He raised an eyebrow and looked at me in such a way that if he was Superman, I’d know it wasn’t my clothes he was checking out.

“Quit undressing me with your eyes,” I laughed and pulled a top on over my bra.  “Third time lucky?” I enquired.

“Unlucky,” Aiden frowned, moving past me to look amongst the clothes on my rail for himself.

“I swear you’re just trying to get me naked,” I winked.  “All this top changing.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” he cried sounding truly offended.  “All I have to do is close my eyes and there you are before me in all your naked glory!”

As if to spell it out for me like I was stupid, he closed his eyes, a smile spreading across his face.

“Mmm, there you are,” he laughed, and ran away just as I swung for him.  He continued to open and close his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, just to piss me off.

“Quit it,” I ordered, taking the item of clothing that he’d managed to pull from its hanger just before I’d chased him out the closet from his hand.   I un-scrunched it and looked at it carefully.  “Aiden, I think you’ve found a winner!”

“Finally!” he beamed, falling backwards onto my bed with a sigh as I peeled off the shirt I was wearing and put on the one he’d chosen.

It was black, sleeveless and backless, with a plunging neckline that somehow fastened just out of sight under my hair if I kept it all down over my shoulders.  It felt like silk, and seemed to sparkle when the light hit it at a certain angle.  I couldn’t for the life of me remember where or when I got it, but I knew it reminded me of something.

“It’s perfect,” Aiden smiled warmly.  “You look as beautiful in it now as you did the day I gave it to you.”

“Our six month anniversary,” I sighed, suddenly devastated at his reminding me.  The atmosphere in my room suddenly changed and became a lot darker as I sat down on the bed next to where Aiden lay, hit by all of the memories his present evoked…

 ______________________________________

It was 7:57pm, and as my eyes watched the minutes tick away on the clock on my wall, my heart beat faster with every second, for I knew that Aiden was on his way to see me.  I was sixteen, and in love with the boy who’d been my best friend all my life, and that particular day happened to be our one year anniversary.  I sat in front of my bedroom window, cell phone in hand, waiting for the headlamps of his beat up Range Rover to light his path down my drive, or to receive a text from him telling me he was at my door and I should go down to let him in.