Based off the prompt 'Loneliness'

Lonely

It wasn't fair. But then again, whoever said, "All's fair in love and war," probably wasn't referring to situations like Ben's and Gigi's. Besides, Ben was free to walk away at any point. Unfortunately, the poor fellow was too far gone, wrapped in the miseries of his love. Even worse, Gigi didn't reciprocate. Still, she stayed with him.

Everyone knew that Gigi didn't love Ben—sometimes they weren't sure she even liked him. But they knew that he was her rebound because if there was one thing she hated, it was being alone.

She's using you. They had all told him, including his best friend Sakiko. He had thought that Sakiko, of all people, would understand, being as flighty and uncommitted as Gigi. But more importantly, he had thought that she would respect that he knew what he was getting himself into because she was his best friend. But no, she had said the same thing as all his other friends, even as she was getting whisked off into the arms of a new boy. They simply didn't understand.

Because if Gigi was using him, wasn't he using her too? She was using him so she wouldn't have to be alone, he was using her for her love, her touch, her caresses and kisses—even if they didn't mean as much to her as they did to him. Maybe in the long run he was getting hurt, but being with her, taking care of her—that made it enough.

"One day, it won't be enough," Sakiko had told him once, "you'll realize that you want a lot more than what she's giving you, a lot more than what she can give you and you'll keep looking for it. Going from one person to the next in the hopes that she'll be able to give you what Gigi couldn't, when actually you don't want it from anyone else, you want it from her, you want it from Gigi. So you'll go back to her, even when she won't take you back anymore. You'll continue to go back to her in the hopes that you can be there for her if she ever needs it. But even if she does take you back, you'll realize that being with her will make you as lonely as being without anyone makes her."

And Sakiko had said it with such certainty, with such downcast, heartbroken certainty that Ben had wondered what happened to her. Of course, she had refused to tell him, refused to even look him in the eye as she snapped that he was completely missing the whole point.

So Ben stayed with Gigi because he loved her even if she never returned his feelings. And he never even noticed how Sakiko would become so frustrated until she just gave up and went into the arms of the next boy who asked her out…

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