Complicated

00

w i n n

He spun me around and around and around. The people around us blurred into a whirpool of color and faded sound. There was one face that I could focus on; the only one I wanted to focus on.

His smile set off fireworks within my chest and sparks in my head. A laugh so contagious, it was sickening. But it was the kind of sick I did not mind. Floppy, curly brown hair flew in the wind he created. Lean muscle earned from years of soccer. A dimple in his right cheek.

All these physical attributes coming together to make my best friend: Aiden Inez.

We've been friends since third grade. We both were searching the library in the non-fiction section, for we grew bored of the Magic Tree House and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We yearned for truth and knowledge only found in the yellowing pages of the untouched books.

At the time I had a fascination for past presidents and their history. There was always more to the person than school texts let on. Heading my own search would reward me with the answers I was seeking. Every story had two sides, like how every page has a front and back. Most disregard the back and only look at the front whereas the depth of a person is exploited on the back.

Aiden and I were in the line of shelves and I didn't bother to notice the boy with the missing tooth and big glasses perched on his nose. I did, however, notive the thick spine of George Washington: Founder in a Different Light sitting proudly on the shelf. I reached for it and in that instant my life changed.

The boy with the glasses must have saw it too for we reached for it at the same time. Our hands overlapped but mine touched the rough spine of the aging book. I yanked it off the shelf and safely to my chest to where the boy looked longingly.

With a bratty, upturned nose, I went and checked the book out a smug grin plastered to my lips. For the next week I carried that book with me as if it was my mother's Bible. I feared to lose the founder of our nation to some slimy six-year-old. Instead a slimy seven-year-old snagged it from the desk slot in the classroom.

I nearly burst into tears but when I saw his grimy hands latched on to the sacred cover, I marched over to him. With smoke coming from my ears and strawberry red painting my puffy cheeks, I was ready to go off. Then I saw the smile he gave the pages as he carefully scanned each line as if he could miss a detail so tiny, it would forever taint his vision.

I sat down next to him, my face much paler and ears much more tamed. He glanced at me and slid the book over so I could read along with him. My bookmark sat waiting twenty pages ahead but my heart could not handle breaking an innocent smile.

So we sat and read.

The remaining years until this moment flew as fast as a humming bird going from flower to flower. Each flower holding a sweet memory. Each memory being sweeter than nectar the humming bird would thirst for.

When my feet touched the floor, his hands remained on my waist. Laughter was still spewing from my lips and I didn't notice his lingering stare until I moved my hair away from my face.

"What?" I asked as chuckles escaped.

He didn't say anything. Instead a smile grew on her face.

"Aiden?"

He blinked a couple of times, seemingly breaking free from a gripping trance. "Winn..."