Just Friends

I'd be sitting in maths class allowing the highly complicated educational experience wash over me and float away forever, rather than letting it stick to me like an insane velcro attack, and I would think about the stories Lachlan had told me, and laugh. I couldn't help myself...i had to admit he was pretty funny.

However I found myself talking about him and thinking about him a lot; so much so that my friends began to wonder whether he was simply a friend, or whether he was something more. I got worried, because I began to wonder that too...could I ever just like a guy as a friend, or did I have to make things constantly complicated & weird by 'falling in love' with them after meeting them for only 5 minutes? I decided to steel myself against my retarded, helpless, emotional struggle and enjoy Lachlan as a good friend.

I decided to invite him to my 17th birthday party. Originally it was going to be held in this beautiful park, on a bright & sunny Saturday afternoon. However the weather had boycotted sunshine for that particular week, so we ended seeing Prince Caspian at Penrith Hoyts instead. I had invited about 12 people, so we took up one of the longest rows in the theatre, and were probably the loudest group there.

I sat at one end. He sat at the other. The whole time my girlfriends I was sitting with kept making obvious references to the fact that he was sitting all the way over there, making my attempts to keep him as 'just a friend' in my mind very difficult. I wanted him to sit next to me so much!

However, his positioning in the cinema was crucial if he ever wanted to remain my friend.

How?

He was sitting next to one of best friends, Joanne, and she was my biggest critic. If she approved then anything could happen. And it turns out he made for delightfully entertaining company for her as well, and she nodded approval in his direction after the event. It was an exciting moment in my life.

But I was still determined to keep him as just a friend. I couldn't afford to screw it up. I needed to figure out a way to make the friendship stay a friendship.