Funny, I never thought I would see you here, I thought.
I replayed the video, watching her smile and laugh with new internet friends. She sat on a bed in some room somewhere far away, looking happy. Good.
I never thought I would see her anywhere, actually, much less on a social media platform, showing her face. She disappeared in high school, utterly destroyed.
Figures. What happened to her in that hellhole was enough to make anyone want to never be seen again.
Most likely no one remembered her, and if they did they'd either still be laughing or feel miserable. I think about her more than I should. Maybe that's weird and I'm some creepy stalker.
But I care. After all she was my girlfriend.
Staring at the video, paused at a point where she's mid-laugh, I can see the girl from the past that my teenage self thought he was in love with.
I miss that girl.
The one that would pretend she could fly outside at lunch, running around with her arms out. The girl who would come in wearing flower crowns she actually made from flowers, putting the hipsters with fake ones to shame. She would wear Peter Pan collars and floral skirts one day, then rock an oversized sweater with cartoons on it and ripped jeans. She loved to climb on things and tear the corners of her papers and blow bubblegum while in the middle of a presentation at school. And she would draw on everything, even her body and she had a million knickknacks on keychains attached to her backpack.
Amazing how a few bullies, an Internet connection, and a rumor could shatter everything. Her innocence and optimism and carefree nature went down in flames alongside her reputation.
She broke everything off with me. Thought I had started the rumor. It had been about a secret she thought only I knew, after all.
Then she left, ran off before graduation, before eighteen. Her parents couldn't find her. Police were involved. Everyone at school was curious, more for another story than for her wellbeing.
I was distraught. I cared so bloody much.
And now, 4 years later, she is sitting behind a screen, hanging out with new people - nice people, by the looks of them. They make her laugh, they make her happy, you can see it in her eyes.
Same look she gave to me so infinitely long ago.
"Take care of her," I whisper.
