The Sidekick ::Short Version::

        "I'm sorry," Jake said. His hair was still damp from the rain and his clothes were wrinkled, taken from the floor of his bedroom in a hurry. "I'm sorry for everything I did….and everything I said…and I was hoping that you could possibly give me a second chance?"
Stacey stared at him, dumbfounded, her blonde hair pulled into a loose, messy ponytail. Behind her, I could see her roommate sitting on the other side of their college dorm room, watching curiously.
This isn't my story. In this story, I'm merely the narrator; the supportive best friend who helped Jake travel half way across the country to get back together with Stacey, my other best friend. My part in the story began five hours earlier, when Jake showed up on my front porch, drenched from the rain. He was looking for Stacey, who had already left for college that morning. Being the sidekick of this story, I couldn't very well let it end without a happy ending. So even though he didn't ask me to, I dragged him onto a plane to Vancouver so he could make up with Stacey.
Even though I've been in love with Jake since I was four.
After an eternity of silence, Stacey closed her door, crossed her arms over her chest and said, "No. I can't. I'm sorry."
I stared at Jake, then at Stacey, then back at Jake. He simply looked at her for a moment, before nodding and walking away. I called after him, but he ignored me and kept walking.
When he was gone I spun around to Stacey, furious about what she had just done, and yelled, "What was that for??"
"Sam…"
I ignored her. "We flew five hours to get here, so he could apologize for whatever he did to you, and you just rejected him that easily?!"
"Sam—"
"I mean, I know that you guys have been fighting a lot recently, but you were together for, like, a year, and you seemed so happy together, and—"
"Sam!" she yelled, grabbing me by my shoulders. I shut up. "Did he ask you?"
I looked at her, confused. "Ask me what?"
"Did he ask you to bring him all the way to Vancouver just to see me?"
"Well, no, but…"
She sighed. "Do you even know why we broke up?"
"What? No…"
"The first reason was because we had no spark together," she said, leaning against the door. "I don't think we ever had one. The only reason we managed to stay together for as long as we did was because we had been best friends for so long."
I bit my lip. "What was the second reason?"
"I knew how you felt about him."
I opened my mouth to say something, but she stopped me. "Don't, okay? I've seen the way you look at him; the way you listen just a little more intently when he's the one talking. I don't know why you didn't want me to know, but the fact is, I've known for a long time."
I folded my arms over my chest. "If you knew for so long, then why didn't you break up with him earlier?"
"Because I was waiting for you to speak up!" she said. "I thought that if you really loved him that much, you would actually tell me, so I could help you two get together."
"But…" I hesitated. "If you guys broke up…then…you wouldn't get the happy ending you've always wanted."
Stacey sighed, exhausted. "Look, I know that you only see yourself as my 'sidekick'. But you're not. I see so much more in you than that. And I know that Jake does, too."
I looked at her, unsure. "How do you know?"
Stacey gave me a look. "You can't tell me you never noticed how he always makes an excuse to sit next to you; how he always seemed happier with you than with me. We broke up months ago, Sam. He never planned on coming here. And he never would have if you hadn't dragged him here yourself."
We didn't say anything for a while, and the silences stretched on between us for what felt like an eternity. I looked out the window at the end of the hall. It was raining buckets outside. Jake had surely gotten soaked again, just as he had when he had shown up at my house five hours earlier.
Stacey looked at me. "This was never my story, Sam It was yours. If you hurry, you just might be able to get your happy ending. And if you have the chance, I really think you should take it."
I looked at Stacey, then out the window, and back at Stacey. "Stacey?"
"Yeah?"
"I'll be right back, 'kay?"
Stacey smiled. "I'll be waiting."

Jake wasn't the only one who was going to be soaked.
The rain pounded against my body as I ran through a deserted street, my jacket providing little protection. Lightning lit up the sky and the thunder that followed shook the ground. My feet splashed through almost every puddle on the street, making them colder and wetter with each step.
I felt like such an idiot for not realizing Jake's behaviours earlier. He had been acting so quiet on the plane ride over, and I had barely even noticed.
Some best friend I am.
All this time I had been telling myself that this wasn't my story, that I was only Stacey's sidekick, her best friend. I always thought that Stacey would make the better protagonist, and that the story was hers, not mine.
But maybe…the story had been mine, all along.
Lightning lit the sky again, illuminating Jake's figure in front of me. I stopped running and stood a few feet away from him.
I called his name.
He turned around.
And as his eyes met mine, I thought to myself,
Maybe…..I don't have to be the sidekick all of the time.