“Hey...what’s wrong?”
It was the same question yet again. The boy (for he was hardly a man) had been asked this again and again all day. He knows that he could try and hide his emotions, and no one would ask him, but that is useless. All that he would get out of that was pent up emotions and even more worried friends. Plus he knows he needs to vent.
“Are you OK? Talk to me, what’s going on?”
The boy answers quietly, sadly. His friend gasps.
“I’m sorry…I…is there anything I can do?”
Every time he explains they apologize. The boy wonders what they are apologizing for, they did nothing wrong. That never matters though. They just keep falling over themselves to apologize.
“There isn’t anything you can do.”
He knew that wasn’t true. He knew something they could do, but it was something that always seems to be kept silent. A true friend will always do it anyway.
“I’m sorry…I wish there was something that I could do. You just know I’m here for you if you ever need it. I’m here.”
Again his friend apologizes, but the friend also does the one thing that they could do. In the end, just by being there for the boy his friend helps more than either of them could know.