Bestfriends, Better Off as Lovers(ch.1)

Befriends, Better off as Lovers.
By: Kasey Parks


Dedications:
I first want to start off by thanking all of my friends that have read the story and helped me come up with ideas from the beginning and the ones that have just supported the idea; all of you have really encouraged me. Thank you. There was a point where I thought writing this was just a dumb little idea to past the time, but you guys really turned it into what I have made it today.
I also want to thank the one person that inspirited this story in the first place, even if you didn’t know it. I’m not going to use his name, but thank you so much. I truly did and still do love you and I hope this story, if you ever read it, shows you that. You will always have a special place in my heart!
Thanks Kaley Rector, for helping me pick the perfect title when I had no clue on what to call it. I also want to thank Fall Out Boy for inspiring her in the first place.






And now, to all my devoted readers:
I present you with the final copy of
Best friends, Better off as Lovers.


Contents


1. And So It Begins.
2. Mistakes Happen.
3. Heartbreak
4. Silly Little Love Songs.
5.The Unexpected.
6. Birthday Wish.
7. Homecoming.
8. The Accident.
9. Recovery.
10. Prom.
11. Unforgettable Times.
12. Future Plans.





















The courses of true love never did run smooth
--William Shakespeare

















Preface

I could have prevented all of this; all the heart ache and misery that I’m going through. It feels like my heart is breaking into a million pieces. Only this time, he isn’t here to help me put it back together. The tears won’t stop coming, like water continuously streaming over the ledge of a waterfall; never ending. I didn’t know pain like this existed in real life. I have only read about it in books or seen it in movies. The constant ripping in my chest was enough to kill someone. But something must be keeping me alive.
I shouldn’t have done it, but what’s done is done. Now both of us have to suffer for my mistake. I wish I were dead. That way the pain would stop. Now that he’s gone, he who was my world, my life, my existence, I’m practically dead anyways.
Maybe if there was a way to ease the pain, some way to lighten the load that I was bearing. Would I take the chance to forget? No, I don’t think I would. Because forgetting would be worst than remembering. I would rather feel something than nothing; even if it was pain. Maybe time would heal the open wounds that I have; the gapping hole in my chest where my heart once was. The heart that belonged to him and the heart he took when he left.









