• They seemed to be the perfect couple. Nothing and no one could come between them. It was as if no one else existed when they were together. He only spoke to her and she only spoke to him. It was no different when we were around, although she claimed to want to get to know his friends. She never made much of an attempt to do so. It was awkward enough without her constant babbling. And truly she was the only one talking. Everyone else was doing as I usually did when she was around; trying to find something else to do or engaging in their own conversations. This was what her presence did to his friends. We drift in our own directions, because the only one she would to is him and the binding tie in our group is him. If he ever stopped hanging out with us, our group would break apart. I would probably be the only one who would try to touch base with anyone else and eventually, I would stop as their interest faded. I am not the most interesting person in the world and I know it.

    For the brief moment that I overheard their conversation, she was on her favorite topic again... marriage. Every time she brought it up, he would expertly steer her away from the conversation, clearly avoiding it. Unfortunately for us, she was either too stupid to realize that or too self-absorbed to care. She could at least try to think of others for once. It wasn't too difficult to tell from his face that he was not interested in making such a major decision so soon in his life. He didn't hide his discomfort, but he didn't say anything about it either. He was being too kind for his own good. She seemed to take his unspoken words as a sort of quiet approval. I won't deny that he does that sometimes, but you have to be able t read his face and she wasn't looking hard enough, she was only looking for what she waned to see. Those signs were the soft smiles, he gave when he agreed with something or his quiet chuckle when he agrees with an amusing comment. The woman is convinced that they will never part. A very irrational thought process, if you ask me. She didn't deserve him. He was too good for her. She would be hard-pressed to earn my approval. If she ever decided that she needed it. A thought that never crossed her mind.

    He was perfection and she, quiet frankly was a speck of dirt compared to him. Any woman or man would pale in comparison to him. No one would ever be good enough for him in my eyes. Especially not me. When that thought crossed my mind, I had to admit to myself for the umpteenth time how much I liked him. Like was never strong enough. I loved him... I love him. I'm sure it's still true. He was my ideal man. He was gorgeous. He was kind. He was intelligent, a trait not often found in men. He was my shoulder to cry on. He was my best friend. And still... I ever felt that it was enough. I wanted him to myself. I wanted to be more than his friend... much more than that. I wanted him to look at me the way I see him gaze at her. I wanted his sickeningly sweet words to be directed to me. I wanted him to compliment my clothing choice for the day or notice when I style my hair differently. But he only saw her... no matter how much I hated it, I couldn't do anything to change it that wouldn't result in him hating me. That wasn't what I wanted.

    "Okay, I am sick of this. Give me a straight answer for once!" Her shrill voice broke into my thoughts like nails on a chalkboard. I was pretty sure I knew what this was about. The others were saying quick farewells and leaving, not a bad idea. No one would want to get involved in this. Not while she has her new acrylic nails bared. They hurt if you got yourself slapped by someone with those on.

    He sighed in response, calm as ever, "Of course I want to marry someday, but so soon. I'm no ready for that." There it was, his honesty. Another rare trait that I loved about him. I could give her one thing. She chose a good guy to latch onto. I wished that I could say that I would be nothing her. Certainly, I would be different... but I would be just as obsessed over him in my own ways. When you think about it, she just wanted to be happy, but I wished it wasn't at the expense of my own happiness. I knew my thoughts would keep spiraling downwards, even while he was calming her down. I took the moment of distraction to duck out of the room. He would find me the next day during homeroom and ask me where I ran off to, maybe. If he did, I would tell, I had a certain time that I had to get home, maybe I could tell him that my grandparents were visiting. I couldn't tell him that I left, because I wanted to be alone or because I wanted to go home, curl up in bed and wallow in my own self-pity. I could never tell him that. He would know how weak I really was. I didn't want him to think bad of me. I wanted to as perfect for him. That was my only wish.