07.08.71
"Will we be friends forever?" A young girl asks. The boy, round faced with rosy cheeks and ebony coils of hair nods.
"No doubt about it." He says smiling widely exposing a missing tooth on the bottom row. Dimples appear in his full cheeks and he chuckles quietly as his grey eyes sparkling in the sunlight.
Birds chirp and sing cheerfully as trees rustle and sway. A small stream flows noisily by, the boy and girl having previously been paddling now lying side by side as their feet dry slowly in the sweltering heat. It had been one of the hottest summers in years. August of 1971 had been a ground breaking heatwave.
"What if something happens? What if we have a fallout and we never speak to each other again?" The girl asks, her hazel-brown eyes widening in question as she lifts her body onto one arm, her elbow digging into the yellowed grass. "What if we argue and then we hate each other and we'll end up all alone with nobody"
"I love you too much for that, stupid. I'll never fallout with you. No matter how girlish you're being. And we both know how bad that can end up being." The boy says, still lying down, a halo of black hair splaying around his head as he tries to stifle a giggle.
"Excuse me?" The girls asks, squinting her eyes and setting her jaw. She moves into her knees and looks down at the boy. "What could you possibly mean by me being 'girly'? And how exactly is that a bad thing?" She spits and she clenches her small hands into fists.
"You're not exactly the girliest girl in the world now are you? And even when you are being one you're not very good at it. Face it Presley. You're one of the boys." But he soon stops talking as the girl punches his arm as hard as she can, however it doesn't inflict much pain upon him.
He scrambles to he feet and jumps up, sprinting across the meadow and into the neighbouring field. He's fast but not as fast as the girl, she catches up to him in no time but he evades her grasp and zig-zags through scratching bushes. The path imprinted into his mind from a lifetime of secret journeys and conspiratorial adventures of pirates and archaeologists to robots and princesses.
After bursting through a hidden hole in the extended ending of Mrs Havishams fence and stumbling onto the barren and still hot road, the boy stops. Bent over and taking heaving breaths. The girl is soon to follow and she curses as her vivid blue corduroy trouser catch on the fence. The sun slowly dips into the silhouette of the rows of house as faint church bells toil in the distance signalling the town of the time.
"Six o'clock. Home time for us" the girl says sullenly, scuffing her striped trainers on the concrete. "Yeah but that means time for food." The boy counters back as he run a his belly then stretches, yawning as he does so. "Typical boy always thinking of food. You know you'll become fat if you don't watch yourself ,mister" the girl says as she punches his arm slightly.
"My dearest friend, have you not seen me? I'm impeccably gorgeous. Even if I become fat I shall have a a never ending line of beautiful women lining up the street for me." He says as he slings an arm over the girls shoulder, they make their way down the road and slowly drift onto the pavement.
The girl scoffs and shoves his arm off of her but takes his hand in her own. The boy clasps her hand tightly and they swing their arms between them. A large wooden gate coming closer to them. As they turn into a large garden the girl drifts left and the boy does the opposite both of them stepping onto the front porch of their homes.
"Good evening, fair maiden" the boy bows dramatically, making the girl giggle and curtsy in return. "Good evening, my fair prince. May you feast fantastically on the queens wonderful Sunday beef". The boy turns his head, sniffing the air. "You could be a hound dog with a nose like that Miss Presley. And with a name like that" He claps his hands together and then clicked his fingers, awaiting laughter. Instead he receives a scoff, the girl holding the bridge of her nose.
"We're not even related" she says for what seems like the millionth time. She toes her shoes off and places them on the metal shelf by the door. "Goodnight Annie Presley" the boy says, mirroring her actions. "Annie-Marie" she scolds. The boy disregards what she says and wiggles his fingers at her as he opens the deep red door.
"Goodnight Sirius Black" she says.
