Hey . . . I have no disclaimer this time! Wow . . .

A/N--OK, here’s some background. The story is somewhat fictionalized. It is based on real people, but the events in the following short story are completely fictional. The names have not been changed, as I felt that took from the story overall. It is what I believe could very well happen between two people. If you have any questions, you can ask in a review and I will answer them.

If you looked closely enough, you just might be able to make out two frames, silhouetted against the light of the moon. They looked to be standing close, but not close enough to omit all moonlight streaming through them. It was an uneven match, one appearing to be extremely short, while the other was very tall, and there was about a twelve-inch difference between the two. The taller one standing hunched while the shorter one threw her shoulders back, as if proud. On both sides of them were a softball field and a running track, with a span of 500 feet between the two. The figures stood in the middle of the two as the petite girl raised her arm and pointed her finger at the softball field.

“This is my life Andrew,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper as she indicated the field and longingly gazed at it. “And this is yours,” she now motioned to the track, as both heads turned to it.

The boy looked bewildered and stared into the dull blue of the girl’s eyes. “I don’t understand,” he said, now avoiding the girl’s eyes as if scared of her reaction. The girl had understandably had a brief temper with the boy, for he had tested it many times in the past. He had broken promises, broken plans, broken her heart, though they had always had a totally platonic relationship. Never had they strayed into the depths of the romantic heart, preferring to keep things friendly. And now he had broken their friendship. Their best friendship.

“How can you not?” she predictably burst out, her voice screeching as she restrained herself from shouting at him, at the risk of being overheard by passerby’s. “Two completely separate and different matters that don’t belong together and . . . ” she stuttered, breathing unevenly, “and never will,” she now finished in a low voice, looking back and forth between the field and the track.

“They can. . . . at least . . . part’s can. Be-belong together, that is. You can run on a field, throw on a track,” he protested, but to no avail. The girl had always been soft to persuasion, but she had changed over the course of time, gathering confidence along the way. He had contributed to making her strong because she made herself resist him when she wanted him most, yet also done nothing to her confidence, worsening it more often than not.

“Yes, parts can overlap, and that’s true. Perhaps that’s why we were friends for a little while at least. But they grow apart. The object of the game is not running the bases. It’s much more. Track and softball have their similarities, yes, but their differences are much more prominent.”

“How?” he huffed, sounding disbelieving, but his eyes were betraying his voice, as they shone with worry.

“Alike? They are selfish sports. Oh, are they selfish sports. You run for yourself, too win for yourself, not for some other person. You catch a ball, you throw a ball, you hit a ball. All the while, your praying that the other person can’t do just that. Can’t you see Andrew? We are selfish people. That’s what tore us apart. Our selfishness.”

“Selfish? In what way?” he asked, though he already knew. Knew what he had done, what she had done.

“You know, I know you do. I always wanted you to be with me, but you wanted to keep to yourself, never even trying to see me. Don’t you remember anything? How I constantly annoyed you, bugged you, and always called. But I stopped. I stopped because I knew you hated it, because it meant that you might not want to be friends anymore. But now it’s opposite. I don’t want to be friends. Sure, I had my bad qualities. Now I’m not trying to make excuses for myself, because I hate excuses, but I called because I missed you. Because I wasn’t Superman. I couldn’t see you whenever I wanted. I saw you at your band concerts, at your big events. Did you ever come to me? Ever?”

“What are you saying?” he said, answering with a question to avoid answering. He knew though, that she was right. Even when he missed her, he made her come to him. To his concert, his track meets, his award ceremony. And then when he got the rare chance to meet her somewhere, he would keep the time limit to a minimum. She was right, but he would never admit it. He was too much of a coward.

She sighed at his spineless attitude. “I’m saying we don’t belong together anymore. We’ve grown apart. I’ve grown up. The age difference killed us and it only seems to be getting worse with time. Not being in the same school for a year hurt the relationship we had so perfectly built. It may not seem that way, but it’s the truth. I’m not happy with the way we are. Are you?” she said, hoping that this time he would be able to answer the question.

“We can fix it. If we really want to . . . I know we that we can,” he begged, as the girl painfully shut her eyes and sighed.

“That’s the problem. I don’t want to fix it. I wanted to fix it months a go, maybe even weeks a go. I was always willing to try. Not now though, I’ve waited long enough. I’m not blaming you, but you had your chance. I’ve always been the emotional one right along, willing and wanted more than anything to be as close as we were before. I’ve had it now. I hope you can understand somewhat about where I’m coming from. I know you never have before, but maybe you can this one last time,” she breathed with a hopefulness in her eyes that dwindled as the boy failed to speak after a minute’s time.

“You’re being selfish,” he finally said.

“I know.”

“What about Dan?” he inquired, emphasizing the name as if it were dirty.

“What does he have to do with anything?” she scoffed, annoyed with his lack of understanding and communication.

“Will you still be friends with him?” he intruded, as if to be friends with Dan would not be fair.

“Well, thanks in large part to you and your girlfriends, I‘m hardly even friends with him now,” she said darkly, talking about his ex-girlfriend who was currently dating Dan.

“OK, lets not go there. You know I don’t like her anymore, so don’t bring this on me. I know you don’t get along with them, but could we leave them out the conversation?”

The girl pondered his request, for the old girlfriend contributed so greatly to the destruction of their friendship. Liana, the girlfriend was named, was possessive of Andrew during the six months they dated. It was six months of nearly no communication between the girl and Andrew. It was hard. Dan was part of Andrew and I. We were often called the Three Musketeers, or something along the lines of that. You never saw one of us without the other two. We had the best relationship in the history of our school. But things change. Other people come into play, and that’s what happened to the three of us.

