Lovers and Friends

“You’re just jealous!” I yelled. Aaron, my best guy friend on the whole planet, had been trying to convince me for a good thirty minutes now that I shouldn’t go out with Tyler, a boy whom I’ve liked for a couple weeks now. You don’t like Tyler nearly as much as you like Aaron, the voice in my head told me. It told me that often. It was right.

“Why would I be jealous of you going out with a jerk? I’m not Jealous, Jodi! I just don’t want to hear all about what you two do, because you know I’m the only person you’ll tell. And coincidentally, I just don’t really care!” Aaron replied. I simply rolled my eyes, storming out of the farmhouse his parents owned. I walked out to the barn, which held horses, and walked up to my horse that I had kept there since I was a child.

“He just doesn’t get it, Calypso. Guys just don’t get it. I think… I think I want to go out with Tyler just to make Aaron jealous… To make him realize that I like him, and I want him to realize that maybe he likes me too. Sounds silly, I know…” I said, stroking Calypso’s nose. She whinnied, almost as an agreement. I frowned.

“Why doesn’t he just realize I like him? I mean, I know it’d be awkward, but I’m sick of pretending like I don’t care about him, you know? I’m sick of being happy for him when a girl asks him out, and I’m sick of being sad when they break up…. I’m just sick of it all!” I sat on a bale of hay, my face red with anger.

I really didn’t know what I was going to do. My feelings for Aaron had been around for a long time, since I moved Calypso into the stable almost six years ago. But my friendship with Aaron is far too valuable for me to want to even think about telling him how I really feel. I heard someone clear their throat and I jumped, thinking it was Aaron. I stood with my hands across my chest, waiting for him to try to talk me out of my situation even more. I smiled when I realized it was Aaron’s mother, Jane. She was the nicest of my friend’s mothers, and she made sure Calypso was plenty taken care of.

“Everything okay, sweet pea?” Jane asked.

“Yeah… I guess,” I replied, sitting on the hay bale again.

“Listen, my son isn’t the brightest crayon in the box… Sometimes you just have to tell him what you want,” she said, sitting on the bale next to me. I looked at her, very confused.
“What do you mean?” I asked.

"Life is full of friends and lovers; it’s just a matter of time before you find a two for one deal,” she said, standing up and walking away. I thought for a moment, and realized she was right. Aaron was my best friend, but with the way things were going, with the selfish way I was acting, we weren’t going to be friends or lovers. I stood, running past her and into the house. I jogged up the stairs, bursting into his room.

“Aaron, I need to talk to you,” I said.

“No, I need to tell you something first,” he said.

“No, let me go first,” I said, his statement barely getting out.

“Jodi, I think I’m in love with you,” he said, cutting me off. I looked at him, my mouth hanging open. Sure, I was clearly going to say almost the same thing, it just seemed so much more real when he said it.

“I… Um… Okay,” I said, mentally slapping myself for babbling like an idiot.
Aaron frowned.

“Okay… Yeah. So… I mean, well, have a nice date with Tyler, I guess,” he said, walking past me. I stood there, hearing the familiar sound of the front door creaking open, then slamming shut.

I cringed. “Aaron!” I yelled, running down the same stairs and opening the same door. I found him leaning up against the fence on the path to the barn.

“I’m sorry,” he said as I ran up to him.

“Don’t be sorry, be anything but sorry. That word has so much disappointment attached to it, and I hate disappointing other people,” I said, leaning next to him.

“But I am disappointed… If I would have just told you sooner, and got over myself then I’d have you, not Tyler,” Aaron said, sighing as he looked at his folded hands.

“Tyler doesn’t have me. He’s never had me, he never will have me.”

“Then why are you going on a date with him?” Aaron asked me, and my heart broke a little. He sounded broken, he sounded more hurt then I’ve ever heard him before.

“I… I only did it to make you jealous. I only did it because I couldn’t have you. Aaron, I… I love you, and have for a while, and me dating Tyler was a failed attempt and trying to get over you, or trying to make you love me…” I said, but stopped as I felt a pair of lips on mine. I kissed Aaron back deeply, thankful to finally have him.
My lover and my friend.