“No,” Tina smiled, trying to put it as gently as possible. “Sorry.”

“Not even one date?”

Tina stopped on her way to the Art complex at university, re-adjusting her bag over her shoulder. She arched one brow, as if to dare the girl to ask her again. It was all the cause of an admirer she’d had for some time at school – Sam.

“Oh come on, Tina. You’re never with anyone.”

“That’s just insulting,” Tina mumbled, trying to take in the greenery around her on such pleasant afternoons. Even the stones of the walkway seemed a little brighter with the sun glistening over them. “No, I told you … I just can’t.”

“But you’re … fucking amazing!” Sam called out, having stopped to summon the courage.

Tina turned back and just looked at her in shock until a smile tugged at her lips. “Did you just shout that? … In the middle of campus?”

Sam just looked at her, the thick brown braid cast over her shoulder – her fashionable bracelets clinking as she shook her arms. “I don’t care if the whole school knows I’m gay! Do you?”

By then a few students had stopped to watch, but Tina didn’t like such attention, and neither did her classmate. “Sam …”

It was tense between them for a minute – Sam yearning for more, and Tina wishing for less. Sam had always made such an incredible friend.

“I have to go to class, Sam.”

“Can we just talk about this?” she asked, climbing the stairs behind Tina. “Come on! I’ll come to your class?”

Tina stopped just after they’d entered the building, looking at the brunette for a moment. “I … I’m in love with someone else.”

“What?” Sam chuckled, crossing her arms. “Tina … I know you, and you’re not into anyone – oh, don’t even try telling me you feel these things for your professor?!”

Tina waved her arm down, glaring at Sam. “Shhh! I don’t want the whole world knowing! Just because you want to shout everything out, that doesn’t mean I do, too.”

“Tina … I’m serious. I’ll be there for you. She’s just a … a fleeting fantasy. She’s a figment of your imagination.”

“She’s real!”

“Only to you,” Sam insisted, growing angry, but remembering to keep her voice down while others passed around them. She walked after Tina, down the hall. “I know you don’t wanna hear this, but you’ll only get hurt! … This woman … this ideal thing that you’re thinking of-” Sam was cut off as a student slipped between them, but she pulled Tina to a stop when she reached her again. “Tina …”