Broken Promises

"Ren! Hey, why didn't you ask me to walk to school today? Woke up late?" I giggled. "Oh, uh, I walked to school with Esther." He pointed to the dark-haired girl sitting next to him. "Oh. That's alright! Are we walking to school tomorrow? Together?" I asked eagerly.

Ren looked away and shrugged, then turned away. I gulped and left without saying another word.

Ren had been my best friend since 6 years old. He was kind and helped me when nobody else was there for me. He became my first friend in school. We usually go to school together, but lately, he's been talking to Esther.

Esther and I aren't close at all. I know I'm popular, and I know she's not. She's shy, smart, and rarely catches anyone's attention. I just don't understand how she and Ren coincidentally became friends, and how Ren started ignoring me after that. I don't care about Ren and Esther's friendship, I care about Ren and mine's.

After lunch, Ren walked away, laughing with Esther. I felt a bit of jealousy, but it soon disappeared as 5th period was about to start. By the end of the day, Ren still hadn't said more than a few words to me. I felt disappointed but assumed Ren was probably having a bad day and wanted to talk to Esther instead.

That night I went to sleep hoping Ren would somehow change his attitude back to when we were still good friends. A small tear rolled down my face as I thought of all the memories we had made before. How could our friendship disappear after only a few weeks?

I blamed it on Esther, although I knew I shouldn't have. The next morning, I woke up early to see if Ren was willing to walk to school with me.

Unfortunately, Esther and Ren had just started walking. Ren spotted me and waved quickly before turning back to Esther and asking her if she did the homework.

I clenched my fists and went back inside the house. Taking out my phone, I decided to search on social media for Esther's social media accounts but found none. Angrily, I screamed for my mother to come downstairs and bring me to school.

Maybe I can contact Ren and ask about why he's acting like this... But he might decline! He might completely stop talking to me. No, I'm going to. I took out my phone again as my mother parked her car in the school parking lot. "Savannah, we're here! Stop looking at your phone, it's almost 8:25!" 

I sighed and opened the car door to find Esther standing in front of me. "Savannah, was it? Can I have a chat with you?" I raised an eyebrow and nodded. Esther motioned to follow her as we walked over to a large tree. 

"I noticed... Ren was ignoring you. You guys are good friends, right? I don't want to get in between your relationship. I'm sorry," Esther apologized, looking down. I smiled before answering Esther. "You're not! I just think Ren's mad at me. If you can see why he's ignoring me... can you tell me?" I asked before walking towards Maddie and my other friends. 

"Yeah, I'll try. Sorry again!" Esther answered before waving and running off to Ren. In a way, I felt bad for Esther. She didn't have many friends, and she wasn't trying to do anything bad. 

Once school ended, I went to find Esther. "Esther! Wait for a second," I ran over to her, out of breath. "Are you alright?" She asked. "Yeah, um, can I ask you to help me with something?" I looked around before walking over to a corner. "Is it homework?" Esther asked annoyed, following me.

"No! Of course not. Could you help me with Ren? And did Ren say anything? I like him." I blurted out. Esther's mouth went wide before she covered it with her hand. "You could've told me earlier! I can help with that. At least, I'll try." Esther answered. My eyes lit up as I thanked her.

"No problem, but I did ask Ren about you during lunch today. He said he isn't exactly mad at you, he just feels like you guys need to take a break. He said he wants new friends." Esther looked down and sighed. "I figured. Thanks, Esther. You're a nice person." I looked down sadly before looking back up and smiling.

"I- Um, no problem. I'll get going, and try to help you a bit more." Esther gave me a quick thumbs up and left, running out the building and over to Ren. Before leaving the building, I watched them for a few seconds. Ren seemed to look at Esther differently. It was the sort of look that said "I like you, romantically." But Esther looked at Ren like they were good friends, nothing more.

Once I noticed that I smiled and left school. I felt kind of relieved. Esther didn't like Ren, and I felt happy. Although after a while, I noticed it'd be hard to get Ren to like me back. I wanted Esther to reject Ren so he could move on, and hopefully, I'd have a chance by then.

