“Why? Why do you have to go?” Maddison typed into the keyboard as she awaited a boy’s answer.

“It has to do with money, my father found a new job in California. We have to go with him.” Tom, the boy, typed back as his parents shuffled behind him with moving crates.

“I’m…going to miss you.” Madison stated as her stomach churned.

“Nah, we’ll still talk over the internet when I’m there.” Ron typed.

“It won’t be the same”

The boy sighed. “We’ve been over this Maddie…It would never have worked with us. I don’t like you that way.”

“I know…I’m over that. Come on. Don’t treat me like I’m five.” Maddison replied as a tear welled in her eye.

“I try not to.” He said back. “Hold on, I have to go, my parents are packing the computer.”

“I…guess this is goodbye then.” Maddison sadly pressed into the keyboard.

“Yep! Cya later!” The boy typed back before turning off his computer.

“If only he knew…” the girl whispered aloud.

“I think he knows how I feel, finally!” Maddison said to her friend Lucas while he pushed her on a swing set. “I mean, I know we had a rough start, but I’ve shown him my feelings, that should do something.”

“Maddie.” Lucas sighed. “He’s still leaving. Even if he fell madly in love with you right at this very moment,” ‘however unlikely’ Lucas thought, “you won’t see him again.”

The girl jumped off the swing and groaned at Lucas. “Ugh, you just don’t get it Luke. You never do, I don’t need your help, and I sure as heck don’t need your guidance. I’m a big girl.”

“If only you would listen to me for a second, I’d-”

“You’d what Luke?! Stop me from liking him? Stop me from thinking about him? Stop him from leaving?! What!? What is it that you would do?!” Facing a blank, surprised stare from Luke; Maddie walked off the grass and back to her house, where she would spend near-the-rest-of-the-day sitting on her bed deciding if she should call Tom.

Lucas just sat on the swing until the sun began to set on the foliated horizon.

‘What is wrong with her?’ he thought to himself, ‘what does she see in that guy anyway? He’s never been there for her; he’s never waited for her when school was over; he has never held her close when she needed comfort, he’s never cared about her. Why can’t she see that? Why can’t she see…me?’ Lucas shook his head violently shutting his eyes. ‘No! No! Don’t you dare go on this road again Luke, She stole your heart once and you just barely got it back. Don’t you dare even think for a second about letting her steal it again.’ Then the other side of Lucas’s mind rebutted ‘well she couldn’t have stolen it, she didn’t even know that she had it now did she?’ Lucas put his hands over his ears as if it was going to help him stop thinking.

“Shut up! No more thinking! It’s caused you too much pain already! Just SHUT UP!” Lucas shouted into the air.

‘No, you’re going to decide now Luke.’ He thought again ‘never give your heart to her again. Never.’ Taking in a deep breath Lucas stood up on his wobbly legs and began to walk home.

As he rounded the corner into his neighborhood he bumped into the very last person he wanted to see.

“Luke? What are you…It doesn’t matter. I need to say something to you.”

Lucas put the back of his right hand to her right side. “I’m really not in the mood.” He said.

She put out her arms and blocked his path. “Well then get in the mood!” she said irritatingly as she stood her ground.

Lucas narrowed his eyebrows and waited for Maddison to talk.

“Well, as I was about to say. I need to say something.” She took a breath “I’ve been thinking…I know I was curt earlier, and I just wanted to say thanks for helping me, I know it’s been tough for both of us.”

Lucas scoffed, rolling his eyes.

Maddie looked slightly suspiciously at him before continuing. “But it doesn’t mean I wasn’t right. You don’t understand what-“

Lucas couldn’t contain himself anymore.

“Don’t understand!! DON’T UNDERSTAND?! No, you don’t understand!”

“Now I don’t think-” Maddie began

“Yeah that’s right! You don’t think!! Now shut up and LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY!! I’ve listened to more than enough of you poor little, Oh, I miss him so much, Oh, He means so much to me, oh, how will I survive? News flash! The world doesn’t revolve around bloody you!! And I am sick and tired of you!”

Maddie’s eyes began to tear. “But why-?” she started again

“You want to know why? I’ll tell you why! It’s because every day for the past year I’ve had to listen to little miss emotionally abused say how he never liked her, how he never cared, how she cared so much for him. But she never knew how right beside her the entire way, there was someone who cared for her ten-fold of what she cared for him!! ME! I Loved…” Lucas looked at her for the first time since he started talking and saw the tears streaming down her face. She sniffed and stood there looking like she would topple over. Then she ran forward and embraced him, sobbing into his shoulder. He stood there for a few seconds, not knowing what to do until-

Grabbing her shoulders and pulling her off of him he said softly, “No…that ship has sailed, find someone else’s shoulder to cry on.” He set her to the side of him and continued to walk. He could hear her crying behind him on the corner, but he dared not look back. His heart would betray him again for certain.

Luke walked up the steps to his house when he put his hand on the doorknob. This wasn’t right. He should be feeling great, better than he was at the very lest. But he wasn’t he felt like he had just been run over by a truck. His stomach was jumping to his throat and back again while his hands shivered slightly. But he wasn’t cold. He stood there for a minute, just running thoughts through his head when finally-

Lucas cursed under his breath as he ran away form his house down the front lawn.

Maddie was kneeling by the corner, her back against the wall near the road. She didn’t know what she had done, but at the same time, she understood perfectly. However, it seemed that all she could do was to cry. Then, as if to make her life even worse, rain drops poured out of the sky and soaked her to the bone. Crying even harder her tears came pouring out of her for what seemed like an hour before she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She looked up with her swollen eyes to see Luke’s smiling face.

He put his jacket around her shoulders and brought her to her feet.

“Come on.” He said to her, “Let’s get you home.”

She smiled as she leaned her head against his shoulder and they walked onward through the rain, away from the corner.