I still remember the day we met. We were seven. It was a hot early September afternoon. I was playing in the playground of my old primary school. I was most probably playing hopscotch or bulldog with my friend Leah. That’s all I ever remember playing in my childhood. My nickname in primary school was Jelly, because I was always slightly chubby and people were always squidging my cheeks and I always played the role of the baby when me and Leah played Families. I can remember our old teacher Miss Forester coming up to us with a small,nervous looking boy. Me and Leah looked at each other and she whispered to me ‘who’s that?’
I shrugged.
“Girls, this is James, he is new to our school today and I’m trusting you both to show him around and stay with him for a while until he settles in”
“Hi” James said so quietly that I wasn’t even sure if he said it.
He was tiny, even now he is just about average but his friends tower over him.
He had short blonde hair, it was curly and messy. His hair always looked windswept and comes down into a cows lick down his neck.
He was slightly tanned, from his mother being full Maltese. But his skin was always perfect, no spots, freckles, or blemishes. His eyes were so green, I remember being creeped out by it. I never met someone with such bright eyes.
He constantly had a snotty nose, he always used to wipe it with the back of his sleeve so the snot would always be left crusty on his cheek.

Miss Forester walked away and James was just standing there, arms by his side, he kept standing on one foot and then the other.
“So…” Leah finally said, breaking the painfully awkward moment.
“What do you like to play?”
He shrugged.
“Mummies and daddies? Bulldog? Stuck in the mud?”
“I don’t know” He replied. His voice was so soft and gentle, it kind of just blew away in the wind and was hard to hear.
“Hmm”
“Lets play hide and seek?” I said.
The corner of his mouth edged into a slight smile and said “Okay, I’ll count”

That playtime was good. We played hide and seek until we were called back into class.
James wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with a tissue and put it back in his pocket. He has always sweated easy.
“That was fun” He said. His smile was wide and showed a set of perfectly straight teeth.
“We should play again tomorrow” I said.
And we did, Me, Leah and James played together every day until Year 6 when we left for secondary school.
All three of us promised to stay friends forever. But half way through Year 7 Leah moved away to Brighton. Me and James were devastated. We could only see her every few months if our parents took us down. We called her a lot, but she was always busy with her new friends.
It was just me and James. We were in the same school, same year, same classes. It was always like that. We even went to the same colleges where I studied English and he did Engineering.
Teachers admired our friendship. We did everything together. We had so much in common. We liked Doctor Who. We both visited our Nans on a Sunday. We both agreed that Harry Potter is overrated. We loved Winter, hated Summer. We both hate exercise. We both love lying in front of the TV with a cup of tea and a few digestives.
No one could break our friendship.