More Than Just Best Friends

02| ARE YOU A PARKING TICKET?

•AMETHYST•

"TODAY WAS SO fun," Samantha sighs, hopping onto her bed and towel drying her wet hair. "Yeah?" I ask, taking a bite out of the fruit jelly I made earlier today. Beaming, she nods and goes into a detailed recounting of her day, from her shopping spree with Ciara, to the romantic candlelight dinner she went on with Christian, her boyfriend of a few months now.

"He made me laugh so hard, I spurted water out of my nose," she giggles. "Very ladylike," I snort, rolling my eyes. I rest my chin in my hands and dangle my feet off the edge of the bed, eager to hear the whole story. "Yeah. Okay, listen to this. Pretend I'm a guy, and we're on a date," she says, sitting up. With a raised eyebrow, I slowly nod and urge her on.

"So do you have a band aid?"

"Uh, no?"

"Cause I scraped my knee real bad falling for you."

My face morphs into an expression of utter confusion, as my lips begin to twitch in amusement at the horrible pickup line. "What the...?" I begin, but Sam holds a hand up to silence me. "Shut your pretty mouth and listen. Are you lost?"

I tilt my head to the side and shrug.

"Because heaven's a long way from here."

My lips part and my eyebrows go into a deep furrow, while my brain tries to make the least bit of sense from the absurdity of the whole thing. Sam releases a small chuckle at my supposedly hilarious facial expression.

"Okay, okay, one more. Are you a parking ticket? Cause damn, you've got fine written all over you."

She clutches her sides in an effort to calm down, and I helplessly press a fist against my mouth to avoid joining in her laughter, but mine comes out anyway in torrents. In a matter of minutes, we are both hiccuping messes in each other's arms.

"Okay, okay," she breathes. "I've gotta open these presents now." I cock an eyebrow at the seemingly endless array of bags and boxes littering the foot of her bed, and wonder how I never noticed them earlier. I take the last bite of the fruit jelly and switch my gaze to her. "What?" she shrugs, reaching over to grab a small box, which is wrapped in blue wrapping paper with white stripes.

Boring much?

I roll my eyes at her and grab the card which falls out when she rips the box open.

To keep count of the days left until I can see your pretty face again ;-)

-Carlos

"Seriously? Who the heck is this from?" I laugh, waving the card in her face and glancing at the miniature calendar in her lap. "Some guy I met at work sometime ago. He's been bugging me since," she snorts, rolling her eyes. "Guys," I scoff. "I know, right?" she sighs dramatically, staring off into space. I have to jab her in the ribs to bring her back to reality, as calling her name for three minutes straight does absolutely nothing to snap her out of her mini-trance.

A hurricane of wrapping paper, empty boxes and random objects flurry through the room as she unwraps the remaining presents with a spontaneous display of emotions. When we are down to two boxes, I begin to clean up the place for her as she slowly lifts up the slender rectangular box I helped to decorate earlier in a sparkly golden wrapping paper. The corners of my lips slightly tilt upwards as she reverently opens Grayson's gift.

"Whoa," she breathes, tossing the wrapper aside and tracing her finger across the simple gift he made for her. It is a watercolour of her at Hailey's last birthday party. I bite my lip as I look over her shoulder, beaming at how he managed to capture the smile etched on her face perfectly, and the constant glint of pure joy in her eyes as her hair flowed freely behind her in the wind. The modest gift is a symbol of sheer perfection, and I can't help but feel a wave of pride to have such a talented person as my best friend.