Chapter 1

         Aaron and I have been always been best friends. We have been that way even since my family moved across the street from him and his dad when we were both nine years old. We would play during the warm Alabama summers, up on our favorite Hill. Our parents took us there one day for a picnic when we were 10 years old. We have gone up there ever since. We would have silly little adventures and play childish, little games up there, but as we grew older, we went out there to get away from the struggles of life. Instead of play games, we now went up to our Hill to talk or just to enjoy each other’s company; it was our refuge from obstacles of life. 
         Besides each other, we had other friends. My best girl-friend was Elizabeth Crenshaw, Liz for short. She was always there for me when I needed a friend. There was also Aaron’s best guy friends, Josh and Mark Comings. All three of them together always equaled trouble, but they are basically harmless. We were all really close, like brothers and sisters; We all live in the same neighborhood too. Though Liz was my best girl-friend, we were complete opposites. While Liz was off putting on make-up and shopping, I was in the yard, wrestling with the guys or fishing with them in the pond in the back of our neighborhood. I think it was safe to say that I was some what of a tom-boy. I never wore skirts or dresses, unless I was forced to. I wore make-up, but you could never tell I had any on.                    
         And now, at the age of 17 years old and a upcoming senior at my high school, I’m getting kind of tired of being “one of the guys”. Don’t get me wrong, I love my boys and I love to be with them, but I would rather them start seeing me as more as a girl. So, when Aaron came back from his Aunt’s house last summer looking less like his scrawny, string-bean like self, and more like a Abercrombie model, I realized that he was actually pretty gorgeous. And do you know how odd it is to find out that your once awkward-looking best friend turns out to be gorgeous and you are actually attracted to him? But no matter how strange it was, I couldn’t shake this new feeling I got when I’d see him; my knees would buckle, I had a feeling in my stomach that was much more stronger than butterflies, and I was sudden self-conscious with the way I looked when I was near him. I had started to fall in love with him; all the signs were there and I couldn’t avoid them anymore. And the fact that his saw me as “one of the guys” didn’t really help the whole my loving him thing. But I honestly think that I have always loved Aaron, I was just to young and ignorant to see what was right in front of my face. That’s when it hit me, if I wanted Aaron to feel for me the way I felt towards him, I would have to get off my butt and do something about it. I would have to become what I feared most: the type of girl he was interested in. You know the kind, short skirts and high heels; basically fake. But was I really ready for that big a of change? If I wanted Aaron for myself, I would have to make myself be ready.
         I had it all planned out; I would start being less tom-boyish, and more girlish. Which meant bye-bye wrestling in the front year, and hello shopping and high heels. There was only one problem with my plan: I had no idea how exactly to be girly. I would end up buying my normal clothes if I went shopping alone and I wasn’t exactly Miss Graceful, so high heels are defiantly a problem. I needed help; I called Liz.
“Hello?”
“Hey Liz, what are you doing?” I asked.
“Nothing much, just watching some TV. What about you?” she asked back.
“Nothing much. I actually called for a reason.” I paused, waiting for her response.
“Yeah?” she urged me.
“Okay, I need you to help Aaron notice me. You know, could you like put some makeup on me or fix my hair or something like that? Because whatever I’m doing, obviously isn’t working too well. So, is there anything that you can do to help me?” I asked, now realizing that all came out in somewhat of a blur.
“Sure, you should come over and I’ll do your make-up and all that good stuff.” she replied, her tone suddenly was all excited. I could tell be the way she was talking she was really excited. She is always trying to doll me up and make me look pretty, but this is the first time I will have actually let her without a fight.
“Okay, but I have to ask. Hold on one second.” I said as I lowered the phone and walked downstairs into the kitchen, where my mom was washing dishes.
“ Hey mom?” I yelled over the running sink water.
“Yeah Kae?” she yelled back, scrubbing at the dished.
“Can I spend the night over at Liz’s tonight?”
“Yeah, sure.” she answered.
“Thank you mom.” I said, smiling. I ran back upstairs and pulled the phone back up to my ear.
“Liz?” I said, making sure she was still on the other line.
“Can you?” she asked.
“Yeah I can. I’ll be over there after I eat something and get my stuff together, is that okay?”
“Sure, just come whenever. I’ll be here.” she replied. We said our good-byes and I hung up the phone.
I gently tossed my phone on my bed as I was walking out of my bed room door to go downstairs. I walked down the stairs, taking my time. As I past the door, I looked out the side window and saw Aaron cutting the grass, shirtless. He must have started working out, because before last summer, he didn’t look like that. I could see his abs and arm muscles from all the way from across the street. Seeing that boosted my confidence ever so much more that I was making the right decision. I finally drew my eyes away from his god-like self and walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. We really didn’t have much for a dinner, just some microwavable macaroni cups or cereal. I decided on a bag of chips and a glass of water.
