For a few weeks they had been meeting, going for coffee, for dinner and movies. They would talk more and more often. Each time
they saw each other their conversations become less shallow, they headed for more personal territory. She told him what had
happened with her, about her relationship with them. She left out a certain part of course. She never once let on that she had been and
was once again in love with him. He told her about what happened when he was sent off, what happened to him before he came back
home, his problems with alcohol. He never mentioned the reason behind all his actions. He too never let on that he had been in love
with her and was still in love with her.
They could see in each others eyes that certain truths had been emitted from they're stories, but they understood the pain and so neither pried. One evening she couldn't resist asking him.
"Why did you find me?" he looked at her confused. "I mean, you knew I was in the city, but what made you decide to come to my apartment?" she asked.
"I wanted a friend." he answered simply.
"Well not that we're not friends now, but up until a few weeks ago, I didn't know you considered me a friend." she said.
"At our old school," he began, "there was no one ever real. Everyone was fake and I hated it. Then you showed up, you weren't like us, you were untouched by the world which I hated. Sure I didn't act like it most of the time, but you were a friend to me. I was just not very nice to you, I was never taught how to act around a real friend. When I came here, I found the same people I had hated back then. I knew you were here, I wanted someone real." he said.
She smiled. "Can you forgive me for the way I treated you?" he asked.
"Of course." she answered.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. "I didn't hate you, you know." she said suddenly. " I never hated you. I was annoyed by you yes, but never hated you..You might have been an arrogant jerk most of the time, but I could see in your eyes a different person, someone better than the people around him." he looked bewildered. "I just wanted you to know that. " she stammered in explanation.
"I appreciate knowing that. You don't know how much it means to me to hear that." he said
they sat there drinking there coffee in a pleasant silence. He got up and said he had to go. She said she was going to sit and read for a
while longer. She still carried a book wherever she went. He smiled at that. He paid for their drinks, said goodbye and walked out.
She smiled. Even if he never loved her back in the way she wanted him too, she would always have a friend in him. He was thinking
the exact same thing as he was leaving. They both held a feeling of bittersweetness.
She sat there for an hour longer. She had never actually read the book. She had been thinking, about life about love. She asked herself, why that whenever she fell in love, she always got hurt. She was getting up to leave, when a young man walked in. He was very familiar looking. Her jaw dropped open. It couldn't be, not after all these years. He looked up and their eyes locked. It was him. She sat back down, her eyes showing the pain of an old wound re-opened. He was back.
