Everyday I become older, I grow more and more mature every second. It seems as if Quil, my bestfriend doesn't. Its weird though, I mean, Quil is 29, but it he is always the same immature funny self. We have always had a really strong relationship. He has been there with me at my second grade concert when I was Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, he was there for my graduation from middle school, and helped me get over my break-up with my first boyfriend Matt Jenkins. I've grown up a lot since I was two, when he and I first met. He, on the other hand looks the exact same as I have always remembered him.

I tumbbled out of my bed, my feet landing harshly on the floor. I looked at my bedside table and smiled at the picture of Quil and I at a playground when I was seven. His eyes are staring deeply into mine, with a heart melting smile, revealing his adorable dimples. I swear, that smile makes my heart flutter like I strapped wings on to it.

I realized I first had a crush on Quil, two years ago. It was my thirteenth birthday and my boyfriend, Jack dumped his plate of cake ion my face and said he would never date a girl like me again. All of my supposed friends laughed, and basically rewarded him. Quil, later told me that any guy in the world would be lucky to date me, and if he didn't know that, then he was clearly "mentally F'd up," as Quil put it. He gave me a massive bear hug and told me that in three years to this day, It would be completly opposite of today's delema. I would have a guy that was completly head over heels for me, and friends who loved me for me. I didn't understand why, but I believed him with all of my heart. I wanted him to be that guy. The guy who was head over heels for me; like how I am with him right now.

"Good Morning, Quil," I said shyly with a smile, looking at the picture with dreamy eyes. "Quil? He's at work honey, are you losing it?" My mom asked, warily, almost giving me a brutal heart attack. "Oh, No, I um. Was talking to him... On the phone!" I quickly yelled, picking up my beaten cell phone. "Gotta go, Quil, Bye!" I said, holding my phone against my ear. "Okay, but you better get ready for school, and Claire, don't call Quil while he's at work. You'll get him into trouble!" My mom yelled, closing my bedroom door. I got into some white jeans and a blue hoodie, brushing my hair and applying some eyeliner. After eating a poptart and brushing my teeth I ran out the door, realizing that I only have 5 minutes left to get to school, while my walk is ten minutes long. I ran with all of the energy in my body, which obvioulsy wasn't much since I had detention for being five minutes late. Five minutes, I don't see what the big deal is, but whatever.

I rushed into homeroom, putting my lateslip on my teacher's desk. "Finally, Claire. We had to wait for you to start the lesson! Apologize to your class mates, and promise to be more respectful!" She spat at me. I rolled my eyes, and sat down beside my friend, Kara. "I'm sorry that I was five minutes late. I'm sure you were all going out of your minds, for those mere 300 seconds. I am very sorry for being oh so disrespectful." I said sarcastically, adding an innocent smile, while Kara giggled. My teacher rolled her eyes and wrote the title "Respect for your peers" on the board. After the hour and a half of lectures about being early and prepared, I went for lunch. Kara and I sat down at our usual loner table at the corner of the Caf, near the broken vending machines and the Janitor's closet. Not exactly beachfront reality. "So, wanna catch a movie or something tonight?" Kara asked me, in between her mouthfulls of Macaronni and Cheese. "I can't. I'm going over to Quil's, he's teaching me how to play the guitar," I said adding a guilty smile. Kara raised her eyebrows and Ooed. "You two are seeing eachother like everyday! I would suspect you two were dating, except for the whole 16 years age difference." "Age is just a number. Who cares about that. Numbers mean nothing to this world." I said glaring at her, and starting to get a bit too offended. "Nothing in this world?" Kara began, rolling her eyes, oh joy. This was probably another one of her lectures."Numbers make this world, Claire. Ever heard of money? Money is all about numbers, and this world revolves around money. Do you really want me to get into that?" She asked, helpfully warning me. "No! Please don't, Kara." I smiled at her and plopped a grape into my mouth. "Whatever, but I do see something, some type of connection between us," I started, shyly. "I hate it though, I can see so much... potential in us, but to him, he probably just see's me as a little fifteen year old girl with a pathetic crush." I finished gloomly. "I'm a lot more mature than he thinks I am. We're perfect together. It's not fair, It's not fair, it's not Fair!" I said immaturly, crossing my arms.

