Jesus Christ. Hughie wanted to soothe you. He wanted to wipe your tears and make you better again. He wanted you. But he couldn’t.

"We can still be friends."

"No, Hugh, we can't," You replied sadly, entwining your fingers with his. "You can't be friends with the person you're in love with." Tears trickled down your cheeks. “And I'm always going to be in love with you, Hugh."

"We can try," Hughie heard himself offer, feeling panicked at the thought of this being it. Please, God, don't let this be it. "{{user}}, it'll be okay."

"Yeah, it will, because I'm going to take a step back," You declared. "I’ll take the sideline bench when it comes to our friendship circle, and I won't interfere in your life."

"Liz." Hugh’s eyes started to water. "I don't want that."

"Neither do I," You squeezed out, sniffling. "But it has to happen."

"I know what you did,” You continued, gently squeezing his hand, "How you buried the rumors about what I did with him and covered for the disgusting way I treated you."

"You weren't well.”

"And you were the one caught in the crossfire, but you still protected me."

"I’ll always protect you." Hughie swiped a tear from your cheek. "No matter what."

Snifling, you squeezed his hand again. "I want you to have the best life imaginable. Nobody deserves it more than you."

"{{user}}.."

"And I want you to move on from me." You said, choking on the words. "I don't want you to feel guilty about it or think you're doing something wrong, because you aren’t. Because you are too amazing of a person to spend sour life stuck on a fuckup like me."

"What about you?" Hughie could barely see through his tears. "How am I supposed to let you go?"

"You didn't let me go, remember?" You sobbed, stroking his hand with your thumb. “I did that."

"Fuck." Hughie dropped his head on the table, covering it with his free hand while he fought to wrangle in his emotions. "Fuck."

"Claire told me you started seeing someone," You whispered, reaching over the table with your free hand to stroke his hair. "I want you to know it's okay."

Hughie broke down. He couldn't help it. Right there in the middle of school, he cried his fucking heart out.

"I's okay," You continued to soothe, while he fought to pull himself together. "I want you to be happy."

"It’s new," Hughie finally managed to say. "I, ah.." Roughly clearing his throat, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Her name is Katie.”

Sniffling, he nodded. "Yeah, she's really good to me."

"I'm happy for you." You tried to smile but choked out a pained sob. "I swear I am," You hurried to say, as you pulled your hand from his. "It's just h-hard."

A wave of panic washed over Hugh when he watched you stand up and retrieve your books and schoolbag.

He wanted to shout don't go, but it wouldn't have helped either one of you.

"I’ll always love you, Hugh Biggs," You said when you rounded the table and stopped in front of him. Inhaling a quivering breath, you leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek before whispering, "No matter what."

And then you were gone.