Eleanor was walking the mean streets of Indianapolis that night. I cold breeze had rolled in; it was unseasonably cold of July. In the mid 50's, she had bought a sweater and had thrown it on. It was 10 p.m. and the city was still a buzz with activity. In Broad Ripple, a small village within Indianapolis, she had found herself, sitting alone the last night she was in town. Her friend's crisis was over, and she was with her family at the moment; Eleanor found herself alone in the city. The village was loud, drunkards drifting in the streets, looking for their last vice and a cigarette. She was sitting outside the Monon Coffee Company, finishing her last drink, when she decided to leave the city for her hotel. Her flight was leaving in the morning, and it was time for her to go.

She stood up and hailed a cab. It was expensive, five dollars for a pick up twenty cents for every block travelled, "you seem distressed, miss. What seems to trouble you?" A voice called out to her from behind. She turned around; it was form a young man, sitting on the side of the street, playing guitar. Broad Ripple was full of street performers.

She walked towards him until she was facing him. His face was disheveled and he looked sleep deprived. He had brown hair with a ratty beard to match, "How did you know I was sad?" she asked.

"Well, you just told me," she laughed and he smiled. She sat down next to him, "and usually girls don't wander these streets without someone unless they're drunk and they've lost their friends, or they're sad. I assumed you weren't drunk by the way you walked. What troubles you tonight?"

"You assumed incorrectly by the way," they both laughed.

"Is it a young man that's bothering you?" he asked.

"You are truly wise street man."

He laughed, "Street man, I like that name."

"Yes, it is a boy, you were correct," she responded.

"Did he do you wrong?"

"No, I wish he had."

"Why would you say something stupid like that?"

"It's easy," she stood up, "It would be easier for me to move on."

"I assume he hasn't done anything?" he yelled as she walked away, "I also assume doing nothing was the problem, wasn't it?"

"It was the problem."

As she walked away towards the main drag he started to sing again, I've been tried, and I've been tested.I was born tired;I never got rested. Harder thanmarble stone,I'm better offbetter off left alone.Cause I'm not the one.No not the one.You wanted it all, but I give you,give you none.I'm not the one. No, not the one.

"I have a serious problem, Simon," Theodore had rushed home, leaving a very confused Alison at the restaurant, and called Simon. Why Simon, he did not know, but he thought that at this point, Simon was the best choice to talk to.

"I would be happy to help, but may I ask, why aren't you talking to Ellie? You two are much tighter than we ever have been," he said.

"Yeah, actually, that's who I wanted to talk to you about," I explained to him the entire situation. Every bit of it, her fears, Alison, the text, everything.

"This is quite a situation you find yourself in, Theodore," he said to me. We, well I, have been talking on the phone for over a hour now and it was starting to get late.

"I know, and the problem is that I don't know what I should do after this. What's the next step?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what should I do?"

"Well it's obvious, you can't do anything."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well, consider this, how often do you see Ellie in the year now that you're far away from her."

"Maybe two times a year at that."

"Right, so not very often at all. How many times do you see Alison in the year?"

I laughed, "Way too many to count."

"Exactly. Theodore, if you are to do anything, you would alienate someone you really do like in a foreign place. I assume that you don't have a massive group of friends, or even if that campus was large enough for you to not see her. What I'm saying is that there is no real way for you to do this with tact and to keep the relationships you've made intact. Furthermore, if you are to do something, you would possibly alienate a large number of your friends, making the situation dire. You can't do anything."

"I can't do anything," I said, exasperatedly.

"I'm sorry Theo," he responded.

"No no, you're right. I just needed somebody to tell me the same thing I was thinking before I was convinced that I was right."

"Well, I'm glad I could affirm things for you. I've got to go, so I'll see you when you come home or something."

"Yeah later, thanks Simon," I grabbed my phone and looked at the text again, Theo, I'm sorry about what Brittney said. I don't have any fear that you have lingering feelings for me. In fact, I would really like that you did. Theo, I've liked you for the longest time and it hurt when you left. I want to be with you.

How courageous. I told her that I didn't have any feelings for her, but she still texted me this regardless. Am I really that obvious to read? Oh shit, I checked the time, I really need to get back to Alison before she kills me.

Eleanor was packing her bags and getting ready to leave when she looked at her phone. Theodore hadn't texted her back yet. She sighed, I guess he really doesn't feel anything for me. Regardless, I still wouldn't have minded if he would have texted me back. I hate suspense, but, at this point, there's no doubt in my mind about how he feels. I wonder what I'm going to do until my flight leaves? I didn't think she would recover so quickly. I guess I have another day. What should I do?