During last period, science, I sat down in my aisle seat, beside Nutty Natasha. "Hey 'Tasha," I greeted her. "Tasha? Who's Tasha, Is that a new way to tease me? Everyone hates me!" She panicked. Aw, whats the point of making her feel better, they don't call her Nutty for nothing. "Hey," Tyler Crop greeted me, winking as he walked past my table. I felt my cheeks get warm and even warmer realizing that my cheeks were probably tomato red right now. "Hey," I said being as flirtacious as possible, twisting my hair. He smiled at me and sat down beside his friend, mumbling something with grins on their faces. "Isn't Tyler so cute?" I asked Natasha, emphasizing the word ''so''. ''Are you saying I like him? Oh man, now everyone is going to be gossiping and saying that I have a huge crush on him. Thanks Claire!" She said sarcastically. Wow, she really is nuts. I rolled my eyes and had Natasha do our experiment while I daydreamed about Quil.

After a period which felt like forever, it was finally dismissal. I grabbed my bag and dashed toward the door. Tyler grabbed my hand gently and pulled me aside. "Oh, um, hi Tyler." I said shyly, very confused. "Um, hey Claire. Uh I just wanted to see if you'd like to hang out with me some time." He asked, muffling his rock and roll, rebellious hair. Man would I like to muffle up his hair. "Oh, well yeah, I would." I smiled. "Number?" He asked me, giving me a pen and pulling up the sleeve of his shirt. I wrote down my number on his muscular suntanned skin. "Wow, your skin is really warm, It feels nice." He said, laughing to himself. "Sorry, that sounded gay. Hah, but yeah, I speak the truth." He winked at me and shook his hair walking away.

Oh my god. Tyler just said I was hot. Well... Sort of. I walked out of the school and skipped back to my house.

"Claire, what took you so long, Quil called wondering where you were." My mom yelled as I opened the door. "He Did!?" I said excitidly. My mom chuckled and gave me a nudge. "You like him, don't you?" She asked. "What? I missed that, Awell. I need to get going, I'm taking my bike, Bye!" I quickly lied, rushing out. I put on my white and blue helmet, jumping on my bike, racing to his house. Butterflies flew through my stomach as I came up to his house. I hid my bike at the side of his house and knocked on the door. Quil answered and gave me that amazing smile, revealing the dimples I dream about every night. He opened his arms as I opened mine and gave me a big hug, picking me up and squeezing me. "Uh, Quil. We saw eachother yesterday night release!" I said between struggled breaths. He let me down and I immediatly felt cold. He laughed and brought me down to his basement where he had to chairs set up with a guitar on each one. I smiled as I sat down at the chair with the pink guitar. "You got me a guitar! I thought I was just going to share with you!" I sqealed, jumping up and down. "I can't let you share an old ugly guitar, you deserve the best." He said, giving me a warm smile. He sat down at the chair across from me, and grabbed his guitar and a pick, as did I. "Play me something," I giggled. He smiled and put his fingers in position. The sound of one of my favourite songs "Stairway to Heaven" played from his acoustic guitar. I felt as if he and I were the only ones in the world, surrounded by the beautiful strumming. "And you know what?" He said as he finished," I bet you could learn this song in less than a month, and it will sound way better than my playing... Thats how talented you are." He told me, staring into my eyes with that smile. He looked the exact same as he did in the picture taken eight years ago. "Thanks, but I doubt that. It will take me years to learn that," I said, dazzled by his sweetness. "We'll see about that.." Quil told me, giving me a quick wink. I automatically let out an open tooth smile, and giggled like a moron. I got a confused and humoress look from Quil as he laughed along with me. "Well, lets get playing," he said as he grabbed me a guitar book.

An hour of playing and failing quickly finished, as he assigned me a chord to learn tonight. "I'll see you tomorrow, but do you want to do something else besides guitar?" He asked. "Depends, what do you want to do?" I replied. "Its a surprise, tell you what. I'll pick you up from school tomorrow and I'll show you what we're going to do."

