It turns out they were all right.
All those people she had labeled as critics and cynical. They had been right about him. Him, the one she’d been so blinded by. Him, the one she could still just see and smile. Him, the one who said things it turned out he didn’t really mean.
She wasn’t mad. On the contrary, people were starting to wonder why she wasn’t. Shrugging, she could only reply that she didn’t truly know either. Sure, she was a bit upset, at first, but who wouldn’t be? Now, mere days later, she was fine.
It was okay.
They were still friends, still messed around during lunch and talked about how crazy their friends were. Maybe that was best. They weren’t meant for each other, not the way she once thought. But being friends was enough for her. “Why do we even put up with this?” he sighed one day.
She brightened up; bored with the endless talks about Pokemon and other things she didn’t fully understand. “Because they’re our friends, and they put up with us.”
It was the truth.
She pondered it a bit, staring into the near emptiness of her chocolate milk. She loved her friends, that much was true, even when they were exasperating – which was a lot of the time. But, though she didn’t truly fit there, they accepted her when hardly anyone else had. Wasn’t it better to be in a place where you didn’t quite belong versus alone? She knows there are other places now, now that she’s been widely accepted due to some long-enduring friendships, but she’s not ready yet to break ties.
The time is coming though. Too many people equals too much drama that she doesn’t need. There are others that have asked her to sit with them at lunch, do projects with her in class, be their partner in gym and until now she’s politely declined. Now…now, she might just take the opportunities as they come. Live up the high school years and all.
After all, what’s life without a little danger?
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