Friends Forever

[CrazyTaraWitch]

Title: Friends Forever

Author: Jas/CrazyTaraWitch

Feedback: but of course

Setting: AU

Rating: For Part 1, PG, but we’ll have to see about later parts…

Disclaimer: These characters don’t belong to me; only the story is mine, and I’m making no money from it.

Note: I know I shouldn't be starting yet another story with so many others I've finally been working on, but what can I say, I just follow my muse...so forgive me if I become lax in my other stories.
Note 3: Will's thoughts are in <>


Part 1: Promises

Chapter 1

We had known each other all our lives, grew up next-door to each other, went to all the same schools, and spent nearly every free moment together, but on that day, November 13, 1996, it felt like our love was fresh and new and unfamiliar and confusing in all the best ways, and in those few hours, as the love I had always held in my heart transformed in a way I had never expected, my life was changed forever….


July 27, 1996

6:48 am
Willow hated the morning, but today she simply couldn’t sleep for her excitement, and all she could do was to think about anxiously await what was to come in a few, far-to-long hours.
Willow thought decisively as she got up off her bed and began pacing once again.

2:32 pm
Willow had intended to kiss her friend’s cheek; she knew that’s what she’d meant to do when she grabbed Tara into a fierce hug…and yet she couldn’t help but feel glad she’d missed. And this gladness confused her. Shouldn’t she feel embarrassed about accidentally kissing her best friend on the lips? No matter the shoulds or shouldn’ts, Willow was glad, for once in her life, that she was poorly coordinated, for even though the kiss was brief, simple, and chaste, it was one of the best moments of her life thus far… which was also confusing, and normally Willow would’ve spent hours and hours analyzing why it had caused such unfamiliar enjoyment, but at the moment she was far to focused on her best friend’s return to think about anything else for very long, so she just squeezed the girl tighter….


July 28, 1996

1:53 am
Tara had fallen asleep more than two hours ago, exhausted from her long car trip back from her father’s farm in Montana, but still Willow was wide awake.
She and Tara had always had sleepovers, usually at Tara’s or in the tree-house at Willow’s, but tonight for the first time Willow felt awkward sleeping so close to her best friend… Willow was worried by the pleasure she got from feeling the soft, billowing blonde hair on her face and neck, the smooth and wonderfully warm cheek against her shoulder, the dry hand still held in her own, fingers interlocked. It was far from the first time they had slept this way, snuggled up together, but tonight it felt different, and Willow was forced to wonder if perhaps they were getting too old for these sleepovers… but she quickly put this thought from her mind, for it was far too painful to think about. Instead, she snuggled closer to her best friend, ignoring for the time being the butterflies in the pit of her stomach and the tingling sensation throughout her body as she did so.

[Thianne]

Loving this! maybe it would be nice to read about tara's POV, also? good start, anyway

[guitar_girl]

Hey really great story update soon

[sweet_southern_sex_kitten]

hmm wow it was alot happenin at once but its a great story please do more.

[willohand]

oh i agree. I love it when we get tara`s p.o.v.
So can we get a peek into tara`s little brain as well?

[Willowlover]

I like this story alot. Please continue.

[cutiepatootie]

Great start! Can't wait for more!

[CrazyTaraWitch]

hey kittens...sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter ready, and it's not as long as I would've liked, but after a brief haitus and quite a bit of work, I'm finally updating, so I hope y'all enjoy, and know that I haven't forgotten about this story, and still have TONS more I'm gonna do with it, it's just taking awhile...anyway, hope you like, and I'd appreciate any feedback anybody feels like



Chapter 2-

July 28, 1996

8:49 am

“S-so M-momma told m-me you v-visited h-her and G-gran every d-day w-while we were g-gone.”

“Of course Tara! You know I love your family...besides, Gran McCafferty taught me this really cool spell to float objects in a different room.”