I walked into the living room with my food and sat down on the couch. I looked up at the TV as I opened my bag of chips. I saw some stupid, cheesy MTV show. I was barely paying attention to the show, but I did hear something about some girl being too drunk which led to her cussing someone out and then fainting. Lovely.
I quickly finished my “dinner”, no longer paying attention to the show and ran back upstairs to my room and packed my things for Liz’s house, as I ran back downstairs from gathering my things together, I glanced out the door’s side window again to see if Aaron was still mowing his lawn. I was in luck, he was. I quickly told my mom bye, grabbed my car keys and ran to my car. I started it up, which started up the stereo up, which was playing my favorite CD. I backed out of the driveway and slowly drove down the street.
As I passed Aaron’s house, he waved and I waved back. He shut the lawnmower off and walked towards my car, so I slowed to a stop. He came up to the rolled down window of the passenger side of the car and poked his head through. He was all sweaty and dirty from the yard work, but I still think he looked amazing.
“Liz’s house?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
I couldn’t help but stare at him. I mean, he was right there. His chiseled abs were flexed and I really couldn’t help but stare. Only after he had said my name a few times, did I finally notice that I had completely missed what he had said.
“Huh?” I was coming out of my daze now.
“I asked if you were heading over to Liz’s…” he looked at my like I was slow or something, but he seemed to be amused at my dumbness, not knowing the reasoning behind it.
“Yeah.” I could think of nothing else to say, I was still trying to redirect my focus.
“You going over there to hang out, or to spend the night?” he was being very nosy.
“Spend the night.” I replied, pointing to the over night bag in the back seat.
“Well, cool.” he said, standing up and stretching his arms over his head. “Have fun.” and with that he waved and turned back to his lawnmower.
I took one last look at him before driving away. He truly looked like a cross between a Greek god and a model, it was breath-taking. I pulled out of the subdivision and went two house down and I was at Liz’s. I loved the fact that Liz lived so close, I could go over there at almost anytime; Liz’s house was like my second home. I pulled into her driveway and she was there to greet me. I got out of the car and grabbed my bag.
“Are you finally ready to become an actual girl” she teased as we walked inside. I ignored her.
“Hey Mrs. Tammy.” I said to Liz’s mom as I shut the door.
“Well, hello Kae. Nice to see you” she replied with a smile.
“Thanks for letting me stay over tonight.”
“You know your always welcome her, Kae.” she told me as Liz started dragging me upstairs to her room.
I set my things down by here door and plopped down on her bed. I had my head angled towards the floor for a little while staring at her cat playing with a loose thread from her bed comforter. When I looked up, Liz was standing there with a devilish grin.
“What?” I asked her, now laughing at the face she was making.
“Come on, the time has come, Kae.” she was such a nerd. I unwillingly sat up and walked over to her mirror. She had everything set up: the chair, the hair produces, and the make up. I sat down in the chair and she immediately started applying all kinds of gunk on my face. After what seemed like an hour,  she had completed my makeup and moved on to my hair. I wasn’t all that nervous until she brought out the scissors.
“What on earth do you think you are going to do with those?” I exclaimed, pointing to the scissors.
“Um, I was planning on cutting you out-of-control hair.” she said, trying again. I stopped her.
“No.” I told her.
“Yes.” she argued.
This went on for a while longer. I finally gave up, knowing I was not going to win. I trusted her, well at least I think I did. She was ecstatic that I was actually letting her do this. She raised the scissors and started cutting. She didn’t cut much, just the dead ends and a couple layers. I didn’t even know Liz knew how to cut hair.
But once she was finally done, I turned and looked in the mirror and to my surprise, I looked really good. I didn’t have too much makeup on, but you could defiantly that I had makeup on. My hair, I loved it! Liz said it fit my personality, whatever that means. Liz and I were discussing my new wardrobe, when my phone started to ring. I reached into my back pocket and pulled it out. When I looked to see who it was, I thought my stomach flipped a couple times. I had a big smile on my face as I answered it.
“Hello?”
“Hey Kae.” It was Aaron. “What are you and Liz up to?”
“Um-” I paused, looking at myself in the mirror. “Just hanging out and being girls. What about you?”
“You…being a girl? Is that possible?” he joked, with a smile in his voice
“Ha-ha. Yes for your information, it is.” I informed him. “Did you call just to make fun of me, or did you need something?”
“Yeah, I actually did need to talk to you about something.” he sounded excited.
