Seafoam

Evangeline hates when I'm with girls. She's protective of me, just like I am of her. She knows that I'll never love any of them because we're in high school. Who finds success at love in high school?

+

A school fucking shooting. I couldn't find Evangeline. Fucking hell. I kept calling out her name and I even tried running back inside, because I knew she was probably still in there, but a cop chased me down.

I tried assuring her mom that she was alright, but I didn't know. The shooters were still inside, along with Evangeline. She could be dead for all I knew–my best friend, the most important person in my life, dead.

You have no idea how relieved I was to see her come out alive.

+

She told me she loved me. I did what my instinct told me to do first–not ruin our relationship. We're in high school, the smallest percent of relationships in high school last. Even though Evangeline was my best friend and the person I trust the most, I couldn't let that stupid statistic pass.

I had to be cautious.

I couldn't tell her I loved her back. She's Evangeline–she's my best friend.

+

I didn't know who Skyler Fitz was. And yet, there she is, spending every single waking minute with him. Who even was that guy? How did he have such a good hold over her? Why did he surpass me? I was supposed to be her number one guy, not some loser I've never seen before.

How could someone like him be a threat to me?

I shouldn't have lied to her. I should've told her my feelings from the start.

+

The one thing I love most about Evangeline is her smile. She just had the big smile and she shows her perfectly straight teeth (thanks to braces–her smile before that was just goofy, but it was still really cute) and how her eyes just bright up with her face. She didn't smile as often as I liked, but when she did, it always managed to make me feel better.

She smiled more since she met Skyler. She was happier–happier than she ever was with me.

+

The smile left and all I saw on her face was sadness. She claimed to be fine since Skyler's announcement, but I could tell that it was killing her inside. Someone that made her that happy was not who she thought.

It broke her heart.

I couldn't stand to see her like that–to see her so sad. It was my fault. It was completely my fault because I decided to hide my feelings and drive her towards that guy. If I was honest from the beginning, then Evangeline and I would be together and she wouldn't have ever been with Skyler.

I decided to tell her the truth.