A long six and a half hours of learning went by, draining the life out of me. My mission was to keep Quil on my mind so that I would contain a mere bit of sanity before I could see him. I was way too eager to get out of school to see my Quil. Wait, I shouldn't call him mine. Only his mother could say that. "I haven't seen you all day!" I heard Kara say from behind me. I jumped with fear and let out a sound of pure shock. She chuckled and shook her head, putting her hands up in the air as a sign of surrender, "Sorry, sorry. Thinking about Quil again?" She knows me way too well. I might as well tell her the truth, she would be able to tell if I lied to her. I felt my cheeks go red and gave her a smile. "Guilty as charged. But do you really blame me? He's a gorgeous hunk of man. All for me." I said, proudly bragging. She rolled her eyes as I caught a glimpse of jealousy in them, "He's not yours Claire. You know you'll never actually get him. He's basically a fantasy that you'll never be able to experience," she said rudly. It was pathetic, but that comment pushed me off the edge, "I- well- you, and him," I stuttered. I couldn't get the words out. "Yeah, you don't know what to say. I'm sick of you talking about him twenty-four seven! It's driving me crazy! He doesn't like you, never will! You know why? Because you're just a stupid kid to him. Talk to me if you actually grow a brain that can understand that," she screamed at me; the comment cutting into me word by word. Tears ran down my face as I slapped her cheek. She stared at me in horror, and anger as she rubbed her red cheek. "I don't need your opinion on my life! It's not yours to live! I can feel something between him and I that is strong. Insanely strong! I don't care if its just friendship I'll ever get. Just knowing that he cares about me is enough, and I don't need you in my life to tell me otherwise. Go bitch at someone who will actually care. I'm out." I walked down the long corridor, not looking back. What I said was true, I'd be happy if he just liked me as a friend, although it would hurt, I would still know that he cares about me. And who needs more than that? I smoothed my hair and pulled my jeans out of the inside of my Chuck Taylors. Gussying up wan't needed around Quil but I still felt the need to look good. I opened the hallway door and was blinded by unexpected sunlight. As my eyes adjusted to the lighting I was able to identify Quil leaning against his big, black truck. A smile emerged from both of our faces and I ran up to him and gave him a hug. I was tiny compared to him, he was probably two heads larger than I was. He looked down at me clung to his waist and gave me a wink, I smiled and sat in his passenger seat, waiting as he casually came in, closed the door, adjusted the mirror, put on his seatbelt, oh my gosh. It was torture. "Hurry up!" I shouted at him while he just chuckled at my reaction. "A little excited are we?" He asked, giving me a charismatic smile. I nodded my head and we drove off. My head fell to the window slowly giving my neck a break, as I realized that we were listening to another 50 cent rap. I glared at Quil, knowing he would see my evil stare, and switched the radio station to one of my favourites. I danced to the high speed techno beat, mocking the disco move that you see everywhere. Quil looked at me dancing and shook his head, chuckling to himself. "I'll keep it on your station, today, but could you please warn me next time, before you burst into a disturbing dance?" He asked sarcastically. I couldn't help but smile, as I punched him in the arm. "Ouch," He said, with a grin emerging on his face. "Did it really hurt?" I asked, truly excited. It was impossible to hurt this boy, he was hard as a rock. "No," he said with a laugh to himself, "but you're getting stronger. Good job, Claire. In a couple of years you have a chance of hurting me," he laughed.

We parked the truck and got out, him grabbing me and pulling me on to his back. This was completely unexpected, and turned my cheeks a rosy pink. We started walking towards First Beach, and disapointment overwhelmed me. "We're just going to the beach? I come here every week!" I said, like a spoiled brat, he ignored my complaint and kept walking, occasionally spinning us around which made me squeal. He was entertained by my girlish shreak, which would make him spin me around even more. "I know you've been to the beach before, Claire. But this is going to be the best trip to the beach you've ever taken." He said, putting me down on my feet. I didn't noticed that I was still clinged on to his back, enjoying the moment. He shook me around trying to get me off, and started laughing to himself. "Claire, down." He said, continuing to shake my little body, flinging my feet back and forth. "Oh, right." I said shyly, ungripping his shirt with my fragile hands. I looked in front of me, noticing a huge cliff in front of us. "What the hell-" I asked confusedly, interrupted by laughter. "We jump, Claire." He said, matter of factly. "What, are we, suicidal?" I asked, feeling more than confused. "Claire, its safe, Beside's I'll be beside you, holding your hand. You have nothing to worry about. It's fun!"

