Dear Valentine

II

Aiden has also had one too many jealous and paranoid girlfriends. I remember a girl named Stacey, who dated Aiden back in the seventh grade. She threatened me to stay away from Aiden or she would "cut my throat," just because I spent a lot of time with him. She pried him away from me every time she was around him and I. She thought I was stealing him away from her, even though since she was dating him, she basically had him all to herself.

I couldn't help being with Aiden all the time. We are neighbors after all. It is only natural that next-door neighbors who are also best friends are seen together a lot.

That's how Aiden and I were seen as, and we still are. Our classmates always teased us. They figure that we should be dating. To them, a girl and a boy can't just be best friends. To them, it has to be more than that.

Corrine often teased us as well. She's surprised she hasn't dated Aiden yet. Though, she wasn't into Aiden. Corrine is into older guys, as in upperclassmen. It's always how it has been. She has never dated a guy that was in the same grade as her. The guy always had to be a year above us.

I haven't known Corrine as long as I have known Aiden. I met her in the second grade. She was much different back then. She wasn't as confident as she is now. She had one of those innocent faces that make all the adults melt just looking at her. The thing that hasn't changed is the affect she can have on people. She's an awfully persuasive person. Just a sentence and people would be swooning to her side.

Corrine was quite shy. She was the kid who sat in the front, not because she was the top student, but because the teacher wanted to watch over her. The teacher wanted to make sure she was okay at all times.

As she grew up, she began finding herself. She began graduating to the second row and onto the third. Before you know it, her teachers don't worry about her as much and she's able to sit in the back row.

We were in the second grade together. That was the first year I was separated from Aiden. I was devastated. I didn't talk to anyone else who was also in the second year. For the first time, I felt alone.

I was put in the front after a couple of weeks. I was put right next to Corrine Walter.

If I didn't struggle so much in math, I might've never talked to Corrine. I might've not passed the second grade because I nearly failed at math. Luckily, just a seat over sat Corrine. The teacher put us together during playtime and Corrine would help me out. She spoke in a soft voice, but I was close enough to hear her. She was the reason I passed the second grade, after all. Finally, stupidity did something great.

She was the kid that made you wonder: How can I be like that? How can I grow my confidence? How can I be brave?

Corrine isn't brave like a tiger, but she might as well be one. She is the most fearless person I know. She could beat an extremist, whom nearly died five times, fighting a pack of dangerous and wild animals without getting seriously injured.

If it was the Corrine I knew from the second grade, she might've died after just a mere touch.

♡♡♡

"I have to help my teacher get ready in the physics lab," Aiden says. To Corrine he asks, "You're catching a bus to work after school today, right?"

Corrine nods. "Ms. Ideen never gives me a break," she groans.

She always complains about her after school job she has. With her dad's connections, he managed to score Corrine a job as a lifeguard in the city's busiest indoor pool. Corrine loves to swim, but she gets tired of waiting in a chair for people to nearly drown. The pros of her job are that she gets to be around this group of cute guys that goes to the pool after school on the weekdays and all day on the weekend. With Corrine having a job at that pool, it gives Aiden and I an excuse to go to that pool, instead of the one in our neighborhood.

"Okay," Aiden replies and turns to me. "I'll meet you at your locker and I can drive you home, yeah?"

"Yeah," I answer. It isn't needed that Aiden tells me that he will meet me at my locker. We meet there every day. However, he likes knowing that I will be there when he gets there.

Aiden parts ways from Corrine and I. Corrine decides to put her arm around my shoulder.

"I don't know how you stay single without falling in love with him," Corrine teases, but it feels like she is partly wondering. "If it wasn't for my ongoing streak of dating older guys, I might've had my eyes set on him. You, however, have stayed best friends with him longer than I and you still haven't looked at him differently? I don't know, with love and admiration?"

The truth is, I looked at Aiden as if he is my best friend. Nothing more. I couldn't afford to develop a liking for him. I couldn't afford risking the relationship we already have now. Either way, I never looked at him differently. I love him, sure, but only as a friend. It's always been that way.

I lightly punch Corrine in the shoulder, which makes her lose her grasp on me. "You ask me that way too much, that it must be drilled into your brain by now," I say, which is true. There is a chance everyone in the school knows about Aiden and I and also, remember what we would say if they asked such a thing to us.

Girls and guys can just be friends, and it does not have to be anything more.

The day passes by like a warm breeze on a mid-summer day. Homework piled up as the usual, which kills some of my free hours. Winter finals are coming soon. Teachers are frantically trying to prepare students to reach towards the highest grade possible, so that their paychecks might increase. To them, it means longer hours of studying the entire curriculum from the semester.

I head out of my last class of the day, Mr. Yelvington's physics class, who is also the same teacher Aiden has for physics class. My locker happens to be unfortunately three hallways over from my last class, so it takes me a couple of minutes to reach it.

Aiden is already at my locker by the time I reach it. He's on his phone, leaning against the locker that it to the right of mine. I can tell he notices me when he looks up from my phone and I am the first person he sees. He gives a quick wave and turns on his side so he faces me as I open my locker.

"Hey, want to stop by a coffee shop after you're done? We can study for our exams there," Aiden offers.

"Only if you pay," I say, smirking at him.

He places his hand to his forehead and rolls his eyes, laughing at me. "Of course. The princess must ask of the knight in shining armor to pay for a drink, which might I add is overpriced for a bit of coffee," says Aiden.

"Knight in shining armor? I don't think so. You could barely pin down that 90 pound freshman, tough guy," I tease, shutting my locker. I try to lunge my backpack over my shoulders, but instead it falls to the floor. I didn't realize I had packed so much in my backpack.

"Who's the tough guy now?" It was Aiden's turn to tease me. We reach down to my backpack and at the same time, our hands touch. For a moment, I thought I would flinch and react greatly, but I don't. I don't like him that way to feel that way.

Aiden fights me to it, not literally. He picks up my backpack, causing me to lose my grasp on it. I think he's going to give it to me, but he doesn't. Instead, he lunges it over his own backpack.

"You don't have to do that, you know. I just wasn't prepared to lift that weight," I say. I reach over to Aiden and try to pull my backpack off of him.

He shrugs. "I can't afford to go home to your parents, saying that you broke your spine."

I open my mouth to argue, but he beats me to speaking. "It's okay, Valentine."

Being the stubborn one I am, I feel bad that he is lifting all of that weight himself. He has his own to worry about. I start to pull harder on my backpack. At first, Aiden is reluctant to let go, but eventually, he does. I place my backpack over my shoulders and continue walking.

"Suit yourself, Valentine."