February 13, 2035

My name is Ray and I had once fallen in love with my best friend, my first and only true love. Here is a short yet important slice of my life. 

It all started in Kindergarten where we first met. I was being introduced to my teacher by my mother while I clung onto my mother’s leg crying and pleading with her to stay. After my mother left, telling me to have a good day I sat and cried while my teacher was telling me how much fun this year will be, trying to cheer me up. But she eventually had to greet other parents. The parents she greeted had a child, his name being Alroy. Alroy was at the age of 5, a year older than me.  He had light brown hair and sky blue eyes, and was quite pale. His parents seemed to have graying hair, his mother taller than his father. His parents dropped him off and he went off to play with the other kids. I found him stellar and interesting, but never interacted with him much. However we did interact often when we were in a group. He was polite, amusing, and popular. I thought he was fantastic, so I would try to be like him. I had asked my father to make my hair flat. I aspired to be like him, however when we entered 1st grade we had started our well known rivalry. Alroy would usually bully me and belittle me and I would constantly retaliate. We were always butting heads, always making sly comments at the other, and just irritating each other. Teachers would have to tell us to stop arguing. We did not get along, I would go home and always complain about him to my mother. Still, for some unexplainable reason I still thought he was impressive and still strived to be equal to him. We would continue to be like this up until 5th grade.

When we entered 5th grade there were several new classmates. Their names were Eric, Bella, Anna, and Becca. Most of them were kind to me, however two of them would bully not just me but others. Eric had anger issues and would throw chairs, and various other items at students. He would also get physical with students. Bella would make rude comments to students and say unnecessary things. Occasionally, I would get caught up in their storm of rage. However, there was one person who stuck up for me. It was Alroy even though we weren’t friends yet, he would protect me even when I didn’t need him to. In the last few weeks of the school year, we had fun together, and we talked about how we used to be. Then he told me that he never really disliked me. He was just angry about his brother and said he ended up taking things out on me. Then I told him I disliked him a lot. But we agreed on becoming friends, and we did. 

