"Your friends don’t like me, Ash,” Spencer whines as she plops down on my bed. Her tone is sad, and I sigh before setting my magazine down and taking a seat next to her on my bed. “No way, they love you!” I try to assure her, even though I know it’s not exactly true. I watch as she immediately shoots up, causing me to flinch a little. “Bullshit,” she says with a frown. How does she always know when I’m lying? “How do you that?” I ask in astonishment. She just shrugs and falls back into the bed to bury her face in my pillow. For some reason, this girl has learned to read me like a book. We’ve been best friends ever since she moved here from Ohio about four years ago. Her dad is a big-time lawyer and he moved his family out to California to start a law firm with one of his old college buddies. I guess it’s appropriate that he be a lawyer, Spencer always tells me how he loves to yell and argue with her mom, why not make a profession out of it?

“Ashley, I’m serious,” She says as she pulls me down into the bed to look at her. I stare into her sad blue eyes and sigh. I hate seeing her like this. “Spencer, you’re my best friend. You mean more to me than all of them combined,” I say sincerely. “I know, I know. But come on, Ash, you’re starting high school next month. You’re not going to want to hang out with boring old me anymore,” she says lamely. “Hey,” I whisper as I lift her chin to look at me. “Spence, we’ve been over this a million times. So what if I’m going to high school and you’re still in eighth grade. We’re best friends. Nothing can change that. Nothing.” She nods slowly and I take her into my arms for a tight hug. She snuggles closer to me and I lay a small kiss on her forehead. “You want to watch Aladdin again?” I ask her hopefully. I feel her smile and pull away from her to see her face. “Thanks, Ash,” She says shyly, making me laugh. “For what, Spence?” She looks up at me and smiles. “For always taking care of me.” I give her one of my best nose crinkling smiles and grab her hand. “Anytime, Spence.” I sit up and grab both of her hands before pulling her off of the bed and leading her down stairs to the living room.