It was always there. Lilly and my secret world. It would always be ours. Ours alone. It would never get tampered with by any inhuman human hands save ours.

There it was, nestled behind the majestic oak tree we were so fond of. A little clearing bordered by a few trees, scattered with twigs. We called it our little world. The little world we were so fond of, as little kids and carefree teenagers.

But sadly, we seldom went by the tree now. It had been over five years since we last stroked its ground. Five selfish years spent in endless quarreling and meaningless squabbling with Lilly.

It was the proposal which ruined it all. Stupid me, I made it. We -the both of us- were best friends before another girl (Miley, a.k.a Hannah Montana) moved in and befriended us. It was lovely, the three best friends, hanging out together, forever...

That is, until, Miley moved back to Tennessee, where she came from. We were sixteen then.

It was horrible for Lilly. She kept bursting into tears every now and then, mainly because Miley didn't give us any warning to say she'd leave. It was like, one day she disappeared from Malibu, and the next, we got a call saying she had moved.

So anyway, in the despair that inconsiderate Miley landed Lilly in, I was there to console her. To console her saying that I was there for her. As I did, we rekindled the same old relationship we used to share before Miley had come. But this time, it had a slight change - I couldn't help but develop the teeniest crush on her.

Which predictably grew into something more when we came in our twenties. A something she had no clue about (or at least, pretended not to have). A stupid something which led the equally stupid me into proposing to her.

Well, there you have it. From the point she murmured an 'I do', our life took a drastic turn. For the worst. All of a sudden, from childhood best friends, we were suddenly forced to behave like man and wife without even having gone out with each other. Which, tangibly, was the most uneasy thing in the world.

I had no idea where my brain was holidaying when I got down on my knees in front of her. It was a rash, sudden decision which had randomly sprouted in my brain, out of nowhere. And before you knew it, we had bought a new flat for ourselves and moved into the inexorable cell of matrimony.

It was appalling, having a person you have known all your life as your very best friend, suddenly getting all lovey-dovey. It was frightening, in a sense. And this isn't Lilly I'm talking about; she had enough brains to try and maintain our old relationship (which unfortunately proved unsuccessful). It was me. I thought I had liked her all along, that she was meant for me. But at the same time, remorse coursed through me each time I saw her staring uneasily at me whenever I said something flattering, probably wishing for the good old days where sarcasm and playful insults were the first things to come out of my mouth when she talked, to come back.

Unfortunately for her, and for me, it didn't. We lost the sparks we had shared when we were friends. We fought, we bickered almost every single waking moment. Yet we didn't leave each other. It was some sort of a determination, where, even though you're struggling, you don't want to give up.

But it was a simple little place which brought back the old days. Our old clearing, where we shared so many Miley-less moments together, teasing and chatting with each other incessantly, with no care in the world other than getting our grades up, or following the latest trends. It was perfect.

So anyway, one evening, we were jogging together (for the first time in weeks since I was too busy) along the beach (the strip of sand farthest from the ocean, blending into the woods) when I suddenly went past an oddly familiar oak tree.

Correction - our oak tree.

I froze in my tracks. So did Lilly.

"What's wrong?" she asked tentatively, in case I yelled at her. I was pretty edgy nowadays.

I steered my gaze from the tree to her, and for the first time since we married, noticed how tense she looked while speaking to me, as though afraid I'll start another fight any moment.

"The clearing," I whispered, pointing to the tree.

She looked confused for a moment, scrunching up her eyebrows, trying to remember. Then, her seldom-seen smile unfurled delightedly and she replied in her old, chirpy voice, "Let's go there!"

I nodded eagerly, and, grabbing her hand for the first time in days, led her behind.

A cry of marvel escaped me as I noticed how exactly same the clearing was since we saw it. It was, as I mentioned, untouched.

"This is...this is..." Lilly had no words as she moved earnestly around the grassy patch which held countless dream-like memories in its arms. Memories which could never be relived.

In a corner, I noticed, was a dusty mat lightly caked with mud, the one we used when we wanted to sit down. I remembered that sometimes, we even used to bring our lunch boxes and have our lunch amidst the green of the trees and whispering of the grass there.

Lilly walked over to me, eyes brimming with nostalgic tears. "Oh my...I can't...it's our clearing!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

I grinned. "You remember? That's a first!" I retorted sarcastically, just like I used to.

Lilly laughed and gave me a punch on my shoulders, where it tingled, like it did back when I had the teeniest crush on her.

"Ow! You sure are strong for a puny girl!"

"Girls-" she said in between a punch. "-Are-" Another punch, this time on my stomach. "Better-" A slap on my shoulder. "Anyday!" A final punch on my nose. "And I'm not puny!" she added with a smirk.

"Ouch! Lil, calm down!" It was the first time in five years that I called her Lil. Seeing that she loved it, I said again, "Come on, Lil, we all know how scared you really are!"

"I never get scared, Donut!" she said with another punch. It was really starting to hurt now, but the fact that she had called me a donut brightened me up.

"Loser!" I retorted, rubbing my shoulder and wagging my tongue.

"Double donut!" she shouted back.

"Triple Loser with a capital L!"

"Quadruple donut with extra chocolate sprinkles!"

I licked my lips. "Yum! I love chocolate sprinkles!"

"So do I!" she laughed.

And very suddenly, I felt light-hearted. Like I had no other care in the world except to win this Donut-Loser thing with Lilly. It was a wonderful feeling, and it flooded every inch in me with warmth and wistful memories of the childhood days long bygone. When Lilly and I were the best of friends, laughing and joking together.

Lilly went to the mat and, brushing off its dust lightly, smoothed it down on the grass. Then, she dragged and dropped me there, alongside her. "Let's sit."

I grinned. "We are sitting."

"Donut!"

"Loser!"

"Oh Oliver...I miss the old you," she murmured, uttering my name for the first time in the day.

I smiled. "So do I, Lil. So do I."

"Then why can't we..." she trailed off uncertainly.

"Why can't we what, Lil?" I asked, picking up her hand.

She smiled and it delighted me to see that she never looked so happy. "Why can't we be the same old us?" she asked in a low voice.

"We can be the same old us if you want."

"Really?" she asked.

"Really," I promised, and leaned over and kissed her, something I had not done in a painfully long time.

"Thank you, donut," she whispered with a slight grin.

"Lil!" I raised my eyebrows in mock anger and pushed her to the ground. As she fell down, she pulled me with her and we lay there together.

Until the sun rose the next morning,with the promise of a much better tomorrow together.

It was funny how a little place brought back the missing sparkle and warmth in our lives. Funny how, in a single evening, we went from being a bickering married couple to best friends forever again. Before Miley or wedlock had ever entered our lives - just the two of us, best friends for life.

Just a li'l oneshot I decided to type out in the spur of the moment. So...what say??