“I bet you’re wondering why I asked you to meet me here huh?”, he said, his heart pounding in his chest, wondering if he’d even be able to get the words he’s been wanting to say for a while now out.

She looked at him and smiled, “I mean hey, this was a great excuse for missing class, and I’d never miss a chance to hang with you, you’re like my best friend!”

This somewhat made his chest tighten, the words he uttered next changed their friendship and their feelings for each other drastically. “Well, that’s actually what I wanted to talk about,” he said while she turned toward him with a puzzled look on her face, “I, I like you, Autumn! I don’t know what it is but when I’m around you I feel happy, lighter than air, and when our eyes meet my stomach flips and I kinda feel like I might vomit. I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while, but I chickened out a bunch. So, what I’m trying to say is, Autumn… will you go out with me?”

She stood there in silence, and after what felt like an eternity, she finally gave an answer, “No.” She didn’t elaborate, she didn’t say anything after that, she grabbed her bag and left.

She was gone so fast he didn’t have enough time to react to her response. He sat down on the bench they stood next to and put his head in his hands. He wasn’t even sure how to react to this, she shut it down so fast and so bluntly, did she really not like him that much? He didn’t feel his heart pounding, nor any butterflies, all that was left were the shattered remains of his heart, broken, feeling beyond repair. So, he sat and cried, he let out all of his heartbreak in that moment. He stood and began to head back to his dorm after calming himself down a bit. He just wanted to go to sleep, to forget about today and move on, he knew that would be hard, but he didn’t know what else to do.

***Meanwhile on the other side of campus a bit after the confession***

She sat there, her ears red and her face hot. What did she just do, he just confessed his feelings for her, and she just said no? Why did she say that? What was wrong with her, she had never acted like that before, so why did she do that to the guy she claimed as her best friend?

“Ok ok ok, Autumn get yourself together. He just asked you out, did I let him see my face? Wait, did I give him and answer? I was so flustered, I remember him confessing and then I grabbed my bag and left,“ her mind flooding with thoughts, trying to piece together what happened, “I need to think back, it all went so fast my mind went blank. Ok, you got this. So, he asked me if I’d go out with him and then I said…” She caught herself and remembered what happened, she spoke clearly surprised by what she said, “I said no. I told him no, straight to his face and then left. Oh my god he must think I hate him.”

She decided she was going to go back and see if he was still there. She managed to get back to the meeting spot right as he left. She saw him walking away, he looked defeated. She wanted to call for him, to get him to come back so she could give him her true answer, but as she went to yell his name, nothing came out. As if her voice was cut off and her words powerless. She sat on the bench and thought to herself the words she should’ve said to begin with, “Colton, I thought you’d never ask”. For the truth was, she had fallen for him day one and has been waiting for the day he asked her out. However today, it seems her anxiety truly got the best of her.

She began heading back to her dorm, depressed, upset, feeling awful for what she’s done to her best friend and for the damage she most likely caused their friendship. She got to her room and flopped on the bed, not wanting to move from that spot. Thoughts running through her head, “What if he doesn’t wanna see me?”, “What if he never talks to me again?”, “What if I just made the biggest mistake of my life?”. After lying there, a while, she started to fall asleep, her final thought being, “Does he still love me?” She then drifted to sleep.

It had been one week since he asked her out. It had been rough, and it still hurt, but even if she did reject him, he didn’t want to lose his best friend over it. The problem was, she wasn’t answering any of his texts or calls, and when he managed to spot her on campus either she’d hide her face, or he just couldn’t work up the courage to talk to her, what if she did hate him? He couldn’t risk just walking up to her, what if she told him she didn’t want to see him, or that she never wants to talk to him again? It was just too much for him to think about, so he just decided to stay quiet and maybe she’d contact him after a bit of time.  

He checked his texts one more time to see if she responded before he headed into his 8am class;

                                                                Friday 2:30pm  

If you’re able, can you meet me,

By the benches on the side of the MCL?

                                                                                                Sounds great, see you there!

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

                                                            Tuesday 3:30pm

Hey can we talk.

                                                        Wednesday 4:46pm

I’m sorry about what happened,

but can we please talk about it?

                                                          Yesterday 7:48pm

I know I may have been outta line

and I know it probably upset you, but

if you get this, please let me know.

As he expected, no response. He wanted to text her again and call to see if she was ok, if he knew one thing about her, it was that she always kept her phone close and was almost always on it. He stopped himself, as he knew it would do no good to just keep texting her, and if he wanted any form of their friendship to remain after this it would probably be best to not obsessively text her. With that thought he shoved his phone in his pocket and walked into class.

