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.