Esther walked down the street in a cheerful mood. She had finally persuaded her parents to let her stay over for the holidays. And what a holiday it was! Sligo was certainly the place to be if you wanted to amuse yourself! She figured that, if she could live wherever she wanted, Sligo would be it.

Singing she opened the door and went inside the house. Although she had only stayed with Kian and his family for three weeks she already thought of them as family. Well, very good friends. Deep down all she wanted to become was family, but before she could be that she had to persuade Kian that she was worth it. And that seemed to be the problem a bit. He only seemed to think of her as a good friend. But nothing else...

"Ki, I'm back! I've got something for ya!" Strange, he was supposed to be home. To surprise him she had bought him a teddy bear. Nothing fancy, just a small panda 'cause he liked it so much when he saw it in the shop the day before. She went up to see if he was in his room. The door was closed. Just as she was about to open it she could hear a soft sobbing.

"Kian?" She just went inside. There he was, lying face down on his bed. She had never seen him cry before and now as she heard the soft crying she could feel her heart breaking. "Hey Ki, what’s wrong? What is it?" She sat down beside him on the bed and started to caress his back gently. "Hey... Come on now, tell me..." He turned round and looked at her. His eyes were all red. Esther could just freeze there. If Kian was sad then so was she.

He hugged her and cried on gently. "It's nothing I just... I went to see the doctor about that thing..." Esther remembered. A few weeks earlier he had to have a strange bobble removed from his lungs. "I thought everything was okay with that. What did he say?" Kian sighed. "I have to go to see him first thing tomorrow morning. He said it was important."

Esther turned away. She didn't want to hear that. The exact same words that she had heard two years earlier, when her brother’s best friend had to go... "Do you think..." She looked at him again. Poor Kian, he was so nervous about it... "Don't worry Ki, it's nothing probably."

She really wanted to believe that. Of course there was nothing wrong. Just routine... "I'm a little scared..." She hugged him tight. "I'll go with you okay? So you don't have to go alone." His face lit up a bit. "Thank you. I wanted to ask but I didn't know how to." He smiled at her, that beautiful smile that made her feel as if she was flying. She looked at him. Maybe...

"Can I give you a kiss to thank you?" "Of course you can! More, you have to!" Kian leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Every time he gave her a kiss she hoped for something special. But that kiss didn't seem to come. "Come on and see, I almost forgot! I have something for you downstairs!" She rushed out of the room down the stairs, leaving Kian with one single thought in his mind. 'I love her so much, how can I ever let her know?'