Glorybringer AU ☆the fault in our stars☆

[4] Greatness

☆Glory☆

It was in middle school when I developed my crush for Deathbringer.

Before that, he and I were just friends. We didn't have a care in the world- we ran around, told jokes, studied together, and did many others things that other people do.

But as we got into middle school, the people around us were changing. The girls were paying more attention to boys, and one of the most popular boys (ranked second, apparently) was Deathbringer.

It was in seventh or eighth grade when Deathbeinger became obsessed with a girl. Really obsessed. Usually, he just played around. I could tell his heart wasn't in it. He just dated to get his mind off things, and when he got bored, he stopped for a while.

The process went like this: Deathbringer targeted a few girls at a time. They all had somewhat similar features- brown or black hair, high nose, big eyes, all of them about the same height. And they were all meaningless to him.

Many tried hard not to fall into his trap- but when they did, they fell hard. They confessed their feelings and wanted to be his girlfriend- and that was when he stopped giving them any attention and pretended that they didn't exist. By confessing, their friendship was ruined.

The one heart that he didn't break, however, was Greatness Night. She wasn't particularly beautiful. But I give her this: she had extremely rare features. I can't describe it perfectly even if I tried, but she was a half American, half Asian girl. She had beautiful slanted eyes, and her hair was cut short up to her neck. Her skin was pale and she had some sort of fierce attitude that the many girls in our school couldn't dream of having.

At first, when Deathbringer began targeting her, I didn't mind. I had told him many times before that I was sick of his playing with girls, but he wouldn't stop. It wasn't that he was particularly wanting girlfriends- it was that the girls fell for him, and by doing that, they ruined the little friendship they had.

I never paid attention to his girlfriends, not much. I couldn't remember who was his first, and I didn't really care then. He was going through something, but that something didn't hurt him, and did not concern me.

That changed when he met Greatness. When we were having a sleepover at my house, he told me all the details: Greatness didn't play hard to get, like all the other girls. One day, when they were at some kid's party together, instead of waiting for him to approach her, she approached him.

I wasn't interested then, so I barely listened. He did this a lot- told me about his girlfriends, how he met them, and why he dated them. Maybe he just needed someone to talk to. Maybe he needed to talk about something other than his family.

He always broke it off, though. He wasn't in love. We were in middle school, after all- nobody really liked anyone. I wasn't worried.

But Greatness- she was different.

She and Deathbringer talked at the party. Soon, they were going out.

But they weren't breaking up. They were walking in an invisible path, something that didn't include anyone except the two of them.

I noticed it in the little things: how he smiled when he texted her, how they held hands in the hallway, how his visits to my house became less and less frequent.

"Do you like Greatness?" I asked one day in lunch, right before the day Greatness came to sit with us.

Deathbringer grinned and his cheeks were flushing. That was relatively new, too. I gaped at him.

"She's fun to hang around with," Deathbringer said. I was starting to dislike this new boy- I hated how vulnerable he was, how easily breakable. I could see right through him, and he was letting me.

The next day, he invited Greatness to our table. For six years, we had shared a table together, just us. Nobody interfered. Many tried to, mostly girls. Deathbringer refused.

But his relationship with Greatness was slowly wrecking our friendship apart. And I was just watching, unable to do anything, hoping that they would break up and that we would be friends again.

The next day, Greatness sat at our table. That was when I realized that our friendship would never be the same again. That was when I realized that I had lost Deathbringer.

I could only watch, too late, as Greatness slowly replaced the part I used to have in Deathbringer's life, until I only became an echo. And it almost seemed like Deathbringer was letting her.

That was when I started to love him. Maybe I had ever since the day I approached him. I never knew until then, until I stared open-mouthed as Deathbringer held her hand, a small grin on his face, just like the one he used to give me.

And she smiled right back, slowly replacing the part I used to play, the light in her eyes matching mine, until all I had was an echo of the friendship Deathbringer and I used to have.

☆