“Okay. What is it?”
“Do you think that you guys could come outside? I would rather talk to you in person.”
“Let me ask Liz.” I pulled the phone way from my mouth. “Hey Liz?”
“Yeah Kae?” she asked, turned her attention from something that was on the TV to me.
“Do you think we could meet Aaron outside? He needs to talk to us about something.”
“Sure, whatever. Where does he want to meet?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” I pulled the phone back to my mouth. “Where do you want us to meet you?” I asked Aaron.
“I’ll meet you at the trampoline in Liz’s yard.” he replied.
I told Liz and she said that was fine. After Aaron and I had hung up, I walked out of Liz’s room and into the bathroom; Liz followed me.
I looked under her sink and grabbed a wash cloth and wetted it.
“Uh, Kae?” Liz looked oddly at me. “Whatcha doing?”
But I didn’t answer, I just started wiping the makeup off of my face. That sent Liz into an uproar.
“Kae! It took me an hour to make you look like that because that’s what you told me you wanted. And now your just putting it all to waste?” Liz was frustrated, I could tell.
Once I had washed the makeup off and had thrown my hair up, I turned to her.
“Liz, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it! But I’m just not ready for him to see me like that.” I looked at her, and knew she understood.
Without anymore objections from Liz, we walked downstairs and out the backdoor. Both her parents were asleep, so we didn’t worry about getting caught. When we walked over to the trampoline, Aaron was already there. I couldn’t stop staring at him, he was so beautiful.
“Hey!” he called, waving.
“Hey.” Liz and I replied in unison.
“So, what’s this all about?” I asked Aaron.
“Okay, well you know that I have been liking Tracy for a while now and she turned me down that one time I asked her out, right?” he couldn’t hide his happiness form us.
I think I knew where this was going, and if I was right, I don’t think I could handle it.
“Yeah.” I replied to him.
“Well, I got up the courage tonight to call her-” he paused, cracking his infamous crooked smile at us that gave me butterflies. “And when I called her, I asked her if she wanted to hang out with me on Friday. And she said yes!” He was so happy, I couldn’t let my disappointment bring him down right now.
“Well that’s great!” I lied. “I’m really happy for you Aaron.” I leaned over and gave him a hug. I hated lying to him, but it was for the best.
“Really? That makes me feel better now that I know you approve” I wished he would just stop and go away, because I couldn’t fight back my tears much longer. Thank goodness that happened soon.
“Well, I have to go, I snuck out to meet you guys. I have to get home before my dad realizes I’m gone.” He turned around, but was still talking to me. “I’ll call you tomorrow, Kae.” And with that, he disappeared into the darkness.
I could hold it in no long, the tears were streaming from my eyes and I had no control. Liz walked over to me and gave me a hug. I cried silent sobs for a few more minutes before I dried my eyes and we went back inside.
On the way upstairs, Liz grabbed a carton of ice cream from the freezer and a couple good movies. We spent the rest of the night eating, watching movies, and crying myself to sleep. I felt bad for Liz; she probably didn’t get too much sleep because of me. We finally fell asleep around 1 o’clock. We woke up around twelve in the afternoon to the smell of bacon and pancakes sneaking upstairs from the kitchen. Liz and I ate and hung out for a while. I decided to leave around four. I told her I had some housework that I to take care of, but I just really wanted  some time alone.
Liz helped me get all my things together and walked me to my car.
“You call me if you need anything, you hear me?” she asked, as I closed my car door.
I nodded my head and mouthed ‘thank you’ to her, before I pulled out of her driveway and drove home. I got home and no one was home, as usual. I walked in, and walked upstairs to my room. My room had become my friend over the past couple of years. If I had a bad day, I would come up to my room and everything became calm and relaxed. Once I was in my room, I let more tears come. They came for a long time, and I had no intention of making them stop until I heard the door bell ring. As I got up, I glanced at the clock. It was 6 o’clock? Wow, I had been crying longer than I thought I had been.
I ran into the bathroom and attempted to wash the smeared makeup off, unsuccessfully, and dried my face before running to the door to answering it. I opened it and Aaron was standing in the door way, his shoulder propped on the doorframe, with a crooked smile on his face. I was suddenly embarrassed on my appearance; sweat pants, an old t-shirt, still smeared makeup, blotchy face, and messy hair. It didn’t seem to faze him, though, he did notice something wasn’t right.
“Hey” he said finally. “Um, are you okay?” He got up from leaning and walked closer to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Hey” I replied, still a little out of breathe from running to the door.                                        “Yeah, it’s nothing.” I was a horrible liar, but he seemed to buy it.
“What are you doing tonight?” he asked me, dropping the previous subject.
“Nothing that I can think of. Why?”
“You wanna hang out at the Hill tonight? We haven’t been there in a few weeks, I’ve been missing it.” He replied, now leaning against the doorframe again.
