Krissy

The Before

My childhood was an interesting one to say at the least.

My name is Kristine Flynn, but everyone calls me Krissy.

I grew up on a small council estate with my parents Martin and Lori Flynn. I was there only child, and I grew up surrounded by love, but not much else.
My Dad, Martin worked as a bus driver to help us scrape by and my Mom, Lori worked in the local McDonalds. We didn't have much but we did have a great close-knit family in an even closer-knit community.

My family, the Flynn's, were neighbours and best friends with the Greene family.
Kevin and Anne Greene and their only child, their son Mark, who was the same age as me.
With our parents being so close, Mark and I grew up together, and became each other's best friends, much to our parents delight.

Mark is the kind of friend everyone wishes for. Caring, protective and hilarious, Mark was the best friend you could possibly ask for.

Martin and Lori were great people and even greater parents, but I always felt slightly distant from them. I could never quite put my finger on why though.
If only I had known then what I know now.

Growing up, our parents always joked about how Mark and I were perfect for each other and how fun it would be if we ended up being married.
Mark and I always laughed at this. I can always remember Mark's constant reply to these comments "Can you imagine Krissy? The Flynn's and the Greene's being in-laws? Oh the fun, the fun" he would say, with sarcasm dripping from his voice.
And we would all laugh at the after thoughts of a world where we were Krissy and Mark, the couple.
If only we had known.

Back then I had a simple life. Every day I would get up at 7 am sharp, have my daily shower and head to the kitchen. Even though my mom worked every day, she would always be up in the morning to make me a scrambled egg breakfast before school. The constant breakfast that she served was eggs, toast and bacon with a tall glass of orange juice.
After breakfast I would walk next door to Mark's and then Mark and I would head off to school together.

It was a safe routine. A secure routine. The dependable kind. Quite reflective of every aspect of my life back then.
A life which has now been turned completely upside down, but I will get into that later, for now lets focus on the before.

Oh before,
As you recall Mark and I were childhood best friends, the kind you envy. The kind with stupid inside jokes that no one understands and that mutual friends secretly hate. Yes, we were those friends.
We did almost everything together. We even studied the same subjects at school, because we had such similar tastes and interests.

We sat beside each other in every class (sometimes due to alphabetical order, what with me being Krissy Flynn and him being Mark Greene) and sometimes due to the fact that we picked to sit beside each other in that class.

We were completely inseparable.

Even though there were cliques in our grade, most of our school year got along quite well. And so when our mutual friend, the school quarterback Matthew De Luca put out an invitation for the whole year to attend a party at his house whilst his parents were out of town, Mark and I naturally accepted, and agreed to travel to the party together.

When the night of the party arrived I decided to change things up a bit by wearing one of the dresses my mother had bought for me in a Target sale at some point. This particular dress was red with small, white polka dots, and it complimented my olive skin and long black hair well. I paired the dress with my signature white converse and deemed myself fit to party.

The night of the party Mark collected me from my house. He was wearing a navy polo, a cream bomber jacket and dark jeans with a pair of brown shoes. He had his blonde hair gelled back and had contacts in instead of wearing his black, heavy framed glasses. I remember thinking how girls in our year must think he was so handsome and how lucky any girl he chose would be.

He later told me he was thinking similarly about me.

Mark and I walked to Matthew's house, which was only 3 blocks away. Matthew greeted us with a massive grin and his usual "What's up ma homies?". Matthew was alway's one to help provide us all with a laugh.

That night, we sat drinking beers and laughing until about 11, when Lacy, the class "drama queen" exclaimed that she "Was bored" and "wanted to play a game" and so we ended up playing "Seven Minutes in Heaven".
When it got to Mark's turn I wasn't even watching, I was talking football with Matthew when suddenly I hear ld Lacy's signature "Ohmygod, ohmygod, OHMYGOD!!" I looked down to see the bottle pointing at me.

And that's how Mark and I ended up in Matthew De Luca's closet.
For "seven" whole minutes.

After Lacy locked the closet door, I looked up at Mark "sooooo..." I began "Did you do your Calculus homework?" Mark smirked at me "Are you seriously talking Calculus?" he grinned down at me. "I guess I am, I mean what else do you wanna do for 7 minutes?" I asked. "Well.." he began, taking a step closer to me "we are in a closet, and I mean, what better time is there?" He asked in response.

For a second I thought he was joking, but then, I looked up at him to see that he was totally serious in his expression.
"You're being serious" I stated. "Yes" he said taking another step to close the gap between us. "But I will only make a move if you're cool with it" he added. I looked up at him, I didn't know what to say, so I said what was on my mind "I don't know how to respond" I said with a slight giggle. "Okay" he responded pensively. "So here's what's gonna happen, I'm going to kiss you in approximately 20 seconds time, and if you hate it, push me off and we will never speak of the kiss again, but if you don't hate it, well..." he trailed off. I looked up at him, how was this Mark, had the beer given him some newfound confidence?

But then I saw his cheeky grin, the one that always made me smile in response.

And so I smiled.
And he leaned in.
And we kissed.
And I didn't hate it.

And then one thing led to another,
And I think Lacy left us in there for a little longer than seven minutes.

And after, for a moment, we were blissfully happy.
The kind of happy you dream of.
The kind of happy that brightens up every aspect of your life.
The kind of happy that is completely and utterly unsustainable.
The kind that completely changes your life.