The grin that had graced my face was hard to remove as I began singing. I was a bit nervous as I glanced at the audience so instead of looking at them, I focussed my eyes on the three people that had forced me to do what I'd been scared of doing since years now.

Their smiling faces that had a glint of pride in it, were enough for me to sing the song with building confidence.

In between the song, when there was a long musical pause, I spoke into the mic.

"Hey guys, I know that some of you still don't believe that someone as popular as Aaron could actually be friends with me. But honestly, I don't have any reason to prove that to you. But since he was a major part of the reason why I'm here, I'd like to share our moments together since our diaper days."

Aaron's eyes widened a bit and I knew that all of our embarrassing photos were running through his head. I gave him a cheeky grin and motioned for the tech guys to start with the presentation.

"And of course, I apologise in advance to Aaron, because I'm pretty sure that I probably won't be left alive after this so here we go..."

After giving a sheepish grin to my beloved best friend, I turned to face the screen where the pictures were starting to be projected.

Turn by turn, the photos, right from our days of childhood started playing.

In the first one, we had our foreheads connected and our noses joined and we were both grinning at each other. It was a cute moment of when we were in kinder garden.

The next one was of us in the first grade, with me riding on Aaron's back as he pretended to be a horse.

I was clutching his Winnie the Pooh t-shirt as he raced across the garden.

I smiled as I thought of those days when he used to give me these kind of rides everyday.

Next was one of the funniest ones. We were both drenched in different colours and had an arm around each other as we grinned for the camera. I still remember how difficult it was for me to remove the blue colour that was on my nose.

Pictures like these kept on coming across the screen and I could hear girls going 'aww' as the adorable face of Aaron came in different pictures.

After a few seconds, the pictures started maturing, with us going into the roller coaster of hormonal changes, named puberty.

I turned my attention to Aaron, who had a distant smile on his face as he looked at the presentation with a glazed expression.

As I looked at him, sudden laughter caught my attention. I saw Aaron turning a bit red so I returned my focus back to the screen to see what was there.

What I saw, almost made me double over in laughter.

On it was the picture of a fourteen-year old Aaron with pigtails.

I still remember that day. It was his I'm-to-cool-to-cut-my-hair phase where he was adamant to keep a rockstar look with long hair. His mom wanted him to cut them, so did I. But he hadn't seem to budge.

So that night, I had taken the liberty of tying his hair into pigtails and write 'I'm a Barbie girl' with a sharpie as he slept.

Ah, memories.

As the pictures came one after the another, I kept singing.

Soon, after a couple of minutes, the slide-show came to an end and so did my song.

The last picture was the most recent one and had most of the girls swooning. Mostly it was because Aaron since he was shirtless and I was hanging upside down on his shoulder.

It was the day of the food fight. Yes, the embarrassing one.

Once my presentation was over, I looked at the crowd, a bit nervous for their reaction.

I wasn't sure how everyone was going to react but the thing that surprised me was that they were facing the dilemma of how to react.

I caught a couple of people throwing cautious glances at Shelley who was glaring at anyone who seemed to like what I did.

Chuckling a bit, I focussed my attention back on my best friends.

Nate and Sam stood with Aaron, looking at me with proud expressions. Nothing could make me happier than the way their pride-filled expressions lightened me up.

Grinning at them, I walked up to where they stood.

"So? How was it?" I asked expectantly.

"I-," Aaron started but Nate jumped in before he could utter more than a word.

"It was incredible! You totally rocked it!" He immediately scooped me up and spun me around, making me giggle.

After twirling me twice, he steadied me on the ground.

I turned to Aaron who held a somewhat grumpy and an annoyed expression.

I raised an eyebrow at him. What had gotten him so grumpy?

Seeing my questioning look, his face contorted into a grin as he opened his arms to cage me in.

I happily obliged and enveloped him into a tight embrace.

He buried his face into my hair. "God! I missed this."

I chuckled and loosened my grip on him but he tightened it even more, keeping me securely pressed to his chest.

"Okay. You can let go of me now," I muttered into his shirt.

After a moment he did.

Looking at his happy face I smiled. I hadn't realised how much he actually meant to me until we broke apart. Even if it was was three days, it was difficult for me to go even a minute without thinking about him.

Seeing him smile was the reason why I grinned. The way his eyes twinkled when he laughed at what I said, made me feel a sense of accomplishment.

Best friends normally felt that way, right?

My heart thudded as Aaron wore a proud expression. For me.

"Let's get out of here?" I asked more like a question.

I didn't feel like facing any more drama as of now. It was already enough for a day.

Plus I needed to let everyone settle with the idea of our friendship.

"I was wondering when you'd ask," he replied cheekily.

With that, we both escaped the night that was mixed together with chaos, happiness, nervousness, drama and what not.

******

"That looks like you," Aaron pointed at the pig statue that was sculpted right outside the 'Piggy-Biggy Ice-cream Parlour' where we were sitting and stuffing our faces with our favorite flavors of creamy goodness.

"You're so funny," I replied giving him a flat look.

He laughed. "Tell me something I don't know," he said ignoring my flat tone.

"Did you just go all Selena Gomez on me?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he grinned.

I shook my head in mock disappointment. "Oh the things that would happen with you if I wasn't there!"

He raised his eyebrow. "What kind of thing would happen to me without you?"

I gave him a look that said 'isn't-it-obvious?'

"Well, for starters, you'd be put straight into a mental asylum even without your background check. Just one look and you're in," I replied, licking a chunk of my favorite cookies and cream ice cream.

