Anything & Everything || SHORT STORY COLLECTION

Fell In Love With My Best Friend || Saint Valentine's Day Contest

A/N: An entry for ST Valentine's day! Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day everyone xx 

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Rae's mouth is watering. 

The warm afternoon at the corner shop is busy with customers as always, waiters bouncing back and forth between the guests and the kitchen as orders are yelled out simultaneously. Rae wonders how they can keep track of all these dishes coming in and out, but after all these years of seeing this ongoing bustle, it doesn't surprise her anymore. She sits at one of the wooden tables chipped away at the corners, wobbling on one of the red stools that she'd pulled out in fear that someone might steal her seat as she watches the scene unfold before her. 

He's always late. 

"Rae!" a familiar voice calls. 

Her head shoots up, only to see a familiar figure pull out the stool opposite hers before settling in with a wide smile. 

Rae's chest squeezes with affection at the sight of his face. It's impossible to deny herself of the fact that she loves Andy Tsang and has been harbouring these feelings for over a few years now, ever since he'd stopped by her locker after French class to ask her for her notes. 

"I promise I'll pay you back, I'll do anything. Please?" he'd pleaded until she'd relented with a mutter about him only knowing people when he needed them. Upon hearing that, the said young man had sworn that they'd become the best of friends, and true to his word, popped up right next to her locker the very next day to ask how she was and whether they could hang out. 

Andy just has a way about him that draws people in, like sunshine warming up your skin. He's not the usual pretty boy that most girls fall for; he's rough around the edges and acts like a total goof for the most part. He's kind and so humble that most girls had never taken him seriously as a romantic love interest, including Rae. 

She remembered that one night he'd walked her home after school hours, where they'd shared embarrassing stories and told jokes until Rae's stomach had cramped from laughing too much. She remembered his smile, causing his eyes to crinkle at the edges and turn into crescents, remembered the familiar warmth surging through her chest at the prospect that maybe, just maybe, there was something there. 

But it had been too good to be true. For soon, the rumours stated that he had found a girlfriend. 

"I thought I was important enough for you to tell me," Rae had pointed out when she'd confronted him about it.

Andy had just sighed, "there wasn't really anything...to say."

Rae had been mad. Not that he'd lied because he hadn't, not really. But it hurt her that he  never would've mentioned it if she hadn't brought it up in the first place. Her heart bled for him even when her mind was adamantly forcing her to reject that notion altogether.

She did love him. And she'd realized it a little too late. 

The only thing she could do was watch him and Seline be happy together, pushing back Seline's hair and giving her long and loving kisses and gazing up at her as though she was the only thing that kept him alive.