I stared at Jasen in utter disbelief. There was no way he just said those words to me. It couldn't be he was trying to use fame as an excuse as to why he left me behind without reaching out for many years going forward.

            "The fuck you just say to me?!" I snapped. I could feel my eyes narrowing in a glare. "You are really going to try and blame 'your world' for the reasons you did what you did?!"

            "Ari, you were always the goody two shoes who held everyone with such high standards!" Jason hissed back, pointing his finger at me. "I needed people who could be more understanding of what a sacrifice this world was without judgment!"

            Jasen's words hit me hard. I looked down and bit my lip. Back in the day, I used to be a slightly judgmental person of celebrities and their choices. I used to spend a few hours ranting to Jasen about them when we were growing up. They had all the money in the world and still managed to get themselves in heaps of trouble. Probably for that same reason.

              "You didn't have to leave. . . ." I whispered, bitterly.

            After the words left my mouth, I knew it was a huge mistake to bother to say. Jason's eyes flashed, and his hands balled up into fists. He took a step toward me.

            "How can you even say that?!" He roared, his eyes filled with so much hatred, suddenly. "Do not remember what Liz and I had to go through after our parents died?! We were going to end up on the street!"

            I looked down once again, feeling really guilty now about what I had said. I knew Jasen and Elizabeth were in despair after their parents passed away. Along with all the responsibilities left behind. I knew that they were barely making ends meet for a long time. In remembering these facts, I felt ashamed for carelessly letting my words basically be a hit below the belt.

            "I didn't mean to. . ." I muttered, not making eye contact.

            "That's because you don't think before you speak," Jason stated coldly. "You never did."

            "And to think I used to be in love with your ass for all these years!" I blurted out in disgust.

            Jasen's eyes got really huge all of a sudden. My eyes widened as well as I realized what I had just said. I was wishing for the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I could not believe I had just said that.

            "W-what are you talking about," Jason stuttered out. His face was a mixture of shock and disbelief. "What did you just say?"

             "Huh?" Was all I could mutter, feeling my face get extremely hot.

            "Did you just say you were in love with me?"

            "Jasen. . ."

            "How long?" he asked next, unmoving. "How long?!"

              I sighed heavily. I had gotten myself into this, and there was no turning back now. I accidentally admitted how I felt about Jasen in fury. Now all I could really do was follow through with the truth of the matter.

            "Jason..." I started and took a deep breath. "I have been in love with you since we were kids."

            Jason looked at me as if I had grown another head. I wasn't interested in admitting any of this to him, but now there was no choice. I thought for a second that maybe this was fate's way of forcing the final closure I needed to move on from Jasen. For so long I had carried the weight of this truth around, biting my tongue.

            "Ariana," Jason snapped suddenly, his eyes going from wide back to being narrowed. "How the hell could you tell me this now?!"

            "I wasn't meant to," I muttered once again, shaking my head at my own self. "As you saw it was just blurted out!"

            Jasen put his face in his hands and went silent for a little while. I did feel slightly sorry to dump such a weight on him. He was already in a relationship with a very nice girl and didn't need my confession, suddenly just dumped on him. He looked back up at me just then, and his face looked as cold as a winters day.

            "You mean nothing to me any longer," Jasen whispered, slowly, precisely. "I have Celestial and she is my world."

            I could feel tears filling my eyes fast. I could not take any more hurts or blows from this individual. I turned on my heels and ran. I ran. And I ran until I knew he was no longer anywhere near behind me. I wasn't paying attention to the fact I was heading deeper into a place I was completely unfamiliar with.

             Soon, my legs grew so tired I collapsed onto the cold hard ground. My sobs came out like strangled cries. A part of me knew already that there was no chance for him and me. But I didn't expect so much malice from him for my honesty. It was like he was a different person. Jasen didn't seem like the boy I had grown up with all those years ago at all. I didn't want to blame his world of fame, but how could I not? This had been what I feared from day one.

            Flashback

            There was a knock on the house door. I got up from the living room floor, where I was doing my homework, to answer the door. My parents had gone over to the neighbors. I had stayed behind to study for an upcoming test. I looked through the peephole to see my childhood friend Jasen. I grinned hugely.

            "Jason!" I cried excitedly, pulling the door open. "What brings you over this evening?!"

            Jason looked more somber than I had ever seen him. It suddenly made my heart drop.

             "Can I come in?" he muttered, not looking me in the eyes.

              I nodded my head slowly and moved out his way. We both went over to the couch and sat down across from each other. My heart was pounding in my chest.

            "Ari," Jasen whispered, sadly. "I'm going to have to move away from you. I got offered a record deal for my singing." By time he got done with words, he was more excited than I'd ever seen him.

            This time, my heart dropped all the way to my stomach.

             That day I could feel the beginning of the end for our friendship. I heard so many stories about what celebrities had to go through. I had been scared for Jasen and our friendship. Worried I'd really lose my best friend for good. The same reason I had never told him my true feelings. But it looked like what I had always feared came to be true after all.

            After a while of breaking down, I came to an important realization. I was in the middle of nowhere. There were just open lands and grass surrounding me. But all I could do was cry my heart out. I wasn't in a healthy state of mind to think rationally. I wasn't sure which direction I had run from, and I realized I had left my phone on the park bench where I had taken off from Jasen. It was also starting to snow heavily all of a sudden. The seriousness of the situation started to dawn on me slowly. I was in a place with no one else around, seemingly in the beginning of a snowstorm. . .