Eleanor grabbed her phone and called her friend Melanie, "Hey Mel, you think I would be able to borrow your car for a day?"

I got to Alison's apartment at around eleven at night, maybe three hours since I had ran off earlier. I knocked on the door. I could hear her walking to answer it. She unlocked the door and opened it, looking at me with worried eyes.

"Teddy!" she jumped up and hugged me, "Are you alright? What the hell happened?"

"It was a family emergency, and I'm sorry to have left you at the restaurant. Was there enough money?"

"Yeah just enough for the tip and the meal," she let go and sighed, "come on inside and tell me what happened," I didn't plan for this for whatever reason. What did happen? Shit. Shit. Shit. I need to think of something believable. We sat down on her couch and she put my hand in hers, "so what went wrong?"

"Oh, yeah, uh. Eleanor!"

"Something happened to Eleanor! Oh no! What happened?"

"She got terribly ill. Yes… ill. She was at the hospital visiting her friend and she caught something there!"

"Oh no! That's awful! What was it that she caught?"

"They don't know yet. She was in the hospital with her friend for a few days and she has been ill since. Her sisters just informed me of the situation. It's awful, she's been, um, vomiting! Yeah, and she's been running a huge fever and having terrible pains!"

"Oh goodness! I hope she gets better soon! I know how close you two were," She bought it, and I simply couldn't believe it. I was close to falling over, ill, myself.

"Let's hope so indeed. So, what do you want to do tonight?"

"I have a few ideas," she leaned over me, and turned out the light.

"Ellie, I can't wait for you to get back. This city is a bore without you!"

"Thanks Brittney," Eleanor was on the road when Brittney had called her, "Yeah I miss it there too, and I'll be home tomorrow."

"Good, so what are you doing with your last days of dredging around in Indiana?"

"I'm actually going to visit Theo."

She laughed, "Ooh la la, I guess he was receptive to your outburst of emotion! That's fantastic. I'm so happy for you two."

"Actually," she sighed, "He hasn't sent me anything back yet so I'm going to talk to him in person.

"You cannot be serious!"

"I am!"

"That could be the worst thing for you to do!"

"Why's that?" Eleanor asked.

"Ellie, he hasn't responded for a reason. Going to talk to him could make this whole situation blow up right in your face. He needs space, or whatever."

"You said that you were certain he had feelings for me. I bet he does and he just doesn't have his phone."

"Have you had access to Facebook?" Brittney asked.

"No, why?"

"He could have posted something on it pertaining to not having his phone anymore, let me get on my laptop and check," Brittney put the phone down and she rustled around for a bit and grabbed it again, "Alright it's starting up."

"I hope he did," Eleanor said.

"Alright, I'm checking his statuses. They're all song lyrics, like always. He has the new Scissor Sisters album! Grab that from him," Brittney probed around his Facebook until she got to activity from the previous day. She gasped and started muttering to herself.

"What? What is it Brittney?"

"Uh," she didn't know how she was going to say it. She looked at the page, to make sure she was right, "I'm so sorry Ellie. I'm so sorry."

"About what?" Eleanor asked. Her stomach was churning.

"It says that he's in a relationship with someone…"

"Is it a serious relationship or a fake one?"

"It's serious from what I can tell. She's written on his wall multiple times and she goes to the same school he does. Her name is Alison. I'm so sorry."

It was true, he always talked about an Alison, she thought, "Goddammit Brittney!" Eleanor exploded with tears in her eyes, "I've been listen to every piece of shit advice you've been spoon feeding me for the last 48 hours and it's completely ruined my life! Why did I choose to listen to you? It's not like you know anything about guys except for seducing the drunk ones!"

"That was a bit harsh…" Brittney responded.

"I'm talking right now! Do you realize that you've killed mine and his friendship? I can never go back on this!"

"Don't you fucking put the blame on me! He obviously had no feelings for you and you were being completely delusional!"

"You reassured me that he did! You told me to do everything that I did! I'm going to kill you when I get back!"

"Before you hang up the phone, listen for a second. There is still no reason for you to go down there. In fact, there are more reasons for you to not go down there."

"I'm going to listen to myself on this one. You've gotten me into enough of a mess as it is. Besides, I'm maybe ten minutes away from being there," she hung up the phone and put it away. She thought to herself, How am I going to get away with this now?

I woke up at Alison's place and we had breakfast. It was a little late, but whatever, we didn't have to work again until much later today. After we enjoyed a delicious breakfast, I started to walk back to my place to have a shower before I met up with her again.

