Two friends, something more, nothing less, visited the Wishing Tree. One stared long and hard at the thick branches and leaves, and the other stared at her. The first friend closed her eyes and put her hands up to her mouth in a praying motion.

"What are you doing?" He asked, laughing a little at how intense she seemed.

"Wishing." She looked through him.

"Well, what are you wishing for?" His tone was teasing, but she didn't engage for some reason, which was unlike her usual, bubbly self.

"I don't know exactly."

"Can you tell me?"

She turned, "I don't think I can."

Suddenly, he wanted to know more than anything.

She stood, making that praying motion and closing her eyes again, letting her thoughts take her away.

She thought,

"Please, please, let me be seen as who I truly am, without any rose-tinted glasses, let someone love me for the real person that is underneath all the layers of who people think I am. That's all I wish for, to be able to live without this pressure of keeping up this persona. I want someone to understand me without judgment."

It felt almost liberating admitting that.

He looked at her while she stood with her eyes closed and her mouth moving, not a word coming out.

He closed his eyes as well after deciding to make his wish.

"I think I love her, her looks, her interests, the way she makes me feel. I wish she loved me like that as well."

The two stood silently for a moment.

"Now, can you tell me what you wished for?"

She tried to muster a smile. "I don't know."

"You've been kind of boring lately."

Her eyes slid to the ground. "Sorry."

Something inside her had always felt empty. Like she had never quite been able to find anyone who cared about her if she didn't behave the way they deemed fitting. She was exhausted from trying to keep up with all of it. She looked over at him, thinking how he was a prime example of this feeling.

It bothered him when she got like this. All moody and boring, just sitting somewhere and staring at a point in the distance. He wanted her to be the way she was when he loved her, all fun and laughing, dancing around in a short skirt and garnering attention from everyone around her.

She looked over at him. Maybe she should tell him what she wished for; they were good friends, and he would understand. She had always figured he had a crush on her, and maybe he saw something the others didn't. He would understand, she thought. He was different.

He noticed she was looking at him. Good. Maybe his wish was finally coming true. This whole thing with her refusing to tell him what was on her mind was just her playing hard to get. It had to be; he knew her better than anyone. He knew she would tell him, eventually.

"Sorry for being all weird earlier." Her voice cut through the soft sounds of the woods.

"You're fine, are you finally going to tell me what's on your mind?"

"It's kind of weird." She suddenly didn't want to.

His wish was coming true. "You should tell me, I promise I know what it is already."

"Uh, okay. I guess I'm just sick of pretending, sick of trying to be someone everyone thinks I am. I feel like I'm putting on a persona, and it's exhausting. Every experience I have feels empty, I feel like I'm living without feeling. It's so much pressure trying to be perfect." She took a deep breath. Once she had said it all, she knew she couldn't take any of it back. Holding it in was killing her. She anticipated his response, feeling optimistic about what he might say.

"That is weird. You're like, depressed." There went his idea of her incredible love confession. It was just her saying some hormonal, sad girl stuff.

"I'm not depressed. I don't know. I just want to feel normal, I guess." That was everything she didn't want him to say.

"Then be normal. It's not that hard."

"Not for you it isn't. Maybe I'm being pretentious, but it's how I feel."

He stared at the ground, and for some reason, she saw anger in his expression. "Yeah, maybe you are being pretentious. I think I'm going to go."

As he stalked off, all he could think about was how much he had liked her. This version of her would pass, he knew. She would go back to her regular self and fall madly in love with him, and all would be right in the world. Right now, she was just being weird.

Tears streamed down her face. She didn't think she could take the pressure anymore. She got up and walked away, going farther into the woods.