Just Friends

This is a story about a girl named Anna.

Anna woke up in the morning and went to school. Just like every other year for the past three years, she had missed the first day of school and again was forced her to get the worst seats. In one of her classes she had to sit next to a guy named Ricki. She'd seen him last year but didn't pay much attention because he wasn't in any of her classes. Her first impression of him wasn't that great because he had that look on his face when she went to sit down like a kindergartener would when they said "I hate girls." It was okay though because Anna had the same look on her face too. She thought that wasn't good looking and seemed rude.

After a while, Anna and Ricki became friends (they had to sit next to each other all year anyway). They became the best of friends. They did a lot of things together. Apparently, a lot of girls liked Ricki and began to think that Anna and Ricki were a little more than just friends. They were constantly asking Anna about their relationship and she always replied that they were just friends. She also found it necessary to add that she had no interest in him whatsoever.

Anna and Ricki went to a summer program together and the kids in the program seemed to be exact replicas of the kids at school. Anna, Ricki, and their new friends were playing truth or dare one day when Anna was dared to kiss Ricki. She did not have the courage to do such a thing. However, another girl did kiss him and it made Anna feel so stupid because if the girl could do it, then so could she.

They played truth or dare again and she got the same dare. Most of their friends were so set on seeing Anna kiss him because they believed that Anna "liked" Ricki, but of course she denied it. This time everyone said that she had to do the dare or they'd each have to punch her 20 times. The very thought of 20 punches from each and every of them scared her. She kissed Ricki just to get it over with but it felt like magic. She had never kissed a guy before.

Just when she was just getting over the best 7.5 seconds of her life, Ricki was dared to kiss her back. She thought he was the best kisser alive although he was the only one she'd ever kissed. She just wished she could taste his lips again.

One of Anna's friends, Sharon, said that she liked Ricki and wanted to go out with him. The news got out and Ricki heard it. He asked Sharon out and it was the most miserable day in Anna's whole life. She didn't know why she was sad but she couldn't stop thinking about Ricki. She couldn't even talk to him or look at him. She was the only one that didn't congratulate him on his new girlfriend.

Sharon happened to be one of the people that believed that Anna liked Ricki. Anna still did not admit it but she told Sharon that if she actually thought that she(Anna) liked Ricki then why was she going out with him. Sharon replied that it was because she needed more names for her "black book". Anna knew that Sharon was playing Ricki but there was nothing she could do about it. All she could do was hope that he wouldn't be hurt when he found out.

Anna and Ricki were with their group of friends the day after Ricki asked Sharon out. Every one but Anna was talking about Ricki and Sharon and how he asked her out. Anna was thinking about telling Ricki about Sharon when he told everyone to just shut up about his love life because he and Sharon were through. They asked him why he would break it up after only 24 hours. He said that it just didn't feel right.

Jane, one of the members of this clique, told Anna to admit that she had feelings for Ricki. She sounded very serious and Anna was tired of keeping it inside. She said that she did like him and didn't really care what they thought about it. Ricki didn't act surprised at all. In fact, he said that he wanted to go out with Anna and then about ten minutes later, he said he was just playing. He said he didn't really mean to ask her out. Within that ten minutes, Jane said that Anna and Ricki made a much better couple than Sharon and Ricki did.

Anna was so annoyed about what Ricki had done to her that she stopped talking to him for a week. He apologized to her and she said that that if he ever did anything like that to her again he would live to regret it - if he lived.

Anna and Ricki carried on as just friends and life went on as usual. The next year in school they sat next to each other in all their classes, this time on purpose. One day while they were talking about their summer, Ricki said that when he asked her out, he really did mean it but didn't want to rush into another relationship right away. He also said that the reason it didn't feel right with Sharon because he fallen in love with her, he just couldn't admit it. Anna said that it was okay because it wasn't right on her part to tell him about her feelings for him right after he'd just ended a relationship.

Ricki asked Anna to be his girlfriend and this time it was for real. They stayed together and got married after college. They remained best friends for life until death did them part.

09/05/01