Chapter Three:

I’m fine, Andrew thought, even if I wasn’t, you wouldn’t understand.

Andrew aimlessly followed Huy down the hallway, walking leisurely to class. He wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do about this whole thing. It was like his entire life was falling apart. Everything was one giant mess.

They entered the chemistry class just as the bell rang and instantly took their seats at table where Alex was already seated. It was the last remaining table that was the farthest from the front. Andrew laid his bag on the floor, not paying much attention to how it landed, which resulted in more than a few of his things spilling out onto the floor. He quickly shuffled to shove his notebooks and pens back into his bag, but seeing as how his day had been going so far, all that resulted was making an even bigger mess.

He sighed, giving up on his bag for now. He hated today, nothing was going for him. This morning when he woke up he was hoping to be in the library early so that he could read a bit before the others arrived. But that plan ended horribly considering how his mom was sick and his dad left for work before he even woke up. Andrew felt like he was going to just die. Everything had been just terrible recently.

“Andrew, did you do the homework?” Huy asked.

Andrew glared at Huy in response. His gaze was icy cold and completely empty, not a single emotion could be found hidden within it. “Like I’d let you copy my work,” Andrew responded, his voice as cold and empty as his eyes.

“Fine then, just go and be like that,” Huy stated. “You’ve been acting weird all week. What’s wrong with you? You used to always let me copy your work.”

“I guess things just changed recently,” Andrew replied sourly. He stared down at the empty table before him, which reminded him of the cold empty spot that pounded in his chest with every beat of his heart.

“I don’t get what you mean,” Huy mumbled, confused by his friends words.

“I was guessing it’d be that way,” Andrew stared at Huy with blank eyes. “You just don’t understand me anymore.”

“Maybe it’s because you don’t tell me anything anymore,” Huy suggested, obviously trying to get Andrew to tell him something. “If you would just talk to me every once and a while then maybe I would understand what you mean. But you haven’t talked to me in weeks now, it’s beginning to seem like you’re trying to distance yourself from me.”

Maybe it’s because I am, Andrew thought to himself. You don’t understand how hard it is to be in love with something and to know that they love something else. It hurts. And it hurts a lot.

“I’m sorry, but this is just the type of thing that I can’t tell you about Huy,” Andrew said, his voice filled with sadness. “You just seriously wouldn’t understand. You’d probably end up taking it the wrong way. Trust me; you’re much better off not knowing anything.”

“Andrew, you can’t say that,” Huy replied. “Andrew, I’m your best friend. You can’t just go and say that I won’t understand what you’re trying to get at.”

“Yeah I can, because I know for a fact that in no way will you ever understand me about this,” Andrew said. “And if I were to tell you, you would probably end up forever hating me because of it.”

“I wouldn’t hate you,” Huy said. “I can’t hate you Andrew, you’re my best friend. There’s nothing you could ever do that would make me hate you.”

I’m pretty sure I can think of a thing or two that would make you forever hate me if I told you about them, Andrew thought.

“I’m sorry Huy, I just can’t tell you,” Andrew said. “I’d like to, but I can’t. I just can’t tell you.”

“Andrew you can tell me anything, you should know that by now,” Huy replied in a tone that fully implied he was willing to beg to find out. “We’ve been friends for how long now and you still believe that we can’t trust each other with everything?”

“Huy, this is the one thing I just can’t tell you about,” Andrew stated in a voice as harsh and unforgiving as a snow storm in the dead of winter. He glared at Huy with his empty black eyes. “So please, just drop the subject now.”

“Fine then,” Huy gave in, “I’ll stop bugging you about it. I understand that you don’t want to tell me.” Huy looked at Andrew with icy blue eyes that were full of knowledge. It seemed that maybe Huy was finally beginning to understand when enough was enough.

Andrew stared up at the board, the teacher had already filled up most of the board with notes, and was quickly finishing filling in the blank spots. There was no way that Andrew could take down all the notes at this rate so he didn’t even try. He looked over at Huy’s notebook. Apparently he was paying attention to the class as well as their conversation for he was quickly writing down notes, and had quite a few done already. Maybe Huy would let him copy his notes later.

Andrew glanced at the clock, but was too lazy to actually read the time. He had a feeling that class would continue to lag on for a while.

Damn you Huy, Andrew thought, you’re so lucky and yet you don’t even know it. You have the most beautiful girl in the world as your own. The girl I’ve been in love with since I was in third grade. She’s all yours. No matter how hard I try, she continues to fall in love with you. I push myself to the point of total exhaustion, to the point where I might actually pass out at times, because she notices when I win the gold. And yet, even though I do all that for her, she still loves you. You’re so lucky Huy, to have a girl like her at your side. I hate you Huy.

Andrew glared at Huy with eyes as black as the midnight sky. Huy didn’t even take note of Andrew’s cold eyes digging into the back of his head. You don’t even know how much I hate you right now, Huy. You never will.

Andrew hated Huy at this moment. He hated him with the fury of one who hated their worst enemy. And yet Huy was supposed to be his best friend. Andrew wasn’t exactly sure when this had happened, this sudden hatred for his closest friend, but it must have been recent for him to have not have noticed before. He didn’t truly understand why all of a sudden he was so jealous of Huy. Huy and Kaily had been together for almost a year, so why now of all times would he suddenly be jealous and mad at his best friend for being with the girl he loved?

“Damn you Huy,” Andrew mumbled under his breath, inaudible to even his own ears. He glanced at Huy, making sure that, even thought it was nearly impossible for Huy to have heard what he said, Huy indeed did not hear a single word.

Andrew looked at the clock again. It read 10:33 AM. He tried to calculate how much longer they had in their head, but his brain was in too much of a state of dysfunction to be able to even do the simplest of math problems. He sighed. All he knew was that there was still forever until class ended and he would be free Huy’s presence for a while. Or at least until break ended.

Andrew rested his head on the table, using his arm as a pillow and gently drifted into a half conscious, half unconscious state. He drifted back and forth in the void between awake and a sleep until the bell rang. The moment the bell rang, he pulled himself out of his semi-conscious state, gathered his things, and rushed out the door as fast as possible, trying to get away from Huy as fast as he could.