Juli

"We kissed didn't we?" I don't know how but in a second flat, I remembered. It all came and flooded my mind, not everything but us lying in his bed then us kissing. Bryce was staring at me with a clearly shocked expression.
"Yes" Bryce was obviously tense as he looked towards the ground.
"Did you remember?" I looked into his eyes "I mean, the next morning"
"Yes."
"And you didn't say anything?"
"No."
"Why not?" I couldn't help the annoyance in my voice.
"I just didn't want to make anything different" he said finally looking me in the eye "between us." My expression instantly softened. That I could understand, he didn't want to change anything and make it weird and thinking about it I didn't know if I would tell him either if this situation was reversed..
"Well at least it wasn't in front of everyone this time." I joked, trying to lighten the mood. Bryce's face softened.
"We don't talk about that Juli" Bryce said sternly with a hint of a smile. "You know you hog the covers."
"I do not!" I laughed
"You do, I was freezing all night" he chuckled
"Well I'm sorry" I was thanking god that the awkwardness was over and we were joking around like we always do "And hey I get why you didn't tell me, I probably would have done the same. I don't want to lose you because of some silly thing."
"Juli, don't worry, we'll always be friends." Bryce smiled and waved as he walked into his house. As I walked back to mine something twinged inside of me, Bryce had said we'll always be friends but I hoped that's not all as he saw me, just as a friend. I mean, I think it was obvious that I liked him but if he only saw me as a friend then maybe I should dial my feeling back a little. I walked into my house and sat beside my parents on the couch as they were watching tv.
"I like that boy, he's a good one" Dad said smiling at me "I approve." he winked at me and I rolled my eyes.
"Oh me too Juli, he's grown up nicely. Got his head screwed on properly if you ask me" Mum chirped happily.
"Well I'm glad you like him" I spoke looking at the tv trying not to look at my parents beaming at me.
"You like him too yes?" My dad asked. I could feel my cheeks going red so I got up instantly and went to my room to start on some homework.

Bryce
A few weeks had passed since Juli and I kissed, we had smoothed things over and became more comfortable with each other. Mum and grandpa had come home with mum happier than ever after visiting Lynetta, School was going great, I was passing all my classes… so far, and some days I would actually look forward to go to school. Everything was going great until I had let Ben in on how Juli remembered the kiss. I had kept it quite close to my chest because I didn't want Ben or Dana to make it weird in our little group but when he was asking me about Juli one day after science, I had let it slip. I told him everything and the only thing that he commented on was something I said.
"You said 'we'll always be friends'?" he looked at me with a clear 'what the hell' look on his face.
"Yeah, why is that so bad?" I asked confused.
"Baby Bryce, Do you want to always just want to be friends with Juli?"
"Baby Bryce? I'm four months older than you."
"You're missing the point!" Ben placed his hands on my shoulders "Don't you want something to happen with you and Juli? You obviously like her, I know it, Dana knows it and I wouldn't be surprised is Juli knows. And it's obvious that she liked you too."
"Well of course I would want something to happen but I don't want anything to ruin our friendship" I stated, Ben took his hands off my shoulders and slumped in a defeated way.
"Bryce you're right, it could ruin your friendship" he looked at me "Or you could get everything you've wanted since you were thirteen." That made me think, was it worth the risk?
"But it probably won't happen now that you've made it clear you two will always be friends." Ben said nonchalantly.
"No I was just being nice, I do always want to be friends with her, doesn't mean nothing else can't happen."
"Does Juli know that?"
"I don't know what Juli is thinking every second of every day Ben" I said irritably
"Okay; I just don't want you to miss your window of opportunity" He said walking off to the cafeteria, I followed him.
"Window of opportunity?"
"Well how long until someone else realises how great she is and makes a move on her, she'll think 'well Bryce doesn't think of me in that way we'll always be friends' and she'll go out with them" he said as we arrived to the cafeteria.
"No that's stupid"
"Is it?" he pointed and I followed his finger until I saw Mike Albright leaning on our lunch table talking to Juli while having a flirtingly smile at his lips.

