We've been friends for years, since she moved in. And I've loved her since that first year. I finally managed to tell her, just now, in our favorite place in the woods. And I ruined it all.

     She doesn't return my feelings. She's not lesbian or bi or pan. She can't return my feelings, and I can't let mine go.

     She leaves with a lackluster "sorry". And my legs give up on holding me up once she's out of my sight, gone past the first hill back to the open world.

     I lay down on my back and stare at the canopy above me, feeling the wind on my skin, the moss beneath me. I don't know how long I layed there, but my mind was replaying everything, every moment spent with her.

     I finally meet the end of our chapter, and get up to go home. My barefeet curl into the moss as I feel like a new chapter is opening up and with elation, I run home.

     A new chapter, without her, will be hard, but I know I can do it. I can get passed this. I will.