“Yeah, sure. What time do you want to meet there?” I asked.
“Well, I was thinking we could go now. I’ll drive.” he said, pointing at his truck.
“Oh.” I said, surprised by this spur-of-the-moment idea. “Okay. Give me one second.” I turned and walked into the kitchen to leave a note for my mom and dad, telling them where I was. I turned around again, and Aaron was standing there, waiting patiently.
“One more minute.” I told him, awkwardly.
“We’re in no hurry.” he told me, closing the front door behind him and making himself at home by sitting on my poorly upholstered couch.
I ran upstairs and into my bathroom to clean myself up a little bit. I threw a little makeup on, but just enough to cover up the remaining blotches on my face from all the crying, just how Liz had shown me how to, and ran a brush through my hair. Before I walked downstairs, I grabbed a blanket out of the hall closet. When I walked into the living room, Aaron was no where to be seen. I looked around for a few seconds, confused, but then I heard a car horn honk at me to hurry up. I locked the house door and ran out to his car. I got in and buckled up. I turned to see a smile across Aaron’s gorgeous face.
“I’m glad we’re doing this, Kae.” he said as he pulled out of my drive way and out of our neighborhood. “It feels like we haven’t hung out in so long.”
“So am I and yeah, its been what…Two days?” I answered back, staring at him, smiling. He didn’t reply, he only smiled.
The car ride was down to the Hill was a quiet ride, there was nothing to talk about that had much importance. It wasn’t awkward, though. No, it was a comfortable silence, there was nothing awkward about it. We just listened to the radio, and I stared out the window watching the trees speed past us in a blur. Ever so often I would hear Aaron quietly humming to himself. It made me smile.  He didn’t think I heard him when he did this, but I did. He did look over at me once and a while. I finally asked him why he was doing this, and he noticed my new haircut.
“It looks nice. There’s not that big of a difference, but still nice.” he complimented. “I like it.”
I quickly turned my head the other way; I didn’t want him to see me blushing. That’s a problem I have, I’m an easy blusher.
When we finally took that last left turn and slowly came to a stop. We had to get out quickly and walk up a trail that was covered by trees and brush. We made it up to our spot with a little sunlight left. I laid the blanket down and Aaron got out his guitar. I laid back on the cool ground, while Aaron started strumming away at the guitar strings, getting lost in the music. I loved watching him play. He had such a knack for taking my breath away, and when he got out his guitar and started playing, he always left me completely breathless. There was one song in particular he played and I didn’t care that he couldn’t carry a note singing wise, when he started playing “Silly Love Songs”, I always seemed to smile. It was like our song.
It was quiet for a while, only the sound of Aaron’s guitar filled the air. He softened the music and began to speak to me.
“So, where did you say you applied to again?” meaning college.
“I sent my applications to Alabama State, Auburn, LSU, Tulane, and South Alabama.” I replied proudly. “I got my acceptance letters from Alabama, Tulane and Auburn. I’m still waiting for LSU to reply.”
“Well, I’m proud of you. I think I’m going to go to Jeff. State for a while. You know, try and pull my grades up.”
“Aaron, you have almost the same grades that I have! You could easily get in anywhere.”
“Yeah, well- I just don’t know if I want to go to college right after high school ends. I want to live life for a while.” he explained.
I didn’t know what to say. He could get into almost any college he wanted to, and he was letting a chance like that slip away. I couldn’t let him do that! But I couldn’t jump down his throat either. I had to stay calm.
“Why don’t you just send in your applications to a few places and go form there. I mean, why not just try? What do you have to lose?”
“That’s true. I guess I’ll give it a try.” At least he was considering it.
I let the conversation drop. I must have drifted off to sleep because before I knew it, I looked over and saw that not only had Aaron stopped playing, but he had fallen asleep beside me on the blanket. It was a typical hot, Alabama summer night, which means Aaron had taken his shirt off and was using it as a pillow. I couldn’t help but to turn my glance over to his body ever so often.
He was just so stunning and elegant. His ivory skin shone under the pale moonlight, which caused him to somewhat glow. He truly looked like an angel. I studied him for awhile, never taking my eyes of his chiseled body. I suddenly felt myself move closer and closer to him. It was like I had no control over what I was doing. My brain and my body were saying two completely different things. The next thing I know, I’m laying inches away from his bare torso. I so wanted to lean over and kiss him. I wanted the nerve to tell him I loved him. I wanted him to love me, too. I wanted all of these things, but wanting something and getting are two completely different things. I was content with the fact that I even was laying next to someone like him. So, I fell asleep with that stunning angel laying right beside me, I felt so comfortable next to him, so safe and secure. I slept well, unaware of the events that were to come.