How did I end up back in high school?

It's hard to witness unrequited adoration. Particularly when it leads to desperate, attention-seeking behavior that becomes the object of ridicule.

Most often, you see it in the context of romantic infatuation, maybe in high school. Girl adores Boy (or vice versa), Boy is uninterested in Girl, Girl proceeds to make a fool of herself trying to get Boy's attention, while Boy and his friends mock Girl behind her back.

This is pathetic enough.

But it's even more pathetic when it's a grown woman, and the object of her desire is another grown women with whom she is desperate to be Best Friends.

This is going on with Anne and Cindy. And it's just downright sad.

Because unbeknownst to Anne, Cindy pretty much decided, upon meeting Anne, that Anne was the BFF that she has been waiting for all her life. And while Anne was nice to Cindy and saw her in social situations, Anne didn't quite understand at first that she had been Claimed. That when Cindy looks at her cell phone and has received a text or a call from Anne, she makes a point of announcing to anyone within ear shot that she has received a message from her Best Friend. That Cindy is careful to tell people that when Anne has free time on the weekend, it will be spend with Cindy. They're making plans, you see. They're Best Friends, after all.

When Anne starts to realize that Cindy has essentially peed in a circle around her, she becomes uncomfortable. Because Anne doesn't view Cindy as her Best Friend. Hell, she barely knows the woman, and quite frankly, doesn't feel like she has much in common with her. And increasingly, the more time she spends with Cindy, the more she finds her a bit distasteful.

And none of us knows what to do. How do we tell Cindy that the more she tries to get Anne's attention, the more desperate and pathetic she becomes? How do we make her understand that not only is her behavior cringe-worthy, it's making her a laughing-stock? How do you give someone utterly lacking in self-awareness the ability to step back and see themselves as others see them?

I feel like I'm watching a train-wreck in progress. I'm standing on the sidelines, peeking through my fingers, unable to do anything, but unable to look away.