Boys I Loved?

Q.B.

Two diabetics who became best friends,

Got swept up in the noise, compelled to follow a trend.

Convinced by others that their platonic feelings were a ruse,

It took three months before they cut the taught string keeping them together lose,

He saw the truth before she did, that what they felt was never real,

That their well-intentioned friends saw something that they didn’t feel,

And now they’re complete strangers to one another, but at least they’re living true.

She did love you, Q, just not in the way everyone wanted her to,

And now she’s left with no other choice but to miss you.

K.H.

A few months later, deep in the thralls of depression from “skipping” class,

A boy showed true interest in her at long last.

She barely had friends, left broken by the harassment her school was allowing.

She was starved for affection, a broken-down car running only on exhaust,

And she clung to him like he was the only thing keeping her from drowning.

Who knows if she ever truly had feelings for him, maybe she was just lost.

He was her first kiss, under a canopy of pine trees,

Stuck in June’s heat without any hint of a breeze.

There was no fireworks or butterflies; just the hovering sun.

She shouldn’t have been surprised that after one month, they were done,

Especially since the reason cited by him was her reading too much.

J.A.

And then there was J, her supposed best friend, who treated her like a ghost,

A Jeckle in private but Hyde in public, always acting like they were strangers,

He claimed to love her, but disappeared when she needed him most.

It was her birthday, and the last thing he said was ‘I love you’,

Rejection was something she was used to, but his made her feel like she was dying.

Her soul was beaten, her heart bruised—all these things he knew.

Was she so shameful that he didn’t want to be seen with her?

When he saw other friends, how come he always withdrew?

Why was she the secret that he couldn’t bear to let out?

He was the first boy she was ever in love with,

But the third to break her heart.

Each boy chipped a little piece of her away,

Until she was convinced she was too unlovable to make people stay.

She still holds hope, for a real love, a true north,

Yet she dreads to meet a boy who may become the fourth.