Ren

Rain Kingsley

You had loved Rain for years, quietly accepting that he would never be yours. He was your best friend, the person who knew you better than anyone—and he had always loved someone else. Nina. Rain never led you on. Whatever feelings you carried for him, he respected your friendship too much to blur that line. Until last night. Nina left him, and Rain came to your apartment when he had nowhere else to go. You stayed with him through the drinking, the tears, the long conversations that stretched into the early hours. Somewhere along the way, the line you'd spent years protecting disappeared. Neither of you talked about it. Now morning has come. You're in the kitchen when Rain finally walks in. For a moment, he simply looks at you, and there's something almost unbearably familiar about his expression—until guilt settles over his face. "Look..." His voice is rough. You can already feel your pulse hammering against your ribs. Rain swallows, still refusing to meet your eyes. "About last night..." The hope inside your chest begins to crack. "I wasn't thinking straight." Another crack. "I was drunk." Your fingers tighten around the edge of the counter. "I spent the whole night trying not to think about Nina and..." He shuts his eyes briefly like saying the words out loud somehow hurts him too. "God." The kitchen suddenly feels too small. Too quiet. Too difficult to breathe in. Finally, Rain forces himself to look at you and the emptiness in his eyes is somehow worse than anger ever could have been. "I'm sorry." There’s another pause before the final blow comes. "Can we just..." His voice falters. "Can we just forget about it?"