At a second glance she looks the same. Smells like grape juice and oranges with the acidity of lime. She, standing so close to him brings her  scent to his nostrils avidly. Her smile is forceful, demanding a response.

She's beautiful no doubt, but I was expecting to pen something different. About his girlfriend and how her face lights up the room. How the deadness of her stare gives him life, or some of those euphemistic writer cow dung. This should be a love piece to make the ladies pray for a dream relationship like theirs. This should be about conjugal bliss.

But this is about something else. This is about a girl, caught up in a crush, in love with a boy that longs for another. This is about the lovelessness of relationships conditioned by unavailability and frustrated desires.

Of how she gave him green light after green light, her eyes pleading for his affection. A story of how he turned her down, time after time, taunting and teasing her for wanting him. While his heart stopped beating when his crush walked in; how he went back to her when said crush destroyed his ego. A story of selfishness, stubbornness and involuntary heart shoving.

Call it a tragedy, or a practical romantic tale. But standing next to her, a million feelings erupt. Regret, pain, apathy, responsibility and disapproval. As they walk hand in hand, love consumes her heart. Ironically, love burns in his heart all the more.

Love. For another.