Burning Love

Part 1 - Jasmin

My life isn't perfect. Then again, who's life is. I have a lot of problems too. But the big one, is the fact that I'm in love with my best friend.

His name is Tate Shadows.
I'd known him for as long as I can remember. He was always there for me, no matter what. But that was when we got to high school. We made new friends and drifted apart a bit.
Then after a while, we started talking again. But it never felt the same.

That was when little miss perky walked in a stole him from me. When he was with her, it was like I never existed. Cassie (his girlfriend) hated me. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't intend on finding out why.

Weeks passed, and we barely said a word to each other. The only time we ever spoke to each other was when I said hello to him. But when I look at him, he seems miserable.

That was when it happened. We were in lesson and Mrs Oliviera was putting us into pairs. She put everyone into pairs according to their grades. Obviously out of all the smart people in my class, I had to be partnered up with Tate.

This is where the problem starts.

In our school, there's a thing called a social pyramid. These groups are full of people who have the same rating. I was rated a 8. But I hang out with the 5's, 6's and 7's. At the top of this pyramid is people like Tate or people like Cassie. They're the 9's and 10's. Then there's the 8'. Then the 7's and 6's. Then the 5's. Then the 4's, 3's, 2's and 1's.

Tate and I were set a project for our health class. We had to take care of a baby doll for an entire week. I recorded everything we did. When we changed its nappy, fed it and when we ignored it and left it to cry.

When Cassie found out about the project, she went insane. When I was in the hallway talking to my friends, she came upto me and slapped me. She told me that if I touched her boyfriend, that she would make sure I'd be miserable for the rest of my high school experience. I tried to tell her that I had no interest in Tate, but she wouldn't listen.

Later that day, Tate and I decided to do the project at my house. His big sister had just had a baby so she didn't want to cause any problems for her.

When he got to my house, I answered the door in nothing but my towel. I had just got out of the shower, the doorbell wouldn't stop ringing and the door kept going bang bang bang.

When he saw me, his jaw dropped. All he did was stare at me. I invited him in and I showed him to my room. I went into my bathroom to get dried and dressed only to come out and find Tate lounging around all over my bed. I sat down next to him and we decided to go make a presentation for our project. We would show what the advantages and disadvantages of having a child at a young age would be like. Then, when we were done, we decided to put fake baby down for a nap and get dinner.

I suggested pizza, but Tate wanted Chinese. I agreed. I wasn't in the mood to argue about what to have for dinner. When dinner came, Tate and I sat in the living room and watched a movie whilst we ate.

When the movie ended, I decided to clean up. Tate generously offered to dry up. I watched him as he wiped up and I gave myself 60 seconds of courage. So I did it. I went upto him and kissed him. He didn't resist. Instead he kissed me back. It would have gone further, if it wasn't for my mom walking in on the exact moment we were on the sofa unbuttoning each others t-shirts.

Both of our faces went bright red with embarrassment. That was when the fake baby started to cry. That was my get out of jail free card. As I raced up the stairs, my mom showed Tate out and as he was leaving, he shouted that he would see me tomorrow.

As I stood at the top of my stairs holding my fake baby, I realised that I was in love with my best friend.