Another Mile, Another Minute

Amelia had been there since the beginning. She was there even before they were. Born and raised on South Ann Street, just off of Thames. Then, one day – she remembered it quite clearly. She was four years old – she was plopped down in a sandbox next to this weird looking kid.

“Hi! I’m Jack!”

When the two of them retold this story, they would erupt in a fit of laughter. Lia remembered wondering why this funny looking Lebanese kid that had been living in Canada for the past three years was talking to her.

“Eat this.” She said, shoving a handful of sand at him. He quickly complied.

Amused, Lia continued giving him odds and ends to see if he would actually ingest them.

Jack didn’t mind. He was just happy that he’d made a new friend – and a pretty one at that. She had dark hair that cascaded down to her back in waves, and fair skin that was just luminous in the sunlight.

Mama didn’t raise no fool.

As she handed him what may have been the sixth item, an adult’s hand look it away at once.

Infuriated that someone had stopped him from showing his friend how he had the ability to eat anything, he screwed up his little face and began wailing at the top of his lungs.

“Jack!” his mother scolded him, “Do not eat that!”

“Lia!” the other lady said, “Don’t be feeding him things!”

So his friend had a name; Lia. His crying stopped at once, having been satisfied of the scene he managed to create.

She focused her dark blue eyes on the mysterious boy. Cocking her head to the left, she analyzed him.

“Friends?” she asked simply.

The little boy beamed, “Friends.”

And that’s how it all began.

Three years passed without a hitch between the two best friends. They attended their first day of kindergarten hand-in-hand. To them it wasn’t awkward. That’s how it had always been. All the other children made fun of them at first, but the two ignored it, and by the end of the day, everyone was holding hands with someone or another.

That third year was when the trouble really began. On the first day of her summer as a six year old, Lia waited on her front porch, swishing her brand new sundress around. She couldn’t wait to show Jack. When she heard the pitter-patter of feet, she looked up expectantly, but was surprised at what she saw.

Jack was there, but so was some other kid.

“Lia! Lia!” he called out to her, waving his arm.

“Who’s this?” she asked bluntly.

“My best friend.” Jack announced proudly, swinging his arm over the shoulders of his new acquaintance.

Lia was hurt, “But I thought I was your best friend.”

“You are. But this is my other best friend, Alex Gaskarth.”

She turned to the other boy and sized him up like the first time she did when she met Jack, all those years ago. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t like him.

Alex reached his hand out and in one swift motion, tugged on one of Lia’s pigtails.

“You’re friends with a girl?” he asked Jack incredulously.

“Yeah!” he announced.

“Ew!” Alex scrunched up his nose in disdain, “Girls have cooties!”

“What!?” Jack was alarmed.

Tears filled Lia’s eyes. Both from what Alex said, and the fact that her best friend believed it.

“No we do not!” she shouted back at him childishly, “And you have a funny way of talking!”

“That’s because I’m from Essex, which is in England, where the girls don’t have cooties!”

Jack looked at him in awe. He had never heard of England before.

“I do not have cooties!” she stomped her foot against the ground.

“Na-na-na-na-na! Alex chanted running back to his house. Torn, Jack looked from one best friend to the other. Then he followed Alex, leaving Lia behind in tears.

She was right from the beginning. She did not like Alex Gaskarth.

...

She and Jack remained friends; through elementary school, and through high school. Even through the hardships of puberty, they made it through.

The only tension in the friendship was Alex. Lia detested him, and vice versa. It became even more strenuous to have him around when Jack and Lia started going out.

Alex tried everything to split the two up, some plans worked better than others, which led to the biggest fights that had ever come between the two boys. It even put the band that they started together in jeopardy.

Nowadays, the boys were working hard and touring constantly with said band, All Time Low; Lia had already inherited a portion of her family’s business, and she and Jack were going strong.

Although they were together, they kept it an open relationship. Some people asked why; it was because with Jack on the road constantly, and Lia leading her own life, they wanted to stay faithful to one another, but everyone has instances where they get a little too drunk.

It happened often with the lovely couple, and they decided to side-step any looming arguments by keeping it an open policy.

Now, that didn’t mean that they’d take every chance they get to bang anything on two legs; it just kept them aware of reality – not that Alex didn’t take advantages where he could. He’d bring Jack to any strip club that was open. Most often when Jack was overly intoxicated – and on the road, that happened quite frequently.

Lia wasn’t left far behind though. She enjoyed a drink every now and then as well. When out clubbing with the girls, she came also came home with a few numbers. She wasn’t much different; a little classier, but the girl knew how to have fun, and when Jack was home, or when she was visiting, they fit perfectly; as if they were an old married couple that had been together for decades.

The comfort and stability of a relationship, without the stress and commitment of one.