Dot.com, later that same day.

"And then, she had the nerve to tell me to shop somewhere else. I just looked at her and walked away."

Chloe smiled at her friend's infuriated look. She loved how Belle could always put so much emotion into the smallest of situations.

"If I was a meaner person, I would've knocked her out," Belle said, playing with the straw in her shake. One of her and Chloe's customary practices was meeting here after school, and the person having the worst day being treated by the other. Today, it had been a tie. Noticing that Chloe's thoughts were still on being asked to help out Phillip, she took her friend's hand.

"Don't worry about it Chloe. I mean, he said he didn't want to, so you don't have to."

Chloe squeezed on Belle's hand, glad that she had at least one close friend, two if she counted Belle's boyfriend Shawn. "Thanks Belle, but I'm not worried about him."

"You sure don't look it," Belle said as the doors to Dot.com opened and in walked half of Salem High's football team, just out from practice.

"I think I should go," Chloe spoke, gathering her book bag and jacket, but all a minute too late.

"Hey Belle. How are you doing today," Phillip asked the cute blond at the table, not even looking in Chloe's direction.

"Fine Phillip. What do you want?"

Sliding in to the empty space beside her, Phillip threw his arm over her shoulder, pulling her closer. "Just seeing how my favorite girl is doing," Phillip said sweetly.

"Yeah, well, I think Ashley is at home with the flu," Shawn Brady said as he walked up to the table, two large cokes in his hand. "Get out of my seat Kiriakis."

"Is that anyway for you to talk to your uncle, Shawn. I think there's any empty seat over there," he nodded toward's Chloe side without looking at her, his attention still kept on Belle.

Grumbling about dead relatives, Shawn begins to take the seat across from his uncle and girlfriend of almost a year when Chloe quickly scoots out. "I have to go." Turning, she hurries from the building out in to the early dusk.

"What's her hurry," Shawn asks Belle as he takes his seat, pushing the other coke to Phillip.

"Maybe your uncle can tell you," Belle answers as she picks Phillip's arm off her shoulder. Getting up from the opposite side of the booth, she sits down next to Shawn.

"So Phillip, what was that all about?"

"I don't know," he said with a shrug, pulling his coke closer for a long sip.

"Phillip has to get tutored. And by who else but the smartest girl at Salem High."

"Chloe," Shawn asks, looking at the door she disappeared behind just moments ago.

"I'm not getting tutored by her. I'll just find someone else. There has to be someone else. Belle, you're in that class!"

"Gee Phillip, thanks for noticing."

"Can't you do it," Phillip pleads, hoping this is his way out.

"You want to know what I got on my test? An 87. And you want to know how I got that grade? She just walked out that door."

Phillip's hope crashed to the ground in flames.

"Just ask her nicely," Shawn suggested. "Chloe's really nice. I mean, I know she hates you, but I'm sure she'd do it."

" Oh, she already said she'd do it, didn't she Phillip?"

Phillip looks to Belle. He knows that she and Chloe are really close friends, some would even say best friends. He didn't understand why the most beautiful, most popular girl in school would hang out with someone like...like Chloe. He will probably never understand. Phillip just shrugged, not having time for this conversation.

"Well, did she or did she not," Shawn asked.

"She did, all right! She did," Phillip exploded.

"Hey, don't get angry at me. You probably didn't study for that test," Shawn told him.

Another thing that amazed him. How he, the uncle, would always be wrong when compared to Shawn, the nephew. Of course, they were more brothers than unlce and nephew.

"I'm not angry, just...I don't know. Just--"

"Ashamed? Sorry? Feeling as if you have a lot of apologizing to do," Belle cut in.

"What? What'd he do? What happened," Shawn asked, looking to Phillip then back at Belle. The questions shot out so fast, Belle began to giggle while Phillip just rolled his eyes.

"I didn't do anything. I just...told her no."

"Barked it in her face is more like it. I got here and she was really upset Phillip. I had to beg her to come out from the bathroom, and that was after the she stopped crying."

A horrified look came over Phillip's face. He had made her cry?  He voiced the question to Belle.

"Of course she cried. You yelled at her. She was going to do you a favor and you just screamed in her face. Maybe it just wasn't that. Maybe its the whole oil and water thing. You two have hated each other since she got here. She had to break sometime, and your rudeness was the deciding factor. She doesn't have to help you Phillip. She could've just as easily said no and walked out of that room. But she didn't, because as much as Chloe doesn't like you, she wouldn't want to see you hurt by missing out on sports. That's what she said, that's why she was helping you. And you blew it."

Shawn whistled low as he shook his head. "That was a pretty mean thing to do Phillip, even for you."

"Look, I have to go. I have lots of homework," Belle said as she got up, picking up her bags from the floor.

"I'll walk you to your car. I've got to go anyway. I have the privaledge of being head babysitter this evening while my parents go out dancing."

Phillip watched silently as the two said their goodbyes and left. Staring down at the table top, he thought back to this afternoon.

"Of course I don't want to," Phillip shouted at her. "Why would I even want to breathe the same air as you," he asked her disgusted.

Maybe he hadn't handled the situation properly. He didn't know why, but something about Chloe always put him on edge, made him nervous. And rather than accept what he thought those feelings might mean, he always fought them, usually with words that would push her away. Sure, sometimes, Chloe fought back, called him names too. But then there were the times when she'd just take it quietly and walk away, probably a trait she'd learned from Belle.

And now he had made her cry.

His year was getting worse by the second.