47 Good Old Friends

The three of them had seated together in their next class together, with Emily in between them. Aiden and Cyril hardly talked after that but Emily did not nudge them further. They had agreed to clear their differences and it was good enough for the first step. \"How's you archery going?\" Cyril turned towards her and asked. Emily laughed embarrassingly, \"Ehhh... I haven't practiced in a while.\" Cyril chortled, \"Hahaha. What's there to be embarrassed about. Let's have a match in our games class.\" He then turned towards Aiden, smirking. Aiden rolled his eyes, revealing a hint of smile. \"Alright, whatever.\"

Still as competitive as he used to be when I met him the first time in school, Aiden thought, missing those old days, when the two had first met, in third grade.

~Start of Aiden's flashback~

\"Everyone, please welcome your new class fellow, Cyril. He has come from the United Kingdom. Take good care of him.\" The teacher announced as a shy boy entered the class, gazing towards his feet, not daring to make eye contact with anyone. \"Hello. I'm Cyril. I hope we can be good friends.\" He mumbled, still looking at his feet.

\"Hello! Nice to meet you!\" \"You're so cute!\" \"Let's be friends!\" \"Hey, how are you?\" \"We'll take good care of you!\" Everyone started cheering and complimenting him. Cyril turned crimson red as he smiled faintly, not moving his gaze from his shoes. Among all these shouts, one person in particular was shouting the loudest.

\"Me, me, me!!! Sit with MEEE!!!\"

\"Alright, alright, Aiden. Calm down! Cyril, dear, go and sit with Aiden over there. At last, Cyril looked up at the class and saw a kid waving his hands like a mad man. \"Yup, that's Aiden.\" The teacher laughed as Cyril dragged his feet towards the empty seat with Aiden. He did not make eye contact with him and quickly took out his book and started turning the pages to find something he could read before the lecture started.

A small hand appeared in front of Cyril's eyes. \"Huh?\" He turned around to look at Aiden, who had been lifting his hand in mid-air for a handshake. \"Nice to meet you, buddy!\" Aiden was beaming like a sun, his cute white teeth could be seen behind his wide smile. Cyril's heart felt warm, he felt so comfortable around him.

He shook his hand with Aiden's. They started to talk with each other. Aiden was a cheery and confident kid and would bring out interesting topics to talk about. Cyril on the other hand, was really shy. He preferred listening to others rather than speaking himself. Occasionally, he would quietly give a short reply and giggle cutely.

The two of them developed a deep and close bond over the years and were best friends. Aiden even introduced him to his other best friends, Henry and Cooper. These four kids were practically inseparable and also quite mischievous. Cyril had gotten a lot more confident over the years as compared to when Aiden had first met him.

Knowing each other more and more day by day, they learned that both of them had keen interest in sports and were also very good in studies. They were the most famous duo of the school - exceptional in sports, studies and looks. Aiden, Cyril and the rest would have friendly matches among themselves in games.

Cyril was the one who liked to have a competition the most and his friends did not mind either, instead they would enjoy his ambitious nature.

However... This started to change as they entered tenth grade.

Henry dropped out of school to be home schooled. Cooper's grade were deteriorating and his parents had instructed the teachers to give him extra lessons. So then, he would spend his breaks in the library with his teacher, studying. This meant only Aiden and Cyril were left by themselves during their breaks.

Cyril, however, had been getting absent more frequently and Aiden would rarely see him. Whenever Aiden would get the chance he would try to ask about what is bothering him, but Cyril would divert the topic or just keep quiet and avoid him.

One day, before their final examinations were going to start, Aiden sat next to Cyril, who was in the corner of the small ground in their school, busy pulling out grass and asked as politely as possible, \"Cyril..? Is everything alright? You seem to be quite stressed out lately. Do you want to share anything with me?\" \"Please just leave me alone for a while. Why on earth are you so clingy! Do you know anything about personal space?!\" Cyril shouted at Aiden and stormed off.

Aiden sat there, at the same place, for the entire day. Thinking about where he had gone wrong. Was he really clingy? He was just trying to care for him, who knew Cyril would just yell at him for caring about him. He had totally changed. He was not his shy and quiet self as he used to be back in third grade.

Aiden started regretting asking him about his feelings. Why should he care about him? Anger started to build up in his heart and he made up his mind to never talk to him again.