Behind the Cherry Tree, A Not-So-Short Story

1. When We Were 15

At 15 Mike got his first girlfriend. Fine, technically he was 14, but who cares, his birthday was only 4 days later. Did that girl get him anything? Nope. But I did, I got him the latest xbox game. But my (EPIC) present was far undermined, because she gave him something cooler than a game, she gave him his first kiss. 

The day of his birthday we met at the cherry tree as usual, I gave him his carefully wrapped gift. Mike tore the paper to shreds, we both had agreed years ago that that was by far the best bit about presents- pulling off the paper. Mike and I were like brother and sister but closer. Friends til the end, we'd carved our names into the cherry tree when we'd been about 8 years old, it had been about shoulder height for us then, now it was about waist height. I giggled as his face lit up at the reveal of what I'd gotten him.

"I'm so gonna whoop your ass at this!" I teased, and he scoffed.

"Pah, yeah right." And he shoved my shoulder.

I shoved him right back. Soon we'd escalated to full-on wrestling as we rolled around on the ground, all the time declaring ourselves the better xbox player. That was until Steve showed up. He gave us a weird look and went to the nearby bench, setting up the drinks that he'd brought.

His party was in the park so that I could come. It was at the party that I met his girlfriend, Fiona. Everyone else showed up in jeans and battered tees, obviously someone hadn't dropped her the memo. She'd shown up looking gorgeous in a pair of white shorts with a beige silky top thing. Mike just about drooled when she showed up.

To me, Fiona had the sun shining out her arse and another, much larger twang went off in my heart. I had no idea why though. If my heart kept playing up like that I'd have to go and get it checked out... 

She laughed like an angel and everyone, including myself, watched her with awe. Where we were rough-and-tumble-who-cares-what-we-look-like kinda kids, she wasn't. Her clenliness made her seem otherworldly and so we treated her like a goddess. I spent most of the party on the other side of the park, watching Mike and Fiona. She liked the attention that we gave her, the huge adoring eyes, the boys (lets be honest, I pretty much was the only other girl here) who dropped everything if she so much as uttered what she liked, and of course she had Mike. I don't know why it bothered me so much, but it did. She had him wound around her pinkie.

Something about her perfectness just made no sense. But I sucked it up and said nothing, who was I to judge a girl who goes to a proper school, who wears proper girlie clothes, and was new to our group. When she and Mike disappeared, all the boys and I fell in and chatted. Will, another one of the guys and one of Mike's not-so-close friends, kept glancing at me. With the birthday boy and the star of the show out of the picture we were left with nothing to do but gossip like old ladies while we chucked the ball around.

I guess that's when they had their "magical" first kiss. 

Maybe I'm being too abrupt but basically she hogged his time. Not straight off, but slowly slowly the weekends when we usually hung out got shorter, then she began telling him that he didn't love her enough, then I pretty much lost all contact with him for a while. A while being 2 months. 

When you're 15 and homeschooled, 2 months might as well be 2 decades. But those 2 months (along with countless sad home alone chick flick nights) made me realise something... maybe I was jealous of little miss perfect Fiona?

Lucky for me, she dumped Mike. Unlucky for me, he didn't even see me as a girl, much less a possible girlfriend candidate. I suppose it was fortunate that I cottoned on quick enough to be able to divert disaster, I managed to convince myself that being friends was so much better and that the whole crush thing was a phase. By the time Mike and I were chilling regualrly again on the weekends and all other alotted times, I believed it.

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So yeah guys, this has taken me far longer than I thought it would. BUT I'm moving onto chapter 2 now, the whole thing is supposed to be pretty short and I haven't edited ANY of this, it's almost 1am and I have a slightly major chem test tomorrow that I'm freaking out about. But PoetryGirl I hope you've enjoyed so far! It gets better I promise. The whole thing is planned and there are a couple of twists so stay tuned and VOMMENT! (<-- lol, I've coined that off about 60+ wattpad stories, so I'm just gonna credit those people now)