----- Chapter Fourteen -----

"God I'm in shit now," I mutter to Scott and Marie. Scott nods solemnly at me.

"I'm really sorry about this…but thanks for earlier with Kerry…"

"No problem."

"What's going on?" Marie would like to know. I shake my head quickly.

"Call me later and I'll tell you about it…"

"Ok."

The journey home seems endless - Abs won't talk to me. Not that I've tried talking to him…I'm too ashamed. Now he thinks that I'm seeing Scott. It's not fair.

When we get to my house, Abs is still in a stroppy mood, but he actually starts talking to me.

"What is it? I thought you and me told each other everything!" he says, looking sorry for himself. I sigh,

"Abs - there are just some things that I can't tell you. It's just the way it is…I'm sure there's things you don’t tell me!"

"No…" he claims.

"Sure there are - like who this 'other person' is…" I point out. He blushes and stays silent, staring down at his hands. I smile, "So don’t be mad at me, yeah?"

He looks up and, after moment, smiles back, "Ok…" he reaches out for a hug. We just hold each other for a few perfect minutes and I remind myself again that having Abs as a friend is infinite times better than not having him at all.

A few hours after that, Marie calls me.

"So what's going on?" she wants to know. I've got a choice - tell the whole truth, or cut it down to a condensed version. She's like one of my best friends but I just don’t know. In the beginning I was just gonna keep my feelings to myself - I only told Scott cos I was umm under the influence of a little alcohol. And he was feeling shitty himself.

"Well…" I stall, "Basically, Abs has got the hump for some reason. He thinks that me and Scott are seeing each other - which is really dumb seeing as how Scott likes YOU so much - and I don’t know why but it's pissing him off."

"What do you mean, Scott likes me so much?"

"Duh. Have you not been paying attention to him? You shoulda seen his face light up when you called me earlier at the hospital!" I explain.

"Really?" Marie's happy, obviously.

"Yeah, really."

"Well what's all this business about you not telling Abs something? I thought you guys told everything to each other…"

"Almost everything," I stress. Did we really seem that close to everyone else? Wow.

"So it's private stuff, yeah?"

"Yeah…" I agree then change the subject: "Did you have a nice time with Scott?"

"Oooh yeah…he asked me to the shoot tomorrow - are you going?"

"I don’t know…I might. Abs asked me the other week…but things are a little difficult at the moment, obviously."

"Yeah. But I think you should come and keep me company."

"I might. He's gonna hafta beg first though," I decide, "What else happened with Scott…?" and so Marie launched into detail about her afternoon with Scott.