steve108
05-27-2008, 03:27 PM
They say that you will “never forget your first love,” and I am sure that is true. But at the time I lost my first love, (if that wasn’t heart wrenching enough) I also lost my best friend of five years, Josh, two days before my 14th birthday.
Now he didn’t die or anything, but in my heart, I wouldn’t have minded that all if he did.
It was September 15, 2007 and I was off to meet Josh at the school’s fall festival. I was in 8th grade. I loved the festival. I had been going to this same festival every year for every year of my elementary and middle school life. They were always great. I loved the rides and games but I knew the real reason it was so fun, and that was hanging out with my friends. It was friends that made school remotely fun and when you had the chance to hang out with all of them at the same time it was even greater.
I never really met anyone knew though at these events though, but this time I did. I saw a girl from across the field. She was beautiful. I wasn’t really sure if I had the courage to go and talk to her or not. I decided I did and before I even knew what I was doing I was walking over to her and saying hi! I couldn’t believe it. I was usually more hesitant and nervous to talk to a girl like that. I said hi and she said hi and then we talked for a little while.
Then we started hanging out. She introduced me to some of her friends. I had seen these people around school but I haven’t ever really met or talked to them before. I kind of just talked to people in my own circle. I think it was good to meet new people, especially at the beginning of the year which it was. I could say that I kind of ignored Josh a little that day, which was wrong because we have such a long, in depth past together.
I met Josh in 4th grade and he has been my best friend for the past 5 years about ever since then except for the nine months we didn’t see each other because of a girl.
In about 7th grade we both played on our school’s tennis team together. Those were fun times. Everyone on the team was friends because we were a team and we had to work together to win our matches. I spent most of my time at the tennis matches then though hanging out with Josh.
We were so close and so were our families so my family felt comfortable when Josh’s family invited me to go on a trip with them to Hilton Head, South Carolina for a week. It was a great week and I still vividly remember it to this day. We spent almost every waking hour together just hanging out and doing school stuff and spending a lot of time on the beach. We spent a ton of time on the beach because the house we got up in nice, great old Hilton Head had the beach right behind it. It was incredibly close. I remember mentioning to Josh, “This is amazing.” Other than that I was pretty much speechless to the view. The beach was right there. This made the view amazing. It was probably one of the best vacations I have ever gone on.
A couple of years later both Josh’s and my family decided to go on a Royal Caribbean seven day cruise together. We sailed into the beautiful Caribbean for seven really fun days. Like the Hilton Head trip, we spent every waking moment together as usual. We talked about a ton of stuff too like teachers and friends and we usually ended up talking about certain people and saying stuff like, “Can you believe Mr. Gilbert did that?” This really made our ties as friends even stronger.
During the summer we would spend the night at each others houses. These nights consisted of soda, video games, movies and other fun stuff. This was just like our hang out time together and it was all night. We learned that their was always something on TV, whether it was incredibly boring or not. Sometimes we didn’t end up going to sleep until like 4 am, or at all. To see if the other one was asleep yet or not at 4 am we would just whisper, “Dude are you awake, if not get up, it’s only 4 am. It was great, great times.
At our school we played in the band together. Throughout the years I always played the clarinet but he switched from the clarinet to the drums because he didn’t like the clarinet and always faked playing it. Then when he didn’t like the drums either he just transferred out of band altogether.
I stayed in it up until I went to high school. That’s when I dropped out and started playing the guitar. I’m still playing the guitar now. I first got my acoustic guitar. It was great but I guess it just wasn’t enough excitement for me. I still play it but then the electric guitar caught my eye. I got one for Christmas and fell in love with it and its awesome sound. I thought, “This is the most awesome present ever.” And I still have to agree that it is the most awesome gift ever. That was one of the best Christmases ever.
