Reyna bit her lip hard as she stared at the boy in front of her. This was the same boy she'd grown up with, shared so many memories with. If only he could show some sign that he remembered her. The last time she'd seen this face was years back, in freshman year, when he mysteriously moved away. She had always thought that she'd never see him again, yet here she was, staring into his eyes.
Reyna had always known moving from San Francisco was going to cause trouble but she hadn't pictured this. How could he not remember her, after all they'd been through, the pain of growing up with unstable parents and overprotective older sisters. Everything they had shared, their strong, bond was no longer there. It was amazing sometimes what life could throw at you. One moment, you could be thinking about the people you loved, your friends, family. The next, all of that was just gone.
It had only been a few days since she'd moved to New York but she already hated it. She hated feeling out of place, being called "the new girl", everyone's judging faces. She hated everything about it. But this was the worst.
The boy in front of her creased his brow in concentration, as if trying to grasp something from the depths of his brain, which he probably was. Even though she knew the chances were slim, she'd hoped there would be at least one thing he would remember. The time he broke his ankle when they went skiing together, their first time getting drunk together, their first kiss. But his face was blank, he remembered nothing.
Reyna was tempted to tell him everything, to keep talking until he recognised her. She missed his soothing voice, his gentle hugs, his warm breath fanning her cheeks. She missed watching movies all day with him, making cookies together. More than anything at that moment, she wanted him back.
Sadly, she could not bring herself to do that, not after what she had seen the day before...
Reyna walked down the corridor towards the car park before she saw him, the boy she had believed was dead, heading towards her. At first, she was in shock, of all places she'd expected to meet him, a lousy college in New York was not one. All she wanted to do was march right up to him, scream at him and cry for him leaving her and hug him, never letting go. She almost did, but what she saw next stopped her.
"Jason!" a girl's voice called excitedly
Jason spun round towards the voice which happened to belong to a really pretty girl with choppy brown hair and kaleidoscopic eyes. Upon her arrival, Jason grinned.
"Hey Pipes. You ready to go?"
The girl, Pipes, she assumed nodded vigorously and Jason laughed. Oh how Rey had missed that laugh. Jason lent down and kissed the girl gently and Rey's confidence crumbled. So he didn't love her anymore. Maybe he never had. Reyna fled from the campus, furiously blinking back tears. He didn't love her...
"So..." Jason started hesitantly, "you were my friend?"
It pained Reyna to hear him refer to her as that but she knew that there was no more she could do.
"Yes," Reyna gave him a sad smile, "and nothing more," she muttered more to herself than anyone else.
She felt tears threatening to spill from her eyes and pushed past him, heading for her form. She couldn't take it anymore.
"Reyna, wait!" she heard a voice call behind her and she was tempted to stop.
No, he's not the Jason you remember. He doesn't recignise you. Reyna kept repeating to herself as she ran to her car.
He's just a friend, and he'll never be anything more.