted in her mind. He picked up on the fourth ring.

"Madison?"

She smiled as she felt the butterflies come back, the way they always did when he said her name.

"ILU too, Brent."

Author's Note: Please read and review! Reviews always make me a happy panda!