Annabelle looked to the left and met the blue eyes she never ever thought she would look into again. He's was in shock, Annabelle could tell.
“Patrick?” she whispered. “Is that really you?”
“I guess so, Annabelle”, Patrick said, still in shock, and looked at her. “Are you alright?”
Annabelle nodded, and didn’t say a word. What was she supposed to say? He used to be her best friend. Patrick used to understand Annabelle like nobody else did. He was there for her like no one else. And she left him. She left him with just a letter. Annabelle could remember every single word she wrote in that letter. She remembers how much she cried when she wrote it. It was so hard for her. It was so hard for her, she was just 16. She was 16 years old and had been through so much bad stuff, and she was then going to leave the only person she loved.
Annabelle regrets she left him, but she does not regret she left Buffalo.
“Can we talk somewhere?” he asked her. “We got a lot to talk about, you know”
“Sure”, she replied. “Where?”
“How about my hotel room?”, he added “Don’t worry, Belle. I’m not going to have sex with you”
“Okay”
The fact that he used her old nickname Belle made her froze. No one used to call her Belle anymore.

It felt like they sat in that taxi for hours, before we came to Patrick’s hotel room.
“Why?” he just asked Annabelle.
She was afraid of him seeing her tears so she turned her head to the wall. “I had to, Patrick. You know that”
“I know how hard you had it at home, Annabelle. But why didn’t you told me you were going to leave me?” he said. Annabelle could hear how broken he was.
“I was scared, okay?” she said and turned her head to him. “I thought if I told you face to face you would beg me to stay, and I was afraid I would agree to stay”
“You could have stayed with me, at my home. With my family. You know they love you”, he whispered.
“I know, Patrick, but I couldn’t let you and your family you do that for me. Your family has done so much for me, and I haven’t done anything for them.” she told him. “And I had to leave Buffalo. I really needed to get out from that city”
“Do you have any idea about how fucking hard it was for me after you left?”, he now yelled. “You were my best friend! You knew me better than anyone else. You knew everything about me. And I’m sure you knew how fucking much you meant for me.”
Annabelle took a step back.
“I’m sorry”, she whispered. “I really am sorry”
“You better be! You left, and you wrote that stupid letter.” Patrick continue yelling at Annabelle, and Annabelle could feel the tears on her cheeks. “You really thought I would forget you, huh? You wrote I was going to act like you didn’t exist. How the fuck could you imagine that? I've known you for my whole life, and you wrote to act like you didn’t exist.”
“You have no idea about how hard it was for me to leave you, Patrick. You were the only one who understood me, you were the only person I really trusted, and you were there for me nobody else was.” she said and looked right into his blue perfect eyes. “I left because I couldn’t live with my parents who were constantly drinking alcohol and taking drugs, I didn’t left because of you. To be honest, I would have loved to stay with you but I couldn’t, not with my parents in the same city. And I couldn’t let your parents taking care of me, paying for my food. It wouldn’t be fair after all your family and you have done for me”
And then she broke down. She couldn’t held in all her feelings anymore.
And Patrick held her close to him. So close and tight, it was like he was afraid she was going to leave him again.