“Whatever it was, it’s over.” Haley sounded irritated. “It was only a couple of times anyway, and it’s not like we had sex.”

“What do you mean? Tasha said—”

“You want me to go into detail?”

“No,” I said quickly, although I was confused.

“Look, I’m sorry it’s ruining my friendship with Tasha. I don’t want it to ruin our friendship, too.”

A surge of anger went through me. Haley and I had barely talked since graduation. “This is completely fucking over Tasha,” I said.

Haley sighed into the phone. “I don’t know what to do about that, okay? It’s not like I don’t love her, I just don’t love her. Can’t you get her to understand that? I can’t change the way I feel.”

Haley sounded so frustrated and desperate that I wanted to reassure her, but I also remembered Tasha’s face when she told me what had happened. I didn’t respond.

“Please, just make her understand,” Haley pleaded. “She won’t talk to me anymore, and I don’t exactly blame her, but it’s not like I don’t want her in my life.”

“I can’t make her change her feelings either. You should understand that.”

There was silence on the other end. A white woman with frizzy brown hair came out of the hospital and lit a cigarette. I stared at her, perplexed.

Finally, Haley said, “I know. I guess we’re stuck then.” She gave a brief, pained laugh. “I never thought it would end like this. You have to believe me. I had no idea. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Tasha and I—we’re supposed to be friends.”

The word friends sounded so tortured, a tangle of confusion and disbelief.

“I miss her,” Haley said. She spoke so softly I almost couldn’t hear her.

“Then why don’t you tell her?”

The woman was still smoking under the portico, glaring out at the parking lot.

“I can’t.” Haley sniffed, and I wondered if she was holding back tears. “If I say anything like that, she’ll never get over it. I need her to get over it. I’m sorry, but I can’t be more than friends with her. It was a mistake, and I don’t know why she doesn’t get that. I really tried to explain it to her, but this has been really hard for me, too.”

“How can you say that?” I asked. “Tasha’s one of your best friends. How could you say it was a mistake? Don’t you know how that makes her feel?”

“How do you think it makes me feel?”

“I don’t know!” I exploded. “I think you’re in denial.”

I heard Haley catch her breath on the other end. “That’s what you think,” she said coldly.