"Brielle, will you set the table?" Denise asks her six year old daughter. Brielle turns her head away from the TV and stares blankly at her mother for a moment before getting up and heading toward the kitchen. "Anne has a son around your age, sweetie. I think you two will get along."
"What's his name?" Brielle asks curiously. Not many kids in her neighborhood are the same age as her, maybe he can play in the park with her.
"Harry," Denise answers, happy her daughter is showing an interest. She has been worrying about Brielle not having many friends around the neighborhood to play with. She hates seeing her little girl lonely.
"When do I get to see their house?"
"Honey, you've already been in their house a million times. It used to be Mr. and Mrs. Hale's, don't you remember?" Denise chuckles as Brielle places a fork next to the plate at the head of the table. Brielle giggles.
"Oh yeah," she smiles to herself. Then the doorbell rings and Brielle perks up excitedly. "I'll get it!" She runs toward the front door and swings it open, peering up at the familiar woman.
"Hi, Brielle!" Anne says, giving her a hug. Brielle loves when Anne comes over. She gets to hear stories about when her mommy and Anne were little girls like her. "How are you?"
"Good," she replies. Her eyes move on to the big man beside Anne, then an older girl, and then a boy. It must be the one her mom was talking about.
"That's nice," Anne smiles. "This is my husband Des. You probably don't remember, but he saw you a lot when you were just a baby. This is Gemma, she's 13, and this is Harry. He's your age." The curly haired boy blinks.
She looks nice, he thinks. Harry had been a little nervous about meeting the girl his mother kept talking about. He was afraid she would make fun of him like all the other kids because he had asthma and was held back a year.
"Hi," he says shyly. Brielle says hi back, infatuated by his pretty eyes. She'd always wanted green eyes, but her mommy said she had to keep her brown ones forever.
After everyone was introduced and Brielle's father had come home, the two families began dinner. Harry and Brielle sat next to each other saying nothing at all. Finally, Brielle broke the silence. "Do you know how to ride a bike?"
"Yeah," he replies.
"Oh," she says, looking down. Harry leans toward her.
"Do you?" he asks and she shakes her head. "I could teach you, if you wanted." Brielle immediately brightened and made him promise. By the end of the night, the two couldn't stay away from each other. Brielle had never had someone to play with at home and Harry had never been invited over to someone's house to play. Even at the age of six and seven, they had somehow needed each other.
As for that promise Harry made, it was put in to action the next day. Harry tried his best to teach Brielle, but it only ended in a cut up knee. Though, she did learn by the time school started. Harry never gave up.
Elementary school flew by for Harry and Brielle. At that age, everyone is friends and the only thing you need to worry about is what snack to bring to school the next day.
"I'll trade you my bag of goldfish for your graham crackers," Harry bargains. Brielle considered his deal before tossing him her snack across the table. Snack time was only 15 minutes so she had to be hasty in her decision making.
"Do you want to stay for dinner today? Mom is making spaghetti and garlic bread," she says. Harry stays after school at Brielle's house everyday because Anne isn't home early enough.
"Yeah, but Mom might say no," Harry replies, nibbling on the corner of a graham cracker. Brielle thinks for a second.
"Do you think we'd be allowed to have a sleepover some time?" she asks.
"Gemma never has sleepovers with boys," Harry comments, looking deep in thought. "But your my best friend, it has to be different for us."
"Yeah, we'll just play games and watch TV all night," Brielle says, getting excited along with Harry. Their parents did end up letting them have a sleepover, only if Harry slept on the floor. They ended up sleeping next to each other anyway because there was a thunder storm. Brielle hates thunder storms, so Harry held her hand the whole night. Brielle told her mom she loved Harry the morning after.
The sleepovers stopped when they reached middle school. All the kids at school thought Harry and Brielle were dating, if you even call it dating at that age. They drifted apart, for the first time finding other friends to hang out with. Brielle still loved Harry. Harry still wanted to hold Brielle's hand.
In high school, they finally got over themselves and became good friends again. Lots of girls thought Harry was cute, he enjoyed that. But he did not enjoy the lot of boys who thought Brielle was cute.
They never acknowledged their feelings for each other. Brielle thought Harry would reject her and their friendship would be ruined. Harry didn't want Brielle to admit it because then he'd have to admit it, and it'd be irrational to think they'd stay together too long due to Harry's habits. He wanted to hold on to her as long as possible, even if it meant pretending to be oblivious to the feelings he knew she had.
It did go away slightly for Harry, but the feelings would return whenever he saw her with another boy or whenever she wore something pretty. Hurting her without a second thought became second nature.
As for Brielle, she never stopped loving him because if she did, there would be nothing to stop her from giving up on him when he went off the deep end.
"Harry, you need to calm down," Brielle whispers, brushing the hair off his forehead. Harry pants louder, knocking his head against her bedroom door. All he wanted to do was hang out with his best friend, but then she just had to bring up college. They ended up arguing and it resulted in Harry having an asthma attack. "Harry, where the hell is your inhaler?"
"Bri," he chokes out, nodding toward his backpack in the corner of her room. She rushes over to it and tears every pocket open until she finds the life saving piece of plastic. Harry takes it and breathes in, instantly feeling air flow into his lungs. Brielle sighs and sits down next to him.
"Are you okay now?" she asks. Brielle has had her share of frightening asthma attacks with Harry, but now it's almost a routine. Though, it still breaks her heart to see him so vulnerable.
"Yeah," he says, chest rising and falling rhythmically. "Thank you." He smiles at her and Brielle forgets everything they were fighting about.
Now they're in college, more separated than ever. Harry lives in an apartment on the west side of town and Brielle lives in a house on the east side of town. Harry goes to parties most weekend while Brielle stays in and watches movies on her laptop. Harry has a girlfriend while Brielle won't go near another boy because her heart belongs to Harry.
They still talk over text occasionally and see each other around campus. It just isn't the same. Brielle tries to spend time with Harry, but he always has something going on. She doesn't know if she can take it anymore.
But Brielle will love him and his flaws until the universe ends because that's what best friends do.
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new story! i hope you will like it as much as i do:) please vote and comment
-sam
