"No, Elly. I will not accept that. We've been through some hard times together and I'm not willing to give up."

"I have nothing to give you. What we had...It’s gone. We can't hang out anymore. Our lives are rapidly going in different directions."

"Will you take a ride with me? I have a gift for you, but it's not here."

"No. I won’t accept any gifts from you." I tried to step around him one last time.

Kent stepped in front of me, his hands up in defense. "At eight years old we made a promise to each other, that we'd be friends forever, no matter what. I intend to keep that promise and that is what this gift is about. It's something that goes with that promise."

"Yeah, but we aren't. So, you broke the promise. You broke it when you started dating Jen and let her come between us. You broke it when you walked out on me last year and didn’t call me all friggin’ summer.”

"Then what am I doing here now, Elly?"

"You're trying to take it back but you can't." Tears pricked at my eyes and I struggled to keep them from falling. "Tell me this Kent, if I said that in order to get me back as a friend you'd have to break off your engagement to Jen and never talk to her again, would you do it?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. "I'm not going to lose you, Elly." His fingers started typing in a number, I could only guess it was Jen's. "Is that what you want me to do? Is that what all this is about?"

I stared at him and shook my head, looking down at my feet. I wasn't going to force him out of his relationship. Even if he wasn't with Jen, there was no guarantee that he'd pick me and then we'd be in the same situation just with a different girl. "No, I'm sorry."

"I stood up for myself with her. I told her that you were going to be my friend and she had to stop being jealous. I came here tonight to say I was sorry." He put his phone away and got down on his knees in front of me, his arms limp at his sides, like a man defeated. "I'm begging. Do you want me to crawl? Because I will." He bent forward, putting his hands on the ground too.

"Kent..." I stepped away from him, "Stop. Is this what you did for her too? Crawl on your hands and knees? Beg her to stop being jealous over me?"