Years ago, in junior high, you had confessed your love to your friend, Sara, and she rejected you. After that, she became very distant and ignored you no matter what you did. You always knew she didn’t like you back, but you didn’t expect the cruelty she forced you to endure. Ever since she was noticed by the popular girls, she tried to pretend she didn’t know you. All throughout high school you would write letters complimenting her beauty and personality and she would tear them apart. Often you would bring flowers to her locker and she would throw them in the trash without even looking at them properly. After a while of enduring this pain, your feelings melted away. The flowers you’d buy seemed to know what was to come as they faded in your arms each time you’d walk to class. Still, you loyally bought them for her and put them on her locker. Now, instead of waiting with butterflies in your stomach, you waited with a pang of sorrow and hurt. You didn’t notice your feelings were gone due to the sorrow and pain you constantly felt, until one day you saw Sara trimming the ends of the flowers and putting them in a vase. Later that day, she noticed you walking home on your own and she accompanied you, gently taking your hand in hers after a bit. You closed your eyes, expecting to feel a rush of excitement and joy as you felt her gentle grip, but you opened them again, feeling no different than before. You felt sad, heartbroken almost, that you had told yourself how much it would mean to you and how amazing it would be when this day finally came only for it to be so anticlimactic. That’s when it occurred to you. You didn’t love her anymore and you hadn’t loved her in years.