This story will be broken up into four parts: context, a “Normal” Talk, the Stella Situation, and the Zoey Operation. Also, I’m in California (and on PT instead of ET) staying at my best friend’s house.

Context
To understand some of the stuff I’m about to write about, you need context. So, here’s a few mini-stories. Last April (2022), Stella (my crush) kicked a soccer ball that ended up hitting Noah (my best friend) in the head. Since then, he’s had a grudge against her. Now, him, Bria, and Zoey (my best friends) all know I like Stella. Noah, meanwhile has had several crushes, but he currently likes 2 girls, both of which go to my school (which is across the country). These girls are Zoey and Maddie. We didn’t really focus on his feelings for Maddie, but rather on his crush on Zoey. Thirdly, I may have told Zoey how Noah feels about her, but no one knows I told her that, and we’ve agreed to pretend that I never sent that text. Fourthly, Noah’s had a grudge against this (white) girl named Emmy for a while now. She used to be Bria’s best friend when they were younger, but then Emmy moved and went to other campus of our school, becoming friends with Kaylah. She has since abandoned her for Giusi (who can’t read the word “mother”) and Kate.

A “Normal” Talk
Me and Noah called Bria on my phone, and we tried to get Zoey on the call, but she said she’d call in an hour to an hour and 30 minutes. While we talked to Bria, Noah’s siblings Ella (4 years younger than him) and Jacob (8 years younger than him) were driving us crazy. We had to run from them. Eventually, we managed to escape Noah’s room, but by then, Jacob had already lifted up the dress of one of Ella’s Barbies.

The Stella Situation
So, I managed to convince Noah to tell Bria about his crushes over the years (he had a new one in every grade), and Bria said, “I already know one of them.” Noah then began kicking me in the shins when he found out I told Bria about his feelings for Zoey. Anyways, Noah said all of his crushes, and then he asked Bria if she could Emmy and Stella to the call so he could yell at them. Bria didn’t add Emmy, and was nervous about adding Stella because the call notification would show up with her name, so she texted me her contact (!) and Noah added her to the call. She didn’t join, which was good. We eventually moved into Ella’s room and talked, which was where we formulated a plan to find out if Zoey liked Noah, despite me telling him I had asked Zoey last month if she liked anyone (it was what prompted me to tell her I liked Stella) and she had told me no.

The Zoey Operation
So, here’s the plan: we’re gonna get Zoey on the call, I’m gonna turn my camera and mic off and tell Zoey me and Noah are getting snacks, but in reality, we’re listening to Bria ask Zoey questions about her crushes and stuff like that. The operation was delayed by 5 minutes because Zoey was in a taxi and 5 minutes away from home. We did manage to get her on the call, and then I said, “Yeah, me and Noah are gonna go downstairs and get some snacks.” Then, I turned off my mic and camera and we listened. However, as Bria was questioning Zoey, a problem arose. Noah wanted to hold my phone to listen better, but Zoey was texting me because I had warned her earlier that Bria might question her, and now she was asking if we were actually still in the room listening to the conversation. I managed to keep the phone away from him long enough to tell her to stop texting me and turn off all notifications from Zoey. Then, Bria asked her, “So, do you like Noah?” And I will never, and I mean never, forget what she said: “As a friend.” That was kinda sad, but we kept listening. Then, Bria started texting me about what she should say. (I’ll write the conversation later.) I told her to play it cool. She talked to her for a bit more, then told me to tell Noah to tell Zoey, “LIKE A MAN.” (The text was in all caps.) We then turned my camera back on and talked for a bit, before ending the call.