As I watch the days on the calendar

crossing themselves and getting nearer and nearer my 18th birthday,

a memory pulls me back in time.

It was the week before your own 18th birthday

and you were telling me your plans

and I remember in the moment

trying to come up to some excuse as to why

I had to decline going to your party.

But then something happened.

You never asked me.

I remember feeling unimportant,

as though I was never on your list.

But why am I like this?

Such a hypocrite,

I wouldn't have gone anyway.

Why did I feel hurt to be discarded by you?

Why does the hurt still ache me

when it's already been so long.