In middle school I had a bestfriend and I had a boyfriend. My bestfriend was Natsu Dragneel and my boyfriend was Gray Fullbuster.
Gray and I dated for 2 months, but I ended it after our relationship had changed from teasing to silence. It wasn't that we didn't like each other, it was that we were both awkward and inexperienced in love.
Natsu and I have been best friends since the beginning of middle school. We were joking friends and we loved to prank each other, but sometimes, our teasing got a little out of hand. One time, I had stabbed him with my lead pencil and he started bleeding. Oh, I felt so guilty... But prideful me laughed it off. Of course, that didn't go unpaid for. We were messing around during lunch and when I gave him a friendly punch, he gave me back a slap to my cheek. I ignored him the rest of the day. Even my own parents never slapped me before, but it was my best friend who did it. When I got home that day, I went into my room and cried. I didn't know why then, but I convinced myself it was because I had never been slapped before and it was embarrassing.
Before promoting from middle school to high school, I had learned that he liked me. My friend always liked to be in others privacy. I was so shocked at the news that when high school started, I ran from him. I was afraid to confront him. Soon, we stopped talking and he dated someone else, a new friend of mine. They barely dated for a month but they already hugged, held hands, and kissed. I heard all this from that friend and I just shook it off. Maybe our escalation of dating were different because when I dated Gray, I only hugged him like 3 times; that was in the second month, when I broke up with him. Natsu and that friend stopped dating because she found out that he used to like me. She started getting suspicious of him ever since and then claimed that he still liked me, so she broke up with him. I laughed at her thoughts because Natsu and I had already stopped communicating since high school started.
And so, a year went by and we were 2nd year high schoolers. We weren't in the same class, so we never spoke at all. I saw him around though, but he was walking with a different girl, no she's always been a girl we knew but never hung out with. Her name was Lisanna Strauss. I heard from my middle school friend, who told me that Natsu liked me, that he likes Lisanna now. He confessed to her, but she said her overprotective siblings wouldn't allow her to date yet. I confronted him about it once, but through social media. I told him, "I heard you like Lisanna, is it true?" He replied, "No, I don't. Who told you that?" I was surprised he lied. Even if my middle school friend was wrong, it was obvious already. I watched them every time I saw them; they were always flirting and smiling. And so, I didn't talk to him again for the year, other than educational stuff.
In our third year of high school, we were put in the same class. We started to talk more and at some point, I thought our friendship had gone just back to how it was and I was happy. I was wrong, he no longer had feelings for me so everything was different. When we were told to get into groups, he went straight to Lisanna. We used to always give each other looks, nods, and point at each other when we were given the opportunity to work together. I was sad. I was always glancing at them sitting side by side with their group. Yes, I was sad, maybe even more than that, I was jealous.
At some point in time, I had already realized my feelings for him. If I was to guess, it was probably when I was told he liked me in middle school, no even before that. The reason I cried when he slapped me was because the one I liked slapped me. We he started dating my new friend, I accepted it and let my feelings go, but when she told me she thought he still liked me, it gave me hope, but I was too scared to admit my feelings then. I was afraid that if I had told him, we would end up like Gray and I, awkward. I didn't want to lose the friendship we once had. One year later, he liked Lisanna and I let it be. It's not like I can make him start liking me again, so I just shut my feelings in. Third year, I accepted my feelings, but it was far too late. He had already left me and we would become nothing more than friends. We couldn't be best friends anymore. I realized my feelings too late and I was a coward. The only thing I can do is move on, get my education, and leave this place full of memories and regrets.
Yeah, that's my tragic love story. Love doesn't always end the way you want it to. -UsagiNekoChan