She’d been staring at her phone for a while now, looking at the text notifications she had received over the past few days, not daring to open them. She wasn’t even sure how to respond to them. She wanted to tell him that she felt the same, she wanted him to know he wasn’t in the wrong for sharing his feelings, and that it was her who messed all of this up. She wanted to tell him all these things, so why couldn’t she just text him back, or talk when she saw him around campus? She even hid her face when she saw him from embarrassment, and fear of him being angry with her.

She’d been looking at her phone and thinking for so long that when she looked at the time her morning class was more than halfway over. This is when she decided she needed to fix this, or else her conscious would never be clear, and just maybe Colton would forgive her, that was just a false hope in her mind, but it was just enough to hold onto. She threw her blanket off and got ready for the day, mainly in hopes to see Colton, but also because she had two classes left that day. She got dressed and was about to leave when her roommate Chloe walked in.

“Hey Autumn, finally headed out for the day?” She asked while setting her stuff down and plopping in her bed.

“Yeah. I missed my first class, and I’m kinda hoping to run into him on my way out.” She responded looking down as if she was ashamed to mention it.

“You still haven’t talked to him! Autumn it’s been about a week, have you even answered any of the texts you told me about?!” Chloe asked surprised sitting up in bed, she was filled in on the whole situation when she walked in on Autumn crying under a blanket.

“Well… no, I just can’t figure out what to say. Then when I do think of something I’m afraid to open the text because what if he sees that I opened it and what if I freak out and don’t text back so it just looks like I left him on read, I don’t know if my heart can take it!” She said, clearly overwhelmed by the whole thing.

“If you wanna catch him, you should get going now, doesn’t his class end in a few minutes. You could catch him on his way back to his dorm.” Chloe said, urging her to go and make up with him.

“Ok! I got this; I can do it!” Autumn said slightly in response and more to hype herself up.

“And if anything goes wrong, I’ll be here waiting for you, ok?” She said reassuring her roommate and best friend.

“Thanks, Chlo! Well, I’m off! Wish me luck!” Autumn said as she basically ran out the door.

She flew down the stairs and by the time she reached the outside of the building she was out of breath. She stopped for a minute allowing herself to breathe and calm down, before continuing to speed walk to where she wanted to intercept Colton. She practically had his schedule memorized as they had walked together pretty much everywhere and even shared a few classes just at different times. She had just reached the walkway where she knew he’d appear. That’s when she saw him, as soon as she laid eyes on him her heart began to flutter and her stomach twist, she was anxious, but it would be ok, she would be ok, as long as she was able to talk to him, it could only get better from there right?

She began walking over, “Hey Colt-“, she stopped. A girl she had never seen before had run up and hugged him and they began walking together. She felt, broken. She didn’t know if this was jealousy, heartache, or what. All she knew was that it hurt. Was this what Colton felt when she did what she did? It made her feel even worse, and even more it made her feel like a fool. If he could move on just like that, then what was she so worried for. Before she knew it tears started flowing, flooding from her eyes and down her pale red cheeks. She couldn’t do this, not today.

At that very moment Colton had turned and saw her crying, and just when he went to start walking toward her, she ran. He would’ve run after her if his cousin wasn’t waiting to be given the college tour she had asked for a while back.

She ran and ran, as fast as she could back to her dorm. She was crying so hard she was struggling to open the doors with her card and code. When she finally made it into her room, she looked right at Chloe and jumped onto her bed crying into her arms. Chloe wanted to know what had happened, but she knew it wasn’t worth it trying to get any words out of Autumn, let alone any information when she was sobbing like this. So, she just let her cry, allowing her to get it all out and getting her to calm down in the process. They stayed like that for a while, by the time she stopped crying she got up and thanked Chloe, then got right back into bed and went to sleep. She just wanted to sleep and not think about what she saw. She kept replaying the scene over and over, the guy who confessed his feeling for her a week ago already with another woman. How could he do this to her, didn’t he love her? Didn’t he want to be with her? Was it all a lie, a joke? With all of this freely moving about her head she went to sleep.

Chloe looked over at her sleeping friend and covered her with the blanket. “Man Autumn, it’s not even 10 yet, this has to be a new record for least amount of time spent out of bed. For real though, I don’t know if you’re listening, but I’m sorry about whatever happened, and if you want to talk about it, I’m here.” She said standing over her clearly worn-out friend, she had been stressing about this whole situation all week and it’s hitting her all at once like a truck. She grabbed her bag and was ready to head out to her 10:30 class, before she walked out, she spoke to Autumn and said, “I hope you’re able to resolve this soon.”