(This is WLW btw because why not 🫶)

I was sitting on a bench in the serene park, hoping the cool weather will calm my nerves. My body was shaking with anxiety as my thoughts and heart were racing. Today, I finally got enough courage to confess my love to my best friend, Cora.

We met a few years ago in high school, and it wasn’t until less than a year ago that I started to catch feelings for her. She was amiable and helpful to everyone around her, and she always looked breathtaking to me, even when she didn’t try; with her flowy brown hair to her deep green eyes, everything about her was so beautiful to me.

Finally, after an eternity, she finally came to me, looking a bit tired as she just got off of work. She gave me a weary smile that made me blush, leading me to glance away. I was feeling giddy, even though I wanted to throw up in fear.

“Hey, Amity, you wanted to talk to me real quick?” She asked me in her dreamy, soft tone, sitting down next to me. I cleared my throat and glanced back at her before gazing away from her completely.

“U-uh, yeah… I’ve been needing to tell about this for a while now..” I stuttered out while the only thing I could think about was how stupid I was looking already.

But, she just chuckled and crossed her legs, nodding, “Alright, sure. What is it?”

“Um…” It took me a while to recollect my thoughts before I took a deep breath and looked away.

“Alright, so… You know how I like girls, right?” I started off the conversation with this question just so I could continue to procrastinate on confessing.

She nodded, a small, teasing smirk on her soft lips that made me want to blush.

“I do. Do you have a crush on someone?” Cora asked playfully, obviously not thinking that _she_ was my crush at all.

My face did, in fact, redden from her playfulness, even though she was somewhat right, yet it was just _someone_ that I like.

“Well, yes…but that’s not all there is…”

I paused before muttering,

“For a while now… I’ve had a crush on _you_…”

I grimaced when I saw her face drop, looking a bit sympathetic for me. The future I was hoping for was starting to look a bit bleak.

“How do I say this…”

Cora mumbled to herself as I felt my heart squeeze in pain and sadness.

“Well..” she sighed, “For one, Amity, you know that I’m straight, and also, even if I was interested in you like that, I don’t think a romantic relationship would work out for us. I wouldn’t want to ruin what we have now…”

The blush slightly left my face, the remainder of it being from embarrassment that I even confessed to her. Part of me knew I was going to get rejected, but it still hurt to hear.

I swallowed a blinked back a bit of tears. “I understand, I just-"

I was cut off by her phone ringing, and silently, I watched her grab her phone and answered it. She was on the phone for about thirty seconds, enough time for me to try and recollect myself, before she finally hung up and looked at me.

“I have to go, Amity. It’s important.”

She said, still keeping a sympathetic look on her face; she must’ve felt bad for rejecting me. I watched Cora move over to give me a hug, and I hugged her back and pulled myself together.

“We can still be friends though, okay?”

She whispered, and once she felt my head nod, she let go and started to walk away, glancing back at me with a sad smile and saying, “I’m sorry.”

Once she was gone, I was all alone, thinking to myself as warm tears rolled down my cheeks. I felt humiliated and annoyed at myself since this was a huge waste of time and energy; what was our friendship going to be like now? Would this change anything at all? What would the future hold?

Questions like those flooded my head as I head as I sat in silence before finally getting up to walk from the park alone, holding the sobbing until I was home.