"Jamie and Cecilia broke up," my friend Jessie said in place of a greeting, proceeding to cover her ears with a pair of expensive, cushioned headphones.

I felt the familiar, ineludible jolt in my gut that came with the glamour of opportunity, but I'd grown used to disregarding it. Hope was an unwelcome a concept in my world, especially when referring to Jamie.

I raised my eyebrows at Jessie, who undeniably expected a shrill chorus of shrieks that usually accompanied those words. I just wasn't feeling it today. "Hello to you too," I said with a halfhearted wave.

Jessie looked at me with unmistakable confusion, then pulled her headphones down to her neck. "Did you hear me?" she asked blankly.

"Obviously." I rolled my eyes.

"Are you sure? Because I don't think you did, I said Jamie and Cecilia broke up."

I gave her a flat look. "You know that changing the infliction of your voice will, in no way, affect my reaction, right?"

Poor Jessie looked so confused that I sighed and decided to put her out of her misery. "Yes, Jamie and Cecilia broke up. But you act like this isn't the fourth time they have... this year alone. I know better than to get my hopes up, you and I both know that he has a line of eligible rebounds pounding on his door at this very moment. And his best friend," I gestured to myself, "is not on the list, unfortunately."

Suddenly, a light clicked on in Jessie's eyes, and she grinned triumphantly. "I forgot an important detail, my sweet Carolyne. Cecilia cheated on him."

Question marks filled my mind. "What?"

Jessie laughed lightly, which would only seem inappropriate if you didn't know Cecilia. Seriously. She was a witch. "Yup. With Tyler."

I didn't know what to think. This was... this was as scandalous as it came at our school. Cecilia and Jamie had been the resident on/off couple since the sixth grade, which evidently had been as long as I'd been in love with Jamie.

When he had moved to our town five years prior, he had been this cute, albeit shy, new boy. I had instantly fallen for him as hard as a 12 year old heart could manage, which admittedly wasn't much. But he only saw me as a friend, and, like every hormonal boy, went for Cecilia Knight instead.

Once upon a time, Cecilia and I were best friends, but after she stole Jamie from me, the friendship was terminated. Secretly, I hoped they wouldn't last, and it wasn't that bad a thought, because what relationship lasted in sixth grade?

Theirs did. Their relationship seemed to everyone to be perpetual, despite all the discrepancies between them.

Until Cecilia cheated.

Jamie was notorious for his abhorrence for cheaters and injustices. Although he was usually quite promiscuous during his off stages with Cecilia, he always made it crystal clear that he was done with one girl before moving to the next. In fact, he would often break up with them in public, which might seem cruel, but mostly reinforced his intolerance to cheaters. He once gave his best friend a black eye for admitting to cheating on a test.

His best friend, Tyler.

That's what made the affair so abominable. Jamie's girlfriend since middle school cheating with his best friend, someone who Jamie saw as a brother... there was something fundamentally wrong with that. It broke so many bro codes, I was a little surprised Tyler wasn't locked up and shipped off right then and there.

My heart went out to Jamie, poor, sweet, misunderstand Jamie. I felt for him not just as the boy I adored, but as the best friend I loved more than life.

I felt an urge to yank each and every perfectly mascaraed eyelashes of Cecilia's one by one, and gritted my teeth. She had no idea what she had lost.

She didn't... but I did.

This was it! This was how I was going to escape the best-friendzone. Sure, manipulating someone in a vulnerable state wasn't the best or most moral way to get into someone's good books, but I was desperate, and I used that as feeble justification.

I looked at Jessie, and broke out in a wide smile. She smiled back, then her eyes filled with panic as her hands fumbled to her neck. "Just give me five seconds to put my headphones on before-"

I didn't grant her the pleasure.