Jasmine

A huge grin spreads across my face. Butterflies flutter in my stomach, as my best friend steps out of her car.

                “Hey, how are you doing?” I ask as I embrace her thin figure.

                “I’m great,” she says as she squeezes me.

                I smile into her pale blue eyes.

                I loved her eyes. I loved everything about her. The playful freckles that danced across her face. Her thin delicate brown hair that gleamed in the sun. The way she laughed so loud and obnoxiously, yet spoke so gently. I loved how one moment we could be talking about our love of God, and the next shooting Nerf guns at each other. How we could be content watching a movie on the couch and then suddenly laughing so hard our abs hurt. I loved the intoxicating smell of her skin and how every time her name left my lips a butterfly danced in my stomach and I just had to smile.

                I loved her.

                “What?” she asks, bringing me back from my daydream.

                “Nothing,”  I say, “It’s just…nothing.” I give her a reassuring smile and mentally punch myself in the stomach. Just say it already, I think to myself.

                We start to slowly walk through the park catching up since the last time we had talked.

                I stop abruptly.

                “What now?” she asks playfully.

                “I love you.”

                The words burst out like a freed bird. A river of emotion rushing out with no restraint. My insides turned into a frozen wasteland. I had said the forbidden words. The words that had been bottled inside of me for years. The words that could gain me the love of my life or scare off my best friend.

                She smiles at first, thinking it was a casual ‘I love you,’ but my face tells me otherwise.

                “I love you.”

                She looks down in confusion. I die on the inside, realizing I had done it. Our relationship was gone.

                Tears glisten in her beautiful eyes as she stares deep into mine.

                The butterflies freeze and crash down. I just want to run. Hot tears gush out of my eyes as I turn to walk away.

                Suddenly the butterflies flutter faintly. Her hand is on my shoulder. Her touch makes me quiver. She doesn’t say a word but, leans in until our noses touch. Her soft lips delicately brush against mine. The butterflies dance in my stomach just like when I say her name:

                Jasmine.