“Oh tell me!”  She protests strongly and pleads with her eyes.  “Please!”

            “Alright.”  I smile as I think back to the first time I met her.  “From the first time I saw her, there was something that drew me to her.  She was so sweet and innocent and yet every time I looked at her I saw nothing but strength and confidence.”

            “Was sweet and innocent?”  I smirk at her before continuing. 

            “She was interested in my ex-boyfriend and I was interested in her.”

            “Ooh, this is getting good!”  I shoot her a ‘can I finish look’.  “Sorry, go on.”

            “We became fast friends and she was the only one who seemed to see me for me.  Her mother was constantly criticizing her for hanging out with me, but she saw past the exterior that everyone else saw.  She saw past my destructive behavior, my dropping grades, my sexual orientation, and my lack of parental guidance.”

            “So she knew you were gay?”

            “Yeah, the rest of the school made sure she knew that little tidbit.  As time went by, I started falling for her and to my surprise, I found out she felt the same way.  She went through a tortuous identity crisis, but as they say ‘love trumps fear’.”

            “So you did date!?”

            “You’re really annoying to tell a story to, you know that?”

            “Yeah, I’ve been told once or twice.  So you hook up, then what?”

            “We dated for like three months, but you know, we were young and we knew it couldn’t last.”

            “Why not?”

            “We were 16!  Who finds the person they are going to spend the rest of their life with in high school?”

            “Well what happened?”  I shake my head.

            “I’m not sure, really.  We got into a huge fight one day and just stopped talking for like two weeks.  When we found out how miserable we were without each other, we finally started talking again.  We decided that our friendship was too important to mess it up with the complications that sex brings.  So we agreed to just be friends and over the years we have just gotten closer and closer.”  I just sit and think about her for a moment.  “She pushed me so hard in my last two years of high school.  I got straight A’s.  Me, a person that had not gotten through a class in my life with a grade higher than a C.  She is like family to me; like a sister.”

            “Aww, that’s sweet and all, but you’re in love with her.”  I laugh at her incredulously.

            “I am not!  Seriously.  I love her, but not like that.”

            “Hey denial!  Nice to meet you!”  I throw a pillow at her.  Then I stop to think; maybe she does have a point.  I flashback to our near kiss earlier.  It was not planned, but it could have changed so much. 

            “Alright, maybe I do still have feelings for her.  But she is moving 3,000 miles away. It could never work.”

            “How do you know if you don’t try?  When is she leaving?”

            “Tomorrow.”

            “Tomorrow?  Why are you even here?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “If she is your ‘best friend’, why aren’t you spending the last of her time here, together?  I mean she took the time to come here with you.  The least you could do is see her off in the morning.”

            “She has to spend the time with her family.”

            “Didn’t you just get finished telling me you were family?  Sisters I believe it was.  You really want her to leave, not knowing how you truly feel?”  I contemplate the thought.  I really don’t want her to leave at all.

            “So what should I do?”

            “Now I understand why things didn’t work out.  Are you always this dense?”  I would get mad at her, but I know she is right.  We could not date because I was so bad at it and I was too afraid to loose her completely.

            “I’m gonna go to her house.”  I stand up to find my keys.

            “That’s the spirit!  Then what?”

            “Then I’m gonna tell her how I feel.  I know she is still going to leave, but at least I will have told her.”  I smile at her as I open the door and walk out.

            “And don’t come back till you do!”  I hear her yell to the closed door.