Love and Loss.

Twenty.

"He seems different from the others. I really, really like him."

Her mouth, set in a wide, goofy grin, the kind of grins when people are thinking about the person they love.

Her eyes, sparkling and bright.

"You like him, huh?"

She nods, and that smile is on her face again.

He swallows the hurt welling up inside him, tightening his chest, clogging his throat,

And smiles.

"That's cool."

It hurt.

God, it hurt so much.

It pained to breathe, it hurt to even talk.

Her eyes had never seemed so bright, so full with all the others.

Stupid.

He tells himself.

Stupid. Stupid.

Like a damn fool he believed, he held on to the smallest, tiniest piece of hope that maybe, just maybe, she'll realise that...

Him. He's the one she needs.

He'll take care of her.

He'll never stop loving her.

He'll protect her.

Forever.

She looks up at the night sky, her face full of bliss.

And he wonders.

Maybe, it was worth a shot.

Telling her about what he truly feels about her.

Maybe it wasn't so bad.

Maybe she'll realise it too, and pull him into a kiss.

And he can make her forget.

Forget all the other guys.

And she can love him.

"I..."

She turns to him, expectant.

His words were literally right there, right there!

He could just spit it out.

Yet, it was trapped in his throat, unable to leave.

"Yeah? What is it?"

She sounded so nonchalant, so, unexpecting, he thinks maybe it was better if he keeps it to himself.

A rush of anger floods his chest.

Why should he keep it to himself?

He'd kept it for so long, five years!

From when he was fifteen to when they are twenty.

He'd suffered too much, hasn't he?

Why should he allow the Universe to torture him so?

"I'm in love with you."

The words tumble out of his mouth, and he feels a weight lift off his shoulders.

Her smiling face, changed.

And then he feels the bone-crushing, maiming weight of the guilt, horror and regret.

"You...what?"

Her face was one of pure horror.

"I can't..how long?"

"Five years."

She looks up, and he glances tears in her beautiful, brown eyes, now golden with the rising morning rays.

The world paused.

The sun, rising, painted the sky a wonderful pastel pink.

It seemed to signify, a new beginning, a new chapter.

A painless, breath-taking chapter.

It could happen.

Hope unfolds in his chest, his heart swelling.

She could say, I love you too.

And it'll all be okay.

"I can't love you back."

His heart shatters even more than it already has over the years as he watched her fall in love.

Hope was a cruel mistress.

His heart smashed into so many tiny pieces, he knows.

It'll be impossible to pick all of them up and make them whole again.

"I loved you! For five years! I broke my heart over and over again just because of you!"

The floodgates opened, the line between control and feelings broke.

"I never asked you to fall for me!"

"Stop it! I couldn't control it!"

"Maybe, maybe...we shouldn't have even met in the first place!"

She gasped, like she couldn't believe she said that.

"You don't mean that." The statement came out in a breathless whine.

Her shocked face hardened.

"Maybe I do." She hisses, tears falling freely from her eyes and onto her cheeks.

She backs away, just as the sky changed to a bright blue.

She disappears.

He collaspses, sobbing uncontrollably.

Now he'd really done it.

He'd lost her.

That's why, you don't fall in love with your best friend.

It overcomplicates things, feelings, actions.

He hates himself, for falling for her in the first place.

Perhaps she was right.

Maybe they shouldn't have met at all.

End.