As I was walking I remembered the text. I opened the phone and looked at it again. What am I going to do now? I couldn't possibly admit my true feelings for her. Can't I? Yeah I can't, but what am I going to do? She obviously thinks that I feel something for her, and she would be right. I can't do much of anything except break her heart, but I really don't want to do that. I don't want to break a heart I could share. I just don't want to. I put my phone down as I walked into my apartment. I took a warm shower and continued to think, but I couldn't think of any way to do this without breaking her heart.

I got dressed again and I had two texts waiting for me. I opened my phone and the first was from Alison.

"Do you want to go out on the town this afternoon? There's the strawberry festival today and I thought we could check it out."

"Yeah, I'd love to," I responded. I looked at my phone and checked the other text. It was from Eleanor.

"114 Grant street?"

"Lol, that is my address," I tried to play it off like nothing had happened. I heard I knock on my door. It couldn't be! How? I answered the door.

I'll just pretend like nothing ever happened, "Hey!" She grabbed me and hugged me.

I guess she's pretending like nothing happened.

She sat down, I have an idea, "Hey, I'm sorry about that text. Melanie had taken my phone when I went to the bathroom, I think, and sent it. My friends are being awfully malicious to you recently."

"Oh," There was no way she was being truthful, "There's no problem. Melanie was always a crazy bitch… I mean, wonderful person!" Maybe she wasn't lying. I guess I never really knew her feelings anyway, and it makes things much more pleasant for me.

She laughed, he bought it, but that doesn't stop me from doing everything in my power to stop myself from crying, " I know you've never liked her."

"Like is a strong word," we both laughed. I feel anxious, like I'm waiting for her to say something to set me free.

She laid down, "What do you want to do today? I have until like eight to be here."

"I'm about to go to the strawberry festival with Alison," I said, smiling a very fake smile.

"Oh yeah, Alison, your friend—"

"Actually," I said, "she my, uh, girlfriend."

She hopped up, "Oh Theo, I'm so happy for you! She's so cute!" I started to tear up a bit but started to check myself. She pulled back and looked at me. There were tears in her eyes.

"You're, uh, crying?"

Oh shit, "Oh, Allergies," she sneezed, and it seemed fake, "Indiana has the highest pollen count in the country!"

"Oh, okay. I have some medicine if you need some."

"You're so sweet," she backed away, "but no thanks!" He's either oblivious or just accepting everything. "So, when are we leaving for the festival?"

We walked into the centre of the town and Alison met us there. She saw us and started waving and looked surprised. She walked over to us, "Who's this, Teddy?"

"Oh, yeah, Alison, this is Eleanor," I said. This is going to be bad. I forgot that I used her as an excuse.

Eleanor reached out her hand and Alison grabbed it; they proceeded to shake hands, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Alison!"

"Wait, Theo," she said as she let go of her hand, "I thought you said that she was dreadfully ill."

"Uh yeah, about that—"

Eleanor interrupted, "Yeah, about that. I was planning on surprising him and I decided that he needed to think that there was no way I could possibly surprise him, so I told him I was sick."

"Oh, I thought you said one of his sisters called you."

"Well, I didn't mean I literally told him."

"Alright, well that's very cleaver," She believed it and I could believe it myself. I looked down at Eleanor with eyes that suggested that I was saying thank you. She nodded.

Why would he lie to her about something? What was he doing that he needed to make an excuse for? Was it something with my text?

The day continued on awkwardly. Eleanor was being a completely over the top character. Was she hurt and masking it by being outrageous? I can't tell. I just don't know anymore. We walked around, ate strawberries and chatted about random things, but I couldn't shake the feeling that they both were looking at me the entire time. What was Eleanor really doing at Earlham? I started to doubt myself. Maybe the text did have something to it, but, then again, it probably didn't. She might not have sent the text, or she might have. I still don't know. The clock struck 6 and Alison had to go to work.

"It was so wonderful to meet you, Ellie," she reached out her hand.

"We hug in this family!" Eleanor jumped over to her and lifted her up with her hug.

"Oh goodness," she coughed, "thanks Eleanor."

"You're welcome!"

"Well, I'm off," she leaned up to me and pecked me on the lips, "See you tonight?"

"Sure," she walked away and I looked to Eleanor, "Where do you want to go? We can chill at my place until I need to go to work."

"That's fine," we started to walk in style for a while. After maybe ten minutes, she said, "Theo, why did I have to make up that story about the, what was it, sickness?"

"Oh, yeah, I… you're going to laugh at this, I was trying to figure out what your, uh, text meant, so I just went and called Simon. It was in the middle of a dinner and I finally read your text. It was stupid, but I had to tell her something."

