"We'll make it a two-player game."

I always told him that anything he went through that I would always be his player 2, assisting any way that I could, promising to remain a team forever. But ever since that S.Q.U.I.P came in to our lives, I feel that he's starting pushing me out. Like his choosing that over me. Something I would never do; not that I had that choice to make, however.

He was maneuvering his way into the cool-people cliques; to the people that taunted us, and made us feel miserable every day prior to these events. I see him hanging out with Rich, the worst of them all, and I can't help but think that he might become him, start taunting me, and forget his humanity. His one true-friend.

The worst part would be that I would let him. I wouldn't try to stand up to him, and I wouldn't tell a single soul about it; I would just permit him to make fun of me, day-in and day-out. No one cared about me enough to stop him anyway. Especially putting into perspective where he would be on the social hierarchy.

And even then only one person would be able to control him.

For as long as I had known him, all he wanted was for Christine to notice him, and want to be with him. And now, that doesn't seem to be a distant dream that was never going to happen. They started talking in the hallways, during play rehearsal, and at lunch, the days he didn't feel compelled to seat with me. When he didn't feel bad about ditching me for his new friends.

I always noticed him. I just wish he felt the same way.

When sophomore year began, I felt something change about our relationship. He didn't seem to notice it, but I certainly did. He suddenly became a lot more obsessed with girls, and not so much hanging out with me as much as I would have hoped.

It was around this time that I realized that I wasn't being completely honest with myself. I had an epiphany that no amount of time Jeremy spent hanging out with me would have been enough if he spent any more time with Brooke or Christine. Whenever I would see them hanging out, I always felt like jealous. When your best friend gets a girlfriend, it's nature to want the same thing; you don't want to be alone.

But then it hit me. I wasn't jealous of Jeremy. I was jealous of them. And it wasn't just because he was spending time with them; it was because he was flirting with them. He was laughing, cracking jokes, using physical contact, and none of it was for me.

He promised me that day that we were always going to go through life as a two-player game. I just didn't think he'd replace me with a better avatar.