The Best Friend (8)

Only now, he felt guilty and thought maybe if he had joined her on the campus, things would have been different at the moment. But despite it all, he was proud of the path he took and hoped his best friend would come around and understand him someday.

Standing in the same place they had happily circled during their first year of friendship while giggling, the memory of that and more happy moments of them together flashed through James’s mind. He felt more guilt and, wiping away the tears, turned and slowly dragged his feet towards the direction he had just come from.

As more guilt tore at his heart, he withdrew his phone, remembering something he had not shared with her and swallowing the ego they had developed recently of no one wanting to be the first to check up on the other, texted her even adding a loving heart emoji.

He locked his phone, pushed it back to the pockets of his shorts, and walked back home, not listening to music anymore and no longer in