I remember the day perfectly. We were both 5, starting kindergarten. I had lived here my whole life- he just moved here. I remember him looking all lonely and I smiled warmly at him, motioning him to sit with me, which he did.

"Hi." I said plainly, smiling at him, coloring my picture outside the lines. He smiled shyly,

"Hi." He said, "What's your name?"

"Emily. What's yours?" I ask.

"PJ. What are you doing?" He replied

"drawing." I replied, putting down my crayon. He nodded and grabbed the green crayon and took a paper with a tree on it and started to color

Now we're 7 years old. PJ and I are best of friends, and people make fun of us and say that we're boyfriend and girlfriend, and we are in love. He approached me one day while I'm sitting underneath the large Oak tree on our play ground and tells me that he told his mom what people are saying.

"She told me that if I find out that I love someone, I should tell them," PJ was saying, "But Emily, I don't know how to find love." He sounds sad. I pat his back,

"When I find love one day, I'll give it to you." I say bravely. He smiles at me and nods.

We're 9. His chocolate brown hair is a buzz cut, and he has glasses cover his dark blue eyes, and people pick on him even if he's a great guy. He's friends with most people, except for the bullies who make fun of him. I see them picking on him.

"Hey PJ.. Why don't I clean your glasses for you?" The bully takes his glasses and smears them with mud. PJ looks at the Bully even though he can barely see. I'm furious, my hands are balled into fists and I'm walking towards them. I hear taunts from the bully.

"Oh look PJ, your lover is here to save you- OW!" I punched him square in the jaw. He falls and drops PJ's glasses, I look down at him.

"Leave him alone or I'll make sure you get hurt even more." I warned him, and I pick up PJ's glasses and clean them with my jeans. I hand them to him, He smiles.

"Thank you." He says. I raise an eyebrow,

"I thought you couldn't see?" I ask. "I'm near sighted." He replies, and pulls me into a tight hug.

We're 11. We started Middle school, he's in some of my classes. All the different elementary schools come together to go to the same middle school. I meet new friends, and so does he. But we talk when we can. I smile at him, He looks way different from 2 years ago. His chocolate brown was grown out and it reached his eyes, and it curled at the ends. He got contacts and got rid of his glasses showing his blue eyes.

"Hey Emily!" One of my new friend calls, Her name is Kate. She's not like PJ, but shes nice. "Hi PJ." She says, looking at him next to me. He nods at her. I smile.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Kate says to me, and I nod, and follow her into the hallway. "Can you ask out PJ for me?" She asks, looking nervous. I look at her for a second,

"Why do you want me to ask him?" I ask, she raises her eyebrows, "Aren't you close to him?" I nod, but a frown comes to my face.

"So what if I'm close to him?" I retort, anger building up. Kate looks shocked. "Are you just being my friend because you want to get close to him? Is that why you always come to me only when PJ is around? Well too bad Kate. I'm not asking him out for you!" I spin away from her and back into the Cafeteria.

"What was that all about?" PJ asks when I sit next to him. I shake my head.

"Nothing." I say weakly. He knows not to press on about it, but I'm sure that he'll ask again when no one else is around.

Now we're 13. I've matured, now people pin me as the Hispanic emo, which I'm not. I just don't like pink. PJ is the popular guy. we're still friends, but I feel funny around him now. I blush too much around him. What's wrong with me?

"Hey Emily." my science partner calls, I turn and smile at him, "Will you go to the spring dance with me?" I haven't been asked out for anything before- If you count PJ asking me to go outside and play soccer with him.

"Um-" I start, but my science partner looks behind me. I hear PJ's voice say, "No. She says no." I turn to look at him,

"I do?" I ask confused. He nods and wraps his arm around my shoulders, I feel sparks. "She's going with me."

"I am?" I ask. He smiles, showing off his perfect teeth. "Yeah- you are." At the dance, we talk, we laugh, and we dance. I like having him dance with me. I keep feeling funny, but I brush the feeling away. I also ignore the mean glances given to me by Kate.

We're 16. high school is nothing like middle school, but I get through it with PJ. He's on the soccer team, I'm on volleyball team. He's in one of my classes, so we can chat. on the first day of school, he comes up to me with a good mood.

"Hello." He says cheerfully. I grunt, he laughs, "What's wrong?"

"I want summer to come back." I whined, he shrugged, "Only one thing about today makes it worth it." I looked up at him (he grew. a lot.)

"And what is that?" I asked innocently. He laughs again, "Our anniversary!" I nearly choked,

"What anniversary?" I say, raising an eyebrow. PJ rolls his eyes,, "No silly, our friendship anniversary!" He says it with forced happiness. What? Did he not want to be my friend anymore? Does he just feel sorry for me?

