How Green Becomes Wood

"That sucks dude, I'm so sorry," Sloan said, meaning it. She saw him last night, how upset he seemed, and it was exactly what she had been concerned about and why she had been trying to convince him to say something.
 
Xander swore a couple of times and ran both hands through his hair. This hurt almost like a betrayal, but the part of him that was still willing to be rational told him Sloan was just being a good friend. Good friends did not tell each other's secrets. It still hurt, but now it was something else to lay at Alec's feet. Why would he pull Sloan into something like this? How was that fair to her?

He stood abruptly and started grabbing things. "I gotta go," he told her. He had no idea where, but he needed to move.
 
"Okay," Sloan replied, slumping her shoulders, "I'm sorry. Really." There was more she wanted to say, but if he needed to go, she wasn't going to hold him back. A large part of her regretted not telling Xander, but she knew if she had, she'd be sitting here while Alec was hurt by her going behind his back. There was no winning, and anyway, she'd be hypocritical if she had told. It wasn't like she had the messiest secret relationship of anyone she knew.
 
Xander knew he'd hurt at least a bit with how he'd reacted, but he knew he had a far worse reaction boiling inside. None of this was her fault. He'd make it up to her later when he could think straight. For now, he needed an escape to cool off until next class.

Rumy was walking by arguing with Toby. "It's just not possible! Here, I'll prove it. Sloan!" She dropped down to sit backward at the table. "Sloan, what do you think of..." she trailed off with a frown. "Hey, something wrong?"

Toby stood by, waiting curiosly.
 
Rumy glanced at Toby. "I'll catch you later, alright?"

"Alright," Toby agreed. "Later!" He headed off.

Rumy leaned back on her elbows on the table and studied Sloan. "Want to tell me about it? This lose-lose scenario?"
 
"I don't know if I should," Sloan admitted, tucking her hair behind her ear, "It sort of deals with other people's secrets, you know? One of my friends asked me to keep a secret from another one of my friends, and I did, but I kept telling them to just admit to it, because the longer they waited for it to come out, and it would come out, the worse it'd be. And it came out, it's pretty bad, and now the friend who I was keeping a secret from is upset, which is so fair. But I know if I had told the secret, the other friend would have been upset, which also would've been fair. So it's like, there's nothing I really could've done to avoid any of this."
 
Rumy hissed through her teeth and turned around to sit properly next to Sloan. "Yikes. That's really rough, and totally not fair for you." She folded her hands on the table top and lightly tapped her thumbs together. "For what it's worth, I think you did the best you could and made the right choices in a crap situation."
 
"Sometimes its good to get an 'I told you so' out, but sometimes it's best to keep your mouth shut. I'm not good at that," Rumy admitted, making a face. "But your friend you didn't tell, if they're a good friend, I think they'll understand. You know, eventually."
 
"I hope so. I mean, I guess they probably will. But it still sucks until they do." Sloan said with a frustrated groan, "It's exactly what I was afraid would happen! Two months I've been keeping this secret. I mean, technically longer but before two months ago it was just 'I think I want this thing' which I don't feel bad about keeping a secret because just thinking about things isn't a crime, but it's been two months since it's been real and they've been like 'it's only two months!' And I've been like, 'and three months is a quarter of a year!'"
 
Rumy shook her head sympathetically. "Oh man, that's messed up! Two months you had to keep that secret? That's unreal. I'm surprised you're still sane and not surprised that those friends or your had an explossion." She mixed the explossion. "Now you get to deal with the fall out. Uncool."
 
"I swear next time anyone asks me to keep a secret I'm going to make them sign an affidavit asserting they asked me to keep the secret and I advised them against it." Sloan said flatly.
 
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