The next morning, Ren knocked on my door right before I was about to leave the house. "Hey, want to walk to school?" He looked at me awkwardly as I nodded. I tried not to show too much emotion, or else Ren would find me weird. Ren and I stayed silent for the first few minutes until I asked: "You were ignoring me for like, a week. Why?"

Ren gulped and started walking faster. I followed behind but demanded to know the answer. He sighed before he started to explain. "I like Esther. I just wanted to talk to her and get closer to her. As my best friend, you wouldn't mind that, right? I mean, we're around the age where we can start dating." He explained.

I nodded, feeling a bit disappointed. I knew that Esther didn't like him, but hearing Ren say he liked Esther made me unhappy. I let out a quiet laugh before looking at Ren and smiling. "I know that. I can tell," Ren started blushing and put the backs of his hands to his tomato-red cheeks.

"Well, uh, that's awkward. Did Esther say anything about me?" Ren asked anxiously. "Not that I know of. Sorry!" I apologized. "Well, good luck," I said quietly. Ren nodded as we arrived at school. Esther waved at me, and I looked at Ren. Ren froze and smiled, before waving back.

Dummy, she isn't even waving to you. Esther slowly stopped waving and walked over to us. "Ren, I was actually waving to Savannah." She said bluntly. Ren immediately turned red and apologized. I laughed, and Esther let out a laugh too. The bell rang, and all the students headed inside.

By the end of the day, I noticed Ren and Esther didn't talk that much. They sat together during lunch, but Esther was actually with someone else for most of the day. That person was Greyson, a popular boy who was known for having more than 13 exes. I wondered why Esther would hang out with a person like him, so I decided to ask Esther to walk home with me today so I could get some information out of her.

"Hey, Esther! Want to walk home together? Just today, please?" I begged. Esther nodded, and we started walking. "So, I saw you were with Greyson today? How come?" I smiled at her greedily. "He's just an annoying cow." She answered. I busted out laughing and gave Esther a big thumbs up. "Annoying cow?! That's hilarious! You sure you and him don't have BEEF going on?"

Esther looked at me confused. "Beef? As in the meat? Cow meat," She giggled. "Beef! As in, are you guys dating? You guys seem so close!" I exclaimed, eyes sparkling. "Dating? No way. He just started annoying me yesterday." She blushed a bit before explaining. "Well, you two are really cute together!" I smiled.

"No, he's ugly," Esther mumbled. "Haha! Calling Greyson ugly, good one! But you should watch out, he's had too many exes. Kind of risky to date him, you know?" I said. Esther nodded, but then shook her head. "I won't be dating him." She responded before stopping in front of her porch to wave goodbye.

Throughout the next few weeks, I noticed Esther and Greyson got closer. They walked to school together and sometimes even had lunch together. I felt grateful because that meant Ren and I could talk more. I was willing to give up my popularity for Ren to like me. Esther and I also got closer, and I could officially say I was her friend.

Ren wasn't very happy, though. Esther got closer to Greyson, so that meant Ren didn't have much of a chance with Esther. Ren told me he was ready to confess to Esther, so I was ready to have her reject him. I didn't want to take advantage of Ren's feelings, but it was true that Esther didn't like him, and if she rejected him, I'd have a chance.

That day came quicker than I expected, and so after school ended, Ren asked Esther out. Esther was surprised at first, but then her look disappeared as she rejected him. "I'm sorry, Ren. I don't like you in that way. I think we're great friends, though!" I facepalmed and pulled Esther to the side.

"Esther! That was way too harsh." I looked at her, covering my mouth. "Well, he's gotta be crying when you go to find him. Take this chance I've given you," Esther sighed, walking back over to Ren. "I'm sorry." She apologized before walking away. Greyson came over and looked at Ren.

They exchanged a glance before Greyson stuck out his tongue, making Ren angrier than ever. I tapped Ren on the shoulder and saw that he was annoyed, angry, and sad. "Hey, it's okay. She only rejected you, move on." I said coldly. I pulled Ren aside and hugged him.

"You still have me. You know, I like you. I've liked you for a really long time."