Reflections

Skipping, hand-in-hand, with my best friend was nothing new to me. Only our special kind of craziness allowed our troubles to disappear into the distance in this way, and I wasn't going to change our madness in any way. “Where are we going?” I asked, an ever-growing smile on my face.
“Anywhere,” Lily replied dreamily.
This is why I loved her. I loved her as a best friend, and I loved her as so much more. Her star-like eyes, and the way she was always either looking far into the distance, or deep into my own eyes... I knew she never looked at anyone else that way, but I was still unsure whether she felt the way I did.
“This way,” she hopped to the side, and swung us around to face the old lake. I loved this place, too, because it was the place that we first met...

“Hey!” she'd said.
“Hey...” I had replied with caution, as she seemed a little dazzling. She was beautiful, with the sun haloing her blonde hair, and her ostentatious earrings swinging in the spring breeze, as she looked down upon me.
“Could I have a look at your book, please?”
I nodded, and showed her the book I had in my lap. “I found it this morning,” I said, shy and somewhat confused.
 “I know.”
 "How can you know?”
“Because it's mine,” she gave a short, cute giggle.
 “Oh,” I smiled bashfully.
 “Keep it,” she spoke slowly, as though in a dream.
 “But it's yours?”
 “You can give it back when you're finished,” she smiled.
 “But you don't even know me? I could just throw this in the lake as soon as your back is turned?”
 “But you won't.”
“How do you know?”
 “You would have done it by now.”
 I laughed to myself – this girl had some surprises in her. She was already wonderful.
“I'm Lily, by the way. You'll probably find me over the other side of the lake with the ducks, whatever day you're done with the book.”
 “Thanks,” I muttered, but before I had time to say anything else, she had skipped off.

The following day, although I was nowhere near finishing the book, I wandered over to the ducks, and found Lily, head back, eyes closed, and feet dangling into the not-so-clean water. At first, she didn't notice me there, but once I cleared my throat, she blinked the sun from her eyes, and grinned at me.
“Have you finished it already?”
“No...”
“That's okay. Want to sit down?”
I nodded to her, and we sat together for many hours that day. I knew it wouldn't be the last time I'd spend my day with her, and I was right. From that moment on, Lily and I were inseparable.

“Here we are,” she announced.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, unable to hide the hope in my heart, or the thrill in my voice.
“Sit,” she pointed to an old tree stump.
I did as I was told, and the spring breeze drifted over us both. It was almost exactly a year since we met here.
“I tried to wait until the fifth,” she smiled, looking into my eyes, “But I couldn't. I couldn't wait to bring you down here and tell you something.” I tried to speak, but I had nothing. “You're my best friend. You have been since the moment we met.” I grinned. “And you know I love you.”
“I love you too,” I replied automatically, as it was something we often said.
“But I've been feeling weird lately,” she continued.
“You're always weird,” I joked.
She laughed, “Different weird then.”
“Okay...” I nodded.
“I've been starting to think about you... differently.”
My heart started racing. This could go one of two ways. Either she didn't like me any more, or...
“I'm confused. I don't know whether it's just a phase, or...” She couldn't go on, so I stood, and wrapped my arms around her.
“Tell me,” I whispered.
“I think you know,” she whispered back. I'd never known her to be so cautious with her words.
I pulled away from the hug and grabbed her hand to walk her to the water. There, in the darkness, we saw our reflections. I pointed to hers. “That's not the Lily I know and love,” I said, talking about the seriousness in her face. “I love the Lily that knows herself, and can talk to anyone about anything, because she knows she's right, and doesn't care what anyone thinks anyway.”
She smiled.
 “That's more like it! Now talk to me. I guarantee, whatever you have to say, I'm going to love it, because it's coming from my favourite person in the world.”
For several moments, she stared at her reflection in the water, and I watched her.
 “There's something wrong with this picture,” she said suddenly, yet still in her normal dream-like voice.
“What?”
She turned her head slowly towards me, and smiled in a way I'd never seen before. She pointed for me to look at the reflection, and when I did, she kissed me.
Her lips were soft and warm on mine. It felt so right, but I never saw our reflection change. I had closed my eyes and kissed her back so naturally that I wondered how it had never happened before. I felt her relax against me, and we held each other carefully – our best friend hug smoothed easily into the hug of two people, one way or another, hopelessly in love. Once we parted, we looked into the water at our reflections, and knew that we'd done the right thing. We could finally see what had been missing all along.

Amazing

“You're really gonna make me do this?”

“You'll be fine,” he assured, guiding me towards the maze entrance.

I nodded, “Okay, but if I start screaming, you come running, yeah?”

“I promise. I'll be at the other end, okay? Just remember to collect all the letters as you go... they should spell something out. Got it?”

“Got it.” I grabbed him into a hug before setting off into the tall trees. I could already see a letter (W) so I walked cautiously towards it, thinking over the reason I was in here. He knew I would panic about this, especially considering all the mazes in the stories I liked.

I scanned the area and spotted another letter (I). It was my own fault for bargaining with him.

Next I turned left (L).

Second corner, another (L).

I remembered his words, “It'll be easy.” (Y) Yeah, right, if you say so, I laughed to myself.

“You'll be out in no time,” he'd said. (O) Oh.

“Trust me?”

“I trust you.” (U)

I wrote each letter down, paying no attention to them, as I sped up. This seemed too easy – each letter visible from the position of the last (B).

Every time another letter came up, my heart started racing a little faster... how many more? (E)

I wondered what sick pleasure he was getting from this, as I almost stumbled straight over the next letter, taped to a mound of earth, (M).

I'd only wanted to watch a chick flick... was that really so bad? (Y) Why did I have to go through something so random, so bizarre for us to be even? (G) I wish I'd picked a better film...

(I) I wish this was over now. I stood on tiptoes for a moment, wondering if there's anyway I could get over the trees and out?

(R) Really wish I'd thought this through – next time I'll be more prepared.

Come to think of it, he had decided his side of the bargain pretty quickly. (L) It was almost as though he'd been planning it all along.

I recalled the mischievous look in his eyes and started to panic. (F)

“What's going to happen?” I asked aloud. (R)

(I) Walking faster, I frantically looking for letters and a way out, not knowing what to think anymore.

(E) Easy. It was always easy to scare me. I over-thought everything, and he knew that.

That's why he'd done it. The idiot. I hated him. (N)

The trees became thinner and I finally saw light at the end of this tunnel. Okay, I didn't hate him. I loved him. My panic faded fast, and I longed to see his smirking face again. I loved that face. (D) I'd do anything to make him smile.

That was the reason I was doing this... not because it was part of a stupid deal, but because he made me feel capable of it. He gave me confidence to go into the world alone, and made me feel like I was better than I ever thought I could be. He lifted me up, and even when he was terrifying me with mazes, or teasing me about weird things I liked, he was always there for me. If I screamed, he'd come running. I loved him, and suddenly there he was...

He stood, holding a single rose with the final piece (?).

“Well?” he asked.

I looked down at my notebook and suddenly realised. No words were needed as I jumped into his arms, our lips crashed together.