Too Close

Cause we were just friends. Right ?

They've been best friends since childhood, forced together at a wedding neither wanted to attend, inseparable ever since. She was the one who patched him up when he got hurt. He was the one who stood between her and anyone cruel enough to hurt her first.

Somewhere between skinned knees and a storm neither of them ever talks about, they learned two different ways to survive the same fear. She learned to disappear before being left. He learned to stay, no matter what it cost.

Now, years and cities and everyone else's hands later, he's still counting the days between her messages. She's still calling it friendship.

Some people spend a lifetime mistaking the truest thing they have for something safe. They're running out of time to stop pretending.