I lean against my car, waiting for my best friend, Hope Winters, to get her ass out of school. She plays the piano--really well I might add--and right now she is finishing up teaching a freshman. As I'm waiting for her my mind drifts of to how we first met and became friends. 

I remember meeting her back in kindergarten. As a kid our kindergarten seemed big and adventurous, but it was really just a small space with a one swing, a sandpit and what looked to me like a jungle, but was really only a few trees and shrubs around the outskirts of the play area. Hope, the pretty young thing that she was--and still is--charmed all the guys into letting her hog the swing ever day, every week, every month. At the age of five this didn't seem fair and I was a very impatient young boy and decided tht she couldn't charm me. Because I was a big boy. I mean yes, at the time I may have still needed an adult to help me go to the toilet, and my mother to feed me my own food, but I definitely was still a big boy in my own eyes. 

That day I'd marched right up to Hope as she sat on the swing, legs poised for a big push off the ground. My head was held high, my back was straight and I demanded that she let me have a go first. When she rudely refused my ever so polite statement of course I had to resort to other uncharacteristic measures; so I pushed her off.

Yes, I know, looking back on that day now, I realize how I could have went at that moment differently, But remember, I was a boy and I needed to make myself seem dominant. I also acknowledge how mean a thing that was to do to a four-yer-old girl and like I said: dominance. It probably didn't help that she was standing in the way of something I seriously loved, but in the end, pushing that pretty girl off that swing was the best idea ever. Sometimes I wonder if I hadn't done it, would Hope and I be where we were now?

The kindergarten caretaker saw me push Hope off and immediately called both mine and Hope's parents, telling them the whole story. The next day my parents made me apologize to Hope in front of the whole group of kids in my kindergarten group. I had to give Hope a box of chocolates to make her feel better. Do you think it was a coincidence that the day I gave her those chocolates was Valentines Day? My parents really hated me. She thought I was in love with her and had a total 'Mean Girls' moment by asking why I was so obsessed with her. As if!

"Hey, you okay? You look out of it. You were'nt taking drugs right now were you?" The voice of my angel broke the reverie. Hope stared back at me with worried blue eyes, her read hair shining as the sun hit it. 

"No, I was not taking drugs. I was just thinking about that test I have tomorrow in Jensen's class." I lie, smiling at her in reassurance. 

Hope looks unsure about my words, but faintly nods after a few seconds. "Yeah, okay. Let's head to yours." After only taking a few steps towards my car she collapses into a heap on the floor. 

"Hope!"

~~~

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