“What went wrong?” I fiddled with the empty straw wrapper on the table.

Across from me, Ami, my ex childhood best friend sat in silence, her eyes filled with sorrow as we waited for our orders to arrive.

“We were inseparable. We told each other everything. Experienced the challenges of life together…” a tear rolled down my rosy cheek.

Ami and I were more than friends. We were like sisters. Suddenly, out of no where, she began growing cold towards me. There were days where she avoided me and would make up ridiculous excuses as to why.

We went our separate ways when I moved out of state. 10 years later, I come across her Facebook and hesitantly tapped on ‘add.’ To my surprise, she accepted my request.

It took me a week to send her a message, afraid of what the response would be. Eventually I worked up the courage, which led us to where we are now. Reunited once again at the downtown café.

“I-I can explain,” she stuttered, curling strands of her long, chestnut hair around her finger. “Ellie, I actually have a confession to make…”

I looked up at her and tilted my head. My brows furrowed in anticipation. “What do you mean?”

Ami sat up straight and let out a shaky sigh. “I um… The reason I avoided you is because I started developing feelings for you…”

My jaw dropped in shock and I was lost for words.

“Wait w-what?” I stammered as I struggled to process the words that had just came out of Ami’s mouth.

My heart began racing along with my mind, as if to see who would reach the finish line first.

All this time I thought my best friend hated me, when the complete opposite was happening. I never thought this would be the case. This was the last thing I expected to hear from her.

“It began when we were teens. I was very confused and I didn’t want to process these feelings I was having about you. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship with it-“

“-So you chose to avoid me and ended up ruining it anyway…” I interrupted, looking off to the side.

It all began to make sense. There was something different about the way she gazed at me sometimes. I would catch her staring at me with her cheeks flushed. I thought nothing of it at the time.

There were times where she would hold my hand, I assumed for comfort. This was all shocking to me.

“I’m so sorry, Ellie,” her voice cracked as she stared down in shame, unable to make eye contact with me. “I never wanted it to end up like this. It hurt me so much. I thought if I stayed away from you long enough, those feelings would go away, but they never did… I understand if you want nothing to do with me.”

I sat there frozen, not knowing what to say.

Part of me was mad at Ami, but the other part now understood after listening to her. I then realized that I didn’t want to lose her again. I wanted to forgive her. Now that I knew what had happened, there was a glimmer of hope.

“Ami, I’ve missed you and our friendship. It may take me some time to process this information, but I don’t want you out of my life,” I confessed.

Ami’s eyes met with mine and she gave me a warm smile.

Suddenly, butterflies began to flutter in my stomach. I extended my arm over the table between us and clasped my hand over hers, caressing it gently. The corner of my mouth raised into a smile. “So, where do we go from here?”