I was still completly nervous, but could I really pass down an oppurtunity to hold Quil's hand? I slipped off my hoodie, and bermuda shorts, happy with the fact that I had a bikini underneath my clothes today. Also, happier that I chose the hottest one to wear. Quil took off his shirt, exposing his perfectly carved abbs. I felt like drooling over his beach bod for the rest of my life, but was interrupted with my dirty thoughts, by the fact that he grabbed my left hand tightly. The warmth of his body worked it's way over to the left side of mine, and I shivvered from the change of my temperature. "Ready?" He asked, moving closer to the edge of the cliff. I nodded my head, while keeping my admiring stare tightly to his abbs. He took a running start, closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, my feet clumsily trying to keep up. He took a high jump that forced my body to do the same, and there we were, falling from the air into a beautiful ocean of water. Things seemed to go in slow motion once we jumped, I could barely hear Quils thunder of laughter behing my ear piercing scream. Our toes fell into the freezing cold water, followed by the rest of our bodies. We splashed up from the surface of the water, as I pulled my hair back. "Fun, 'eh?" He asked, shaking his hair dry. I couldn't help but smile, and agree. It was a lot of fun, it was an amazing rush, like when you ride those stomach twisting rides at amusement parks. We got out of the water, me clinging to his back. I couldn't help that I wasn't a strong swimmer. We sat on the beach and ate some sandwhiches and talked about our days. "Quil, Claire, fancy seeing you here!" I heard a husky voice from behind us. I turned around to see a sunny face with a pearly white smile shining at us. "Uncle Jake!" I shouted, giving him a hug around his strong body. "What are you doing here?" Quil asked, getting up to greet Jacob. "Just thought I would take Renesme out for a stroll at the beach," he said, as a beautiful girl came from behind him. Her auburn red hair blew in the wind, as her chocolate brown eyes glittered, looking up at Jacob. She looked to be at least seventeen. "Hey, I'm Renesme," she told me, flashing a beautiful white smile. Quil introduced ourselves and talked to Jacob, leaving Renesme and I to socialize. Apparently she was fifteen like me, which suprised me a lot. Her charisma, and beautiful appearance intimidated me, but she was very nice.

The four of us hung out for a couple of hours, and I was completly amazed with Renesme, she was charming, and bubbly, and I could see why Jacob seemed so drawn to her. It was getting dark, so we all left, promising Nessie we would keep in touch. Quil and I strolled along the shore line, lauging and talking. "Claire?" He asked, looking quite nervous. "Mhmm?" I answered, getting excited to hear what he, apparently was so nervous about asking. "Now that you're turning sixteen in a couple of days, I was meaning to ask you something," he began, his eyes sparkling. I totally forgot that I was going to be sixteen in four days. I guess I have been too busy dreaming about Quil to wake up to reality. "Have you, 'er... Been having different... feelings about you know.. us?" He stuttered, looking slightly embarassed. If he was embarassed, I could only imagine how I would look right now. What if he knew about my crush on him? This would be completely awkward, would it ruin our friendship? I decided to act like I had no idea what he was talking about. "What do you mean?" I asked, in my most innocent voice. He stopped walking and turned to face me, grabbing my shoulders gently, and pulling me closer to him, but leaving enough space for us to see eachother's faces. "Claire, you and I have been best buds for fifteen years now. Nothing- No one could replace the way I feel about you. I care about you so much." He said, slowly, emphasizing the word 'so'. I could feel my cheeks turn a rosy pink. "I care about you a lot too." I added. He smiled, and continued talking. "We both have felt strong feelings for eachother for a long time... But as friends, right?" The smile that was growing on my face quickly melted to nothing. "Right, as friends." I said, disapointed, and I started to slowly walk away. He lightly grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to him, again. He had a grin on his face that kept growing untill the two corners of his mouth were nearly up to his eyes. I was confused, and my face could show it, which made his smile grow in to a muted chuckle. I was getting frusterated, as I yelled "whats so freaking hilarious!?" I shouted, at him, flinging my head as I said 'freaking hilarious'. He laughed, again.

"But, have you lately been having even stronger feelings about us?" He said, with a smile. I didn't make one movement, keeping my head bowed to the ground, looking at my blue Chuck Taylors. He lifted my chin up so that I would stare into his eyes. "Have you, Claire?" I didn't say a thing, and continued to look into his eyes, which made me feel like I was in heaven. When I looked into his eyes I felt reassurance, and as though I could tell him anything. I wished that he would hold me in his arms and look into my eyes forever, having us lie down on the beach together, not saying anything, just holding eachother. Quil noticed my silence and his smile faded. "Claire, right now this is important. Please be completely honest with me, are you in love with me?"