The perfect timing

If you can count yourself to the people, who have a best friend, then you are a lucky person.

I met mine in kindergarten, when I was sitting at my favorite swing, watching the clouds passing by. He was a tiny kid for his age at that time, with big glasses on his face and a shy attitude. His name was Aiden and he couldn’t stand up for himself. That was the reason why we got to know each other in the first place.

Eric, another kid in my kindergarden, who was a big bully and was bigger than most of the children in our age, was picking again at someone. Someone, who was certainly smaller and afraid of him.

Unfortunately for my best friend Aiden, he was the one who got chosen to be bullied by Eric this time. The bigger guy was making fun of his tooth gap and his small stature.

I didn’t like Eric at all, not only because he was always mean to everyone but also because he had fun pulling at my hair to the point it hurt.

So as I was watching him pushing the poor little boy around, I got furious. I jumped off the still moving swing and walked with big steps towards them. First, they didn’t notice me approaching them, but after I had cleared my throat to get their attention, two heads turned into my direction.

“What?” Eric barked at me, letting go of Aiden’s superman-pullover, which lead Aiden to falling to the ground and made him look up at me with his big blue eyes.

“Leave him alone,” I told him glaring at the blond haired guy, who liked to see people in pain and laugh at them afterwards.

But he only laughed at my request, turned his back towards me and told me to leave him alone. Aiden on the other side was still staring at me with his mouth wide open.

I was probably the first person who had ever stood up for him. I could see something like admiration in his eyes back then. That and probably the amount of sugar I ate that day, gave me the strength for my next action.

So instead of leaving, like Eric told me, I grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at me again. Then with gritted teeth and a dangerous expression, as dangerous as I could look at the age of six, I repeated my words.

“Leave him alone!” This time louder.

The boy in front of me didn’t look the slightest bit afraid. I mean I was sporting a yellow flower dress and my aunt had braided my hair into two pigtails. Not really like a threat.

“Or what?” Eric challenged me, hovering over me, because he was just too tall for a six-year-old.

Everything in me told me to move back, but I wanted to look brave and confident so I glared at him. Then I tried to push him, but unfortunately his body didn’t move an inch.

At my pathetic attempt he laughed and his laugh only got louder as I tried it again and failed miserable.

As the time passed by I got more furious. My nostrils were bloated, and I had a strange feeling in my stomach. At this point I knew it would happen again. I confirmed my feelings when I looked at my surroundings.

I froze Eric as well as Aiden in their movements. It was a funny sight, but that wasn’t the point. Time had stopped passing by and I was the reason.

The wind had stopped blowing and it couldn’t give me anymore goosebumps. I couldn’t hear anything at all and everybody was glued to their current spot. It was like I was alone in a room full of lifeless people. I could study them and walk around, but they couldn’t.

I also knew this situation wouldn’t hold on forever. Every moment it could break and everybody would act like nothing had happened.

In their world it was exactly like that, but I lived in a different one. How I knew? Well, it happened before. So I wasn’t really surprised, more fascinated when it happened again.

Back to Aiden and Eric now. So instead of waiting I used this situation to my advantage and pushed Eric to the ground. He fell back like a sack of potatoes, nevertheless he didn’t hurt himself.

Another few minutes passed by in my frozen world and time was moving again. As well as all the people around me.

Now Aiden wasn’t the only one lying on the ground. He made a surprised squeal when he noticed someone was lying next to him. He also backed away as if the other boy was poison.

“How did you do that?” Eric asked me shocked and tried to figure out why he was suddenly sitting in the dirt.

I smirked at him and said smugly, “You’re probably not as strong as you thought.”

His answer was only to look dumbfounded at my face and open and close his mouth like a fish. No words were coming out.

The next thing I did was to stretch out my hand towards Aiden and help him get up. He hesitated for a moment and looked at my hand as if it was something unnatural, but a moment later he took my hand gratefully.

I pulled him up, and the boy followed me wordlessly to the swings. His expression showed something like admiration and like I was some kind of hero.

“My name is Celia by the way,” I told him, when I had seated myself back at a swing and swung back and forth again.

Aiden didn’t reply at first and just continued to look at me. This got me really annoyed, and I ignored him and just looked at the sky like I had before.

After a while Aiden must have come back to his senses and occupied the swing next to mine.

“Aiden,” he croaked out and then said louder again, when I turned my head towards him. “My name is Aiden.”

I smiled at the cute boy next to me. For a second I thought this kid was mute, but he had surprisingly a soft and pleasant voice. He then offered me a smile of his own and said, “Thank you Celia.”

After that we became inseparable, and the rest was history.

But like in every story there was a part when everything changed and you start to realize that you have to grow up and look forward into your future.

______________________

“So you are like superman?” my best friend asked me in what I guess was a surprised but at the same time excited voice.

I only rolled my eyes at him and tried not to hit him with the baseball bat I was still holding. We were about to play baseball when it happened again.

I was so surprised this time that I accidentally touched the baseball, which were floating in the air at the same spot. To my utter shock it fell straight down to the ground in one swift moment, instead of flying towards Aiden, who was waiting impatiently to catch the ball.

