Until Love Happened

ALLISON

“Boo!”

My spirit left my body, sending half of my freshly prepared popcorn to the floor.

My best friend, Savior Millers, who stood behind the door, stepped into sight, clutching his stomach as he laughed his heart out.

“You’re so annoying!” I yelled, throwing a handful of my popcorn at him for scaring me.

“It’s... so... funny,” he wheezed, wiping tears from his eyes. “And you knew I was coming.”

I rolled my eyes at my best friend’s antics. Leave it to Savior Millers to scare me out of my mind the moment he showed up in my house.

“Yes,” I said, picking what was left of my popcorn. “But I don’t remember letting you in.” I walked to the couch with a pout. “No popcorn for you today.”

“Aw, come on! I knocked a couple of times before walking right in,” Savior said, jumping over the couch and taking a seat beside me. “Besides, it was just a prank. You do it to me too!”

“Well, now you have to watch the movie without popcorn.” I tutted, picked the remote, and switched on my favorite movie ever.

The Notebook.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Savior said, grabbing the remote from my hand. “You picked the movie last time. It’s my turn.”

I scrunched my face at his audacity. “You’re crazy if you think I’ll let you pick another horror movie, Sav. Give it back!”

For the next two minutes, we proceeded to drag the remote like toddlers until the front door opened and my mother walked in.

Savior let go of the remote and got up to help my mother with the grocery shopping bags in her hand.

“Mrs. Parker!” he greeted with enthusiasm, taking the grocery bags to the kitchen.

“Oh, hey, Sav!” Mother replied with ginger in her voice. “Movie night?”

“Yes, Mother,” he responded like the charming guy he was. “Allie won’t let me have popcorn or pick the movie.”

“Allistair,” Mother said, dragging the intonations of my name.

“How was your day, Mother?” I said with a big smile, and she placed a kiss on my forehead, while I threw a nasty look at Sav, who wore a shit-eating grin.

“Amazing,” she said, heading into the kitchen. “Get the boy some popcorn and quit being a bully, okay?”

My eyes went wide, and I tried to defend myself. “I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did!” Savior yelled from the kitchen door, and for the billionth time since I knew my best friend, I wanted to strangle him.

After some riffling around the kitchen, I heard Mum thank Savior before she walked out of the kitchen.

“I’ll be in my room, sweetheart,” she said. “You two have fun.”

With that, my mother disappeared from the room and walked right up the stairs, leaving me with Sav, who wore a shit-eating smirk, leaning on the kitchen door.

It wasn’t the first time Mother was leaving us alone to our devices. As a matter of fact, Savior and I had movie nights every Friday.

It was a ritual we started as young children when his parents would go out on dates and leave us both with a babysitter, while my mom took extra hours of work in her home office.

Savior’s family lived a few blocks away from ours, and according to my mother, my father and his father were best friends before he died in an accident when I was two.

After my father’s death, my mother wanted to be closer to home, and we moved back to town.

Meanwhile, Savior’s parents were doctors, which meant they were hardly at home, but for what they couldn’t make up in quantitative time, they did in qualitative time.

“So, how do you want to be killed?” I asked as soon as I heard the distinct sound of Mom’s door snapping shut. “Because I’m about to kill you right now.”

“You can try,” Savior said, plummeting on the couch. “Come on, it’s starting,” he urged, patting the space beside him.

I sported an eye roll and only moved when I heard the familiar voice of Noah from The Notebook.

I soon took a seat beside Savior, stifling a smile as I watched The Notebook roll on the TV for the billionth time.

“Doesn’t still mean you get popcorn,” I said with a pout, knowing he would, in fact, get popcorn. He always did.

“Whatever,” Savior said, placing his arm over the couch and getting comfortable. “Let’s get this over with and watch some real movies.”

The rest of the evening proceeded with Savior dipping his hand into my popcorn as we spent our time watching a couple of films before finally calling it a night.

