My short stories

Broken Heart

A huge wall of emotion slams inside me, shaking my very core. Every nerve in my body rings with pain. A scream threatens to escape my painfully fake smile.
He stared at me grinning like a child. The same grin that always melts my heart.
His normally icy blue eyes have become warm and happy. I know he's expecting me to say something. I always say something.
"She seems great." I manage.
"She is great! She's beautiful, and so smart. When she laughs I can't help bu..." he says I zoned out and began to listen to the voices in my head. "Why would you ever even think of him picking you." They say. I continue to nod and mutter an "Aw" every now and again.
How could I let this happen? How could I have fallen for my best friend? I look at his blushing cheeks and know that she makes him truly happy, happy in a way I never could. I suddenly see the hint of green in his blue eyes. The green that holds promise of his hope.
"I've loved you! I've always loved you!" The voices scream.
"I think I love her.." he says. I manage a quite "What?" I can feel the tears rising and start the breathing exercises my therapist taught me.
"I love her, Em. I really do." He says looking into my eyes. It's a look of longing. No not longing, he is searching for something in me. It's a look that I've seen only one other time. The night after Wilson Reed's last big party. I was at home working on school work but Drew was at the party. I hated the party side of Drew, he was so different from the Drew I knew. As I worked out my calculus homework my phone buzzed. Before I knew it I was parked in front of the Reed house waiting for my drunken Prince Charming. As soon as he climbed in, the smell of alcohol overwhelmed the car. I decided to ride around for a bit before heading to my house to keep him out of trouble. "Maybe he'll sober up a little and can make his own pallet in the floor this time." I thought. I gently hummed to the low music playing when I looked over and notice him watching me. "What?" I asked.
A grin spread across his face and he said something that will stay with me until the day I die. "I don't know if you know this or not Em, but I've always thought you were beautiful." I let out a chuckle and forced my eyes on the road. "Okay Drew." I said knowing he wouldn't remember this night, let alone this conversation. When we pull up to a red light on an empty street I turn to him and finally say the words I've kept inside forever. "You know I secretly always hoped that you you pick me in the end you know." He looked at me with the same look he was giving me now and leaned in slightly.
"I always will." He said. But that was then.
His words echo in my mind as I search his eyes for the answer to the unasked question lurking between us.
Thoughts of her in all of our movie nights, all of our lunch conversations, all of our mall adventures begin to scratch into my soul. "Do you really love her?" I ask.
A sharp pain like a knife in my back fills my body's as he says the only three words that could both break me and put me back together. "I always will." He says.