When I shut my locker, I was surprised to see Alice standing there.

I had grown jealous of Alice in a matter of days, after seeing her head resting on Bette’s shoulder.  She and Bette were just too close for my comfort.

“Hey, it’s Tina, right?”  She asked.

“Yep, Alice, right?”

“Mm hmm.  So you and Bette?”

“Me and Bette?”

“Yeah, you and Bette.  What’s up with you guys?”

“Absolutely nothing.  We just met a few days ago.”

“Are you attracted to her?”

“Whoa!  Slow down!  Bette is beautiful, but I’m straight.  And I have a boyfriend.”

I say it more to convince myself than I do to convince her.

“Okay…”

“Well, what about you and Bette?  You two seem very close.”

“Oh, there’s nothing going on between us…anymore.  We used to date.”

There goes that green-eyed monster again, tearing away at my insecurities.

“Used to?”

“Yeah, we’re just friends now.  I mean, it was over a year ago and I’m so over her, we just love each other in a platonic way.”

“Okay…” I believed that she was over Bette just as much as she believed that I wasn’t attracted to her, “Well, I need to be headed to English.”

“Yeah, well, you should hang around with us some time.  Since you’re hanging around Bette and stuff, you should definitely come hang out this weekend.”

“Um…okay.”

We exchanged numbers and I scurried off to English.  I decided sit in the empty seat beside Bette.

“Your friend Alice invited me to hang out.”

“Did she?” Bette raised her eyes to me.

I nodded, “This weekend.”

“She’s trying to play matchmaker.”

I felt my face grow flushed and I got nervous.

“What?”

“Alice has it in her mind that something is going on between the two of us.  I tried to tell her that you had a boyfriend, but…” Bette shrugged and smiled.

“But where would she get an idea like that?”

“I might have let it slip out that I thought you were cute.  But, I want you to know that I don’t expect anything to come from that.  I just want to be friends.”

Bette was blushing now.

If only she knew that I wanted much more than a friendship with her now.