At the point of the fall festival of eighth grade we were extremely close friends and we were extremely close. Although throughout the year we grew even closer, but by the end of the year we were as far from friends as we could have ever thought. It was to the point of even being enemies. Neither of us thought it would have been possible but it all truly began at the fall festival, even though at that point we didn’t think anything could affect our friendship. Apparently something could, a girl.
In eighth grade we basically formed a group of specific guys and girls that we just started hanging out with the most. I guess you could call it a sort of a click.
Now if we were to look into the future and see my relationship with Heather you might find it interesting to hear a lot less about Josh. Instead you would hear much more about Heather.
The first thing noticed about her when I first saw her was her long brunette hair. I thought it was extraordinarily beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
Her dad is a car trader/seller so he has a lot of expensive cars at his house such as the Lamborghini. There was the time I got a ride in the Bentley which was really cool and exciting. There house was very nice, with a pool and a sort of large basement.
When I went over there I guess you could say that I didn’t necessarily get good vibes from her parents. It didn’t really seem like they liked me at all. I guess that is understandable though. Isn’t that how it always it unfortunately? I tried talking her dad of course one time. Her dad asked me, “How are you?”
I responded with, “fine.” That’s pretty much the only conversation I ever had with the guy. He didn’t seem or want to talk too much, at least to me. That was fine with me though as long as I got to spend time with Heather at her awesome and incredible house.
The first day I met her was unforgettable. It was amazing. Meeting her was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my opinion.
One month after we met we went to a church event for her church. It was a hayride and a bonfire. It was sort of our first like official date, if it was a date. I decided to get her a gift. At this point I was really into her. I got her a heart shaped necklace. I got it the night before and I couldn’t wait to give it to her. All night I was so anxious to give it to her. I could barely sleep. Then the night of the event we got on the hayride. I took her hand in mine and said, “Heather, the past month has been nothing but joy to me.” I handed her the box with the necklace in it and she opened it. Her face lit up as she saw it. She put it on and didn’t take it off for seven months.
Then there was the week where we had to be apart for a week. Our relationship was getting so serious that we couldn’t even stand being away from each other for a whole week. She was going on a mission trip with our school to Mexico. We had to say our goodbyes. It wasn’t easy for us to do. Up until this point, a few months after I met Heather, I hadn’t been spending as much time with Josh obviously, because I had been spending much more time with Heather. That week I spent so much time with Josh. Every day was like it was before I met Heather. It was a lot of fun. I spent the night at Josh’s the night that Heather returned. We were outside and we left our phones inside. When we returned inside we saw at least four missed calls on both of our phones. Can you guess who was trying to get a hold of us? That’s right, Heather. It was fun being away from her while it lasted. Although, I was really happy that she had finally returned. Even though it was only a week, it felt like an eternity.
Christmas was probably the high point or the climax for Heather and my relationship. She spent days making me a quilt. It had the day we met and our names sewed on it. I looked at it and read: Stephen + Heather. It was beautiful. I said, “Thank you, it’s absolutely amazing.”
She simply responded with, “Anything for you Stephen.”
I smiled and said, “Thanks Heather.” And she smiled back.
Obviously, the point is, I had an extremely strong and close relationship with both Josh and Heather. They were also close too. They had some classes together and I didn’t have any with Heather. So this means that they got a lot of time to talk to each other and spent a lot of time with each other. I wonder now if that had anything to do with what happened later in the year.
Josh invited me to a birthday party at his house with him and a lot of his family. None of our friends were there. It was more of just like a family party/get together. I met his cousin there, Megan. She seemed very nice. She was a freshman so it was kind of weird and cool at the same time hanging out with someone from high school. We got along really well and then at the end of the night she asked me if I wanted to go to a dance with her at her school. It would just be as friends and she needed someone to go with. Another thing was that Josh would be going to with one of Megan’s friends. I talked to Heather and she said it was okay even though I could see her reluctancy to say yes in her eyes. “If you really want to go, and Josh is going as well, then I guess I don’t see why not,” she said.
