When I was young, people always told me I would be a heartbreaker. I don’t think this is what they meant.

It was a comment I got quite a lot. I don’t know if it was my death stare resting face or my complete lack of empathy for others but everyone saw me as cold. They would tell me to brighten up and be kind. I always had trouble making friends as a kid because people seemed to shy away from me. I was never too upset by it because other people bothered me, but sometimes in the middle of the night I felt the loneliness deep down in my heart.

This was my life until I met the greatest friend in the whole wide world.

Instead of avoiding me, she followed me around everywhere. From the morning to the evening, from the first day of school to the last, she was by my side. She was always trying to make me laugh or smile. I enjoyed her company and I laughed and smiled back at her. Once I found out how great a true friendship could be, I felt my heart open up a little. I trusted her like I’d never trusted anyone before.

That was my mistake.

Isn’t it puzzling that she would be so obsessed with me while everyone else avoided me? That she would stick with me after being exposed to all my flaws? I was stubborn and cruel. I didn’t care about her feelings and I was rude for no reason. I never lifted a single finger in return for all the effort she gave to be my friend. Perhaps if I’d been kinder she wouldn’t have betrayed me. She would have trusted me with her deepest darkest secret.

Perhaps.

If I was a heartbreaker she certainly was. Once I started to like her she messed with my head. She dropped random negative comments about my appearance and my actions. She started not inviting me to things. She talked about me behind my back. One time we were walking on the side of a busy road. I had looked away from her for a second and I felt a push on my back. I toppled onto the pavement. A car had to swerve to avoid me. I nearly died that day. Apologizing and sobbing horribly, she claimed she had tripped onto me. But I had a gut feeling she was lying. I never saw a tear on her face. I was blamed for the incident and the harm to the cars that crashed, not her.

She got me into trouble loads of times. I was always taking the blame but it was never my fault. I didn’t realize it then but she did it all on purpose.

Her secret? She never wanted to be my friend. She wanted to cause me the most unbearable pain possible. And it worked. She messed with my head and with my life. I didn’t have any friends to compare her to so I never realized it.

Until the day she got bored.

I got to school and greeted her like usual. But she frowned at me and asked if she knew me. She claimed we’d never been friends and asked for my name. For the weeks that followed she ignored me. I was going insane, mentally tearing myself apart. I didn’t know if I could trust my memories that we’d ever been friends. I thought I’d been hallucinating, turning mad.

But she should have known never to mess with me. Since the moment she first saw my face so long ago. I realized what a liar she was and a cold and terrible fury took over me. It consumed me at night, it took over my mind when I saw her during the day.

I made a plan.

It was the middle of the night. A cold quiet night. I turned on my light. Flick. I crept across my room and crept down the stairs. The wooden floor groaning behind me. Creak. My heart was beating faster than it ever had before. Thump thump thump. The cruelness that had always been there in my heart was seeping out into my insane smile and my swirling head. I thought about what people called me when I was younger. They said I had a lack of empathy that would cause me to break many hearts. And they were right about one thing. I didn’t feel any remorse or guilt for what I was going to do.

I climbed in my car. The engine whirred on. Duh duh duh duh duh. Faster than even my heartbeat. I started to drive, the wheels rolling on the ground. The only sound in this dark empty night. I finally arrived at her house. I pushed the front door open as it was not even locked. The hinges screeched as it opened. Squeak.

My heart beating faster than ever, I tiptoed up the stairs. Tap tap tap. Standing over my old friend, to make her feel just a fraction of the pain she had made me endure.

Swish. Into her heart.

Drip drip drip. Onto the floor

A heartbreaker.