My Janey

It was Janey's fifteenth birthday, the last I would get to spend with her, when things started to change. I had teased her mercilessly for months about being older then her and now finally we were both fifteen. It was that age when you start looking at yourself differently. Janey had always been beautiful never having an awkward preteen stage like I did. Yet she still found something about herself she didn't like.

"This dress makes me look fat." She complained looking at herself in the mirror on the back of her closet door. "Doesn't it?"

I glanced up from the magazine I had been mindlessly flipping through. My green eyes flickered over her body. I didn't see anything wrong with the dress she was wearing, she looked like my Janey.

"You look beautiful." I answered. She never did understand just how beautiful I found her. Maybe if she knew she would have stayed with me.

"You always say that, Haz." She groaned turning to look at the back of the dress. "I have to look nice. Did you know Roger will be here?"

I tried to hide my disdain for Roger if only to keep Janey happy on her special day.

"You look amazing Janey." I told her hoping for once she would hear the underlying meaning in that sentence. "Perfect as always."

"No one is perfect, Haz." Janey scolded. I told her she was perfect constantly that could have been her down fall; my constant telling her she's perfect and her not believing it but still striving for it. "I guess this will have to do."

She turned back to look at me waiting for my reassurance that she looked great. "Really Janey you look fit in that dress."

"Whatever Haz." She rolled her eyes at me like she always would when she thought I was being ridiculous.

Half our class was in the back yard already when we came down from her room. I kept my hands in my pockets not sure what to do now. Janey was instructed by her mum to go around and say hi to people leaving me awkwardly standing by the door. I knew all of these people but I hardly did anything with out Janey by my side.

I watched with a sour look as she talked to Roger her big blue eyes looking at him in a way I wished she would look at me. That wanker was no good for her he looked at her like she was a piece of meat he was keen on ripping apart. Roger, with his perfectly styled hair and stupid blazers he always wore with the most hideous brown boots I had ever seen. Roger was the midfielder for our schools football team and on honor roll every semester without fail. There was no denying I envied Roger. He was what Janey wanted not me. With my unruly curly hair and scuffed up sneakers. I wasn't a footballer or a honor student. I was just Harry, with my bad taste in clothes and my average grades. All I was good at was wining talent shows with my band, The White Eskimos.

"Haz!" Janey called beckoning me over to where she was still chatting away to Roger.

Never being able to go against Janey I walked over to her taking my time. "Yeah?"

"Mind staying here with Roger while I go see when we are doing presents?" Janey asked giving me a sweet smile. I knew what this was, her way of getting me to talk her up to Roger. Which I would do because she was my Janey and i would do anything for her.

"Of course."

She left then her blonde hair leaving behind that familiar strawberry smell. If there is one thing that brings me back to when I had my Janey it was strawberries.

"Jane is single yeah?" Roger asked his beady little eyes watching her from across the lawn.

"Yes." I mumbled. "Anyone would be lucky to have her."

"You and her never..." He trailed off letting me assume what he was getting at.

"We're best mates." I answered as always. Just best mates, God did that phrase break my heart.

"Think she'd give me a chance?" Roger asked suddenly not so confident.

"Trust me mate, she's interested." I bit out through clenched teeth.

"Perfect." Roger walked away not needing to converse with me any longer.

"You look like you swallowed a bee, H."

"I'm fine Ellis."

Ellis Calcutt was probably the only other girl I was close to besides Janey. She was who I told my Janey related topics to, she knew how I felt about her.

"Her and Roger won't last." Ellis commented looking towards the two people in question. "One day H, she'll see you as more then a friend."

"If you say so, Ell."

When it was time for Janey to open presents I sat in my rightful place next to her on the patio. She opened presents from everyone else first I wanted mine to be special so when she was saying thank you to the final person I brought out the black box that had been waiting heavily in my pocket. She looked at me confused when she realized she hadn't opened a present from me.

"Haz, where is your present?" She asked brow furrowed. "Did you forget?"

"Never." I held the box out for her to take her eyes going wide.

"Hazza." She whispered as her nimble fingers took the top off the box off. Inside laid an oval shaped locket she had been eyeing in the shop window for months. It had taken some convincing for my mum to lend me the money with a promise to pay her back with the money I made at the bakery I worked at. "This is beautiful."

"Look inside." I instructed. For a moment forgetting that there was a party full of people watching the exchanging between the two of us.

She opened the locket to reveal the first picture we had taken together days after meeting. She had lost a tooth the day before in the picture she was smiling big showing off the spot where it had once been for the camera. I had my arm slung around her my eyes trained on her like always my own cheesy grin evident.

"It's beautiful, Haz." She said slipping the necklace out of its box into her hand. "Put it on for me?"

I obliged pushing aside her hair to clasp the ends together. My fingers brushed against he skin a jolt of electricity shooting down my arm. If she felt it she never said anything instead she wrapped her arms around me engulfing me in a hug. Strawberry swirled around us as she whispered a thank you in my ear.

I wish I could have gotten that locket back if only for the memories attached to it. She was buried with it though keeping a piece of me with her forever.