I'm better off without you more than I know

She's got it all, really - the Volvo, the condo, the face of an angel. Innocence. The guys love her. She could have anything she wanted, really - or all but one. Deep down, she's emotionally needy, but she turns the guys down week after week. She could get any of the guys in the school easily, really, but she knows that it won't work out in the end... because there's just one guy she can't seem to push out of her mind.

No, he doesn't like her, and he's made it clear, with a polite apology on his part and clandestine weeping on hers. Maybe once he was caught up in the flattering attention she gave him, but things just faded away after a while. She really should forget him. It'd make everything better. Moving on would set her heart free, and it'd open herself up to all the other beautiful opportunities. She needs to get him out of her mind.

Why? Why him, of all people, and what was wrong with herself that made it impossible to touch his heart? What was that little thing about him that made it impossible for her to let go?

Months later - a little scribble on the wall: "The day I thought I'd never get through - I got over you." And suddenly she felt much better. No more shackles, no more being bound to someone who'd never give her a second glance.

But then she realised that when her heart didn't have anything to be attached to, it started clinging on to anyone it could find. Following random people like a puppy desperate for a home. But she knew the difference between what she was feeling for the other guys and what she had felt for him.

And then one day she saw him speak at the podium, addressing the cohort. And she remembered the him she couldn't seem to forget once upon a time. She remembered why. His charm, his overwhelming boyish charm, it flowed out of his eyes and into her heart once again.

She realised - she could have all the flings in the world, but she knew that he was the only guy she had actually liked, ever.

Damn that heart.

Flirting is bad when it's not just done in good fun and you both know it means nothing. It's bad when you do it with the motive of toying with someone's heart.

It's bad to have charm, too. Charm plays with the heart too, but deceptively. It's in the eyes. The eyes capture your heart. Charm deceives - often, you don't know it's charm that's got you. Charm is powerful. It's powerful, enchanting, attractive magic hidden behind a mask of sincerity.

Why, why, she asks herself. He's still got that unbreakable, invisible chain over her, but he'll never realise it, while she continues to bleed inside. She needs to break free. Yet she glances at him again - and the charm washes over her like a tide.

-

"They're used to having guys liking them a lot. That's the most unattractive thing about a beautiful - about a pretty girl."