"Em, what's wrong?" He asks, eyebrows knit together in confusion. I shake my head and smile. "Nothing, I just can't believe I forgot." He nods, but he knows that its not just that.

"Well I got you something." PJ says proudly. I groan, "You just made me feel worse."

"It's also half my present, so don't worry about it." He pulls something out of his pocket. One of the necklaces has a beautiful thin silver chain with a heart on it, with a little key hole. It was a locket. The other necklace with a thick silver chain on it, with what seems to be a key. "This one is for you." he handed me the necklace with a heart on it, I gasped.

"You bought this for me?!" He nodded. I gaped at him. He smirked and pulled me hair up to put on the necklace. My eyes grew wide, "Emily? What's this?" Oh crap. He found it. "N-nothing." I stutter. "It's not nothing, Emily! He's doing it again isn't he?" I shake my head holding in my tears. He poked the bruise again, and I winced. "You gotta tell your mom, Em."

"No I can't! She loves him. I can't break her heart, If she wants to marry that man let her do it." I say angrily.

"But he hits you." He says calmly, but I only hear anger. We know each other that well, "Do you really want that kind of man in your house?" I shuddered at the thought.

"No." I breathed out, defeated, "but he's going to find us in the long run. He's going to hurt mom!" He shook his head,

"He's going to hurt you badly someday," He whispered, wrapping a lose strand my black hair behind my ear. I shook my head and put on a brave smile,

"I'm going to be fine PJ, well, can I have the key to the locket?" He shook his head, "And why not?"

"I'll open it for you when I think I can admit it." He whispered.

"What?" I asked confused. He bit his lip.

"Bye." He said hurriedly, and kissed my forehead. I felt sparks on my forehead and blushed deeply. He blinked and walked away.

Later that day I walked home, only to have my step father try and force himself on me. My shirt was ripped, he was going for my pants. I screamed bloody murder, and thank god PJ came through the doors. He was furious.

"PJ!" I screamed, through my tears. My step father slapped me, not knowing who was also in the room. I sobbed again, and I felt my step father being ripped off me. I cried even more and sunk to the floor, leaning against the wall I was pushed upon. I looked up from the tear stained floor to see PJ beating the crap out of a already bloody man. His face was filled with anger, I couldn't see PJ anymore. I sobbed again and wrapped my arms around my bruised body, I winced and tears basked my face, I think my step father had broken a rib or two. I felt gentle arms wrap around me also, I look up to see PJ, watching me closely, I cried into his shoulder for what seemed like forever, while he whispered in my ear. He took out his cell phone and called 911,

"My girlfriend, she was beaten and almost raped by her step father," I held my breath, not because of the truth, but because he called me his girlfriend, "Yeah, I came in and stopped him. You might want to send an ambulance also." He gave them my address.

A few weeks later, everyone knew about my step father. I had held all my emotions inside me, but PJ could still see them. Then I realized the day after the event, that I love him. I love PJ... but i couldn't ruin my relationship with him. I couldn't.

My mom was broken. She loved that man, but he turned out to be using and abusive. PJ was there. he helped me a lot.

"Hey." I said when I saw PJ coming towards me.

"Can you come with me?" He asked. I nodded and shut my locker. He took my hand and led me to his car, and we remained silent through out the car ride. He parked at our old school parking lot. we got out and started walking around. It was Friday, and i doubt that any little kids wanted to be in school longer then they had to. I was right- the play ground was empty. I smiled,

"That was the corner that that bully was picking on you when we were 9." I said, pointing to the fence and a large mud spot. He nodded smiling. He knitted his fingers with mine, and familiar sparks rushed through me.

"That was the tree we always sat at!" I said, pulling away from him to look at it closely. it had grown bigger, me and him had always sat in between these two roots, that intertwined somewhat. Now that I look closely, I could see that the roots looked more like a heart...

I saw on my side of the tree while PJ sat next to me. There was silence. Suddenly, i saw PJ reaching for my necklace with his own in his hand. He took it in his hands and unlocked the locket.

I found out where Love is. It said, I looked up from the locket to him, and I saw that his beautiful blue eyes were almost black.

And then he kissed me.

He pulled away. I looked at him, confused. And happy.

"I love you Emily." He said plainly, I bit my lip to stop my smile, "I've loved you since we were 13. You were the nicest person I've ever met, I fell in love with your smile, and how you laugh, and how you blush. And how you fit perfectly in my arms-" He stopped talking and started playing with his necklace in his hand.

"You ass!" I said, he looked shocked and heartbroken, "I was supposed to say it first!" I laughed at his face.

"You scared me!" PJ pouted, but he smiled, "I love you." He said again.

"I love you too." I kissed him again.