Cai creeped towards the bench Katy was on. She buried her head into her knees. Anyone would after have their feelings revealed as brutally as that. He struggled to to find the right words to say to her.

“…Katy?”

She let out a little squeak and held her breath. This would be the hardest thing he ever had to do.

Maybe if he had realized how she felt, even confirmed his suspicions, this never would have happened.

“So I… uh… listen. I’m sorry about everything. It was… horrible. I wish you were able to tell me yourself. But to be honest…”

Katy’s head skyrocketed to meet Cai’s eyes. She uttered her words though hard sobs.

“I know you love Boo… but I can’t help my my feelings.”

A lump formed in his throat. The thought of loosing one of the only people who even truly understood terrified him.

The silence pierced his thoughts as he struggled to find the right words to console her. He opened his mouth to speak, but was left as a gaping hole of emptiness.

Finally, Katy spoke up, “I understand if you don’t want to be around me anymore. I said awful things about Boo and part of me doesn’t even feel remorse.”

Cai spoke, almost yelling, words that seemed to come from nowhere. “I don’t want to stop being you friend! You’re one of the only ones I have!” As he spoke his throat began to burn. He supposed it was because he was about to cry. I couldn’t have been the tragically cold weather because in this moment he seemed to forget where he was.

Katy brushed her hair out of her face with an emotion he couldn’t possibly understand. He always thought of himself as a genius but he never knew what people were thinking. Perhaps that’s why he felt so guilty. If he had spoke to her before maybe he could have stopped this from happening. Maybe he could of prevented their whole senior class from knowing. Looking back he felt stupid. How obvious was it? He wondered why he didn’t have many friends even though he always managed to screw everything up. This was probably why he invested all of his time into getting some sort of new knowledge. He craved the feeling of contentment. The one where he wasn’t confused about what was happening.

As he sat on the bench next to Katy, he realized that this false peace he had kept in his head was only destroyed by a feel hole in his heart.

Cai couldn’t understand what Katy was thinking l, but when she gave him a hug he knew that things between them would be okay. He knew they would interact how they always did once again. Still, it would be awhile. But Cai knew Katy was someone he could always trust, and he would work hard so they would be friends once again.