As she looked up into his eyes uncertainly, she had no idea what was going to come. Everything around her felt so surreal, like a blur. Sure, she knew that she was standing in the young adult fiction section of a bookstore, and that he was standing before her with a grim expression across his face, but she couldn’t seem to register anything.

“I’m sorry, for what I said” he spoke with uncertainty, and couldn’t seem to look her in the eye. Even though she’d promised herself that she wouldn’t care about him, because he didn’t care about her, she felt her heart go out to him anyway, in a seeming act of defiance. She didn’t say anything, but instead looked at him, silently urging him to continue.

“I want you to know that I care about you too” he continued. As she looked at him in scrutiny, she could see his eyes begin to well up with tears, and he looked down at the floor with sudden fascination. A single tear rolled down the side of his face, followed by yet another, and another. She stepped towards him tentatively, but she didn’t know what to do. He belonged to someone else, and she didn’t know where she could go.

“Please don’t cry,” she said softly. She felt her own tears starting to fall freely from her eyes, and for the first time in her life, it felt like words weren’t needed to explain anything. Again, she took another step closer to him.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t cry before I came here to talk to you” he said. His voice was trembling slightly, and it made her hate herself for making him upset like that. As he continued to cry, she moved herself so she was positioned next to him, facing in the same direction, and awkwardly patted his back, in a gesture that was an attempt to make him feel better, but instead ended up making her feel like she was trying to make a move on him. She wanted to hug him to make him feel better, but she stopped herself, for fear of making things worse, or going somewhere she didn’t know if she was allowed to go.

“It’s alright… I’ve cried in front of you million’s of times” she replied, as she smiled up at him shakily. His eyes were red, and she had no doubt that she looked the same, only worse.

“I have too much respect for you to cry in front of you” He said, and used the back of his hand to wipe the tears off his face. He was shaking.

“Don’t cry…” she repeated. All of a sudden, he looked up for a bit, and roughly put his arms around her and hugged her. It was so quick, she couldn’t even register what was happening, and hugged him back, but quickly let go. She knew that he’d just hugged her, but that was it. She couldn’t remember what it felt like, or what she felt, or what he felt. Just that it had happened. Of course, it was only just friendly. That’s what it was, and that’s what it would always be. She accepted that, and it didn’t bother her. He was only a friend.

“It’s alright, I’m so sorry too. I’m just upset and moody is all…” She told him, after they’d both regained some sort of sense.

“Are we friends again?” He questioned slowly, unsure of what her answer would be. It hadn’t even been an hour since they had fought and she’d stormed off, but she knew that she couldn’t not be friends with him. Even though he had the flaws that annoyed her sometimes, it was obvious that she still cared about him, and things wouldn’t be the same if they weren’t friends.

“Of course” She said.

There was no other way things could be.

6:21 PM Friday 18th February 2005