You were always there for me. Like I was for you. That's what friends do for each other, after all.

But why did it have to change? I loved you as a friend...and when that sort of love changed from friendship into something more (for me), our friendship went out the window. You ignored me in class, and I heard that you hated me. It was hard for me not to believe it, considering how you ignored me wherever we were. When you DID talk to me, it was the idle sort of talk you would give to a stranger.

I don't exactly know how it happened, myself. I found that deep in myself, I was capable of loving someone with all of me. Someone I knew that I could trust, who could trust me, and who would maybe give me a chance.

When I told you, on that cold Valentine's Day...it was frightening to hear that silence ringing in my ear after I uttered those 3 words. I figured that you were telling me the truth, that you just liked me as a friend.

But to hear that you hated me a few days later? That you thought I was pathetic? That was excruciatingly painful, to put it mildly.

When I found out that I had to leave the country, I called you. You acted somewhat more civilized toward me. All I wanted to say was that I still loved you, even if you hated me. It's strange, but I think that it would have made me feel better. But I couldn't. All I could say was that I was leaving. And you said that you'd miss me. I can't help thinking that that too was a lie.

I missed my chance. So I have to say it.

I love you, Elizabeth. I always will.

Yours,