The two kids were racing each other in the park, trying to reach the last swing, "it's mine", the little girl said, "no it's min! I saw it first!", the little boy said. They kept fighting while their mothers stood back and watched smiling. "Little Jake's all grown-up, I haven’t seen him since the day he was born", the girl's mother said, "thank you, Veronique is extremely beautiful. She'll dazzle the boys", the boy's mother said smiling, "hopefully Jake will protect her", the girl's mother said. "So Maggie, you're back for good right?", the girl's mother said hopefully, "yes Jane we're staying and not leaving. You know I was against leaving in the first place, but you know how Paul was", Maggie said her voice breaking, "oh Maggie I'm sorry I mentioned it", Jane said hugging her, "it's okay, we're gonna be okay", Maggie said smiling into her friend's shoulder. They looked at their children and smiled, Veronique was on the swing laughing while Jake pushed her laughing. "I hope they get together", Jane said looking at them like they were precious jewels, "I hope so too, then we'd be family for real", Maggie said smiling. Their kids came running over to their mom's, "mommy! Can we come to the park tomorrow so I can play with Jake?", the little girl asked with a small voice. Veronique was always shy, she never spoke too loud. "Honey, Jake and his mom, Aunt Maggie are our neighbors! You can play with Jake whenever you want", Jane said, "YAY!", the kids said in unison making their mom's smile. "Maggie, bring Jake over and let's have dinner together", Jane said, "sure honey, we'll wash up and come right over", Maggie said holding Jake's hand. "Bye Jakey", Veronique said, "Bye Vee", Jake said. Later that day both moms' sat talking and catching up, while the kids sat and watched cartoons, discussing which cartoon was better.
Year went by and the kids got older and their bond grew stronger. They were always joined at the hips, never going anywhere without the other. Veronique grew into her confidence because of Jake, now she was a loud, confident girl. She had midnight black hair, emerald green eyes, pale skin, and pink lips. Jake was her protector and savior, he had brown curly hair, hazel eyes and tan skin that contrasted Veronique's. Jake stuck by Veronique through everything, especially through her preteen years, when the zits, the pimples, and all the changes happened. Never did he once make fun of her at that stage; he knew not to do that because Veronique would've eaten him alive. Jake grew up and became confident too, he became shooting guard on his school's basketball team, while Veronique was on the bleacher's cheering his name. She wasn't a part of the cheerleading team, but she cheered him on. And his eyes were always on his private cheerleader. People tried to break their friendship up, but no one succeeded and they soon gave up. Their mothers would always ask why they weren't together and they had the same answer; they were scared of losing their friendship if something went wrong, so they stayed best friends.
They both graduated with high honors and got to go to the same college. But something started creeping onto both of them, they realized that are madly in love with each other but didn't want to tell the other. The phrase Skinny love comes to mind. One day Jake came to the decision that he'd tell Veronique how he felt, but something held him down. On that day he got a very formal letter saying that because of his father, he has been drafted into the army. His whole world crashed in front of him, his dreams of marrying the girl he loves just vanished from in front of him. He kept thinking of ways to tell her that he's leaving her for months. One day before he was supposed to go to the training camp he went to Veronique's house, his heart heavy with pain because of what he's supposed to tell her.
"Dude, where've you been? You disappeared on me for days now", she said pouting and that made him his breath catch in his throat. She looked so beautiful even in sweat pants. "Jake, what's wrong?", she asked worried, she didn't like how he was looking at her, he had bad news to say. "I got a letter a couple of days ago..", he said gulping, "well, what does it say?", she asked worried, "Veronique.. I'm leaving, I've been drafted into the army", he said and looked at her. Veronique was shocked, Jake was leaving her? She wasn't going to see him for months? "W-when do you leave?", she asked tears forming in her eyes, "I leave tomorrow", he said looking down. "TOMORROW? WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER JAKE?! You come a day before leaving and tell me all that!", Veronique said tears streaming down her face freely. "Veronique please don't cry, I can't stand you crying, I love you", he said hugging her, "you what?", she asked shocked, "you heard me right Vee, I love you and I have since a long time ago", he said looking into her eyes, "you tell me this now Jake?! You tell me all of that a day before you leave me? What am I going to do with what you told me now?", she said pulling away from him, tears running faster down her face. She's never felt so much pain before, Jake was leaving her. Her heart hurt in a way she couldn't describe, "please don't be mad Vee, please I can't deal with you being mad at me before I leave", he said holding her hand, "no Jake, you don’t get to come here, give me two bombs and then leave, I can't, I can't…", she said crying, she started hyperventilating and collapsed on the ground. "Vee?!! VEE!", he kept shouting and went to her and out her head on his lap, "AUNT JANE CALL 911! VEE!", he said. Jane came in and saw her daughter and the ground, while Jake was giving her CPR. An ambulance came and took Jane to the hospital. After an hour of examinations, the doctor came outside with news, "how is she doctor?", Jake asked scared to hear bad news, "she's stable now, her body just shut down for a small period because of stress, did something happen that could have caused her to be stressed?", the doctor asked looking at Maggie, Jane, and Jake. "Well Jake here has been drafted in the army, they were best friends since they were kids", Jane said, "alright, all in all Veronique is perfectly fine, she just needs some rest. You can go see her now", the doctor said. They all rushed into the room to find her sitting in bed looking paler than usual, "Veronique? Honey you okay?", Jane asked, "not really, I'm really tired", she said and rolled her head to the side and saw Jake, "Jake, I want you to leave", Veronique said, "Veronique!", her mother said shocked, "I mean it Jake, leave I don't want to see you", Veronique said crying, "But Veroni-", "it's okay aunt Jane, I'll leave. I got to pack anyway", Jake said and turned to leave.
