Not my usual kind of story, apologies if you're disappointed
Based on a story of two friends who were at their first school together, then met at college years later and have been together ever since. The middle part is the story of them but enhanced.
To set the scene I'd have to tell you about Nikki.
She and I were best friends at Primary school. I got teased by the other boys for sitting next to a girl at first, but we were only five years old so that's what boys thought. I just thought they were jealous of our friendship.
Nikki was more like a tomboy than a girl. She had short red hair, cut into a sort of bob but always looked messy, she hated her hair being combed. I thought the other boys were jealous because she always played football with us, and was better than most of them. She was better at fighting, as some of them found out if they teased either of us too much. She loved climbing trees and getting dirty, but the main thing the others were jealous of were the presents.
Nikki's parents ran the largest pub in the area, it had a large children's play area so it was a bit of a local icon, the parents could enjoy drinking while knowing the kids were playing and had no way of getting out without coming back through the pub. The presents were freebies and promotions given to her dad now and again.
T-Shirts, Caps, sample boxes of crisps for example. Every now and again she'd bring something to school with her, each time they for me and nobody else. I was her best friend she said, so they were for me only. We were inseparable until we were almost eleven years old, nearly ready to go to Secondary school when my world was turned upside down.
Nikki's dad had a very good offer to sell the pub to a brewery chain. It meant he could retire early, and with the money, they bought a holiday home in Cyprus and a big house out of town. It was only about five miles away, but at that age, it seemed like she was moving to another country. It also meant she'd be going to a different school closer to her new home.
The first twelve months were horrible without her. She'd been by my side for years, and it took a lot of getting used to her not being around, and I didn't understand why my heart hurt so much. I never forgot her, but the feelings eased over time.
Nineteen years old now, one of my old school friends said they were thinking of starting a football team, and did I want to come down and practise with them. I said yes, I'd just left a team that had split up so it would be ideal if they seemed good enough.
We'd been playing for a while, and I raced through towards goal shouting for the ball to be passed to me. Suddenly walking along the road I saw this vision of beauty and stopped dead. She was beautiful even from here. Long red hair cascaded down her back and across her shoulders, she wore a tight-fitting t-shirt that showed off her generously sized tits to perfection, and jeans so tight they looked they'd been sprayed on. Her legs were long and slim, her arse a vision of beauty in itself.
I was bought back to earth by the ball hitting me on the back of the head, and knocking me over. The other players, despite laughing loudly, all came to see if I was okay. I got up, rubbing my head.
"Did you lot see her, oh boy she was like heaven on legs?" I asked.
"It's not a surprise you recognised Nikki," one of them laughed.
"Nikki?" I asked, then it dawned on me, "Nikki from primary school?"
"Haha, Josh still loves her," one said in a teasing voice.
"Pity she's got a boyfriend," one said, "and engaged too."
As pleased as I'd been to see her again, that shook me. None of us had seen which way she'd turned anyway, so I couldn't chase after her. After finishing playing, they told me they had a game against another team that weekend, and asked me to play, to which I agreed.
We'd started playing in the game, and there was a guy on the other team who was trying to show off. Fancy flicks, Hollywood passes and shots from everywhere, most of them not successful though and he hadn't scored yet either. His teammates were getting a little fed up with him, they could have scored if he'd been making better decisions. Ten minutes left in the game, I noticed a familiar redhead on the sidelines watching the game. With not long left, I scored the winning goal for our side.
The game finished, I went over to say hello, and to see if she recognised me. Judging by her huge smile and her squeezing me half to death when she hugged me she hadn't forgotten me. We both turned as a voice asked who this was. It was the guy who'd been showing off, and Nikki threw her arms around him and kissed him.
"This is Josh, we were best friends when we started school, I've not seen him for years," she answered.
He said hi and sneered at me, putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Don't get jealous John, we haven't seen each other since we were nearly eleven," she told him.
He told her they had to leave, and as they went to walk away she quickly turned back.
"Give me your phone, I'll put my number in so we can keep in touch," she told me.
She did so, and as they walked off up the street I saw her look at her phone, turn around and stick her thumb to say she'd seen my message with my number on. She messaged me that night, saying that she really hoped we could keep in touch and not worry about John, he just didn't really like her talking to other men.
I lay on my bed and read the message several times, getting an image of her in my head. She certainly wasn't a tomboy anymore, quite the opposite, in fact she'd grown up to be extremely pretty.
A couple of nights later I sent her a message asking what she was doing. She replied saying she was just lying in bed, watching TV in the quiet. I asked why she was in bed, and she replied saying John had some friends around drinking and watching a football game, and he didn't like her downstairs with them all so she'd started going upstairs out of the way. I was puzzled, so asked what he didn't like about her being downstairs with them, and the reply was he didn't like them looking at her.
Strange. He sounded jealous, yet distancing himself from her somehow. I asked why some of their partners didn't come around to sit with her, or why she didn't go out to them, and she said John preferred it to be guys only in the house and if she went out and he'd been drinking he wouldn't be able to drive to fetch her. Then my phone pinged again.
"What did you think when you saw me again today?"
"I saw you the other day, walking up the road. You made me stop dead in my tracks, and a football knocked me over!" I responded.
She sent over a laughing with tears emoji, then asked what made me stop dead. I told her I hadn't realised it was her at first, but she was that stunning I stopped to stare.
"Josh, you're making me blush, but I'll take your compliment," she sent back, "be honest, what exactly about me do you think is stunning?"
Was she teasing me now? Was she testing me? Was it John sending the messages trying to catch me out?
"Where was our favourite tree?" I sent.
The reply came through very quickly and was correct. It was definitely Nikki.
"I love your hair, the colour and how the sun catches it. I love how confident you are to wear that tight t-shirt and jeans off to show off your curves too," I told her.
"More compliments, you're spoiling me," she replied.
She sent another message saying she had an early start so was going to sleep, but she'd try to message me the next night. I slept very well myself that night, very contented that I was.
The next day at work was a blur, I was on autopilot. I almost wanted to go home but knew it wouldn't make her message any earlier.
"I've been talking about you to someone at work today," she finally messaged.
"Talking about what?" I asked.
"I told her seeing you again has stirred up some old feelings and told her how much I missed you when I moved away. She told me laughing that it sounded like we were in love, even at that age," she responded.
"I missed you too, a lot. My first year at the new school was horrible, I had no interest in making any new friends after you," I answered.
"Maybe we were in love then, would that have been a bad thing?" she asked.
