Best Friends?

Waking Up

Luke

I woke up to Mazy, laying gently on my arm, curled up into my chest.

I wonder if she felt as comfortable with this as I did. For me, it felt natural, second nature, even.

She was beautiful when she was asleep. Who am I kidding, she's just as gorgeous, if not more, when she's awake. She always has been, but there was something about watching her sleep, as creepy as it sounds, that made me feel all warm and good inside. It made me feel like I had been gone away for years, and I was just returning home. She was my home.

I sound like such a girl.

"You're staring at me," she muttered, her eyes still closed.

I chuckled and said, "So?"

"So it's creepy," she replied, her soft lips turning up on one side, smirking. I just smiled and continued to stare at my perfectly imperfect best friend.

She groaned and rolled over, hiding her face.

"Hey!" I said as I playfully shoved her, "I wasn't finished creeping you out yet!" She giggled. "Don't make me tickle you Mazy Katherine..."

She gasped. "You wouldn't..."

"Try me," I whispered in her ear.

My arms snaked around her waist, pulling her back into my chest, and placed a gentle kiss on her temple.

God, this probably meant so much more to me than it did to her. I wanted it to be like this, be this close to her, all of the time. I want to roll her back over and push my lips against hers right here, right now. But I knew I couldn't do that. She couldn't feel the same way. Why would she? I don't want to lose her just because I acted on my idiotic feelings towards her. I wouldn't last a second without her. I'm just praying I never have to.

"Luke?" she asked quietly, pulling me away from my thoughts, "You alright, Andy?"

The nickname brought a blissful smile to my lips. She's called me Andy ever since she found out it was a shortened form of my middle name, Andrew. She was the only one allowed to call me that, just like I called her my 'Mazy Wazy'. Silly, I know, but it's just something we've done since we could speak properly. It just stuck.

"I'm perfectly fine, Maze," I finally replied after a few more moments of silence, "How 'bout you?"

She shook her head. "Not so good. I don't think I'm ready for this..."

I rubbed her arm in a comforting way.

"You'll be awesome," I encouraged, "I'm gonna be right there with you. I'll do the talking for you." She sighed and looked back at me with a sad expression. "Come on, Mazy. You know I won't let anything happen to you. I promise."

"But that's the thing," she interjected, "You can't promise that. You can't promise we'll have the same exact schedule. Chances are we'll barely have any classes together."

"I can fix that," I replied with a smirk.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, laughing slightly. "Right, I forgot. You know, sometimes you act so normal, it's like you're not even your parents' child. Until you want something you can't have."

"Or something you want," I added, starting to get out my bed, "and you know I could totally sweet talk Mrs. Alps into changing one of our schedules."

Out of nervous habit, she placed her bottom lip between her teeth. It was almost an automatic response when felt the slightest inkling of nerves.

I walked back over to her and pulled out her lip with my thumb.

"You know that's bad for your lip," I said, sounding concerned.

She rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. I can't help it! It's a bad habit..."

"Mmhmm," I hummed in agreement.

The truth is, I couldn't care less about her lips when she bites it. I'm always more concerned about how she looks when she does it. It gives me a pit in the very deepest part of my stomach that makes it almost impossible not crash our mouths together. She looked absolutely, well for lack of a better word, sexy. Trust me, looking sexy for any girl our age is a challenge, but Mazy definitely fell under that category, especially when she bites her lip. If she didn't stop in the next year or two, I was sure to lose all self control.

"I suppose I should go home and get dressed, huh?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, probably."

She groaned. "Fine." She stood up and gave me a quick hug before walking to my window. "Don't leave without me."

"Like I would try," I replied.

She smiled, sending a wink in my direction, and climbed down the tree just beside the roof of my house outside my window.

I quickly got dressed and fixed my blonde hair into its usually messy style and headed downstairs to the kitchen to find a note from my parents.

'Luke,

Left early for work. Sorry we couldn't be there to see you off to your first day of high school. We love you.

Mom and Dad.'

Of course. Whatever.

I walked to the door, grabbing my backpack off of the rack along the way, and waited next door for Mazy.

Well here goes nothing...