“Tom!” Hilary screamed as she ran into the arms of her oldest friend.  It was the first day of grade eleven, and she had not seen Tom for nearly a month.
 “Hey Hils.” Tom said, hugging her back.  He had known Hilary since he had moved in next to her when he was four, and she had always been excitable.
 “Hey Hil!” shouted Tom’s girlfriend Kristen.  She stepped out from where she had been standing behind Tom.  Michael, the last member of their group walked up to them at that moment.
 “Michael!” Hilary screamed, running at him too.  Tom laughed as Hilary chattered on and on about her summer, and how much she had missed her friend.  She had gone to Italy for one month in the summer to visit her grandparents.  She had not seen her friends at all throughout that time.  Therefore she was extra excited to be seeing them at last.
 At 8:15 the school bell rang.  Coincidentally, the four friends were all in the same homeroom class.  Their first class of the day was math, and it was definitely not their favourite subject.  They all took seats near each other so that they could have some semblance of familiarity, in a class where the new material was anything but familiar.
 As the students who were saying the announcements talked on and on, Kristen turned to Hilary.
 “Hey Hil, Tom and I are going to see ‘Diamonds in the Sky’ on Friday.  Do you want to come?” she asked.
 “Oooh! I’ve wanted to see that movie forever!” Hilary squealed.  “But I don’t want to intrude on your date.” She said, nodding towards Tom.
 “Don’t worry Hil, I’m coming too so it can’t be a date.” Michael told her.
 “In that case, I’m there!” Hilary exclaimed.
 The rest of the school day went by quickly, and by that time Tom and Hilary already had a French project due the next day.  They were both in the same class, and they had to write a journal describing their favourite memory.  Tom had asked Hilary to come over after to school to work on it, as many of their favourite memories included each other.
 “Tom!  Tom!” Hilary yelled down the hall as she saw Tom walking towards her.  The final bell had rung ten minutes earlier and, of course, Hilary had been so caught up in a conversation with her Biology teacher that she had missed the bus.
 “Aren’t you going on the bus?” she asked him.
 “Oh, no.  Didn’t I tell you?  I got my G2 last week.” Tom explained.  He could not believe that he had forgotten to tell her the most important news of the summer.
 “My mom wasn’t working today, so she let me use the car.” He finished.
 “That’s great!” Hilary squealed, giving Tom yet another on of her famous hugs.
 “And seeing as you have the car and all, could you please give me a ride home?  I was talking to Mr. Black and I missed the bus.”  She explained.  Tom nodded at her, laughing.
 “Only you could miss the bus because of a conversation with a teacher!” he said fondly.  Hilary was such a friendly person that she could strike up a conversation with a complete stranger.  Not to mention, she loved to talk.  Hilary laughed right along with him.  She was used to her friends making fun of her friendly nature.
 Hilary and Tom quickly walked out to where Tom’s mother’s car was parked, laughing and joking the entire way there.
 When Tom pulled into his driveway, Hilary jumped out of the car before he had even shifted the gear into ‘Park.’
 “I’ll be over in a flash, I just have to go get changed.” She told him.  Tom chuckled to himself.  He knew that when Hilary came back over to his house, she would be decked out in her pyjamas.  Since they had to wear a uniform at school, and had to change when they got home, Hilary’s theory was,
‘Why change into clothes when you can wear your pyjamas and save yourself from having to change a second time when you go to bed?’  That was one thing that bothered Tom about Kristen.  They had been going out for nearly three months, and she would never let him see her without her designer clothes and makeup.  He shook his head. He knew that he loved Kristen, but ever since Hilary had left for Italy, he had been comparing Kristen to her.  He felt bad about it, but he just could not stop the thoughts from forming.  He had tried to convince himself that it was because he was missing his dearest friend, but since she came back, he was becoming less and less convinced.
Within half an hour, Hilary was over at Tom’s house, wearing her favourite pyjamas.  They were busy talking about their favourite memories.
“Remember how on the first day of senior kindergarten you wore one of MY pink shirts to school?  Your Mom was at work, and your brother had to get you ready for school, and he just did not notice what you were wearing.” Hilary was saying.  “Now that was funny.”
“Oh Yeah?  Well maybe I should write about the time your family took me to the beach when we were seven.  You decided to follow me and your Dad into the Men’s change room!”  Tom joked.  Hilary blushed, and playfully punched him in the arm.  Then an old memory bubbled to the surface of her mind.
 “Oh!  I know what I’m going to write about.” She said in a sing-song voice.
 “What?” Tom asked curiously, “It had better not be embarrassing.” He warned.
 “I am going to write about that time we went to the park after the last day of grade two.  Do you remember that day?” she asked.
 “I think so.  If I remember correctly, we were having a competition to see who could jump the furthest off of the swings.  You fell down and scraped your knee.” Tom replied.
 “Yeah!  I was crying my eyes out, and you asked me to marry you to make me stop crying.” Hilary finished.  Tom’s plan had worked.  His question had made her laugh.
 “Right.” Tom said remembering, “and you said yes too.”  They both laughed.  Tom had always told Hilary that he had asked her that question to make her feel better, but at the time, he had been serious.  Seeing her cry had made his eight-year-old self want to marry her so he could keep her from ever crying again.  It sounded so sappy that he had never told her the truth.
 “Don’t let Kristen hear about that.” Tom said jokingly, “She’ll be very jealous.”
 After talking about it a bit more, Tom decided to write about the time he went to the beach with Hilary’s family, leaving out her trip to the Men’s change room.  Then, since they were finished, Hilary went home to finish her other homework and eat dinner.  She would have stayed at Tom’s house longer, but Tom had forced her to go home.  He knew that they both would not finish all of their homework if they did it together.  He had watched out for her like that ever since they were little.  Tom was very protective of Hilary. 
