I was trying to avoid Phoenix during the school day, not feeling too excited about having to confront him and say I don't love him. As much as I wanted to be honest with him, Phoenix was one of my closest friends, and I did not want to lose that. I was trapped in a terrible situation, a close friend of mine dumped my best friend because he wants to be with me. But I have a boyfriend who I love more than anything, and I refuse to let him down.

Right after lunch though, I met Phoenix right by my locker.

"Hi Iris!"

"Hi Phoenix!" I said, sounding rather happy to see him, although I knew what he wanted to talk about. "What's up?"

"Did you get my text? Yesterday? You never responded!"

"Yeah, I did actually." I tried leaving it at that, knowing that it wouldn't be that effective. But it was worth a shot.

"Sooo...?" He said. "What about this? What about us?"

"I don't know Phoenix." I said, trying to walk away. I was stopped just a feet away from the locker though.

"What do you mean you don't know? I've seen the way you've looked at me. Feelings aren't something abstract, you either know or you don't know! What do you feel about me?"

"I'm sorry Phoenix, you're kind, you're smart and you're kinda cute sometimes, but I have a boyfriend who I love more than anyone else, and I don't wanna leave him. I like you, but as a friend. I don't wanna lose you as a friend."

"Iris, I've liked you since middle-school. Have you never felt any love for me?"

I thought about it, but I couldn't think of any moments.

"No. I'm sorry Nix. I'm with Andy now."

I could see that he was upset but I needed to leave for class and had no intention of keeping on talking about the subject. I walked away, leaving Phoenix alone.

---

"Could you run the riff for me again, Jake?" Andy said, as Jake played the riff to "Perfect Weapon". It was a great riff, and I sat down on the couch just listening, sipping on some soda. Me coming to bandpractice was by now something normal, and I enjoyed seeing the band play.

"What happened with the Phoenix thingie?" Ashley asked me after finishing the song, Jake and Andy still fixing guitar stuff.

"You know about that?"

"Yeah, Andy tells us everything about you."

I wasn't sure what to feel about that last thing as I took another sip of the soda.

"Well, I told him I don't wanna be with him because I'm in love with Andy, but that I wish for us to remain friends."

I could see Andy smirking, turning his head towards me for a second, winking and continuing writing with Jake.

"Wow. Dude just got friendzoned!" CC exclaimed.

"What? No!"

"Sweetie, you know that doing that is the very DEFINITION of friendzoning!" Ashley said.

"Hey! Don't call her that!" Andy yelled.

"Is it really that bad?"

Both CC and Ashley nodded.

"You can be lucky that Nix is such a cool dude. Some people in the friendzone go complete nuts." Ashley said, CC nodding in agreement. "Yeah dude, trying to break people up. I knew a dude who ruined all my stuff because he wanted to be with my girlfriend."

"Dude, you say dude too often, dude." I said, jokingly.

"Nah dude...man, you're right!" CC said, and we all laughed about it.

I thought about it for a while. Could it be possible that Nix would do such a thing? Nah, I know him, he's kind. But I knew that everything between us had changed.

Notes

I will update once more today, hopefully making the story escalate a bit more. Right now, it is mainly fillers, but there's more to come ;)