“What an idiot!” Wiping away tears of laughter, she eyed her best friend as he picked himself up from the floor, hair and clothes now an unspeakable disaster. “You’re really stupid, you know that, right?” she taunted.

Utterly bemused, he glanced around. “Who’re you talking to?” he asked. “I mean, I can only see one idiot around here, and quite frankly, it isn’t me.”

She promptly whacked him over the head. Laughing, he glanced behind her. “Oh, Emily’s finally here, I’ll see you later, ok?” He ran past her, ruffling her hair as he went. And she watched his receding back, watched as he caught up to his girlfriend and kissed her on the cheek.

Left behind again. The smile on her face tensed, cracked, breaking beneath the strain of everything she wanted to tell him, and everything she could never find the courage to say.

She turned away, brushing aside tears, hating herself for her weakness. Wishing she could stop loving him. Yet knowing she was only asking for the impossible.

Really…

What an idiot.