I was having a rather good dream, though I don’t remember what it was, nor do I care to remember; it was trivial and unimportant when compared to the contents of my average day. I was violently dragged from Dreamland and into reality by my world-ending alarm clock. I heard my mother calling for me from down the stairs, telling me to wake up before I would be late for school. So, I got ready for school just like any other student does in the morning and got ready to head out but was stopped by my mother.

“Oh, by the way, give this to Amelia for me, will you?” She said as she handed me a closed-lid basket; it was probably full of vegetables from our garden if I had to guess.

“Sure, just this?”

“Yeah. Alright, have a good day at school.” She waved and saw me off as I stepped outside into the cold world...and immediately waited in front of my driveway. It’s cold today, she better hurry up or I’m leaving her behind, I remember thinking. And then I heard a door to the right and behind me open, along with the impending footsteps that followed. A beautiful girl with long, flowing black hair ran out of the door and quickly put the brakes on.

“WOW it’s cold out here, maybe I should go get a different jacket?”

“We’re already gonna barely make it to school on time, hurry up.” I remember saying in an unapologetic tone because of the careless decision made to not grab a different jacket.

“But I’m coooold.” The whiny girl whined, what a surprise.

“I don’t care. I’m leaving now, see ya’.” She whined again and then I remembered what I was holding in my hand, as well as what my mother had told me. I sighed and turned around, already tired of the shenanigans. “Fine, wait. My mom told me to give these to you, so hurry up and run this inside while you grab your jacket.” The whiny girl ran up to me and smiled a devious smile.

“I knew you couldn’t say no to me, I’m your best-and only-friend after all.” I grimaced and glared, but nothing factually wrong was said. This was my ‘best-and-only-friend' that lived next door, Amelia Perez.

Amelia and her family moved in when I was about three, I think, and we’ve been friends ever since then. Classic childhood friend story, nothing much. We grew up with each other, shared memories and secrets that would physically make me die if they were ever remembered now, and most importantly had fun; once again, normal childhood friend stuff. However, unlike most childhood friend stories, we didn’t drift apart when middle school started, nor today, on our first day of high school.

“I’m suuuper excited, aren’t you?” She asked me as we were walking to school.

“Not particularly. Actually, you know what? I think my high school life would be perfect if I didn’t have a single class with you for the next four years, doesn’t that sound amazing?”

“A life without me would be a very boring life for you.”

“I guess life will always be uneventful then huh?”

“Nope.”

“What do you mean ‘nope’?”

“I won’t let your life become boring.”

“Invasion of privacy and infringement on personal rights.”

“Oh c’mon, your rights are my rights. Your property is my property. All that sort of stuff.”

“And when did this become a wedding vow!?”

“So you’ve been thinking about your wedding vows for me? I’m sooo happy, as soon as we graduate we can go get married, okay?”

“I have college.”

“We can make it work; I’ll just go to the same college as you.”

“As if you were that smart to follow me wherever I go.”

“If it’s you, I’ll do anything I can to follow you anywhere.” She gave me a dazzling and enchanting smile as she said, which genuinely caused me to swallow.

“...”

“Ohh? Did that one actually get through that indestructible barrier around that icy heart of yours?” She began to poke my face as soon as she realized what she said was highly effective. I felt my HP drop by at least ten points. Dangerous. Then all of a sudden she went silent and started walking a lot slower.

“So, you really don’t want to be with me at school?” she asked. I waited a few seconds before responding because I expected her to laugh at me, but the laugh never came. I stopped walking and turned around to face her, and I was shell-shocked. She had an expression I don’t think I’ve ever seen on her before, it was one full of repressed emotions and heartbreak.

Even the insensitive asshole I am never wanted to see her make that face again, so I did what I had to do. While she was looking down, or rather away from me, I took my chance and walked up towards her. She noticed this and raised her head for her eyes to meet mine. I stopped short a few inches from her and stared at her. Our faces were close, almost too close. She had a blush on her face, while I had the usual indifferent gaze perched on mine. Our lips in particular were close, very close. She started to lean into me as she shut her eyes, god I always ended up taking responsibility for this girl.

“Dumbass.” I said as I flicked her on the forehead, interrupting whatever indecent desires were flowing through her mind. “If I didn’t mind being associated with you, I’d have left years ago. Now c’mon, we can’t be late on the first day.” I turned around once more and gave her a dazzling smile of my own. Now she was standing there shellshocked, it seems I had made a mistake by getting her hopes up. Her eyes watered and she puffed up her cheeks pouting; how cute.

“COME ON!” She yelled out into the sky. She started walking faster than me, overtook me, and then grabbed my hand and began pulling me. “LET’S GO!” Whoops, seems I overdid it with the teasing this time, oh well, everything will be resolved eventually.

“I’m never going to forgive you, never ever ever.”

“Never ever ever?”

“Never ever ever. Even if you stay with me every day and apologize every day.”

I smiled. “But realistically speaking, how many days would it take me being with you all the time for you to forgive me?”

“...Forever.”

“Huh...so if I want you to forgive me, I have to be with you forever?” She nodded her head. “And what, at the end of it all I just get forgiven?” She nodded again but also spoke this time. “You also get to be with me forever, talk about an otherworldly benefit.”

“Talk about unequal compensation more like.”

The cold mornings full of our blossoming love and ever-increasing banter was something I had unknowingly grown far too attached to, but was that really a bad thing? I was happy, and I believe that no matter what, happiness is the most important thing in life that everybody should strive to achieve.

“Let’s have an amazing four years together.” She said to me without turning around.

“Yeah yeah, sure.” Well, I mean, it’s not like I had anything better to do than be with her. And so, for the next two years, I lived every day to the fullest with Amelia by my side. This unfamiliar and unknown emotion that had invaded my body began to accumulate ever since that morning on our first day of high school. It definitely wasn’t there at first, but over time it steadily grew in strength and in importance to me; I had undoubtedly fallen head-over-heels in love with my best friend Amelia Perez.