That Night

On that night, I remembered that he picked me up my house at midnight. We drove somewhere but he wouldn't tell me where we were going.

The ride was long. He was speeding, had his headlights off, and kept his eyes anywhere but the road. I swear there was a fifty percent chance we would die that night.

I didn't even bother telling him to slow down. I was still mad at him, and I knew he wouldn't listen anyway. We had an on/off relationship. But one way or another, we would always get back together, but I don't know about this time.

On our way there, I looked at us. We were the golden couple. He was the most popular boy at school. He made every girl swoon when he did that twinkling thing in his eyes. Then there was me. I was the girl who always wore bright red lipstick and a short skirt.

After reflecting on myself, I finally had the guts to ask him.

"Is it true that you've been hanging out with another girl?"

He sighed "Yeah, its true." My heart sank a little. "But I cant stop thinking about you."

"Me either" I said softly, hoping he wouldn't hear.

When we got to our destination, I could see it was the cliff. Our cliff. The cliff that we'd always used to go to when one of us had a bad day. We would just talk until we forgot why we were even there. It was a perfect place to talk. It wasn't that high up, and there was a big lake beneath it. It was calming.

Then I came back to my senses and realized that he practically kidnapped me.

I hit his shoulder.

"Ow!" Howard  said. "Janan! What was that for?"

"Why'd you take me here? Why didn't you just tell me? I didn't even want to go, but you forced me. You know that's basically kidnapping right?"

He chuckled. "Its not kidnapping if we've known each other practically our entire lives, Jan."

That nickname... I knew that it took me back to when we first found this place. I remember that day like the back of my hand.

*Flashback*

"Come on Janan! I have something to show you!" Howard said. He was so impatient. We just got there.

"Well, I would hurry up, but you put a blindfold on me right after I stepped out of the car to a place I don't even know. What do you expect Howard?"

"Oops." I could hear him walking towards me. He put his hand on my back, guiding me. "This way."

It was so gentle. Like he didn't want to hurt me. Like I was a stranger and he was scared of me. Like-

I was cut off. "We're here."

"Where exactly is here?" I snorted.

"Oh!" He pulled off my blindfold. "My bad."

When I glanced at where we were, I was instantly in love. There was a bench and a fence to keep us from falling off the cliff. It was purely beautiful.

"I love it Howard!"

"I know, Jan, I love the view too." It felt like he wasn't just talking about the cliff's view.....

*End of Flashback*

I chuckled. That was one great time. I remembered that I got out of the car.

"Yeah, that was a good time, wasn't it?" He followed right behind me.

"What?"

"When I first showed you this place."

"Yeah, it really was. So, why are we here?"

"I just wanted to talk to you, clear things up about stuff, hopefully get back together." He mumbled that last part.

I sighed, then smiled. "I forgive you. I can't ever not forgive my best friend."

He smiled too. "I was thinking..."

"Hmm?"

"How about we go cliff diving? Like that one time before?"

"WHAT?" I said loudly. I remembered having a big fuss about "No way! Besides, we don't even have any extra clothes!"

"I'm way ahead of you. I have towels and a few extra pairs of clothes in my car."

I thought it through. I knew that nothing would go wrong. "Okay, sure I guess."

When we were ready, we interwined our hands and jumped.

I felt like I was flying. Like I didn't have a care in the world. Like I had no problems.

And I shared all of this with my best friend.

We always had a connection right at the beginning. No matter how bad our fights were, we would always forgive each other. When we were dating, it didn't feel like we actually were. It just felt like we were always just hanging out. I already knew everything about him, and he knew everything about me. It was perfect. Just like I'd always wanted it to be.

I'd always remember that day. I remember a few months after that, he proposed to me. Then after a year, we finally got married.

The image of my wedding day crossed my mind. I chuckled.

I was wearing my infamous red lipstick and skin tight short skirt to the reception and him wearing his hair slicked back with his infamous white shirt and leather jacket. It was all perfect. And it still is.