I did feel sorry for her, after all she and Tim had been a great couple. I had never expected Tim to do this to Jenny, I couldn’t understand, he was one of the good guys. But it had happened and it had happened five weeks ago. I wanted to focus on Tina – blame me for being selfish and a lousy friend, but I wouldn’t even know what to say. Jenny and I were actually worlds apart and I couldn’t imagine grieving over a boy – or girlfriend, simply because I had always been the one who broke up.

But back to business – Tina had called me and I had immediately left, barely greeting Shane. On my way to Tina’s place, I was all happy and practically jumping in my seat at the prospect of seeing her – even though I had last seen her the day before, at school. When she opened the door, I was totally flabbergasted. She was only wearing a V-neck with a fading print and an old pair of jeans, but she looked amazing all the same. Her dazzling smile knocked me down and I had to crawl back up before I could even think of trying to say something.

“H-hi…”

I don’t know what it was – it only seemed to happen with Tina, but she always just overblew me with her utter beauty and kindness and perfectness and everythingness that I ended up stumbling over my words, if I could find any. Luckily, I always managed to get back at her full force later. The flirting of the past five weeks had been so much fun, but I was beginning to get impatient. I wanted to date her, I wanted there to be more than the playful banter. We did have deep conversation, bordering on philosophical, but that mostly happened over the internet where she didn’t startle me with her outer beauty but in a small picture in the corner of the screen. Sometimes, when she stayed over at my place, we did have those conversations as well.

“Bette?” Tina lightly touched my shoulder and I felt an electric jolt going through my body. I looked her right into her hazel eyes and to my surprise, I saw worry there. “Are you okay?”