“Holly, you need to stop crying, he’s not worth your tears,” Ava exclaimed, wiping away the tear stains that had formed on my face.


I looked at her with solemn eyes, “It’s kind of hard, especially when it’s the love of your life.” She just didn’t get it, did she? Maybe she should be the one in my place, trying to mend a broken heart with no help from anybody but herself.


Ava shook her head in frustration, “You don’t know what you’re talking about Holly, you’re only seventeen and you still have a long life ahead of you before you find ‘the one.’ Just because Josh was your first boyfriend, it doesn't mean that you were going to be together forever.”


“You just don’t understand how I feel about him Ava,” I protested, running out of the bathroom stall, “he’s my everything.”

---

I could feel the weight of the world slowly being placed on my shoulders, as I fell to the floor sobbing one hundred times harder than before. Glancing at the girl dressed in the sl**ty cheerleading uniform with her pompoms pinned to her side, Josh calmly walked over to her and placed his hand on the small of her back. My heart began to drop as I saw them kiss, falling to the place where all of the dreams I’ve once dreamed have been crushed.


“Can’t wait to see you tonight, sweetie,” I heard Josh whisper in her ear, giving her a quick wink as he pulled away.


“Mhm,” Ellie began to sigh dreamily, watching him walk away.


He had zoomed right past me without any second thoughts. The smell of his overpowering cologne tickled my nose and it only made the current situation worse, bringing me back to the times where I was the one who could snuggle up to him and get lost in his scent for days on end. How could he have moved on so fast? It’s only been a day and he already had the next girl in line, preparing to break her heart just like he had once done to mine.

---

The rain started to sprinkle again as I pulled Josh’s oversized sweatshirt over my shivering body, taking in his scent while the tears continued to cascade freely down my face. “Why me? What did I do to deserve this?” I cried out, listening to the sound of my voice echo in the distance while the rain continued pounding on the pavement beside me. Lightning began to strike in the nearby horizon while the sound of rumbling thunder joined in with it. This was indeed the kind of weather where all of the broken hearts had suffered even more than intended, not just mine.


I heard footsteps against the pavement, but just ignored them because it was probably just a person passing by, searching for a sign on what the next move in their life should be. That is, until two muscular arms wrapped around my waist, causing me to vigorously turn around. “Don’t worry, you’re in good hands now,” Brian gently murmured into my ear, kissing the top of my head.


“Thank you,” I whispered softly, my voice cracking in the process.


He pulled me up into his arms, cradling me like a newborn child as he ran to the end of the block with the howling wind at his back. The white brick house stood against the now harder falling raindrops while I began to reminisce all of the times I had been there for Josh and not Brian. “Don’t mention it,” Brian tightened his grip on my body, running toward the front door of his house, stopping at the front of his porch as he looked deeply into my eyes, “but, just remember that my brother is a complete a**hole and doesn’t deserve a girl like you.”


I let out a quiet giggle, letting the last tear fall from my eyes, “Wouldn’t imagine of forgetting it.”

---

“What the hell is she doing here?” Josh spat, glaring at me as he opened up the door to his shared room with Brian.


Brian slowly began to rub my back, drawing small circles around the scars I had from falling down the stairs and just being an overall klutz. “She’s here because she needed someone to help her when she was going through a rough time, which was caused by your pointless actions, but you don’t seem to care,” he explained, continuing to stroke my back as I quietly sobbed into the softness of his pillow.


Josh rolled his eyes, not having a care in the world, “Well that’s a good thing to know because now it looks as though she’s your problem cause I’m done with her and her stupid games.”


“She’s not a problem and the only one playing games was yourself, Josh. You never really took the time, like I have, to realize that she’s something special because you were too busy looking down her shirt and thinking of ways to get her into your bed,” Brian gritted his teeth, rapidly losing his temper.


“Whatever, I have better things to do then sit here and listen to you ramble on about nothing,” he smirked, walking out of the shared bedroom and back into the coldness of the rain.


“Good because nobody wants you here anyway,” Brian hissed over the slamming of the front door.


My eyes were tightly closed, looking as though I was in a deep sleep of some sort when he came over to lie down beside me. His thumb wiped away the tear that still lay on my eyelash, mixing it in with the rest of the stains of mascara that outlined the underneath of my eyes.


Brian grabbed my hand and gave it a small, gentle squeeze, “I’m not going anywhere Holly, I’ll always be on your side through thick and thin, forever.


With all of the strength that remained inside of me, I squeezed his hand back and traced the words ‘me too’ on the palm of his hand.