Episode 758: Not Like The Others

Caroline was friendly towards everyone at school, but not so much a social butterfly, she didn’t have that one understanding female friend to confide in, she only had a novel to bury her nose in, and a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich to occupy her time. It was her great hop to lose herself in a fictional world and stop thinking about the person she’d stepped outside to avoid, so, of course, he sat down beside her.

"Trade you half a chicken salad sandwich for half yours," he said.

Caroline accepted the exchange even though sharing lunch was something they did when they were dating and they definitely weren’t dating now.

"Shouldn’t you be eating lunch with your girlfriend?" she asked.

"She doesn’t go to our school, I told you that." Yes, and she’d hoped to catch him in the lie, but after more than a year of hiding his illness, Jesse was probably quite adept at lying. "And she’s not my girlfriend."

Caroline knew she should have just let it go by now, it wasn’t any of her business why he’d been running late that one night the previous month; he didn’t owe her answers or honesty. Still, she had to know the truth.

"So, the guy who didn’t want to worry his parents over an illness, he has no problem worrying them so that he can spend time with some girl who means nothing to him? You‘re sure that’s the explanation you’re going with?" She couldn’t help asking. His story had holes in it. She just hoped the holes had more to do with faking a personal life than it did with a very real illness.

"I just lost track of time. It’s not like we’re really dating."

"Wouldn’t you have to be serious to be so wrapped up in another person that you lose track of time with them?" Okay, she seriously did not enjoy thinking of him seriously wrapped up with another girl. Why didn’t she just stop questioning him already? Just leave it be. Leave him be.

"She’s fine with just having fun," Jesse insisted. "She knows I’m serious about someone else. Someone else who won’t have me."

Episode 759: True Love