STARDUST ⭑ LUKE PATTERSON

three and a half

    "IT HURTS," Emmy whispers into the dark, but she knows he's there. She doesn't have to be able to see Alex to not feel his presence. "I look at him, and it just hurts."

    "It's not supposed to hurt this bad when you see your best friend kiss another girl, Em."

    "Please don't say that." She squeezes her eyes shut, hoping that barrier would stop the tears from falling. "Please don't make it sound like I actually like him."

    "But what if you do? You guys are best friends."

    "That's the problem, Alex. We're best friends. Nothing more."

    Emmy releases the loudest, most dramatic sigh before shielding her face with her small hands. Alex did the same, exhaling with utter volume. Em did it again. So did he. Then, it was just the two of them sighing back and forth, until they burst into a fit of giggles.

    Emmy couldn't explain the feeling that burrowed a whole in her chest because she was scared that if she was able to put it into words, it would be real. So, when she felt like she was concaving, crumbling from within, falling apart at the thought of Luke Patterson, she let out one more sad sigh.

    Alex turns his head, feeling the grass tickle the side of his face. They were lying in her backyard, but the sound of her Louis Armstrong vinyl was heard from the living room inside. "Talk to me, Emmy."

    "I ran," she murmurs to herself. "I felt hurt and I ran."

    "It's okay to be scared."

    She shakes her head. "No," Em says. "My, um...my dad and my mom argue a lot. Whenever it gets too much, too loud, too angry, too hurt, too real, he leaves. He always comes back after a few days, sometimes weeks, but he still runs."

    "Em..."

    A stray tear slips from the barricades, and she was just so thankful how dark it was. "I just..." Emmy sighs, one that made her feel more hollow, "I don't want to be like him."