Maybe in another world...

The full moon glowed brilliantly in the night sky. 

As Amelia gazed at it from the window, she couldn’t help but groan. Of course the moon looked beautiful. Of course it was a beautiful night. Of course there wasn’t a single gloomy cloud in the sky or any lighting bolts ready to strike down below. Of course such a beautiful night was going to lead to an even more beautiful day tomorrow.

Tomorrow would surely be a beautiful day for a wedding. 

She felt bad that she was having these thoughts. Only a truly selfish and despicable person would wish for her best friend’s wedding to get hit by a storm. Only someone who lacked a heart or a conscience or a soul  would actively wish for the most important day of someone’s life to be ruined. Only someone like her…would long for Isaac to leave Elizabeth at the altar and instead run into her waiting arms. 

Amelia was in love with her best friend. Was there anything more cliche than that? 

They had grown up together. Their moms had attended the same parenting classes while pregnant and became instant friends, thus Amelia and Isaac were literally born inseparable. They had lived in the same neighborhood, with Isaac’s house being  only a 10 minute walk away. School and band and hobbies had always been shared experiences between the two. Amelia  joined the swim team with Isaac even though she hated getting her hair wet and Isaac signed up for drama club with her even though he was terrified of public speaking. 

She wasn’t quite sure when exactly it happened, that she fell in love with Isaac. He had always been the one constant in her life that she could always count on. She was an only child but as a kid she would go around and introduce Isaac as her brother to new people because that’s what he was to her. He was the annoying, goofy sibling that she had always wanted. He was family. 

Until one day, he was more than that. 

After graduating high school, the two of them attended different universities. Isaac had been offered a scholarship that he just couldn’t turn down and Amelia wanted so desperately to escape their small town and attend school in a bustling metropolitan area. Despite being apart, they texted and called almost every day and always keep one another updated on their lives. 

After college and well into their twenties, they remained close friends. Isaac helped her move all her stuff into her first apartment. Amelia drove down with celebratory cupcakes whenever Isaac got a promotion at work. They spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years together every year when they traveled back to their hometown. 

At some point, Amelia grew aware that she felt different when she was with Isaac. She would get butterflies in her stomach that hadn’t been there before. She noticed little things about him that hadn’t stuck out to her before, like how his forehead creased every time he laughed or how he always put on his right shoe first before the left one. Whenever he hugged her, she never wanted him to let go. Whenever he wasn’t there, all she could do was think about how much she wanted to see his smile. She loved him, but she was always too much of a coward to tell him. Amelia was sure that Isaac only saw her as a sister, and she didn’t want to risk scaring him away. 

And yet, maybe if she had had the courage to be honest about her feelings, things would have been different. For one thing, she wouldn’t be standing in the bedroom of the rented AirBnb that Isaac had gotten for his groomsmen and woman of honor wishing for a natural disaster to hit. 

Amelia finally turned away from the window and paced around the room. She didn’t want to look at the moon anymore, all it did was remind her of what a perfect night it was. She didn’t want to look at the desk because then she’d see the reception speech that she had been working on earlier. She didn’t want to look at the bed because that’s where she had laid out the beautifully tailored dress that matched with of Elizabeth’s bridesmaids. 

A knock at the door stopped her dead in her tracks. She didn’t call out but after a few seconds the doorknob turned and the door slid open. Isaac’s worried face stared at her. 

“Hey. Sorry, I know it's late.” Isaac kept his voice down out of respect for the sleeping occupants of the house. “It sounded like you were still awake so I just wanted to come check on you.” 

“Yeah, I haven’t been able to sleep yet.” Amelia tried not to let herself linger too much over the fact that Isaac had come to see her. “I want to make sure my speech is perfect, so I’m still writing it. I’ll go to bed soon, don’t worry.” 

Isaac glanced over at the desk where the speech lay and then looked back at Amelia. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “Whatever you say, it’ll be perfect. I just know it. You need to sleep though, it's late. Go to bed.” 

“You’re the one that needs sleep.” Amelia shot back. “We can’t have you showing up to the ceremony tomorrow with raccoon eyes. What would Elizabeth say?”

Isaac said nothing in response, he just continued to gaze at Amelia with a slight frown on his face.

Amelia grabbed her dress from the bed and draped it across a chair. She then sat on the edge of the bed and folded her arms across her chest. “Alright look, I’m going to bed. Happy now?” 

Isaac sighed and stepped over to her bed. “Are you ok, Ames?” He asked, staring down at her. 

“Yes.” Amelia murmured instantly. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself from looking into his eyes. 

“No you’re not.” Isaac replied. He sat down next to her on the bed. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing’s wrong.” Amelia replied. 

“Ames,” Isaac’s voice grew soft as he pleaded with her. “I know you. You’ve been acting weird all day. There’s something bothering you, just tell me what it is.” 

