You are my best friend.
You were always there, even when others were not.
You're the one who knew what I wanted to say, even when I couldn't. You knew how I felt when words wouldn’t touch my feelings.
And you alone knew how to make me feel better. When to make me smile, when to make me laugh, and when to just let me know that you were there.
You would defend us when our peers laughed and pointed.
“Look at them,” they’d say, “They must be dating and trying to keep it a secret!”
Even my friends didn’t believe it. But I knew.
But you were my best friend.

Then she moved to our school.
Finally, a girl who I could share secrets with.
Not everything; you knew so much more.
Someone who I could talk to whenever I wanted and my parents didn’t care, my friends didn’t care, the others didn’t care. Someone just in case you weren’t around.
But you were still my best friend.

Her and I grew closer. I was her rock, just as you were mine.
I didn’t forget about you, my best friend.
When I walked over to you, she came with.
When I texted you while she was around, she’d text you too.
When I ate lunch with you, she’d follow.
But I didn’t care; I was your best friend.


One night you called.
You wanted to talk, so I listened.
I listened as you rambled about random things, wasting away the time till you got to the actual point.

“I was wondering. Homecoming...” you started to say.
I wasn’t ready. You were my best friend; did I want to chance that?
“I wanted to go with someone. But I wanted to ask you.”
“Wait,” I remember thinking, “Is that the lamest way to ask someone out ever? Or is he serious...”
But I kept my mouth shut as you gushed out the rest of your sentence.
Paragraph really, you were freaked out at telling me this.
My best friend you were to stay, for you wanted to ask her.

I told you to go with it. Be strong, be brave.
Inside I though “She doesn’t like you. Good luck.”
But you two went together.
Stayed together.
You stayed my best friend.

I never knew what flirting was until I went to dinner with you that night.
I learned so much, so much that I have never used.
How can I? I’m too shy.

You never used to say you loved me, until you started dating her.
I’d tell you. I do. But you’d just laugh.
You never used to text back, until you started dating her.
You never used to remember my birthday, until you started dating her.
You never used to choose to talk to me, until you started dating her.
You never seemed to care about me as much as I did about you. Until you started dating her.
You never retold past jokes, until you started dating her.
You never were anything except a friend, until you started dating her.
You hated it when I brushed against you, until I started dating her.

When I realized what flirting was, I’d never thought I’d need to use it.
I thought I would laugh as I watched love-struck couples even more then I already did.
I never thought I would want to flirt.
And even more; I’d never thought I have to stop myself.
But there isn’t a choice.
How can I flirt back? My best friend is taken.