Juli
Hopping on the bus on a Friday afternoon is always a joy; a week of work rewarded by two days to relax is always a plus. I took a seat next to Bryce, it had become a thing now that we sat next to each other on the bus, not exactly planned and sometimes we didn't talk but it let me observe Bryce in ways talking never could. Like the way his face would screw up slightly when he saw something he didn't like or how he would get a little winkle in between his eyes when he was studying his math homework, or how he would bite his nails when he was nervous about a test.
"What are your plans for the weekend?" I asked after the bus was on the move.
"I don't know, not much." He said looking out the window "What about you?"
"My dad just brought some new fishing poles so I might take one for a spin down at the lake"
"I've never been fishing before" Bryce said
"What, I'll have to take you!" I said a little too excitingly "Do you want to come tomorrow?"
"That would be great!" Bryce smiled at me.
Getting home I headed straight to the garage and got all the supplies for the next day, I was looking around for some more fishing hooks when dad walked in.
"Hey Juli, what're you doing?"
"Finding the fishing gear, me and Bryce are going to the lake tomorrow. He's never been fishing before" I said looking through some boxes.
"Oh going on a date?" he smiled at me.
"No dad!" I said blushing
"Okay Jules" he winked at me before walking out. I was excited to spend a day just me and Bryce, that hadn't happened since I moved back. It was all work, friends, and parents I hadn't spent any time alone with him for the whole day. After finding everything and packing it all for tomorrow I went inside to have dinner and as soon as I walked through the door
"I hear you've got a date tomorrow" Mum said walking past me putting plates on the table.
"What? Dad!" I tuned to see dad chuckling "I do not have a date" I announced to the room.
"We know Juli, were just having fun" Mum said sitting down at the table, me and dad followed "But I think it's great you're taking him fishing."
"I think so too" I smiled.

Bryce

The next day Juli came over at twelve, she was carrying two poles and a big bag full of god knows what. I took some stuff off her and we headed off for the lake which wasn't too far away.
"How many times have you been fishing before?" I asked as we walked
"Well my dad took me and my brothers a lot when we were kids" she smiled to herself "And we go a few times every summer."
"Yeah my dad said he would take us fishing but he never really got around to it"
"I'm sorry, that would've sucked" she offered a light smile. We fell into a comfortable silence and as we arrived at the lake we chose a good place, not too far from the water to set up our stuff. We sat on the ground and Juli pulled out some worms in a bag and then also some food that was packed in containers.
"My mum wanted us not to starve" Juli laughed "I'm just glad she didn't put the worms in with the food." After grabbing the worms and the poles we walked down to the water.
"I've never done this before so you need to talk me through it" I said uneasy watching the sharp hook on the end of the pole. Juli laughed watching me.
"Okay because you're a beginner I suggest you cast side arm, have you ever skipped a stone?" I nodded "Good it's just like that but with a little more power. Because we've got a closed push-button spinner reel, the job is fairly straight forward. Pushing the button releases the line and letting go stops it. When you tilt the rod back, push the button, and when you point it, release it" Hearing Juli talk put me into a trace, hearing her talk about something she was passionate about was just mesmerising.
"Okay I think I've got it" I said a little confident
"Let's see then" she smiled at me. Trying not to mess up and also trying to impress Juli a little bit I stepped up and casted my line, well if you call it that, it got snagged in a tree. Juli burst out laughing as she rushed helped me untangle it.
"Look watch me" Juli stepped up, looked around for trees then looked at me and flicked her eyebrows up which made me chuckle then casted her line out flawlessly "Now you."
"Okay" I stepped up and did the same as her and it actually worked, not as far as Juli's but still a good effort if I do say so myself.
"Wow Bryce, that was great!" She beamed at me.
"That was amazing, thank you so much."
"My pleasure" She smiled at me, which made me blush so I turned and sat on a rock by the water.

