**[this is super info-dumped]**

Mark Cincederr used to be the love of my life, perfectly in tune with the melody of my heart.

He was Mr. Popular, I, Miss Bookworm.

I still am, and he still is.

Yet, something shifted.

They say opposites attract.

They used to.

But, as I kiss him, I’m feeling no sparks. No attraction. Nothing.

He adjusts a second, as if just now realizing I was attempting to kiss him.

I break apart before he can continue.

“Mark…”

His silver eyes meet mine, and, as if he knows what I’m about to say…

“Sads, I have to tell you something.”

“Me too.”

I hold out a hand in front of me, with only three fingers hanging in the air. “On three?”

Mark nods, a grimace taking the light from his face as he almost seems to regret the agreement.

“Okay.”

I start to count down, merely mouthing the numbers as I try to mentally prepare to tell him. We both focus our attention on the countdown.

How did I prepare to say it?

_Mark, baby, I don’t think our love spell is working anymore._

That wasn’t it.

_Babe, I’m afraid our love story might be over._

By the time all my fingers had fallen back to my fist, Mark and I both blurt the exact same thing.

“I don’t love you anymore.”

Neither of us meant to sound harsh, I know.

Yet it still sounded as such, and we both know it.

“Uhm… Mark, we should both explain,” I comment, as I fidget with the small box in my hands. “Do you… like… mind going first?”

He glances back up at me, a small smile on his face. “Need to gather your thoughts?”

I laugh softly, even as I feel quite the opposite. “We know each other so well, and… I just feel… terrible about the lack of love we feel for each other.”

“Yeah.”

We sit in silence for a second, until my boyfriend… ex…? Until Mark speaks up.

“Look, Sadie, I… do you mind opening your Christmas present right now? Before I tell you? It’s just… I don’t want you to think any less of me and not accept the gift because I’m such a low person…”

Oh.

He’s going to tell me about… _that_…

Wow.

I might as well open the gift.

“Okay.”

I untie the pretty red bow, simultaneously and subconsciously my mind drifts to a question of if the bow symbolizes our wrecked plans of romance.

As I pull the top of the small box open, I find tons of letters, handwritten by Mark, as well as handwritten… coupons?

The boy beside of me reaches across, sliding closer to me on the bench. He shifts a rather lengthy letter to the top of the stack. The first sentence sharing the words, “After this, I hope we can stay friends.”

“Mark… is this a breakup letter?”

“Yeah…”

“You were supposed to give this to me on Christmas,” I retort, trying not to holler. It sounds indecent of him to do so, and it could be that way. But I _know_ Mark. He wouldn’t want us to continue a relationship if he loved someone else.

And he did.

“I know what happened. I know.” My voice chokes, but it has no meaning to me. I love him like a brother, not a lover. But…

He loved Eliza Harrison.

Eliza Harrison… my twin sister.

Mark didn’t intend to, I know that. He didn’t mean to fall for Eliza. When I wasn’t there for him, she was. She helped him with his schoolwork and with his life in general. I was just… his girl-friend.

“And- you just- didn’t tell me?” He asks hesitantly, backing away from me swiftly. I see the tears brimming at his eyes. “You really don’t love me anymore? You let me go through the torture and guilt—“

“We’re both guilty,” I cut him off abruptly, my words as sharp as ice. When his face shows confusion, I elaborate. “I didn’t tell you because I love someone else too. I didn’t tell you because, although I loved you, I didn’t want to be the jealous girlfriend. And then I went and… fell in love with someone else too.”

Mark Cincederr was not my soulmate. He was not my one true love. He was not my Prince Charming.

He was my best friend. And all people have heard the stories of ‘right person, wrong time.’ He was the right person for someone. For Eliza. My right person was always just around the corner, and now was the right time. For both Mark and I.

Jonah Commodore. Future bestselling author, future J.K. Rowling or S.E. Hinton. Maybe even Charles Dickens or Rick Riordan. He wrote historical fictions, _ironic_ as he had the last name that was used as a title in government. He was in my history class, and I never looked at him right in the eyes. Until my love for Mark ended. At least the romantic love. And then Jonah and I got partnered for an assignment.

Then I fell in love.

Love.

“I do… actually still love you, Mark. But it’s faded from romantic, and I can’t find it in me to fix it.”

“I still love you too.”

We both nod at each other, but our eyes focus on the letter in my hands.

“And it’s okay that it’s no longer romantic?”

-

“It’s okay.”

I finally look up at her. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, at least not anymore. I would have, months ago.

If I hadn’t started falling in love with someone else.

“You’re positive?” I question, even as my voice doesn’t want to follow through. “You’re sure that it’s okay?”

“If I wasn’t, I’d be a hypocrite.”

I huffed out a breath, wrapping my coat around me a little tighter. “Who’s the guy?”

“Commodore from history.”

My jaw drops wide open.

“That is the best thing I’ve ever heard. He’s a historical fiction writer, with the last name Commodore, and he’s in your history class?”

We both laugh, even as hers is more muted than mine. I can feel the tension hanging in the air, although I really did hope it would loosen its grip on us after the secret was out. Or the _secrets._

“Did you fall for him before or after?”

“After learning about you and Eliza…,” she mumbled, shrinking down against the bench as she focused, or rather not focused, on the box in front of her. I remember why she does that. Too afraid to speak what she wants to, so she pretends to be busy.

“It’s okay, Sadie,” I say. “It was worse what I did.”

“We both did a bad thing.”

“Yeah.”

The silence tightens the tension, and I want to run home quickly just to get a knife to cut said tension in half. Preferably in millionths.

It’s not supposed to be this… awkward. I was expecting her to yell at me. To scream and say we could never be friends. Of course, I always want to be her friend, but… how can she forgive me? It doesn’t make any sense.

I fell in love with her sister, while still dating her.

It started when I failed my maths test. I was freaking out, because Mr. Henderson told me that if I didn’t improve and pass my next exam, I wouldn’t graduate. So I showed up at the Harrison household, looking for Sadie. Of course, Eliza had been the only one there at the time.

She gave me a small smile and told me that Sadie wouldn’t come home that night. She was visiting their grandparents in Arkansas.

Then after an awkward moment, Eliza agreed to help me. She didn’t even know what subject I needed help with, and she offered to help me right there.

It took guts for her to do that.

That night I failed more than once. I failed a test, but I also failed a relationship. I failed Sadie, by falling in love with someone else. By falling in love with her sister.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble quietly, reaching for Sadie’s hand. She looks down at my hand, before lacing our fingers together. Slowly, she leans over and kisses my cheek.

“I am too.”

Then she packs up the box, lets go of my hand— and just walks away, her boots softly thudding in the snow.