As usual, it was yet another beautiful movie night with Savior—my annoying, cocky, and cute best friend.

*****

“Hurry up, Alle! We’ll be late!” Maya yelled from the front porch in her black minivan.

Her face was scrunched up as she waited for me to get into the car before turning it on.

“I’m so sorry, I got up late,” I said while approaching the car and getting into the front seat.

Maya was my best girl. We grew up right here in Everwood but became friends in middle school when she stood up for me against some bullies.

We were inseparable ever since.

“Last year in high school,” Maya sighed as she turned off the engine right in the school’s car park. “One more year in hell.”

I laughed at her innuendo. “Don’t be peachy.” I stepped out of her minivan. “Enjoy the moment.”

“Yeah, right,” Maya said, and together we walked into the school premises side by side.

The school was packed by the time we arrived. We had a few minutes to get to our lockers before class started.

“You know what’s crazy?” Maya said, showing me a banner on her phone. “The fact that Leslie Carter decides to host a cooking class in Brookville right after summer,” she groaned.

“If she had scheduled it just a week earlier, I would have emptied my savings and flown over to get coached by her.”

Leslie Carter was a renowned chef that Maya looked up to. She’s wanted to get cooking classes from her for as long as I could remember.

“Don’t be bummed,” I said, making a stop at my locker. “You’ll definitely meet her one day. Who knows, you could even become the next Leslie Carter—or even better, the one and only Maya Collins.”

“Stop buttering me up,” she groaned, putting her bag into the locker. I didn’t relent.

“As far as I’m concerned, you are the best chef I’ve been privileged to experience in all my eighteen years of life,” I pulled out my book.

“And you only get better at it. It’s only a matter of time before you become a renowned chef yourself.”

“You’re saying that because you have to,” Maya said with a smile, placing a lock of hair behind her ear. “You are kinda my best friend, Alle.”

“Kinda?” I joked, and she rolled her eyes at me.

“Well, I’m not the one having date nights with some hotshot football player, am I?”

“Movie night!” I corrected with indignation on my cheeks. “He’s just a friend. You know that.”

“A friend you may or may not have a crush on,” she said in a sing-song voice, and my eyes went the size of saucers.

“Maya!” I whisper-yelled, looking around us. “Don’t say that so loud.”

“Don’t say what?” a voice said from behind, one I recognized so well.

“Oh, hey, Sav,” Maya said with a quirky little smile. “Didn’t see you there. How was date— ahem— movie night?”

“None of your business, Maya,” Hunter, Savior’s friend and right hand, said from behind. “I see you are yet to stop sticking your nose into other people’s business.”

“And there’s my cue,” Maya said, giving Hunter the stink eye before leaving. It was no surprise, as they never got along.

Savior dragged me to the corner, making us walk side by side in the busy hallway as we headed to class.

“You look cute,” he said, looking over my outfit. My heart skipped a beat at his words.

“I bet my lessons finally came to good use,” he whispered, and I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

“You don’t look bad yourself,” I returned. “I only wish you took some time to brush those curls,” I joked. “They’ve seen better days.”

“Burn,” Hunter said, and we shared a laugh.

“There you are, babe!” a chirpy voice said before us, belonging to the resting mean girl of Everwood High.

Clara Winslow.

My brows narrowed as she approached us with a beautiful smile that had even me gushing at how beautiful she looked.

“I’ve been searching for you,” she said, pushing me to the side and greeting him with a make-out session.

Right in the middle of the hallway.

I blinked, a churning feeling in my stomach as I wondered just what the hell was going on in front of me.

After what felt like a year of making out—and some applause later—they broke up the kiss, and Clara turned to me with her hand in his.

“You’re the best friend, right?” she said as soon as she stood in front of me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but there were no words. Thankfully, the bell went off, saving me from looking like a fool.

I scurried to class, the memory of him kissing her still playing in my head.