Juli
Nothing was biting; Bryce and I hadn't caught a single thing for the two hours we had been trying. We kept reeling in our lines but either the worm was gone or it was still there taunting us. After about half an hour more, we decided to have some food so we kept out lines in the water, propped out rods up on the bay and sat under a tree and opened the food mum had given us.
"Sorry for a not so interesting first day of fishing" I said apologetically
"Are you kidding? I've never done anything like this before, even casting my line out made the day a huge success" Bryce was beaming at me.
"Yeah you're getting way better every time" I said.
"You're a good teacher, that's what you should do after school finishes"
"I don't know" I said biting into a sandwich "I was thinking about it, but I think I might want to do something with science or plants. I'm not too sure really" I chuckled lightly.
"A singer?" Bryce smirked at me
"Nope."
"C'mon sing me a song"
"Nope." Bryce laughed
"Okay truce." He said holding up his hands in defeat. "I don't know what I want to do after school finishes either"
"Well whatever you want to do you'll be great" I said smiling at him.
"You think so?"
"I know so." Bryce and I stared at each other smiling and I felt something inside of me that I hadn't felt in a while, the feeling that made me want to lean over and kiss him. But I didn't, I was too afraid of what might happen so I just kept eating my sandwich and stared over the lake.
After the food was gone, we went to check the lines again but when we both reeled them in, there was nothing so we decided to call it a day.
"It's such a hot day" I said looking up to the blazing sun "Maybe the fish are hiding from all the sun."
"Yeah, let's go find them"
"What?"
"Let's go swimming" Bryce said looking out on the lake.
"No way I'm not-" my words were cut off from Bryce taking off his shirt, leaving him in just shorts.
"Juli if you don't come swimming I'll throw you over my shoulder and take you in myself" I laughed.
"Okay sure Bryce" I said stretched out my words sarcastically.
"Right then" Bryce grabbed my hand and tugged me up and effortlessly put me over his shoulder and started walking towards the water.

Bryce

"Bryce put me down!" Juli was wriggling but laughing her head off.
"Are you going to come swimming?"
"Yes I will, promise." I put Juli on her feet right in front of me, she looked up and smirked and then tried to dart past me. I grabbed her around her waist spun her around and put her over my shoulder again.
"You think you can get away that easy?" I said laughing.
"Hey it was worth a try"
"Okay that's it" I walked to the water, went in so it was just above waist deep.
"Bryce don't." she warned me giggling
"Too late" and with that I chucked her into the water then dove in myself.
"Bryce c'mon, I'm soaked now" she said motioning to her singlet and shorts.
"Too bad" I shrugged. Juli charged at me, jumped and tackled me right into the water. This was the most fun out of the whole day, us laughing, splashing and tackling each other. Juli went in for a tackle but I side stepped her and scooper her up bridle style spinning her around.
"Okay you're making me dizzy" her hands were around my neck so I didn't put her down, we were still laughing when Juli looked up at me with her beautiful brown eyes and I couldn't help it any longer. I leant down and kissed Juli on her perfect lips, it was soft and sweet and only lasted for a few seconds before we pulled away. It was a perfect moment followed by panic; I put Juli on her feet, she had a clearly shocked expression.
"I'm sorry; I don't know why I did that. God I'm sorry I-" My words were cut off by Juli walking up to me, putting her hand on my cheek and kissing me. This kiss was firmer, our noses bumped each other's and I'm not gonna' lie there was a little tongue. This made me think of how stupid I was being, I didn't want to ruin our friendship but if I couldn't have Juli like this when I don't know how I could survive with just being friends. There was so much more to us and standing here in the water kissing Juli Baker made me realise that. I never wanted to let her go.

Hope you enjoyed, let me know if there is any spelling mistakes and I'll be sure to fix them up. I also noticed how in one of the previous chapters I accidentally switched point of view from Bryce to Juli haf way through a paragraph so sorry about that, hopefully I'll fix that up xx