Stuck

"So what's all this about me, then?" asked Sarah, looking from Molly to Nick and then back again.

"Ah," said Molly. "Come in, close the door. It's only right that you should hear what I've got to say as well. I just wanted to clear the air between Nick and Adam ... after all, we're none of us sure how this thing's going to end."

She paused, as if wondering how to go on. "Well, I don't know how to say this other than by coming out and saying it; Sarah, Adam's in love with you, and has done since you were at school together. Nick, that's the reason he didn't feel he could be your friend any more."

Nick and Sarah looked confused, unsure how to take this. Sarah found her voice first. "Wait a minute," she said. "Are you saying the whole situation between these two is because Adam fancied me at school? But that's... that's..."

"Ridiculous?" Suggested Molly. "Juvenile? Soppy? Any of those words would do - except, in Adam's mind, it's nothing of the sort. He'd say he was being noble, doing the honourable thing."

"But that was all so long ago," said Nick, wonderingly. "I mean, even if he did have feelings for Sarah back then, he must have surely got over the situation by now."

"You might well think so," replied Molly. "But I see how things are, rather than how they ought to be if everyone was sensible. He's not told me this by the way - not in so many words - but it's plain to me. It's like he's still a teenager, that's how he lives his life. Our Adam is like a stopped clock; he's stuck in that moment."


Part Three begins here.