A story from a time.

He never was the perfect guy. He was awkward, not quite tall enough. His hair resembled the curls of a bedroom mat.

She was never the perfect girl. She was nerdy, not quite cool enough. Her past resembled the mess of a G.R.R. Martin Book.

For some reason, somehow, their paths crossed. For a few months she sat watching him from across their classroom. Then he moved closer. So she sat and watched him beside her. She spoke to him, she laughed with him, she grew to love him. Then, as the stories always go, she asked him out. Of course this wouldn't be much of a story if he hadn't have said yes.

Then for 9 months they laughed they grew closer and closer. Depended on each other more and more. But already cracks were forming. Fatal cracks. Soon the cracks formed arguments. The arguments formed loneliness. The loneliness formed jealously and there the spiral continued.

Friends began to get involved. They began to form opinions, began to take sides.

The two didn't really notice. Amongst the arguments they continued loving each other. They continued holding each other and finding enjoyment in each other. However they never found enjoyment in each others smiles. Always around the corner was another drama another mistake taken the wrong way.

1 year passed and they were still blind. They spent many days watching films from bed, going to meals and events, and yet the outings were getting less and less frequent.

The friends started leaving, they started pushing her out. They didn't mean it, but he rarely let her see them alone. He called it love.

Then suddenly, within a few moments, it was over.

A flash of a smile in a argument and she found herself thrust against the wall in a flurry of anger.
  ''Don't you smile at me.''

At first her friends were supportive, they helped her along. Slowly they began to be unable to stand her, she had changed. The smile that had once lit up a room was lost. They assumed it must be guilt. He was still there smiling as ever, going to parties, enjoying life. Of course it must be guilt. She must have started the issues. He never apologized, but he never agreed with these claims either.

He tried to get her back, just as a friend at first but she couldn't she wasn't sane any more. It drove him further into guilt. Then into denial. He started to blame her, blamed her mind games her jealousy. Of course, they believed him. Why wouldn't they? She hadn't talked to them in weeks.

Over years she strengthened up, never falling for the same tricks again, but never truly trusting, never truly able to get close to anyone. She still sees him at college, but she can never look at him for fear of seeing the past. Any word of interaction makes her jump, her wish to be invisible to him broken.

This story has a happy ending though, although I can hardly say if it is truly the end. A soft soul, a gentle mind came across her one day, as she was on the cliff edge of loneliness. Perhaps this soft soul is the Prince Charming of this tale, who knows, but as it is, he saved her from terminal emptiness.