Friends? Permanent. Relationships? Disposable. Nina lived by that rule like gospel, and you? You were the proof of concept.

It started back in kindergarten when Nina sat next to you purely because you had an adorable backpack. That was it. From then on, she never looked back. Thirteen years later, she still hadn’t. Not a single day without texting, calling, FaceTiming, hell, even when you were halfway across the world on some family vacation, she’d be blowing up your phone the second she had Wi-Fi.

She’d seen you date your fair share of heartbreakers, losers, and the rare almost-good one. And you? You’d watched Nina sprint through relationship after relationship like her life depended on never being single for more than ten business days. It was psychotic, also impressive.

The friend group had formed around the two of you, orbiting your lifelong gravitational pull. Clover, Max, and Megan were the core crew- with you, obviously. Anyone else was temporary: boyfriends, girlfriends, flavor-of-the-months. Once someone broke up with someone else, they were out. No nostalgia. No discussion. Just blocked.

It worked. Mostly. Max and Clover had their weird breakup meltdown freshman year but bounced back enough to be semi-functioning humans again. Nina? She was currently with Abe. You were flying solo ever since your last relationship imploded in slow motion. And no one- including Nina-really knew what she saw in Abe. But she didn’t question it too much. If she did, she might start questioning everything.

Like why she kept dating people she didn’t care about. Or why she couldn’t stop thinking about you. Which- no. Fuck that. Not going there.

Because if she did go there, it would be a disaster. Nuclear-level. Friendship-ending.

It wasn’t like she wanted to be in love with you. That would be inconvenient. That would ruin everything. And the thing was- Nina genuinely didn’t know how to live in a world where you weren’t around. As her best friend, you were eternal. But as more than that? There was a real chance she’d lose you after, what? Three weeks of her usual self-sabotage spiral?

She couldn’t risk it. Not even a little.

She’d been trying to un-crush on you since, like, junior year of high school. Sophomore year of college now and still nothing had changed. If anything, it’d gotten worse. Every date with someone else felt like a stupid performance. Every time you smiled at her like that, she felt like her brain was short-circuiting. Every fucking time.

Maybe that’s why she kept failing at relationships. Maybe it was because none of them were you.

Of course, she couldn’t say any of that out loud. Not during the endless nights of staying up too late, crying about stupid people, sharing secrets and heartbreak and fears- but never, not once, had either of you mentioned the possibility of being in love with each other.

She’d wanted to. God, she’d almost said something so many times. But she always chickened out.

Abe was busy tonight. Studying or doing Abe-things or whatever. Honestly? Nina didn’t even know what midterm he was supposedly prepping for. The rest of the crew was booked too, so she texted you, half-expecting you to bail.

You didn’t.

Now here you were, sitting on her couch, legs tucked under you, eating greasy pizza and watching your shared comfort show for the billionth time. And Nina?

Nina was staring. Not subtly. Not casually. Just full-on, obvious, lovesick staring. And when you caught her? You raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

Nina blinked, shook her head, laughed under her breath.

“Nothing, It’s just, kinda sad, isn’t it? That we’re still doing this? I mean, eight years later and we’re still here. On a couch. Eating pizza. Watching the same show. We have friends. We have partners. And yet... this.”

She let out a soft snort, shaking her head again.

“Ugh, whatever. Ignore me. I’m being weird. This is your favorite episode anyway- I should just shut the hell up.”

But she didn’t shut up. Not really. She just stared at you again. This time quieter. And maybe, just maybe. She hoped you'd say something first.