Chapter Thirty-Five

                                    

                                          
While staying up late studying sounded like a good idea in theory, the next day it hit me just how tired I was. I decided to walk to the local cafe and soon found Lois there cleaning the tables and setting up for the day. 
                          
"Hey Lois," I greeted her. 
                          
Lois looked towards me and smiled, as she moved a hand through her freshly dyed chocolate brown hair. 
                          
"Hi Phoebe," she said. 
                          
"How are you?" I asked her. 
                          
"Tired. How about you?" she replied, with a gentle smile on one side of her mouth. 
                          
"Me too. I stayed up studying. I can be a little naive at times, honestly. I thought it would be a good idea but now I'll consider it a miracle if I can stay awake all day," I said. 
                          
Lois' eyes flickered with something then, as though she had an idea.
                          
"I could fix you an espresso and don't worry it will totally be on the house. We are friends, right?" she asked me. 
                          
As much as I may have had my reservations before, I supposed that a part of me had realised that it would be unfair on Lois to keep feeling so jealous of her. She didn't ask for Emmy to catch feelings for her. That had all been Emmy and as much as it may have hurt me at first, I knew that I needed to let it go. 
                          
Besides, I already had quite enough on my mind now that Courtney had become a significant part of my life. 
                          
"Of course, we are friends, Lois. Any friend of Emmy is a friend of mine," I said. 
                          
Lois grinned, as she went to get me a drink. 
                          
In the meantime, Lois' brother soon arrived in the cafe and beamed back at the two of us in a warm greeting. 
                          
"Ooh! Are we making drinks? I'll have a latte please with almond milk and whipped cream on the top. The vegan kind. That's very important," he said, with an enthusiastic glimmer in his expression. 
                          
Lois rolled her eyes at her brother as if she as used to this. 
                          
Brothers could be a blessing as much as they could be cause for annoyance. Bow was honestly far too young to ever be a cause for annoyance, though. At five years old, I supposed the only thing that he could really be called was cute. 
                          
Despite seeming a little adamant about making her brother a latte at first, Lois eventually did so. She made me my drink, too and soon enough the visitors to the cafe began to increase in number. 
                          
While Drake and Emmy busily chatted away, I took a moment to drink my double espresso and felt convinced I could see through time by the time I had finished. That may have been a little excessive but I knew that the caffeine had certainly hit the spot. Soon after that, it was time for me to head to school so I bid Lois and Drake goodbye and made my way down the pavement toward the main school building. 
                          
I was glad that I had brought my big jacket because the weather was certainly getting less tolerable. There was a bitter chill in the air that had me clutching my coat a little more tightly to my body. I found myself relieved by the time that I arrived at the school and decided it was time to wander off in search of my friends. 
                          
While Emmy and Elijah hadn't seemed to have arrived at the school yet, I soon found Oliver in the main hall and so went to speak with him. 
                          
"Hey, I made some notes for math. Do you want some?" Oliver asked me.I was fairly convinced in that moment that Oliver was actually like my high school angel. He had always been so incredibly reliable. I knew rhat it probably wasn't the best to rely so much on other people to help me through upper school but it was nice from time to time. 
                          
"That would be amazing, Oliver. Thank you," I told him. 
                          
Oliver nodded. 
                          
I was glad that he could be such a thoughtful person. The only problem with that was that I sometimes wondered how much he was thinking about. I wondered if he had been thinking about my situation with Emmy or Courtney, now. I supposed nobody neatly thought as much about these matters as I did, though. As much as I wanted to figure out the whole situation, I knew that was probably going to have to wait. 
                          
Oliver told me that he was going to make his way to the library. While I had been abandoned in the hall, this didn't last long. 
                          
Courtney soon approached me and ran a hand through the hair that had begun to fade. It was no longer it's characteristic silver but was becoming a dirty blonde. That being said, it really did suit her. 
                          
"I like your hair," I said. 
                          
Courtney's lips twitched up at the corner. 
                          
"Well, thank you. I like yours," she said. 
                          
I smiled at her and she smiled back. 
                          
"So, I had a question," I said. 
                          
"Yeah?" she asked me. 
                          
"About the dating thing," I said. 
                          
Courtney nodded understandingly, as a thoughtful expression appeared on her face. 
                          
"What was your question?" she asked me. 
                          
As much as I wanted to ask her outright whether she liked me, I didn't have the confidence to do that. What I did ask her, however, was why she was doing all of this for me. 
                          
"I guess there's this part of me that wants to keep things casual and light. The two of us can date and it won't be weird because we are like only just friends, you know?" she asked me. 
                          
"Things are simpler with me?" I asked in return. 
                          
"Yes," Courtney said, "I guess they are. Listen, all I know is that you need help getting over Emmy and I want to be able to..." she paused then and simply stepped forward to wrap her arms around me. 
                          
"What was that for?" I asked her. 
                          
"For being a good friend. I don't know what I did to deserve you but thank you for not giving up on me, Phoebe," she said. 
                          
As she backed away from the hug I simply smiled at her. 
                          
The bell soon rang out, which indicated to the both of us that it was about time for us to make our way to class. However, I felt as though I had inadvertently made some more progress with Courtney, now. It was a good feeling.