There are moments in my life that words are begging to immortalize. How can I use these words? How can I coax some of them out to flow and to work with the ones demanding to be set free? How can I spin this story with the feelings that overflowed?

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...I was hurt and upset. It had been a rough couple of months, and being around my best friend wasn't making it any better. Each day, we would fight. We would argue over the smallest things, and I would constantly get my heart broken, over and over again. One day, we were supposed to meet with a friend for lunch- after we got into another fight. I lagged way behind him as I walked, and when he got to the Atrium, I saw him disappear inside with her.

My stubbornness wouldn't allow my feet to follow them. Instead, I headed for the library right next to it, going up to the sixth floor- after all, six was my lucky number. I decided that no, I wasn't hungry, and that I had to study for this calculus test anyway. I peeked at my phone. No call. No text.

Nothing.

Fine, have it his way then.

Distraction wasn't exactly working as the numbers whirled around in my head. I was surprised I got anything into my brain at all. Then, after about half an hour, a text- "where are you?"

Did I want to tell him where I was? Not really. But would that help anything? No, not really either. Torn, I sighed and ended up deciding to try to fix what had happened earlier that day and comply. That doesn't mean I wasn't still incredibly angry with him.

In the corner of my eye, I saw a pair of feet stop at the cubicle I currently occupied. I turned my gaze up to look at him, his face a mask of passivity, but not without a flicker of concern in his eyes. He held up a white paper bag- he had gotten me food...

"I'm not hungry," I said, trying to keep the bitter cold from reaching my tone. He heard it, though. Because he dropped his arm, turned around, and walked away.

I didn't allow myself to look after him. I knew he was going to class, knew that I wouldn't see him for the next few hours. Or even until the next day, if he was angry and hurt enough. I realized that he was as angry and as hurt as I was, but he had relented, he had cared. He loved me, and I had shoved that right back at him. Coming to those thoughts, I left everything behind- my bag, my work, calculator, phone, laptop- and ran to the elevators. Too slow, too slow.

Anxiety threatened to burst from inside of me as I looked at the closed doors, and briskly turned away from them, heading instead to the stairs. He deserved better. He didn't deserve this.

I ran.

The speed at which I managed to go down the steps would have astounded my coach. As I got to the bottom floor, tears were threatening to burst from the feeling inside my chest, clawing its way up my throat. I was panicking; had I missed him? Was I too late? I could only pray that the elevators had stalled him enough to get to the ground floor to give me time to run down the stairs. That he wasn't walking away too quickly, that I was still in time. Bursting out the doors, I frantically looked around for him before spotting the back of his backpack.

There. He was right there, he was so close, and I hadn't been too late. Running up to him, I gave his backpack a shove, demanding his attention from where he was going. He was disoriented as he whirled around, but as soon as I caught his eyes, I launched myself at him.

"I'm sorry," I said, barely able to contain my tears. I love you, I love you, I love you...

His arms around me were answer enough. Giving me a quick squeeze, he let go of me to grab the white bag from his backpack before telling me he had to get to class after one last hug. If it wasn't for all the adrenaline, my legs would have given out beneath me. The emotions ran too high.

It wasn't until after I got back upstairs that I found, thankfully, nothing of mine was missing. And when I had sat down, had opened the bag, I found a chocolate chip muffin inside. He remembered. It was sort of our thing, our inside joke. The first thing he had bought me on campus, the thing he told me I just had to try.

I cried then.