She laughed, "Yeah! You're so ridiculous," he was going to do something about it… would that have meant breaking up with her?

I laughed, "Yeah, I know," We walked into my apartment. We sat on the couch and I looked at the time, "Oh I should be heading out soon," I went into the kitchen, "You want a drink?"

"What do you have that isn't alcoholic?" She asked.

"Ellie, think better of me. Only the Kool aid doesn't have alcohol," we both laughed. I grabbed to glasses and sat back down.

"It's like you grow down when you go to college."

I laughed, "yeah." We sat in silence for a bit, looking at everything but each other.

"Theodore?"

"Yeah?"

I wonder what I should do now, She was pausing for a while, I should tell him. I need to know, but I can't. I can't, He's going to turn me down, but I feel like he wasn't truthful about everything. Why would he have made such a fuss about this? I don't know, "I… how long have you two been dating?"

"Not long."

"Oh."

"Yeah—"

"So, I think I need to go. I need to get a good night's sleep tonight."

"Alright, yeah," I got up and we hugged.

"I'll see you, well, probably forever, Theo."

We both laughed and let go of each other, "It will probably be a while, but yeah."

"So well, cool. Bye!" she walked out the door.

I can't believe that she didn't actually feel anything for me. I could have swore that text was real.

I guess he never did feel anything for me.

I was just deluding myself.

I must have been crazy.

Where do I go from here?

Things will never be the same.

I guess all I can do…

Is move on.

"A truly tragic tale, Brittney."

"It really was," Brittney and Alvin had been talking for 6 hours as Brittney told him the entire story of Eleanor and Theodore, "They both weren't aware about how the other felt the entire time."

"How did you know all of this?"

It was the Winter of their sophomore year and the two were reunited for the month in southern California, "After the whole thing happened, Ellie came back to me and told me what had happened. I felt really awful about the whole situation because I feel like I had caused it. I kinda did if you were paying attention. I went and talked to people, Adam, which is Theo's roommate, Simon, and Jeanette. Jeanette knew nothing about the whole situation until I told her, but the other two were able to tell me a lot. I put all the pieces together, and then I asked Theodore to fill everything else in."

"But why? Why did you want to get all this information together?"

"I wanted it for… archival reasons." She said as she drank her coffee.

"Archival reasons? You wanted us to know what happened."

"Not really, I just wanted to know what happened."

Alvin paused and had a drink, "So what are Theodore and Eleanor doing now? Do they both know the other person's side of the story?"

"They don't."

"Why haven't you told them?"

"They're happy, why ruin it?"

"Wait, are they together now?"

"What? You don't know?"

"They got together?" He said with fervor in his voice.

"Do you not talk to Theo?" She laughed as she said.

"He got rid of his facebook. It says Ellie is in a relationship in hers. Is it with Theo?"

"Hmm."

"What?"

She smiled and stood up, "I wonder, how long I can torture you with this."

"This isn't fair! You tell me this entire story, and now you won't tell me if he got the girl?"

"You could call him," Brittney walked away laughing.

That's right, he thought, I can call him! Alvin broke out his phone and put in his number. It rang once. Twice, Come on, Pick up!

"Alvin? What an odd surprise, considering you're calling me at three in the morning."

"Oh yeah, not the same time zone."

"Being in New York will do that," I thought.

"So, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Are you with Ellie right now?"

"What?"

"I knew it! You totally aren't."

"You didn't know?"

"Yeah sorry. I've got to go, later."

He hung up before I could answer anything, "Who was that?"

"It was Alvin. Wow that was random."

"Yeah, he hasn't talked to you in a while, right?"

"Not since we relocated here. I don't really see my family that often now that we go to NYU."

"That's odd, what did he want?"

"He wanted to know if I was with someone right now," The woman walked into the room and hugged him from behind.

"He didn't know?" she asked.

"Yeah. He hasn't been able to keep up with my life since I got rid of my Facebook."

"Oh well, did you tell him?"

"Not really, he just hung up before I had a chance to tell him anything."

"I guess he doesn't know who I am."

"I guess not–"

I was interrupted by a phone call, "I'll get it," she said.

"Alright. I'm going to go to bed. I have work early in the morning," I said as I went upstairs, "Wait, is the phone for me?"

"It wasn't. I'll be up there in a bit Teddy. Goodnight!"

"I'll see you upstairs. Goodnight!"

It feels good to finish a story for the first time in forever. I was a little excited to finish it, so I didn't put as much detail into it was I wanted to. In the end, I finished it and I feel a sense of relief. Maybe a sequel if there is demand for it.