"Hardy har-har!"

"So. What do you want to do, now?" I asked, twirling the thoroughly licked spoon in the now-empty cup.

A mischievous glint sparked in his eyes as he came up with an idea.

"Wanna go to our favorite park?"

"But isn't it abandoned now?" I asked referring to the old park where we used to play all day long while we were small.

"Is that a problem?"

"Nah. Let's go."

With that, we both got up, discarding our cups.

The weather outside was calm. Soft breezes blew, caressing my bare arms and face.

We both stepped into his car and started our way towards the place that held most of our childhood memories.

The ride was silent. It was as if we were both reminiscing our favorite flashbacks.

The car jerked to a stop, pulling me out of my memory lane. I took in my surroundings and familiarized myself again with my childhood playground.

I got off the car and started my way towards the park. The same set of slides where we got our clothes dirty stood there standing tall and proud, even when it was covered with rust.

I turned to my right and saw the spinner. I can't even count how many times I'd shrieked with excitement as the metal spinner swung me around.

Right beside it was my favorite one. A simple set of swings, that upon looking just looked like any normal swinging piece of metal. But it held much more meaning to me.

I didn't realize that Aaron was beside me until he spoke. "Remember those swings?"

"How can I not?" I replied, my gaze still fixed on those.

Those were the swings where I'd first learnt to trust Candy.

"Come on. I won't let you fall, I promise!" Candy looked at me with wide eyes, holding the sincerity of his promise.

"But what if you do?" I asked, my lips quivering at the thought of getting hurt.

"Can you trust me on this? Just once," he asked looking into my eyes with determination.

I reluctantly nodded before making my way to the swing.

"Remember to let go when the swing is at its top," Candy shouted while running to take his position.

I nodded. Jitters of nervousness spread through my body as I got ready to swing.

I started swinging back and forth. Slow at first, it started to gain height and momentum as I kept on swinging.

Once the swing reached the maximum height it could go on, Candy shouted. "Let go. I'll catch you."

But one look at the height, and I held the chains tighter. "I-I can't. I'm s-sorry."

I shut my eyes and held the strings of the swing tightly.

"I'll catch you. Always have and always will," he said, his voice going soft.

The wind slapped against my body as I swung. My eyes slowly opened upon hearing the strength of promise in his voice.

"You won't let me fall?"

"I will never let you fall alone. If you fall, I fall."

With that, taking a deep breath I let the chains loose from my tight grasp and felt myself falling against the wind.

My eyes were tightly shut, afraid to see what was to come.

Within a few seconds, I felt myself collide with a soft body that reduced my momentum and broke my fall.

I kept on holding on to Candy's t-shirt until I regained my breath.

Slowly, I opened my eyes to see Candy grinning at me from under me. He had managed to break my fall but he wasn't strong enough for the velocity I came falling with which resulted in him falling along with me on top of him.

"Told you I'd never let you fall alone."

It was the day is started blindly trusting Candy. That day, no doubt Candy caught me, but he had also fractured his arm trying to catch me.

"Come on"

I jolted out of my reverie and looked at Candy in question.

"What?"

"Get on the swing. I'll catch you."

I snorted. "You'll break your arm again."

He raised his eyebrow. "I think I'll handle it."

"Remember if it happens, it'll be your fault."

"Fair enough. Now get on."

Rolling my eyes at him, I went over and sat on the swing. It creaked a bit but the sound simmered down as it began gaining pace.

It felt exactly like the last time it happened. I have no idea why, but suddenly nerves swallowed me and my stomach gave some upside down flips, producing the same kind of jitters I'd felt that day.

Why was this happening?

"You won't let me fall, right?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Aaron' s eyes softened. "Not alone. Never alone."

Those four words gave me enough strength to make up my mind.

I trusted Aaron.

"Ready?"

I nodded. Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself for the fall.

"Let go!" He yelled against the sound of the harsh wind.

Without any second thought, I let go of the rusty chains and let myself fall, just like that time.

I had my eyes shut. It was on impulse that I always shut them when I was afraid.

Within a second, strong arms wrapped around me and I collided against the chiseled body of my best friend.

Gone was the softness that it had when we were kids.

"You can open your eyes now," Aaron spoke, softly.

My head was buried in his chest as I held him tightly.

I slowly lifted my head to look into his deep eyes that held so much emotion that shocked me a bit.

"Told you I'd never let you fall," he whispered while maintaining the intense stare with me.

His words seemed to hold a lot more meaning that he let on. His arms were still circled around me, not letting go as if afraid.

When had it become so intense?

I took a shaky breath.

It was as if the cool air had stopped, camouflaging itself with the mood that radiated off us.

I looked at Candy's features. No doubt he was good-looking. He had an angular jaw with rugged yet soft features. Brown locks adorned his face that had a near-perfect look

"You know, you can let go, now." I whispered, breathlessly.

I had no idea why I was turning breathless. Maybe it was due to the close proximity of our faces.

I tried to figure out what exactly I was feeling but came out confused. Why was I feeling like this? What heck was I even feeling?

Whatever it was, it sure as hell was something I'd never felt before.

"What if I don't want to?"

His reply sent some weird feeling down my body.

What the hell was going on with me? Was this something every girl felt with just about any boy?

I don't know how long I stood there, searching his eyes for some sort of answer.

Was he feeling the same way?

But somewhere inside me, I found comfort in holding on to him like this.

And something told me to never let go of this comfort.

****

😘