 The rest of the week flew by, and before they knew it, it was Friday afternoon.  Tom drove Hilary home after school, and she immediately started looking for an outfit to wear to the movies that night.  Tom was coming over at 6:45 to drive her to the theatre, where they would meet Michael and Kristen.  This would leave them time to get their tickets and food, as the movie started at 7:45.  She had to pick out her outfit right away, as it always took her forever to decide what to wear.  Even though Michael and Tom were only her friends, she still liked to dress up for them when they went out.  Also, she did not want to look frumpy next to her ever-fashionable best friend.  Hilary doubted that Kristen’s family had ever seen her without makeup.
 It took her a whole hour, but finally Hilary decided to wear her light blue jeans and a bright pink, one shoulder top.  She wore her straight blonde hair down, with only a pink clip holding the hair back on one side.  She reapplied her makeup and was ready to go.
 “Now I’ll be able to concentrate on doing my homework until Tom gets here.” Hilary said to herself.
 Tom rang the doorbell at exactly 6:45.  Hilary flung the door open, already wearing her shoes and carrying her purse.  Tom looked at her, and noticed again how beautiful she looked.  She never tried to hard to make her self look pretty like Kristen did.
 “I’m ready, let’s go!” she said as she walked out the door, down the driveway and into Tom’s car.
 During the fifteen minute car ride, Hilary chattered about her day, the argument that she had gotten into with her mom about getting a job, and anything else that she felt Tom needed to know.  Tom drove in silence, nodding every once in a while to let Hilary know that he was listening.  He was thinking about Kristen, and trying to list all of the reasons that he still loved her.  The only thing he had come up with so far was the one reason why he had stopped loving her.  It was very simple.
 “She’s not Hilary.” He thought to himself.  He glanced over at Hilary, who was still talking.  He had loved her ever since the eighth grade, but had come to terms with the fact that they would only be friends.  However, lately his heart was telling him not to be satisfied with Kristen, and lead her to believe he still loved her, when all he could think about was Hilary.
 When they got to the movie theatre, Tom shut off the car and undid his seat belt.  Hilary fiddled with hers, but she could not get it undone.
 “URRR!” She grumbled, “Tom, can you help me with this?  I think it’s stuck.” She said.  Tom reached over and pressed the red button to release Hilary’s seat belt, brushing against her hand as he did so.  The seatbelt came undone, and Hilary thanked him.  Tom looked into her eyes, and the next thing he knew he was kissing her.  Once the shock wore off, Hilary pulled away confused.
 “Shoot!  Sorry.  I’m sorry.” Tom mumbled.  They got out of the car quickly and want to meet their friends.
 Throughout the movie, there was an odd tension between Tom and Hilary.  They could feel it, and their friends could sense something was wrong as well.  As soon as the movie was done, Hilary rushed off to the bathroom while her friends went to play arcade games.  She stood in a stall.  She did not really have to go to the bathroom at all, she just had to get away from the tension.  She stood there for nearly fifteen minutes, contemplating the night’s events.  She had always loved Tom, and longed to be his girlfriend, but she never wanted to hurt Kristen like she had by letting Tom kiss her.
 Meanwhile, Tom and Kristen had left Michael at the pinball machine to have some time alone.  However, the real reason that Tom had lead Kristen away from Michael, was that he needed to talk to her.  He felt guilty about what he had done, and needed to tell her before she found out from anyone else.
 When they found an area where they could talk more privately, Kristen leaned over and tried to kiss Tom, but he stopped her.  He explained to her how he thought she was an amazing person, but the romantic spark in their relationship had gone out.  Then he told her about how he had kissed Hilary in the car earlier.  Hearing this, Kristen became furious.
 “How could you? How could she? My boyfriend! My best friend!” She yelled.
 “It was all my fault…” Tom tried to explain.
 “I don’t care! She…Speak of the devil…” Kristen paused as she saw Hilary walking towards them.
 “There you guys are…” Hilary said, trailing off when she saw Kristen’s face.
 “I can’t believe you let him kiss you!” Kristen screamed.  “I though you were my best friend!”
 “I…” Hilary started, but she could not think of one thing to say.  “You’re my best friend…I would never intentionally…” she started finally.
 “Best friend! Not after what you’ve done!” Kristen yelled.  Hilary just stared at her.  She could not believe what was happening.  She burst into tears, and ran out of the theatre.  Tom got up quickly and ran after her.
 “That’s right! Go after her!” Kristen yelled sarcastically after him.
 Outside, Tom found Hilary sitting on a bench under a tree in a dark corner of the theatre property.  He walked over and sat down beside her.
 “Oh Tom!  Everything is so messed up!” Hilary sobbed.
 “I know Hils, I’m sorry.  It’s all my fault.” Tom apologized.
 “No.  It isn’t anyone’s fault.  It’s just that I’ve lost my best friend, and I’m afraid that I will lose you too.” She continued.
 “Hils, you could never lose me.” he told her.
 “I just feel like if I go out with you then Kristen will hate me forever.  Then again, if I don’t go out with you, then nothing between us will ever be the same.” Hilary confessed.
 “Hilary, things may change between us, but we will always be friends.  And even if we do go out, everything will end up O.K.  Kristen will get over this and things will go back to normal.  I promise you that everything will be all right.” Tom promised her.  He tilted her head upwards and kissed her lightly on the lips.  In that moment, Hilary believed that everything would eventually be all right.  She leaned her head on Tom’s shoulders, and he put his strong arms around her.  She knew that no matter what happened, she would always have Tom there to protect her.
 “Tom,” she whispered, “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you.”