Friends / Julian Draxler (completed)

One

We look at each other a little too long to be just friends

It all started in kindergarten. The first time I saw her we were both four year olds. When you are four, you don't know the difference between girlfriend and girl friend. It's all the same to you. And so it was for me. People say that there's no friendship between a boy and a girl, and for quite a lot of time, I disagreed with that, thinking how lucky I was that I actually had a girl as my best friend. Things change though, because when you're four you don't bother share your things. Your toys, your clothes even your friends. It's not the same though when you have to share something in your teenage years or even after that. I maybe am selfish and possessive to think this way, but truth is, I never had a problem sharing my things with anyone. Except her. I didn't like sharing her. Unfortunately, it was too late when I understood why.

Beatrice and I visited her mother in Orleans almost every weekend. Her parents have been divorced, since she was around seven. Her mother lives in Orleans alone, sometimes accompanied by one of her new boyfriends at the time. That's why Bea wanted to live with her father. She didn't like the idea of her mother having a different boyfriend almost every week. But her mother was always nice. Especially to me. I swear, she still thinks that Bea and I are together, although Bea tells her otherwise all the time. Today it's Sunday and it's officially the last day of the summer. Tomorrow, Bea and I will be seniors in Saint- Louis high school. Right now, we're in her mother's house, both of us by the pool. With her mother being a famous designer, Bea and I have always an expensive house all by ourselves since her mother is hardly ever at home.

- Please let us have some classes together.

Bea snapped. I couldn't tell where she was looking due to her eyes being covered by her sunglasses. I turned to face her.

- Yeah, last year we had a great time in Maths. Maths was the only lesson we had in common last year and with none of us, paying attention in the slightest, it had been our favourite lesson to attend. Bea smiled most probably remembering some of the things we did last year.

- It was really fun, I'm pretty sure mr. Martin wouldn't be happy being our teacher again though.

That was true. Bea and I weren't interested in mr. Martin's lesson, which of course lead us to cause noise in his class and he of course didn't like that. But he was always good with both of us, always offering to help improve our grades in Maths. My parents weren't really happy with the grades I had in Maths last year and if I had to guess neither was Bea's father.

- When is your dad picking us up ?

I asked her. Bea checked at her phone.

- He said after lunch. I guess he'll be there in an hour or two.

I nodded. Truth was, I didn't want to go back in Paris, neither did I want for school to start tomorrow. I just wanted to stay a little longer with Bea and enjoy our vacation. That was ideal. The summer had been quite perfect. Bea and I spend most of our vacation together. We were always welcomed by her mother and we both liked that. We always had great time when we were together, that's why it never occurred to me. It never occurred that the feelings I had, had nothing to do with Bea being my best friend.

~~~~~~~~~

- How was it ?

My mother asked as long as I stepped in the house. I felt my father's eyes staring at me too, whereas Patrick had a smirk all over his face.

- Ehh, it was fine.

I replied. With that my phone started buzzing. Bea's number was in my screen. My entire family looked at me with expectation as if picking up my phone had a great meaning. But it may had for them. My mother always thought, like Bea's mother did, that we were dating. She was one of the people that believed that there's no friendship between a boy and a girl.