I don't need anyone

I couldn't just walk into the English department because of the way it is organized: There's an open area that can be seen by at least a couple of students from each class. Also, I had learned that peering across into rooms and corridors is a terrible idea, after many painful experiences with teachers who had sneaked up behind me. This means, if I want to find Lilly, I can't sneak around. I have to be brave.

I opened the door to the closest classroom. The teacher didn't notice me open the door, but I didn't want to interrupt him either. I waited and hoped that he would notice me eventually.

"There's someone at the door, miss." The teacher looked at me, and I immediately wished that I had just risked sneaking around.

"Can I help you?"

I tried to respond, but my is blank. What am I looking for again? Why am I disturbing this class? Think, Linda, you're probably acting really strange. If you don't say something quickly, the situation is only going to escalate. The problem with that argument is that it seems to only be making it harder for me to think. I could hear my heart like a deep metronome in my head. I just want to find Lilly.

"Linda?" I spun around at the voice I recognized.

"Lilly!" It was in fact Lilly behind me, and I felt like I could cry. That is until I saw Steph who was now walking past me toward the classroom that I had just interrupted. What just happened? Did she ignore me?

"I wanted to talk to Steph." Lilly began after Steph had closed the door. "At first I thought that she went after you to find my weaknesses. She did say this morning that she wanted my position, and she does have some pretty good ideas for-"

"Where were you?"

"We went up to the blue door, because I thought you would have headed there, but we only saw your bag. So, we thought that you might have returned to class."

"You took her to the blue door?!"

"Linda, please be quiet, will you?" Lilly looked around nervously. "Can we talk about this somewhere else?"

Why would Lilly do that? It didn't look like Steph had made me look bad in front of Lilly, so why does Lilly seem so trusting of Steph that she would just show her our secret like that.

"Are you and Steph friends?" Lilly didn't reply. So. that's a 'yes'. They were friends now. Whatever that meant, I had no part of it. "I'm resigning, you can give my position to your new friend."

I said this trying to harbour no resentment. I don't like what Steph tried to do to me this morning, but, setting that aside, there is no way I can be involved in this 'friends' business.

"Stop being a baby, Linda. You can't just quit the student council."

"The only reason I joined is because of you." There are two different ways that what I said could be interpreted, at least in my eyes. The good way 'I joined because I wanted to be with you' and the bad way 'you made me join'. I guess what I felt is both of those things.

"Fine, play the victim, but if you take this path you are going to end up with no one." With that, Lilly returned to class.

When did I say I needed anyone?