Tara couldn’t help but smile at her best friend’s excitement, but there was still a question lingering in her mind as Willow added quietly and with far less enthusiasm “Besides, with everything going on... I wanted to be there for Katherine, especially with you and Donny gone.”

“I kn-know Will, th-thank you, f-for b-b-being there...I-I j-just w-w-wish I c-could’ve b-b-been there... w-why’d she s-send us aw-way?” Tara asked as the tears she’d been holding back for more than two months, every since her mother announced that she and her older brother would be staying with their father while she went through her first round of chemo...told them that Gran could take care of her, and it would be best if they weren’t around. Tara’s mother sending her away had broken Tara’s heart; she loved her mother dearly, and wanted more than anything to be there for her as she went through one of the hardest things in her life... but her mother had wanted to protect them; Tara supposed she hadn’t realized just how poor of protection that would be, sending her to her father’s... But Tara would not think about this, ever again; it was over and she needed to forget. No matter how much pain she relived through her tears, she would never ever relive that, not for anything…no amount of tears could ever do justice...

 
Willow’s heart ached for her best friend as Tara broke-down into sobs that racked her body; she longed to reach out to the other girl, to hold her and take all her pain away, but feared that would be presumptuous…she had never had her mother send her away from her, from her home, from her life, from everything she knew and loved, to stay with a man she feared more than she knew and held no real love for…how Will presume to try to take the blonde’s pain away when she couldn’t even imagine what she was going through?
Still, she couldn’t just sit back and watch Tara fall apart, so did, for once, as Tara always told her and listened to her instincts and love instead of her fears and insecurities, reaching over and wrapping her arms around the larger girl and cradling her, wishing desperately that she knew a spell to make her own tears for Tara could wash away the pains causing the blonde’s own, but knowing that no amount magic other than love could mend her beloved friend’s soul, she simply sat holding and rocking Tara for nearly an hour as every ounce of heartache poured out of Tara as tears falling down her cheeks and into her lap, mingling with her best friend’s tears for her.

After a very long time, what seemed like both more than a lifetime and less than an instant for the young tears, the tears finally subsided...yet neither girl made any attempt to move from the cradling embrace. They continued to sit huddled together silently for several more minutes as Willow ran her hands carressingly through the soft blonde hair across her lap. Finally, both girls beginning to get a bit restless and knowing Tara needed to go home, Will leaned down and placed a feather-light kiss on Tar’s forehead and helped her sit up.

Tara could find no words to express her gratitude, but knew that Willow understood without words, just as she always had. Grabbing the other girl fiercely, Tara told Willow everything she felt but couldn’t say in a huge hug before heading out the door(heart inexplicably sinking as she did so), across the small yard that separated their houses, and into her much-beloved home...and yet it somehow felt like she’d just left her home instead of entering it.

[Willowlover]

Im really glad you posted a new update. I cant wait to read more.

[willohand]

I havent forgotten this little beauty. YES! I loved this update. More please

[CrazyTaraWitch]

wow, i can't believe it's been nearly two months since i've updated this fic!!!!!! school ruins everything:(
anyway, i have a ridiculously teeninesy part to put up tonight that i actually wrote weeks ago, but i'd been planning to post this entire chapter in whole, so i was waiting till i finished...except i realized a few minutes ago that this chapter is set on November 6th, so it seemed only right to post part of the chapter today, so here it is.
oh, and before i forget, thanks SOOOOO much to Willowlover and Shawnie for leaving feedback; it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside



