The Longest Phone Call


When my cell rang I knew immediately who it was. It couldn’t have been anyone else. After all it had been almost a week. A week, since I gave my best guy friend the letter confessing my feelings for him. It was simply so that I could get if off of my chest. I knew he didn’t feel that way about me, and if he did he wasn’t going to tell me. Now I would find out what he thought, and how he felt.

“Hello?”

My heart races and for a moment I think about hanging up and avoiding this conversation. Instead I say hi. He asks if I remember the letter I wrote. Of course I remembered! Annoyed and anxious, I wait and let him talk. I’ll never forget what he said.

“You’re my best friend, and I don’t want to ruin that. What we have is so special, you know? I just—I don’t want anything to ruin something that special.” His voice was shaking and I thought that my heart would explode. I was only half listening now and all I wanted to do was hang up. “We’ll always be friends,” he continued, “right? When we are in college, if your boyfriend ever hurts you just call and I’ll go beat him up. You can do the same for me.” He laughs a shaky laugh.

Both of us had wanted to have this conversation in person, but now I’m glad we didn’t; I had to struggle to keep from sobbing. I didn’t want him to hear that. I knew that just a few more minutes and I would start bawling my brains out. I had to get off that phone.

“Ok.” I said shakily.

“We’re still friends, right?”

I took a deep breath. “Of course.” I whispered, my voice breaking at the end.

I’m sure we said some sort of goodbye, but I can’t remember. All I remember was feeling that a thousand needles were making their way slowly into the center of my heart.


Sure, that might be a bit much. After all, its just teenage love, right? Wrong. No matter how old you are, heartbreak is still hard to handle. Even if it is someone you might forget years from now. To the heart being broken, in that moment, the pain is everything and it is very real. Age doesn’t change that.