Déjà freaking Vu. I swim up for air and lock eyes with Zoey. She quickly gets up to leave.

“Dude!” some guys laugh at their friend who also comes up for air.

“Asshole!” I fling water at him and swim to the wall to pull myself out.

Another phone bites the dust.

I should have known.

Thanks to the jerks playing football or something I was tackled into the pool and now I’m soaking wet. I pull myself up but a hand appears in front of my face. I look up and meet the eyes of Hailey Queen.

I grab her hand and she pulls me out of the pool.

I turn to look for Zoey but she’s gone.

Why is this happening to me!? I run my hands down my face.

“Poppy? Where’s Hilary?” Hailey asks.

“Have you seen Zoey?”

Hailey turns to where Zoey was just sitting but she’s not there anymore. We both look around and I catch a glimpse of her sneaking back into the house.

“There,” I push past Hailey and move to go inside.

Everyone moves out of my way. My shoes make a horrible squelching sound with every step I take. I make my way to the front of the house until I see Zoey run upstairs.

“Whoa, what happened to you?” Wes stops me.

“No time, she’s getting away!” I run upstairs.

I watch Zoey make a run for the bathroom door and I run after her. She slams the door in my face and I hear the lock click.

“Zoey!” I bang on the door.

“Go away!” she shouts back.

“I just want to talk, I’m sorry.” I plead.

“Sorry doesn’t fix anything.” She says through the door.

“I know,” I sigh and lean against the door before sliding to the floor.

I hear her do the same.

Wes comes up the stairs and sees me. He sighs.

“I’m sorry, about everything okay. After what you said to me on the playground that day everything just got so confusing. I never meant for it to turn out like this. But if it makes you feel better I’m done with Hilary. Anyone who can use and betray my friend like that isn’t worth having in my life. I’m so sorry, about everything. I didn’t know. I swear it. I just want my friend back.” I bury my face into my knees.

“I don’t want to talk to you right now Poppy.” She says.

“All I ever wanted was to make you happy. I royally screwed that up,” I hold back my tears. “You’re my friend, my best friend. I don’t even care about romance anymore. I’m done with it. I just want my friend back. Everything got so messed up between us because of Hilary. Can’t we just start over and pretend none of it happened?” I beg.

She’s silent.

“Zoey please, I know you’re hurting bad right now. Let me be there for you. I’m done with Hilary, she can go screw herself for all I care.”

“Go away Poppy,” She says softly, I can tell she’s crying.

I sniffle and wipe my tears before getting up to leave.

“No,” Wes stops me.

“She doesn’t want to talk to me,” I whimper.

“We can’t it end like this guys. We can’t. You two are supposed to be friends. Yes, everything got so messed up, but I know you both still care about each other. Zoey, you are only pushing Poppy away because you don’t want to get hurt again, but Poppy loves you. She could be with Hilary right now on a date but she chose to come after you. She dragged me along with her to find you. She cares. And I know you care too. Can’t we put this behind us and move on? I don’t like watching you two fight.” He says.

I hear Zoey get up and unlock the door and my heart skips several beats. When the nob turns I hold my breath. She opens the door and we come face to face. She still looks so mad at me and I have to look down in shame.

“What you did to me… that was fucked up.” She says.

“I know, I’m sorry.” I whimper.

“But I’m glad you did it.” She goes on.

I look up at her.

“You were right about Hilary. She used me and lied to me, and pretended to care about me. Who knows how far she would have let it go just to make you jealous? She probably would have even pity dated me if you hadn’t stepped in and stopped it. You saved me from her, even though I never asked to be saved.”

“I am so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I just go so blinded by jealousy I couldn’t think straight. Wes kept trying to tell me to stop but I wouldn’t listen. I never wanted to hurt you.” I say.

She punches me right in the face. I fall back and Wes cringes. Before I can complain she reaches her hand out to me. I look up at her as I rub my cheek then I grab her hand. She helps me up.

“Now we’re even.” She says.

“I guess I deserved that,” I admit.

She walks up to me and moves my hand to kiss my now swelling cheek. I feel my face heat up. Then she pulls me in for a hug.

“I’m sorry I didn’t just talk to you,” she says into my shoulder.

I hold her back tightly.

“Everything in my life has just been so stressful, you were my one escape from all of it. And when you ignored my feelings and belittled me, I just couldn’t handle it. I wanted someone to understand, to know what I was going through and you wouldn’t. It all just started crumbling and falling apart. I just wanted someone to talk to, but you wanted more.”

“I’m sorry.” I whimper into her shirt.

“Me too, I’m sorry too. For all those awful things I said to you. I didn’t mean them, I was just hurting and wanted you to hurt too.”

“Can we just move past all this and go back to how we were before?” I ask.

She pulls back and looks me in the face.

My heart is beating a mile a minute.

It’s only when she nods an okay that I feel overjoyed.

No romance is worth losing a best friend over.

“Awe you guys,” Wes forces us into a group hug.

Zoey and I both elbow him, and he grunts and doubles over,

“Good talk, woo, go team.” He holds up a thumbs up.

We laugh.

“Pardon the interruption,” Hailey poked her head around the corner.

We all turn to her.

“Thought you could use a towel.” She walks over and hands it to me.

“Thanks,” I say.

“You should have let her drip dry,” Zoey shrugs.

“Jerk,” I playfully push her.

She giggles.

Hailey laughs obnoxiously loud at Zoey’s joke which makes Zoey laugh more. Wes and I share a look. No way was I going to let Hilary number 2 come and mess with Zoey. But then she sighed romantically and batted her lashes at Zoey and I eyed Wes again.

He raised an eyebrow.

“I can like, go and get you guys a drink if you want.” Hailey offered.

“Sure, thanks. I can help.” Zoey said.

“Grawsome, I mean great.” Hailey shook her head.

Zoey laughed.

I watched the two walk downstairs.

“Poppy, don’t even think about it,” Wes said.

“Oh come on, she’s basically a clone of Hilary,” I say.

“Poppy, have we not learned our lesson?”

“Okay,” I sigh in defeat.

“Let Zoey take care of Zoey, you worry about you.” He shakes me by the shoulders.

“You can be a real pain you know that?”

“Thank you thank you, I do try.” He mock bows.

I roll my eyes at him.

He walks downstairs to join the party while I continue to dry off. I grab my phone from my pocket and to my surprise it still works. Thank god for water-resistant phones. I see dozens of texts from Hilary.

The last one was sent 10 minutes ago.

‘I love you.’ It says.

I feel my chest ache and my guts knot together. I quickly dismiss it and put my phone down. It hurts god does it hurt so bad.

I slide back down to the floor and bury my face into the towel before crying into it.

Good thing no one is here to see me like this.

I don’t want people to know I still care about Hilary.

Because I shouldn’t care.

But I do.