Chapter 3-
November 6, 1996
4:37pm

“So wh-where are we going?” Tara asked Will slightly nervously.
“I told you Tar, it’s a surprise! It wouldn’t be a very good surprise if I told you, now would it? And once surprises aren’t surprises, what’s next? I mean, anything could happen if you just let one little thing--” The redhead was cut off by the smooth, liltilling sound of laughter coming from beside her and filling her heart with more love than it seemed possible to feel... It was an all too rare sound these days, with everything going on with Tara’s mom and the pain it was causing the blonde, seeming to eclipse all other feeling most times. Willow savoured the sound for a moment, committing the laugh to memory as she had done so many times before... A part of her knew that most best friends didn’t do this, but it always felt so natural to memorize every lovely, wonderous detail of the other girl... She supposed that perhaps it wasn’t so strange after all; she and Tara were best friends like no others she knew, and for as long as she could remember Tara had been the most important person in her life... Tara was like everything to her, all wrapped up in one: a mother always protecting her; a daughter she wanted to protect more than anything; a sister who had always been there and always would be; most of all, the person dearest to her heart. Willow couldn’t imagine not loving Tara, and no matter how much she told herself (or her parents or anyone else told her) otherwise, wanting to remember and cherish every detail of the other girl’s being felt like the most natural thing in the world.
“S-so if you w-won’t tell me where were we’re g-going, how will I kn-know what to wear?” Tara asked playfully, hoping to catch her friend off guard with something she hadn’t accounted for.
“Tara, this is my best friend’s 16th birthday! I am fully and completely prepared,” the redhead said in a rare moment of confidence. “Nothing is going to get in the way of tonight’s specialness.” She asserted, before squeezing Tar’s hand that she held in her own and adding more quietly, “you deserve a special night, especially right now.”
Tara was touched by the tenderness in the other girl’s voice, and decided to let the issue drop; if Willow wanted to surprise her, Tara would not try to interfere, because she knew that Willow needed to see her happy atleast as much as she herself needed to be happy.

The teenagers had been silent for several minutes when they turned onto their street and approached their houses.
“Do you w -wanna come in?” Tara asked hopefully, not ready to say good-bye to Willow. In years past, Willow had gone over to Tara’s nearly everyday after school, staying for hours to do homework, eat dinner with the blonde’s family, and just hang out with her best friend. In the last month or so, though, the redhead had been dissapearing after school more and more frequently, claiming only that she had “stuff to do,” dissapointing her friend on a nearly daily basis. Tara was hoping that, as it was the day before her birthday and the day they had chosen to celebrate, Willow would oblige her, and, just once, act like the best friends they’d always, until so recently it still didn’t seem real, been; however, Tara was let down yet again, as she’d been so often in the months past, ever since everything had begun to change, first with her mother, then Willow, and even Tara herself.
Willow sighed, seeming, as always, reluctant to go, but still the red-head said determinedly, “No, tonight is your honorary birthday, I want it to be perfect.”
As she watched the slim figure walk away over the familiar path that led between their houses, Tara supposed that her best friend didn’t realize that all she needed for any night to be perfect was the two of them together.

[willohand]

ohgod...the toture the toture

[willohand]

alrighty where is the next updates missy? I can only take so much of not getting my dose of this fic of yours. Uhhh where are you? Have you forgotten about this one?

[musicmad10]

hi,
This ic is so sweet, I can't wait to see what happens next. Please Update!!
Hannah

[CrazyTaraWitch]

hey kittens, no update yet, I just wanted to thank everyone for their interest in this story and appologize profusely for my atrocious lack of updatage...I have been quite stumped with the second-half of Tara's birthday chapter, and have been ridiculously busy, but now that I'm on break and Christmas and visiting my dad are over with, I'll hopefully manage to get a post of two out before the new semester starts. So anyway, I just wanted to let any kittens who still remained interested in my too-long-unupdated fic that it most certainly is *not* forgotten, and that updatage should hopefully come very soon.

[willohand]

oh its a new year and still no update to this. . I am still trying to be not a pain in your ass about updates. Its getting hard to not jumping opnline everyday yo beg ya but all in good time right? So an update soon?

[Ariel]

Jas,

I love this so much!

Have to join my tears with the poster above me!

Anyway, sweet moment and I was glad to get to read it.

Ariel
How I Met Your Mother