Always Beside You, Never Together

The sky was a canvas of twilight blues and purples as Eliana approached the old iron bench in Willow Creek Park. It was their place, a silent witness to the years of laughter and secrets shared between two souls. But tonight, it bore the weight of an unspoken love, a confession that threatened to shatter the sanctity of a lifelong friendship.

Oliver stood there, a statue of stone, his silhouette etched against the fading light. His eyes, once a haven of warmth and camaraderie, now held a storm that mirrored the tumult in Eliana's heart.

"Eliana," he began, his voice a harbinger of the tempest to come, "I know what you're going to say, and I wish you wouldn't."

Her heart, a fragile bird in her chest, fluttered with a desperate hope. "Oliver, I-"

"No!" The word was a thunderclap, severing the last threads of her courage. "Don't make a fool of yourself. You're like a sister to me. That's all you've ever been, and all you'll ever be."

The words were a cascade of ice, each one a shard that pierced her heart. "But I love you," she whispered, a plea lost in the gathering darkness.

"Love?" Oliver's laugh was a cruel sound, devoid of any warmth they once shared. "You call this love? It's a childish fantasy. Grow up, Eliana. I don't need this... this delusion of yours."

Tears, hot and relentless, streamed down her cheeks as the first drops of rain began to fall, nature weeping with her. "I thought you cared," she choked out.

"I do care," he snapped, "but not like that. Never like that. You've mistaken my kindness for something it's not, and now you're dragging us both into your pathetic little drama."

With those venomous words, he turned his back on her, on their history, on the bond she thought was unbreakable. The next day, the whispers began, a relentless tide of mockery and scorn that followed her through the halls of their school. And Oliver, her once cherished friend, stood at the forefront, his betrayal the deepest cut of all.

***
Mary Joye.