They meet when they're six. Sebastian walks into a foreign classroom, his face wet because of the tears that refuse to stop escaping his eyes. He looks around terrified as the teacher advises him to pick a seat. There are only two empty seats in the classroom; one beside a girl in a blue dress and the other beside a blank eyed boy who currently had two pencils stuck up his nose. He sends a smile to the teacher and sits down beside the girl, who instinctively pulls here drawing book closer to her.

"I'm Sebastian. What's your name?" he whispers tentatively.
"What's your favorite song?' She retorts instead, blue eyes meeting his questioningly.
"Oh! Umm... I ... do you know...? He breaks off and starts humming along to the 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' tune.
"YES!"
And suddenly two kids at the back of a silent classroom burst into unstoppable giggles.
"Tara."
"What?" Sebastian asks confused, once his laughter dies out.
"That's my name."
"Oh."
They don't speak much later except when Tara exclaims how Sebastian's 'Dexter' lunch box is 'cool' and Sebastian says her 'Power puff Girls' one isn't that bad despite being pink in color.

They sit together every day after that.

Tara gets upset when Kitty comes up to her one day and makes a face at the mud plastered on her purple converses.
"You played with little Sebastian? Ooow, you're going to get cooties!" She exclaims and runs off to the tea party; the other girls promptly forgot to invite Tara too.
She sniffs and rubs her reddening nose when she feels a heavy weight bulldoze her onto the ground.
"Seb!" she giggles, but her watery eyes make the boy frown slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"Kitty Brown and the other girls say I'll get cooties if I play with you. But, if they've never played with you how do they know you've got cooties? They're stupid."
"Some boys tell me that too. I guess if we both have cooties, that makes it okay right? We can't catch something we already have! Right?"
Tara's eyes widen comically and she nods vigorously. "You're so smart."
Seb grins smugly before pulling the awed girl to her feet and racing off towards the swings.

That was the day they declared each other as best friends, and exchanged their favorite crayons as confirmation.

The first time they fight is when they're in third grade.

Sebastian hates Harry Potter just a tiny bit. Okay so maybe he doesn't. Maybe he's read the Philosopher's Stone at least ten times and wants very badly for his letter to arrive after two years, because he knows 'he's a wizard', okay? He's made things happen... things that he couldn't explain when he was angry or scared. But, sometimes, he doesn't like the bespectacled boy much. Those times are when Tara animatedly talks about how amazing Harry Potter is, how she'd love to be at Hogwarts with him, how 'cool' his broomstick was. Huh, his lunch box was cooler.
"Tara! Tara!" he calls out trying to get her attention, but the said girl is gleefully bouncing up and down the bed waving an imaginary wand in thin air oblivious to the scowl plastered on her best friend's face. He slumps quietly into the corner of his room pulling his plushy to his chest closing his eyes and counting to ten because he also doesn't like Tara very much right now and wants her to just go away. He's at forty-seven when he feels a head plop itself onto his left shoulder. He opens his eyes to see Tara almost 'on' him her eyes boring into his, confused and reluctant.
"What?" he spits rudely and he's not even sorry because he is oh so angry.
And suddenly the expression in Tara's eyes is that of concern and Seb can' take that and words start pouring out of his mouth; no manners, no filter... just pure, unabashed hurt.
He can't stop, even as he sees the flush spreading across his best friend's cheekbones, and he knows Tara is now scared and terrified. It escalates quickly into a screaming match, and Seb throws his beloved plushy across the room, "He's not even real! I'm what's real!"

"What is wrong with you? Why are you so stupid" Tara shrieks back, and they both freeze, and then there are tears streaming down Tara's eyes unabridged as she mumbles soft apologies and 'you're the world to me' and lets her arms wrap protectively around herself.

And then Seb is holding her, his arms warm and almost cocooning Tara in as they have so many times before, hands stroking her hair and lips murmuring, "I'm sorry. I was stupid. We'll read it again tonight, yeah? I won't be stupid anymore. You're my best friend. We're okay."

They slowly discover all of each other with time. How Seb positively idolizes Freddie Mercury, how Tara wants to have a library as big as the one from 'Beauty and the Beast' and Seb's the one who'll get it for her. How Sebastian needs to be perfect at everything or his father get 'really' upset, how desperate the boy is for his parents to come to a football match of his. They both love Harry Potter to death (yes, Seb got over his grudge), fight over musical choices slightly too often; popcorn is their favorite food and they come to a mutual conclusion that candy is the most important thing in the world, even more than the two of them.

They survive junior high together and are not the least bit expectant of the madness that high school would be.

They're in different classes and they're shoved into social norms. Tara's new friends advise her to stay away from Sebastian cause 'he's a jock and he'll break your heart' and the popular kids scoff when Seb waits for Tara near her locker calling her 'nerd' and 'loser'; and then they're the cheerleaders who throw Tara unnecessary jealous glares when she's the first one Sebastian wants to see after he wins a match.
But, they know their friendship still stays strong, after all, the fought against everyone in first grade too, didn't they? They were stronger than a few, measly slurs.

Then, absurdly but surely, everything changes over the summer.

When Tara calls up Seb after her first date he's a bit put off at first and tries not to slam the phone shut. He reply's with subtle 'oh's' and 'ah's' till he hears a long sigh on the other end. His face splits into a grin when Tara confesses that something was just off, 'i mean he was lovely, but' and that she didn't see this going anywhere. Seb sleeps with a smile that night and doesn't let his mind dwell too much on the reason.
At times Seb just cannot take his eyes off Tara and sometimes when he looks he sees something in Tara's eyes too, but he's too scared of saying anything because if it went wrong, he'd lose her and he just couldn't risk his best friend-

But then maybe fate's decided to throw him a bone because in the midst of watching Harry Potter (oh, the irony), Tara leans in and kisses Seb when they're scooped up on the couch. It's so different from the caught flying kisses, the cheek kisses they'd shared when they were younger that Sebastian can't help but tense up, which alerts Tara as she pull back in rejection. In a second Seb comes to his senses and grabs Tara by her shirt, pulling her back in and sealing their lips back together, and in a way, promising each other so much.

Their first date is stupid and lame because they've done this so many times before, nothing's really different; only their cheeks are redder than ever before.
No one's actually surprised when they announce they're dating. Apparently they were never 'Seb' and 'Tara'... they were always 'Seb and Tara'.

They're lying out on Seb's porch at night (even though they're blue from the cold), like they always did, only now they use their lips for a lot more than just talking (because come on, they're teenagers and they're already so comfortable and Seb just finds her so beautiful, okay?). There is a sudden stillness when Seb whispers a smooth, 'I love you' and Tara giggles with a breathless, "I know that, silly. I love you too." And though they've exchanged "I love you's"- since forever, something about this night lights up fireworks for them. Now, it's just a different sort of love, it's a promise, it's the conclusion to a story.

They're young, but they are each other's lives. And going by the singular crayon pieces in each of their drawers, they'll make it to the end just the way they started off - together.