Best Friend to Stranger

We used to share one brain. Now we share a mutual friend group and nothing else.

Dani was my person. Fourteen years. Matching bracelets, shared secrets, her mum's lasagna every Sunday. She knew my crush before I did.

Then I started dating her ex. Okay. I know. I KNOW. But I asked her first, and she said, "It's fine, we were never serious."

It wasn't fine.

She stopped answering. Stopped inviting me out. At a house party, she looked right through me like I was a glass door. When I finally cornered her in the kitchen, she said, "You asked me, but you'd already decided."

She was right. I had.

I lost a best friend for a guy who lasted four months. Four. He dumped me over text, which, honestly, is poetic justice.

So now I scroll her Instagram like I'm reading an obituary. She's thriving. New friends, new hair, new everything. She posted a photo captioned "found my people."

I looked at it for twenty minutes. I was not in it.

Last week, I typed an apology. Four paragraphs. Deleted it. Typed it again. Deleted it again.

Then I noticed something. We still follow each other. After everything, she never unfollowed me.

Maybe it's hope. Maybe it's just laziness.

But at 2 AM, I'm choosing to believe it's hope.

Even strangers leave the door unlocked sometimes.