“There’s nothing going on.” Amelia insisted. She swallowed hard to get rid of the lump that was at the back of her throat. 

“That means there’s definitely something going on.” Isaac placed a hand on her shoulder. “Please just be honest with me. Tell me the truth.” 

“I can’t.” Amelia whispered. Her voice wavered slightly. 

“You can’t?” Isaac repeated. 

I can’t tell you the truth.” Amelia blinked rapidly to try to hold back tears, but she couldn’t stop one of them from falling down her cheek. 

Isaac reached out and brushed the tear away from her face. “Why not? He asked gently. 

“Because you’ll hate me if I tell you the truth.” 

Isaac shook his head. “Ames, I could never hate---” 

“Yes you would!” Amelia snapped at him. She couldn’t stop herself, all the emotions building  up inside of her finally burst. “You would absolutely hate me because I am a terrible, terrible person. You would hate me because I have been secretly wishing for a hurricane to hit so that your wedding gets canceled. You would hate me because I want so desperately for you to not marry Elizabeth. ”  

Isaac’s face grew white and his mouth hung open in shock. He made a couple of noises that weren’t quite words, but because he could get anything coherent out, Amelia jumped in again. 

“You would hate me, because I love you. I always loved you.” 

As soon as the words left her mouth, Amelia buried her head in her hands. It was finally out in the open, the secret that she had been keeping for years. She couldn’t bear to look at him, knowing that she had just ruined their friendship. 

To her surprise, Isaac didn’t immediately jump up and run out of the room. Instead, he cleared his throat, which made Amelia finally look up. The look on his face wasn’t one of anger or disgust, but rather one of sadness. 

“To be completely honest with you…” Isaac’s voice shook and he sighed deeply as he mustered up the courage to finish that thought. “If you had said that to me ten years ago, I would have said ‘I love you’ back.”

“Really?” Amelia felt like she couldn’t breathe. All she had ever wanted was for him to say those exact words, and here it was finally happening. “You’re being serious, right now?” 

“Yes.” Isaac said. “It’s the truth, I did love you.” 

“You did.” Amelia repeated. The bliss that had engulfed her soul died down instantly when she realized he spoke in past tense. 

“I did, but that was in the past. Now, I love Elizabeth.” Isaac explained softly.  “I love her, in the same way I once loved you.” 

Amelia started to laugh, it was a peculiar noise that sounded more like a mix between a sob and a cackle. The look of utter confusion and bewilderment on Isaac’s face just made her laugh even more.

“I’m so sorry.” She managed to choke out in between laughs. “It’s just so funny, isn’t it? You’re telling me that we both loved each other at the same time. If I hadn’t been too scared to tell you, we could have been together. God, I’m so, so stupid.” 

“Ames, you’re not stupid” 

“I should have just told you!” Amelia cried. “But I didn’t want to lose you as a friend.” 

“And that’s exactly why I never confessed to you either.” Isaac whispered. “I didn’t want to risk losing you.” 

Amelia turned away from him and stood up. She took a few steps forward until she was in front of the window. Glancing up at the night sky, she spotted the full moon that she had been looking at earlier. 

“Do you believe in parallel universes?” Amelia asked, her back still turned to Isaac. 

“Are you talking about sci-fi movies?” Isaac asked from behind her. “Where are you going with this?” 

“I like to think that in another time, another world, we could have had a good life together.” 

“We would have had a good life together. I truly do believe that.” Isaac stepped up and wrapped his arms around her. “But just because we didn’t, doesn’t mean that we can't go and live good lives with other people. 

“I know that.” She did know it, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. She turned to look at him and gave him the biggest smile she could muster even though her heart was breaking into a million tiny pieces. “You’re going to have a good life with Elizabeth.” 

“And you’re going to have a good life with a very lucky guy who will love you in the way that you deserve to be loved.” Isaac promised. He gave her one last quick hug before turning back towards the door. “We need to at least get a few hours of sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, ok?” 

After Isaac left, Amelia waited a few more minutes just to make sure that he was really gone. She walked back over to the desk, where her speech lay and she picked up the pen. 

She knew now with no doubt in her mind that Isaac loved Elizabeth. There was no point in pining over him anymore, it wouldn’t be good for her. The feelings that had been growing inside her for years weren’t going to magically go over in an instant, but she knew that she had to move on. 

Scribbling out the speech that she had written earlier, Amelia balled up the paper and tossed it into the trash can. While that speech had said all of the right things, it had been plagued by her affection for Isaac and contained far too many memories of a lovesick girl. Grabbing a new sheet of paper, Amelia sat down and finally began to write the speech that would say at her best friend’s wedding. 

...Isaac, you’re like a brother to me and you've always been the most important person in my life. You deserve absolute happiness in life, and I know that Elizabeth will be the one who can give you that. I hope your love for each other lasts beyond the end of time and well into eternity…