Best of Friends, Now and Forever Ch. 01-02

I am a long time reader of literotica. I've read many beautiful stories and felt many emotions as I have gone through them. Love, Loss, Happiness, Joy, Pain, Anger, Despair, all kinds of emotions and it just made me want to do something like it.

This is my first attempt at writing a story. I plan on expanding on this. But I'd like to see what if people are interested first. This will be a love story that will expand until I can find an end to it. My inspiration was reading "Charles and Claire" by Schuppinzigh a.k.a. Richard King.

As well as another story which I can't find anymore, but I remember how it tugged at the heart strings. It just filled me with such emotion. I remember the last line of it very clearly. "'Best of Friends' I said. 'Lovers always.' she added. 'Now and forever.' I finished."

This is a tribute to that story.

***************************

Prologue:

It was a warm Friday night. My wife, Alice, and I were in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. Our four year old twins, Amy and Ethan, as usual as soon as each were done with their own dinners, ran from the table to go play without even a second glance at their parents.

"Always on the move aren't they?" Alice asked me.

"Of course they are. When aren't they moving?" I replied with a chuckle.

"They remind me a lot of us when we were that age. Remember back in those days, how everything was so much fun between us?"

"Of course I do Alice. But if I remember correctly, you and I were not really best friends at that age. That happened later."
"That's true, my memory must be going."

I walked up and gave her a great big hug. "Nonsense, we all have our forgetful moments. And considering that I'm older than you, I should be the one with the faulty memory, when in fact I can remember most of what happened that has led us to here. So don't worry honey, your memory is not going."
"Thanks Jason, you can always cheer me up. Were you serious when you said you could remember all that has led us to here?"

"Of course I was. I remember when we first met....."

Chapter 1: Alice is Watching

It was a normal day in the life of Jason Zanger. At least, as normal as a nine-year-old boy on his first day at a new elementary school, in a whole new town, could be. He was on the short side, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Throughout most of the morning, between getting lost a few times, and other students picking on the new kid, I finally get to homeroom class. Little did I know the pain I was going to endure, or the joys that would become of it.

"Hello Jason, glad you could join us." said Ms. Tommy as I walked through the door, late.

"Sorry, I'm still not used to the school. I get lost sometimes. It won't happen again." I replied, my face blushing a little under Ms. Tommy's admonishment.

"Make sure you do. Luckily, you have not missed the introductions. Take a seat next to Alice in the back, over there." she said pointing to my new seat.

I sat down and glanced around the room with my eyes finally settling on Alice, who was staring at me. "What are you looking at?" I asked.

"What? Oh... Uh... Nothing." Her face turns bright red and she giggles as she turns away from me towards the front of the room.

What was that about? I thought after a few moments. As I work throughout the period, I sometimes catch her watching me out of the corner of my eye. I learned her name was Alice Fieldings and she was ten years old. The staring was kind of bothering me so I decided to talk to her after class was over.

After the bell rings, everyone jumps up from their seats and rushes towards the door for recess. All except Alice. Figuring now would be a perfect time to talk to her I made my way back toward her desk and sat in a chair in front of her desk.

"Why aren't you going to recess with everyone?" I ask of her.

She sort of looks away and mumbles "'Cause I don't want to."

"Well, if you say so. I'm going out with the others." I say.

I'm walking, almost out of the door now, when I hear a sniffling sound. I turn around and Alice had tears running down her face. I was raised right by my mom so I went back to her side then waited until she looked at me and when she did, I gave her a hug and ask what's wrong.

She seems surprised at first, but then she returns my hug and buries her face in my chest. While she tries to get her sniffling under control she says, "I don't have any friends. Nobody likes me. That's why I don't go out for recess. They don't let me play with them and tell me to go somewhere else."

I could sympathize with her situation. It was my first day here in this school and the older students have been picking on me all day. So I say, "Why don't we be friends? I just moved here with my family and I don't know anybody here. So it would be nice to have a friend to play with and talk to."

A smile lights up Alice's face and she says "Really? I'd love to be your friend! I was hoping you were different from the other kids."

"Is that why you kept looking at me during class?" I asked.

She giggles as she says "Yeah, it was. Sorry if it bothered you."

"I'm Jason Zanger." I say extending my hand. "Alice Fieldings." She replies taking my hand.

Chapter 2: Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice and I head out to recess together. As we walk outside to the playground some of the older kids and kids from our class were looking at us. I kept thinking; What's their problem? But they did nothing to us so I ignored them. She moved off towards the jungle gym while I headed over the blacktop to shoot some hoops.

When the time came for us to come inside, I looked around for Alice. When I saw her she was on the ground crying and she was surrounded by three of the older students. I don't even think about these kids being almost twice my size before I yell "LEAVE HER ALONE!".

The three big kids turned around and when they saw me rushing toward them, they laughed. It was then I realized these were the kids that were picking on me earlier. It was then I got scared, but I was still worried about Alice. So defying my brain screaming to run away, I go up to them and say "You better leave her alone."

"Or what, you'll go and tell to a teacher?" "Go away half-pint, we weren't done with her yet." he jeers as he gives me a shove to the ground. What happened next still surprises me when I think about it years later.

I'm back on my feet ready to fight with my limited skills in martial arts when all of a sudden, Alice screams "You leave him alone!" then she kicks one of them right in the balls. He falls to the ground and as the other two were turned around to go after her, I gave one a swift kick to the stomach causing him to double over at which time I give a side-arm chop to the back of the neck and he goes to the ground. Alice and I share a quick glance at each other to make sure each is all right when we both turn to the third guy. He grabs his other two friends and decides to run away.

With the fight over I immediately rush to Alice's side and ask, "Alice! Are you OK? Did they hurt you?"

She shakes her head no and gives me a big hug and a kiss on the lips. Now I'm blushing like crazy. She's giggling and I ask why she did that. She replies, "It's just like in the movies, a knight in shining armor rescues a damsel in distress and the damsel gives him a kiss and they live happily ever after."

With her blushing now she says, "My rescuer deserves a kiss."

Still blushing, but laughing now, I say "I think we will be best friends forever Alice."

"Best of Friends!" said Alice.

"Now and Forever." I replied