The coffee shop hadn’t changed in ten years. Same worn wooden chairs, same smell of roasted beans and vanilla. As Ellie sat by the window, her gaze drifted to the table in the corner—the one where they used to sit. She could almost hear the echoes of their laughter, see the pile of books they would pass around, and feel the warmth of a time long gone.
There had been four of them: Ellie, Rachel, Sam, and Nate. They had been inseparable, each other's shadows through school and the shaky early years of adulthood. But life happened in whispers, in cracks that widened slowly. Rachel moved away, chasing a career that demanded her full attention. Sam found himself in a different circle, one Ellie didn’t understand. Nate—well, Nate simply drifted, his silence louder than words.
Ellie had tried, at first. A text here, an email there, always hoping for a response that never came. Over time, the attempts grew less frequent. Eventually, she stopped entirely, unsure whether she had given up on them—or if they had given up on her.
Today, as she stared at the empty table, Ellie felt the familiar ache of what could never be. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her old contacts, pausing at Rachel’s name. Her thumb hovered over the message button.
But what would she say? That she missed them? That she wished things had been different? Some things didn’t fit into words, and maybe some silences weren’t meant to be broken.
Instead, Ellie tucked her phone away and took a sip of her coffee. The shop was quieter now, the laughter in the corner just a memory.
As she walked out into the bustling street, Ellie didn’t feel angry or sad—just wistful. Some friendships, she realized, weren’t meant to last forever. But they left behind their echoes, and for Ellie, that was enough....
