As you took out your school slippers from your shoe locker, you noticed there was a white envelope that had been tucked underneath your slippers. Curious, you set down your slippers on the floor next to your feet and reached to grab the envelope. Once it was in your hand, you examined the envelope to see that it was just blank. You opened the flap to it, and pulled out the paper that was folded inside of it. Unfolding it, you noticed that there was a letter written on the paper. The paper was for the most part plain. The only thing decorating it was a squiggly lined border that was a pale blue color. At the top, your name was neatly written in black ink. Before you could read anymore, someone called your name. You knew who it was right away with their familiar voice. It was your friend.

            “Good morning,” you greeted her as you tore your eyes from the letter over to your friend.

            “What’s that?” She glanced over your shoulder to get a peek at what you held in your hands. She made a small gasp, “could it be a love letter!?”

            Your friend plucked the letter from your hands and started to read it silently to herself. By the time she was done, she had a big grin plastered on her face. “Looks like you have a secret admirer. And they want to confess to you during break today! Aw.”

            A blush spread across your cheeks as your friend teased you. She handed the letter back to you and you quickly scanned over what it read to see if what she was saying was true. It was true. Your secret admirer wanted to meet with you during your break to confess their feelings that they wrote they had for a little over a year now. They requested that the two of you would meet at the sinks near the school’s field.

            You folded the paper back up and slid it into the envelope. And then you changed from your street shoes to your school slippers, putting your street shoes into your shoe locker. You looked back to the object in your hand, wondering who could have written it. It felt kind of surreal to you that someone had liked you for over a year now, and is planning on finally confessing to you later today. Before, you never really thought much about relationships. You were too busy with other things in your life to put it into much consideration. Sure, you had some crushes in the past, but they were more of an admiration rather than liking them romantically. Your friend snapped you out of your thoughts when she said that the two of you should start heading to the classroom.

            The break came, and you were on your way to the meeting place that was written in the letter. Your friend had offered to go with you, but you declined saying you could go by yourself. She replied with a little pout, and you reassured her that you would tell her everything that happened.

            When you arrived at the sinks, a boy was leaning against them, his eyes glued to the field as he watched the other students running around and having as much fun as they could before they had to go back to studying for the rest of the day.

            “Um,” you said to get the boy’s attention. He looked at you from the corners of his eyes, his mouth then turning upwards into a small smile once he saw that it was you. He pushed himself off the edge of the sinks and faced you.

            Your eyes slightly widened at who the boy was. The boy was L.Joe. He was one of the more popular guys in your grade and a majority of the girls liked him, including your friend. At first your friend didn’t really care for him unlike most of the girls, but she started to really like him when someone had ran into her in the hallway and had knocked her down on her . The person who had knocked her over kept on running down the hall, not even stopping to apologize or offer to help her up. Though, while she was cursing the person out in her head, still on the floor, L.Joe had held out his hand to help her stand and asked if she was alright. He was even kind enough to apologize for the other person. After all of that, your friend’s feelings for him started to develop.

            “I see you got my letter. I guess that’s obvious, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, haha.” You could tell that he was nervous now. His gaze was down towards the ground and his rubbed at the back of his neck with his hand. L.Joe looked back up to you. “Like I wrote in the letter, I’ve liked you over a year now…so, will you go out with me?”

            “I’m sorry, but I don’t really know you that well. I won’t date someone I don’t know.” That, plus he was your friend’s crush and you knew she would be very hurt if you went out and began to date the guy she liked. You would be a horrible friend if you did that to her. She’s very dear to you, and you wouldn’t want to lose her.

            You were about to turn away, but he grabbed onto your wrist to prevent you from leaving.

            “Can’t you just give me a chance? If we went out, we could get to know each other better.” You stared into his eyes and you could see that he was desperate. You felt bad, and were about to give in to give him at least one chance, but you thought of your friend again and declined.

            L.Joe’s grip on your wrist loosened and you were able to pull yourself free from his grasp. You walked away, but then stopped when he called your name. You didn’t turn around to look at him, and you just stood still, waiting for him to continue.

            “I won’t give up on you!”

            You bit your lip and then you left him to head back into the school.

            When you arrived to your classroom, your friend rushed over to you, suffocating you with questions as you two walked over to your desk. “How’d it go!? Who was it!? Was it a really hot guy?! Did you say yes?! Are you two going out now?!”

            You sat down and your friend sat in the seat of the desk next to yours. Your friend placed her elbows on the desk and rested her head in her hands, her full attention on you. You looked down at your notebook that you had left out earlier. “Now tell me what happened!”

            “It was just a guy from another class,” you replied. It was the truth; L.Joe was in a different class as you and your friend, so it wasn’t like you were completely lying to her. She doesn’t have to know the name of who it was, because what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, right? “I rejected him.”

            “Aw, why? I’m sure you two would have been cute together!” Your friend leaned her head onto one hand and moved the opposite hand to point at you. “Don’t tell me you told him the excuse that you’re too busy to date!”

            “No, I told him that I didn’t know him well enough to date. When I get a boyfriend, I want it to be someone I really like, not some random guy that could turn out to be someone I dislike.”

            She brought her hand back to her cheek and switched hands to lean on. “Hmm, I guess I see your point.”

            School ended and it was time for the students to clean up. Both you and your friend took the duty to sweep the hallways. You stopped sweeping when some girl rushed up to you, saying that she heard that L.Joe had asked you out during the break today. “I’m so jealous!”

            You jumped when you heard a loud plop, sounding like a broom had fallen onto the floor. You turned around to see your friend leaning down to pick up the broom she was using to sweep. It was obvious that she had heard the girl. You stepped over to your friend and you saw how tightly she was gripping the handle to the broom.

            “Why didn’t you tell me that it was him that confessed to you?” You could hear that she was really upset with the tone of her voice.

            “I thought it would hurt you if I told you who it was. I’m sorry.” You put your hand on her shoulder, but she just slapped your hand away. Tears grew at the corner of her eyes. She must be so heartbroken to find out that the one she liked, liked someone else, and that someone else was her own friend.

            “Just…don’t. I need to be alone right now.” With that, she faltered away after leaning her broom against the wall.