I collapsed into the bench across from her, completely ignoring the stunned look on Jeannie’s face a few feet away. I didn’t even know where to begin. A thousand questions collided in my head, fighting for dominance, but only one managed to make it past my lips.

“Jeannie said you’ve been eating here for three years,” I stammered, staring at her in absolute disbelief. “Diane, three years? Sitting right there? Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you come over?” Diane looked down at her hands. They were trembling, the knuckles swollen with arthritis.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and when she looked back up at me, the immense weight of her shame was palpable. “Because I didn’t keep our promise,” she whispered, a tear finally escaping and tracing the lines of her cheek. “Do you remember the night before graduation?

We sat on the floor of our empty room, and I went on and on about how I was going to conquer the world. I was so arrogant. I promised you I’d never be ordinary, that I’d never let life beat me down.” She reached out, tracing the rim of her glass.

“My life didn’t turn out the way I bragged it would, Martha. My husband left me a decade ago and took practically everything we had. My business went bankrupt. I spent the last twenty years just struggling to keep my head above water. Three years ago, I had to move back to this town to live in my sister’s spare bedroom because I had nowhere else to go.

I was completely broken.” She looked at me, her eyes pleading for understanding. “I came in here for lunch one Friday, and I saw you sitting there. You looked so dignified, so peaceful. I wanted to run over and hug you. But then the shame hit me.

How could I face you? How could I sit across from the girl who believed in my grand dreams, and tell her that I failed at almost everything?” I felt a massive lump form in my throat, choking off my air. The tragedy of it was almost too much to bear.

She had sat ten feet away from me, week after week, suffering in silence out of pure embarrassment, completely misunderstanding the fundamental nature of what we had meant to each other. I reached across the sticky restaurant table and grabbed both of her trembling hands, gripping them with a sudden, fierce strength.

“Diane, you absolute fool,” I said, my own tears finally spilling over, blurring the brightly lit diner around us. “Did you really think I loved you because of the things you were going to achieve? Did you think I cared about the money or the success?” She let out a quiet, broken sob.

“I loved you because you were my best friend,” I told her, my voice fierce and unwavering.