But that wasn’t the only unlucky thing. Suddenly time stopped standing still and Aiden had seen something. Something he wasn’t supposed to see.

Shocked he looked at me and asked, “How is that even possible?”, like I knew the answer to his question.

Of course I tried to play dumb and asked him innocently, “What are you talking about?”

Unfortunately, my question only seemed to make him more suspicious, and he narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m not a genius Celia, but a baseball just don’t drop to the ground in the middle of flying.”

I only shrugged at his statement because I didn’t know what to say and how to solve this problem. So I looked at anything but my best friend.

In the corner of my eye I saw Jessica, Aiden’s mum passing by, hoping she would interrupt us and change the topic of our conversation. But to my disappointment the beautiful woman, with her big blue eyes and lovely smile, which Aiden both inherited, only smiled at us and walked away. She didn’t even notice the death glare her son was giving me at the moment. Sometimes parents could be so oblivious.

“Don’t bullshit me,” Aiden now swore.

At his words my head snapped towards him. Not because his words hurt me, but it was the first he ever said something like that. I think it was actually the first time he ever cursed.

“Did you just swear?” I asked him flabbergasted and cocked my head to the side.

I knew he wasn’t going to drop this topic, but he still blushed at my comment, like he got caught doing something illegal.

“Yeah.” he stuttered, but added then with more confidence in his voice. “I notice things Celia, I’m not dumb. So please tell me, how did you do that?” His voice was begging me now to tell him the truth, and it was a really hard decision to make.

I also didn’t know if I should be shocked at how observant he was or more shocked about the fact that he knew I was behind all of it.

But in the end he was right. I had to tell him or more wanted to share my secret with him. Nobody knew about it, not even my aunt who I grew up with. If I could trust anybody with it, it was Aiden.

So I told him everything, about my ability to freeze time.

That takes us back to him thinking I was like superman.

He saw my annoyed face at his question and corrected himself by apologizing. “Sorry I meant superwoman.”

I swear even as a twelve-year-old, you couldn’t be this stupid.

“No you fool,” I said and ignored his glare at my insult.

I could literally hear my aunt scowling at me, “Language young lady.” But she wasn’t here at the moment, so I didn’t care.

“I’m not like superman or woman. I can’t fly nor I’m as strong as Hercules.”

Like the annoying kid Aiden sometimes was, he interrupted me and stated with big eyes, “But you have superpowers.”

I nodded and added with a sigh. “But I’m not a hero.”

“But you could be,” Aiden squealed in excitement and jumped up and down. He was like these bouncy colorful balls, going up and down.

He then talked about superheroes and that I could have my own enemy’s someday. This kid watched too many movies.

I quickly put my hand above his mouth to stop him from talking. I wanted nobody to hear what we were talking about.

“You can’t tell anyone!” I told him sternly, and he promised me he wouldn’t. And he didn’t. It was only a secret between the two of us.

_______________________________________________________________

Years passed by and Aiden and I grew up together, doing nothing without the other one. We had an amazing childhood and I couldn’t dream off a better best friend.

I was now seventeen and Aiden was eighteen. It was actually a little shocking that he was older than me even if it was only by a few months. Height didn’t say anything at all about one’s age.

“So are you going to the party?” my best friend asked me leaning against my locker and watching me as I put my books into it.

I glanced briefly at him before I closed my locker and put my backpack on my shoulders again. Aiden had changed a lot over all these years. He was no longer the shy kid, who needed to be protected by me. He even liked to say that he was now the one to look over me. But I didn’t really need protection, I was a normal teenage girl. Well, that was what I liked to believe.

Aiden was now more outgoing, but still a decent person who cared about his family and his friends. If I’m being honest, he was quiet the looker, with his sea-blue eyes and wind swapped brown hair. He had also replaced his thick black glasses with contacts and grew up. He became even taller than me by a few inches and liked to brag about it.

“I think I will pass,” I told him and tried not to feel guilty at his disappointed face.

“Well, then it is a movie marathon at my house tonight,” he smiled at me. Nevertheless I could still see the disappointment in his eyes, even if he tried to hide it, which made me feel even guiltier.

“No Aiden you have to go to this party without me,” I argued looking directly into his blue eyes. “You will have fun without me.” I promised.

But my best friend only narrowed his eyes at me and told me stubbornly that he would rather never go to a party without me.

I felt a knot in my stomach and touched by his words. I really appreciated his action, but felt at the same time sad. I didn’t want to be the reason why he missed all those teenager experiences.

So I said something which surprised me more than him.

“We will go to this party and if it is the last thing we will do.”

“Are you sure?” Aiden asked me now unsure. First, he is all about going and now he questions my actions. But I couldn’t blame him. I was a difficult person to deal with and had more mood swings than you could count. It was a miracle he was still my friend.

“Yes,” I answered him and gave him one of my best smiles, even when I knew he saw right through me.

After a few seconds of scanning my face and waiting for me to change my mind, Aiden put an arm loosely around my shoulders and said, “You are going to have fun. I will personally make sure of it and this night is going to change everything.”

Little did he know at this time that his words had more truth behind them than he could ever imagine.