Smiles.

It hurt. Hell yeah if it hurt, but we still smiled. We smiled with all that wrecked happiness that we still had because we didn't want our tears to come out yet. We knew our time was over; the ringing of the phone kept on reminding us, but we kept ignoring it. Then a knock on the front door made all the hope go away. We were still smiling, though, because we didn't want to face it yet.

I opened the door with the same weak smile and received the arms that were now hugging me. They left a pain in my chest that grew with every step I gave, like being pressed against a wall. We packed our things and stared at each other in a failed attempt of making the seconds longer. 

"Be sure you are not leaving anything," I joked, but in reality I wanted her to leave everything so she'd have an excuse to come back.

The soft voice in the background kept on pushing us, and I finally threw myself into her arms. That was when all the pain became unbearable, and I started shaking as the tears filled my eyes.

"We'll come back soon," someone repeated. "And you guys will have even more time together."

What a cruel way to rise my hopes.

She probably asked me not to cry as she held me, but at this point I had given up to the tears. I wanted her to see them so she would know how much I cared.

A few seconds later I let go of her, and the smile I tried to build looking at her saddened eyes brought even more chills to my arms.

But she was still smiling back at me.

We left the house and I followed her to the car full of people. I was forced by my own self to smile as different lips met my cheeks, but my mind was just as blurred as my eyes. She got on the car as I said my final goodbyes to everyone else, but why the hell did you get into the car so fast? You still owe me one more hug.

My tiny body finally stood beside the giant car, waiting for it to start and leave. I did my best to hold myself together as I heard the motor roar and eventually saw its shadow fade into the street. I realized then that the hole left in my body was deeper than expected, and I felt the impulse to chase the car down the street. 

I didn't do it.

I tried to smile one more time, though, because she had forgotten something after all: the best friend she would eventually have to come back for.