Continuing onto the next year, we were stuck in our classrooms all day due to safety protocols. So, me and Alroy were in the same seating assignment every class, and we were seated next to each other the entire year. That year was another new addition of classmates, Lia, Pete, and a few others. Pete was a short blonde guy and Lia was a tall blonde and skinny girl. Pete was quiet for most of the year. However Lia was the opposite of Pete, Lia was loud and annoying. Though sometimes she could be nice, but for the most part she was loud, rude, and annoying. That did not matter at first, because me and Alroy were getting along, whispering, and talking during class.  Sometimes messing with each other when the teacher wasn't paying attention. This was how the year was. However, some people found it weird how close we were. Especially Lia, she was constantly saying that we were dating one another. Alroy and I would always deny it. It would always bother me because I didn’t see Alroy that way; or did I? After she constantly pointed out how touchy we were with each other, I became self conscious of it. When Alroy would get a bit too close, I would notice and would become flustered. Sometimes the words of us dating would pop up into my head, and I would shake my head and say to myself, I do not like my best friend. Eventually I began to think of him everyday, I would spend my nights saying I do not like my best friend. The only times I could escape from my interrogating  thoughts, was when I was talking to my friends on video games. However, even when I was playing with my friends I would sometimes get reminded of him. Sometimes I would bring up how Alroy played the games we and that we should play with him as well sometime. Occasionally I would bring up Alroy a bit too much and my one friend Nathan would ask me “Do you like Alroy?”, and I would respond quickly each time saying “Ew, no he is my best friend I do not see him that way.” Then Nathan would always retort back at me saying “I’m just asking.” Once again the year came to a close and I was invited to my friends cabin and he, Alroy, and a few others were going. This was the first time I got to spend time with school friends outside of school. So I went and we had fun and I got to know my friends a bit more. Then 7th grade came with another new classmate, and Pete became more talkative. Lia stopped being rude and annoying, for the most part. Again, me and Alroy were always seated next to one another. On the first day we were introduced to our homeroom teacher Mr. Collins. He was the new English teacher. He gave us a sheet with questions about ourselves. They were questions similar to your favorite color, animal, song, and etc. For the question about favorite color I wrote red, then the next question was what person in this class reminds you of this color. I wrote “Alroy”. When the teacher went around and asked us, apparently I was not the only one who wrote down Alroy but I was embarrassed that I did, for obvious reasons. He may have noticed me hesitating to say a color that reminded me of him because he gave me an interrogating look. However he never mentioned it, but other things were making us suspicious of each other. There would often be times when he would do something that he  usually would never do like touching my hand, or looking at me from across the room. He may have started to notice how I acted towards him sometimes because I too would look at him from across the room, sometimes I would get flustered when we would pretend to flirt with each other as a joke. Some of the things that he would do made me feel confused like when he would randomly whisper in my ear sometimes. I knew I had feelings for him but I didn’t want to ruin our friendship so I ignored them, even though it was eating me inside out. Towards the end of the great year our class had a trip to a camp, and right before the trip, I got sick but still went, and Alroy was a little concerned about me so he was a little attentive. After the first day I felt better, the trip was really fun. During the trip I was playing cupid because some of the girls in the class had crushes on some of the guys and I was friends with them so they figured they’d ask me to give descriptions of what they are like and if they liked them back. As comedic it was, there was one person that came to me, Lia. She asked me what Alroy thought of her.  Deep inside my head I was frustrated that she liked him as well, because I didn’t want him to be with someone else but I had to remember that we are only friends. So I gave her advice and what to do. After the trip she asked him and he said no.  I felt bad but I was also happy, there were many times where I felt selfishly happy because he would reject others. Now we move on to a year that was made terrible because of myself. Near the start of the year my friend group had gotten in trouble for jumping in the school elevator and Alroy was one of them. My teacher was talking to him telling him needs to get his act together and he replied saying “Maybe I would be better off not going to this school.” For some reason I started crying, I tried being silent, but the girl next to me who was a good friend asked me “Are you okay?” I tried to hide my sobbing and said “I'm fine.”. She told the teacher and the teacher made it very obvious to the class that I was crying and I said I just need to take a break, and as I was heading out of the door. Alroy had gotten out of his seat and grabbed my arm before I left and asked me if I was okay. I was trying my hardest not to cry in front of him because I didn’t want to be obvious about it. So I just waved him off saying “I’m fine I just need a breather.” He did not seem convinced so he just apologized and went back to his seat. Later when everyone had left the classroom my teacher asked me if I was okay. I just said “I’m fine, it's just that the words that came from Alroy made it seem like he didn’t even care about me.” My teacher just said he didn’t mean it and that he was just trying to argue back. I felt better after that. Now we cut to Christmas time and Peter had become a concern of mine because he became closer to Alroy . I did not hate him but since he got closer to Alroy I did not like him for that. I hated the thought of being replaced. Throughout the year my  love for Alroy had turned into possessiveness and I became self aware of that. So I started to distance myself from him, however I was noticeably sad, and I would turn a cold shoulder to most of my friend group if Alroy was there because I felt like I couldn’t face him. There were times Alroy would ask me if I was mad at him and if I was avoiding him. I would just say no and continue to avoid him. Then came the day before Christmas break and we had a christmas party but I was too gloomy and Alroy seemed to have noticed and he poured me a cup of soda and asked me “You seem down and sad you okay?” and I noticed how close to me he was and I told him “I have just not been feeling too happy for awhile.” He told me if there was anything that was bothering me I could tell him about it. I knew I couldn’t do that but I felt happy hearing that and I said “I will.” Then for the rest of the party he stayed next to me. After winter break, school resumed and I was happy because I missed seeing Alroy. During the new year Eric had returned to being aggressive again, and I would get caught up in it most of the time, due to me trying to stick up for my friends and classmates. Once again Alroy would always stand up for me and I would ask him why again and again, and I would say “I can handle it myself you know” and he would sometimes be witty and say “You could not stand up to him even if you tried.” or the one that still made no sense to “I just wanted to.” However he never did the same for anyone else, however I never could find a reply. In May, our class had another trip and it was one of the last times I would get to see Alroy. The trip was fun, we got to be closer again and I enjoyed it. After the trip we had one month of school left and I was nervous for the end because I didn’t want to say goodbye. Then the last day of school came for the 8th graders, and our class decided to have lunch together at a restaurant. After we left the restaurant, our friend group went to Alroy’s house and hung out and played games. Alroy decided to have us go Target because we thought it would be fun just to go around the store and be a disturbance. While we were walking I knew this was going to be one of our last days together. We had fun messing around in the store and when we had to leave it was just me and Alroy. Then Alroy turned to me and told me we should do this again sometime and I agreed, we talked for a bit and Alroy suddenly remembered that his father said he wanted him to be home in time for his soccer practice and he asked me if I would be okay without him here and I said “I would and that my parents would be here soon”. He said okay and I watched him walk away. I had fun, I was happy and I was content. We saw each other on graduation day, the ceremony was long and tiring. Then came the song that my class was singing and I was participating in it. The song was “Slipping Through My Fingers” by ABBA. I remember looking at Alroy when singing the song and I was sad to know we wouldn’t be seeing each other everyday. But I knew that we would still be friends. After the ceremony there was a reception in the church, and he and my class were there, and there was a collection of all memories we had made together and while standing by his side I thought to myself. Even though we won’t be next to each other anymore I’m glad you were present in my life. That is the story, we still talk about every few months but I'm okay with that for we were only a little slice in each other’s lives.