That One Day We were in Love

     It had been awhile since I was on a school campus, it brought back memories of long nights not doing homework and learning to cope with stress. I was delighted remembering I had graduated and was involved in the real world now. Not all of us were so fortunate, case in point, I was visiting my best friend and laying a trap. It was our friendship anniversary of meeting each other, it was her first year of college. It took some laps to find the right class room but there it was, a simple blue door in a brick wall along a wide stone path beside a long stretch of grass. Directly across the door was a sapling of a tree, taller than anyone on campus but its branches were slender and bare. The trap was never planned beyond the desire to lay it and it formed quickly.

     I undid my favorite necklace, the same one I had on when we had met and secured it to a branch that hung at eye level. A simple chain with a purple bell attached, it rung slightly in the wind but there wasn’t a threat of it falling. This bell was the whole reason we had met and it deserved a better home now. I hid among a group of students sitting the grass nearby, keeping an eye on the blue door and the purple bell. The group accepted my presence and we made small talk, they were freshman and excited about the future. I was excited to see her face.

     My phone lit up and I excused myself to answer her, I suppose she was excited too.

     “I just finished class, are you on your way to pick me up?” I could hear her struggling to multitask with one hand on the phone and the other fumbling with stuffing her backpack. She thought I was running late. I’m never late, I thought she would realize this by now but the look on her face every time told me it still caught her off guard.

     “Yeah, meet me by the tree outside your classroom? The one straight outside the door.” I could sense the confusion in her voice then I saw it when she skittered out of the classroom with a mob of other students. She found the tree and looked around, passing over the bell and turned away from me.

     “Okay, where are you?” She pouted and scanned the crowds in front of her. I snapped a photo of her beside the tree, oblivious to my presence.

     “Check your texts, I sent you a photo.” The caption to the photo read ‘Look at this idiot.’ She looked down at her phone and I was beside the bell now, I rang it with a grin. “I guess you don’t want this.”

     She was a deer caught in the headlights as it processed, her eyes darted from me to the bell as it disappeared in my pocket. She lunged and dropped her bag, spinning around me as I turned. Keeping her prize away from her, my face hurt from the smile.

     “I’m not an idiot, now give me!”

     I dangled the bell as high as I could, narrowly avoiding her grasp. A couple of onlookers stopped to watch, there’s always something going on these campuses.

      “Why should I give it to you?” I teased and hid it behind my back, stepping back to enjoy my work.

     “Because I’m in love with you!”

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     The bell was in her possession without a fight, a silence between us. My face was flushed, not as much as hers though. She turned away, equipped the bell and fixed her hair before she faced me.

     “I’ve never said that to anyone before, besides my dad.” We try to laugh away the awkwardness and I straighten the bell around her neck. I rang it between my fingers, grounding me back to reality.

     “I’m in love with you too.”

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     “Ready for lunch then?” She held my hand and powered through her typical shyness to where I told her I parked. I was floaty, I was filled with this glow that only her smile could make me feel and now it felt real. All throughout our lunch picnic, the venture into old book stores, and the final steps up to her front door, I cherished every minute.

     I unlocked it and waved her in, we hugged and I went home. That was it. Best friends forever, always in love. I couldn’t be happier though. Even as things stayed normal.