"Come on Ariana say something. Why are you always so quiet when you're around me?" I ask worriedly, placing my hands on her shoulders.
"It's just... When I talk to you, I get so nervous that I forget-"
I laugh. She raises an eyebrow.
"You don't need to be nervous around me y'know, I'm not a celebrity."
She shrugs, sitting down on the wooden bench behind where we stood, "It's not that easy."
I sit beside her, placing my hand on her knee, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Her eyes dart from me to the floor.
"Tell me what's wrong." I say comfortingly, taking my hand to place a loose strand of her brunette hair behind her ear.
"I'm fine, really."
"Ari, I know you aren't 'fine'. Come on, I've been your best friend since the fourth grade, you can tell me anything."
"J, I don't want to talk about this right now, alright?" She raises up from the wooden bench and starts walking to the front door of her house. "Ariana wait!"
She stops walking and turns around sluggishly, "What?"
I grab her wrists, pulling her closer to me.
"Tell me what's wrong, please."
I look into her chocolate brown eyes intently, "Or the tickle monster will come and get you." I whisper causing her to giggle.
"What am I five?"
I wanted to say, "well, you're about as tall as a 5 year old so," but I kept my mouth shut.
We both laugh. Her laugh was always so contagious. I pull her towards the bench, she sits down and I continue to stand in front of her holding onto her wrists. "Are you okay?"
She shook her head. A tear rolled down her cheek and the sight of that made my heart drop. I wrap my arms around her small body. "I love you Ari, and I want to know what's wrong so I can help."
Ariana stands up, causing me to let go of the warm hug. "Are you sure you want to know, Justin?" She raises her eyebrow.
I nod eagerly, "More than anything."
She takes a step towards me, looking deeply into my brown orbs. "I like you."
My eyes widened. I gulped. "W-what?"
"I like you." She repeated.
"Ariana I-" Before I could finish what I had to say, she ran away and into her house, slamming the door.
I know, I shouldn't have let her leave like that but what else was I supposed to do? I can't possibly tell her that I like her back. It will ruin everything. The best thing I could do is try to convince her to stop liking me.
Flashback to when they first met.
It was the first day of fourth grade and I was extremely nervous. I had just moved to Florida from Canada over the summer and I hadn't made any friends yet. I had just walked into the classroom and nobody else was in there except for a little girl and I'm assuming her mom. I walked over to the two and immediately greeted them. "Hi, I'm Justin. What's your name cutie?"
"Ariana." She giggled. "Hi Justin can you sit next to me today?" I nod.
"I'd love to."
