Heart Beat

Yana’s standing outside my door with her running shorts on. She’s red in the face and doubled over with her hands on her knees. I’m supposed to be getting her some water, but I’m just sort of standing here watching her. She straightens up now, and goes to sit on the porch swing. It’s the fourth one we’ve had. Yana broke the first one, I broke the second, and we jumped on the third together. I can’t see her face anymore, so I go to the kitchen. Mum is standing there, talking to the dog.
“Now, we’re gonna get little Hunter some nummy yummy dog food. Yes we are! Yes we—Oh hi Timmy.” She smiles, not at all abashed to have been caught.
“Hi mum. Yana’s outside. She ran again. I’m getting her water, and then we’re going up the Oval.” Mum comes over and stands next to me, putting her hands on either side of my face.
“Honey, how long have you loved her?” She asks. Her voice takes on the tone of a wise old woman with motherly instincts. I start to protest, but she looks at me, knowledge in her eyes, and I know it’ll be no use.
“I don’t know. I’m trying not to be. I mean, it’s YANA! She’s like my sister…isn’t that illegal?” Mum laughs and hands me a glass of water.
“GO” she pushes me out the door. I stumble onto the porch and Yana looks up and grins. I hand her the water and we start walking down the street.
*************
Yana is running circles around me, her hazel eyes laughing and her hair streaming behind her. I can see the powerful muscles in her legs as she runs, tensing and untensing with each step. She’s lovely in motion.
“TIMMYYYYY! COME ON!” She’s about a dozen feet ahead of me, and I sprint to catch up. She turns so she’s running backwards and watches me. I’ve never been good with running long distances. So I walk for a minute, and then sprint. I crash into Yana and we both fall to the ground, laughing.
“YOU BUM!!!” Yana screams, laughing. I fell on top of her, and our faces are so close together that I can smell her breath. She smells like mint gum. Yana always said she had a mint problem. I breathe in the smell of my best friend deeply. She squirms under my weight. “Hey come on fatty, you’re crushing me!”
I look down at her. She looks up at me. Her eyes widen. I lean my head down so if I wanted to I could…
Yana pushes me off of her. “WHAT WAS THAT!!!??? YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND! HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE THAT! YOU’RE RUINING EVERYTHING!” With that she turns and catapults away from me, and within ten seconds she was out of sight. I sigh and roll over onto my back. I kissed her. After eight years I finally kissed her. And now I know that I shouldn’t have. Yana is my best friend. And I’m her best friend. I’m not the boy she kisses.