“Yes,” she finally answered as the boy breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s try not to get into a fight right now. Isn’t that what brought this on? Our first fight? Or rather, argument,” he said, casting his brain weeks back in time, and thinking of his petty anger at the girl and her constant wanting to see him.

“Part of it, yes. But as I said before, we’re drifting away, slow as it may seem, but it’s happening. I’m done trying to prevent it and I’m sorry for that,” she said breathlessly., as if she had come to the part she had been expecting all night: the apology.

When the boy didn’t speak, the girl lowered her head, her eyes brimming with tears. “Never again,” she thought. “Never again will I cry for him,” and she held back the salty water that lined her eyelids.

He took a step towards her, and opened his mouth before closing it. Again, the girl dropped her head to avoid being seen be him.

“I understand,” he said as he put his hands on her shoulders, causing her to look up into his blue eyes, blurry from the tears she had difficultly held back.. “And I’m also sorry.”

“No,” she said abruptly, now looking up at him fiercely. “Don’t say that. You cannot undo what you’ve done and apologies are just words to excuse yourself from your past actions. That’s all they are, words. Words that have hollow meaning to me,” she said, her hate for excuses being proven.

“What should I say?”

“What do you want to say?” she asked, inviting him to take a chance.

“I don’t want to say anything,” he said and pulled her gently into his arms as she let out a whimper. It was a cool embrace despite the incredibly warm summer weather. He held her tight while she cried, as her tears that weren’t supposed to fall seeped through the light cotton material of his shirt. He bent down to the nape of her neck, gathering her scent one last time, knowing that never again would he be near enough to her to know it. He then his lips to her ear.

“I’ll miss you.”

The girl, struggling to reach his face, whispered back in a shaky voice, “you have no idea.” Finally leaving his boyish pride astray, the boy cried. Sobs shook both bodies unevenly as each one clung to the other as if it a matter of life or death.

When even breathing had become nearly impossible, the girl left his embrace and went to sit against a lone tree, heaving deep breaths as she sat. The watched her do this, inspired by her courage to leave him, as it had previously been so hard for her to do so. He walked over to her when her breaths had become even and watched as she half-sat, half-lay against the tree. He offered her a hand and she gratefully took it as he brought her to her feet. He then sat against the tree, opening his arms to her, inviting her to take comfort in them.

And they sat. they sat together, rhythmically breathing as on. Her hands on his hands, his legs besides hers. It would be the last time they were together. The end of a friendship of many ups and downs. A friendship that lasted nearly two years. A friendship sprung from dislike. One that rivaled every other friendship in existence. It was the end of a time period of fun and freedom. The end of a lifetime and the beginning of a new one.

It wasn’t until they heard their names being called by family that they stirred. Getting lost in memories, they had lost track of time. The baseball game they had been at was over, and everyone was leaving to go home. But for them, going home would going home forever.

“Well, I guess it’s goodbye,” he said to her as they stood up, holding her hands in his own. His gaze bore into her own as he waited for her to speak.

She nodded lightly, as if agreeing with his choice of words. “Goodbye,” she replied as blue stared intensely into blue until all other thought was lost in oblivion.

“Lauren!” was screamed from a distance one last time. With immense trouble, she tore her gaze away from the boy’s. She looked at his helpless face, his longing expression, and his sad blue eyes one last time. As she turned her back, she sighed deeply and started walking away.

She seemed to float rather than walk as she made her way across the field which she had so recently related herself too. At one point, she looked back, seeing only a dark figure in the distance, yet knowing it was boy she shared so many memories with. The boy who opened so many new doors to her. The boy she could never speak to again, for her own sake and his. He was not recognizable in the dark of night. Turning her back one last time, she felt as though something was leaving her. As if a part of her was vanishing. With only an empty feeling left in her stomach, she knew it was over.

He watched her leaving him as he stood alone by the tree. Her final look back caused a pang in his gut. He tried raising his arm to wave feebly, but it hung limply at his side. He was frozen, trying not to think about the past two hours, but finding himself unable to help it. He never knew he would miss her so much and she had only been gone for minutes. Her petite frame was finally swallowed by the darkness as car lights flashed and an engine roared threateningly. He heard the wheels move, and looked on helplessly and the car drove towards to exit of the parking lot. All he could think about was the girl he had let slip away, sitting in the car with family. People that cared about her just as much as he did. She never knew it though, as he kept it hidden throughout the year and a half of their close friendship. He wondered momentarily if she was crying as he was; if she missed him like he ached for her. He knew the truth though; even if she did yearn for ,as he did for her, she wouldn’t show it. Not until she was safe in the confines of her own room, unseen by anyone.

He heaved a defeated sigh, let the final tears roll down his cheeks, and turned to the track. Taking one accomplished step, he paused, remembering for about the third time the night’s events. With one last look at their ending point, he set off, painfully putting one step in front of the other. He walked onto the track, making his way around the oval as he too disappeared into darkness.

The wind howled that night despite the hot weather conditions. Two people tossed and turned all night, never falling into a complete sleep. Only thinking of each other, the two dreamt of a place where they could be together; where their differences versus similarities was at a neutral, and where they completed each other. A place where age, other people, gender, and time couldn’t complicate things. That place, they knew, would be their heaven.