❝Annabella? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same!" The waves at the tips of her hair bounced almost as happily as she did when she recognized London sitting at the bench.

Squinting his eyes from the sun (and perhaps from her overwhelming radiance), he shot a smile toward his bubbly companion.

"I'm meeting a friend up here," London uttered, hoping to keep the conversation going.

"Oh really? Delilah was going to come study with me, but something came up," she said, avoiding London's gaze. "She's been so distant lately, ever since she's been receiving those letters."

Walking over and sitting beside him, Annabella shoved her books into the giant brown tote she carried along with her. As she leaned over to zip up her bag, her round eyes searched London's face for any sign of expression. Awkwardly fiddling with a loose string on her shirt, her body posture altered as she sat up and stared forward out into the park.

"Say...," she reluctantly started, wanting to bring the subject up as gently as possible. "You wouldn't have anything to do with those letters, would you?" Her cheeks turning a rosy pink, she held her breath as she awaited his response. London, shocked at the sudden change of subject, couldn't help but just blink at his friend. He hadn't expected to run into her, nor was he prepared to be questioned about this. The jitters had already crept up on him just from the thought of lip locking with a mere stranger, and here was one of his closest friends asking him about his biggest crush. Did fate purposely want him to fail at everything today? Because it certainly seemed like it.

"I can't say I do, Anna. Maybe I should have been the one to do so though..."

As he realized that Annabella's jaw dropped at his sudden confession, he instantaneously regretted uttering those few words. In a matter of seconds, her face morphed from a shocked expression , to tense, and then to serious. Yet, when London noticed her bottom lip lightly quiver, his guilty conscience crept upon him. What had he just done?

The twinkle in Annabella's eyes had faded away into a pool of never-ending sadness, a sight that made his heart sink deeper and deeper into his stomach. As she avoided his gaze, she did the best she could to conceal the emotions that welled up inside her, that overflowed her body with sadness. Of course he liked Delilah. She was the epitome of perfection, everything that Annabella could never be. Why would she think that London would want something more with her?

"Oh, I kind of figured."

"Figured what?" He asked, curiosity getting the best of him. He hated to see her like this and felt even worse knowing that he was the one that caused her mood to negatively change.

"That you liked her." Pretending to watch the surrounding scenery, Annabella did her best to focus on something, anything other than the boy sitting beside her. He already did enough unintentional damage to her heart and self esteem.

"I mean, why wouldn't you? She's perfect, she has the perfect grades. She's so good at the piano, she'd probably even write you a love song if she knew."

His mood sunk lower and lower at everything Anna had uttered. Was it possible that he could have a chance with Delilah, or was she just exaggerating the truth to hide her innermost feelings? Just from the surface, anyone could tell that Annabella just had her feelings hurt. Maybe her heart was just as delicate, as fragile as his was.

"But she doesn't see me like that, Anna. She'll never see me like that. She wants him."

Nodding, Annabella chuckled to cover the aches and pains she was feeling from the depths of her soul. And just for a brief second, London thought he saw a single tear fall from her eye.

"That she does."

And on that very tense and stressful note, London was relieved to be saved by the buzz of his phone. It was a text message from his three favorite numbers.

"Hey, I'm here. What are you wearing, Jake from State Farm?"

And as all of his fears seemed to blend into the background, he couldn't help but internally laugh as he typed a response.

"Uh, khakis...jk.❞

© Lightning_Stryker 2020