I said, “Thanks Heather, it’s just gonna be a bunch of friends getting together and hanging out, nothing to worry about.”
I couldn’t believe that she was cool with this. So I went and it was a great time.
Then a few pleasant weeks went by and Heather knew I was still in contact with Megan, texting a little and chatting on line a tad. We didn’t really talk all that much, we were just friends…that only see each other like every 3 months. Heather told me, “You’re done, finished talking to her. I don’t want you talking to her Stephen.”
I responded with, “oh c’mon it’s nothing I swear, I jus,” then she cut me off.
“No you’re done,” she said quickly and walked away from our present location.
I had to take a risk and tell Megan that I couldn’t talk to her anymore. It would just be a two second conversation on line telling her that I couldn’t speak to her anymore. Unfortunately the two second conversation turned into a ten minute conversation. At ten minutes though, I said, “Hey Megan listen I’m sorry, but Heather doesn’t want me talking to you, I have to go.”
She said, “Why do you have to listen to her anyways?”
I came back quickly with, “Because I love her.” Then I closed the chat window on my computer.
Later I got a call. It was Heather she wanted to meet at my house. I was already at my house so I just said, “come on over.”
She came over and we both sat down on the couch together. She looked sad, maybe like she had been crying. She said, “You are the worst boyfriend ever.” She handed me a paper. It was a printed out version of my conversation with Megan with the part where I said I had to go at the end cut out, along with the “Because I love her” part.
I said, “Heather no you don’t understand I was just saying goodbye.”
She spoke softly, “Well I hope you didn’t say goodbye to her because then you would have no one. She reached out her hand and took mine. She opened it and placed the heart necklace I gave her after the first month of us meeting in my hand. She said, “I’m sorry I really am,” and started to walk away.
I asked simply, “How’d you get it, the chat?”
She turned and said, “Josh. And just so things aren’t awkward on Monday at school, me and Josh are...together now.”
“Wha- what do you mean?” I asked.
“Bye, I loved you,” she said and then she turned again and left.
Later that night I asked Josh why he did it. He couldn’t come back with any reason why and just stopped talking to me.
A Few Weeks Later
Then on the last day of school, the graduation dance was to occur. I got ready but I was reluctant to go. It would be Josh and Heather’s first dance as a couple. Heather and I had gone to every single dance together this year up until now. I continued to wonder why not just ruining my relationship with Heather was enough, but that he also had to date her. Well I guess he had to ruin and sabotage our relationship to gain her for himself. I saw them dance that night and it was the worst thing I have ever seen. I felt horrible that night. Worse than any time I had ever had a fight with Heather or something bad like that. I tried to brush it off but I knew it would haunt me forever.
I barely spoke to Josh that summer. He usually texted me bad things and stuff like that just to insult me.
Then when school began and I was at my new school, and Josh and Heather were at their same, old school, I got a text. It was from one of my old friends in our old circle of friends. It said: “Josh and Heather broke up.”
After I got that text, Josh thoroughly apologized and I could tell that it was sincere. Eventually we hung out a little more. I was very hesitant to become his friend again but I gave in. we missed each other and I couldn’t resist having all those good times back.
Five years later
So now five years later in college Josh and I are better friends than ever. Nothing could ever break us up again, especially a girl. We are much more mature now. In fact, Heather is our friend again too. Nothing more than that to either of us, just a friend, which is good enough for both of us. It turns out she really is a good friend, but neither of us actually belongs with her. So in the end, everything turned out fine, which is surprising. I can’t imagine how things will be in five, ten years or the rest of our lives, if we will all still be friends. I guess I will just have to wait and find out. At the moment though, I am very happy with how everything turned out and I am very happy with my life because I have a great, great life.
Now he didn’t die or anything, but in my heart, I wouldn’t have minded that all if he did.
It was September 15, 2007 and I was off to meet Josh at the school’s fall festival. I was in 8th grade. I loved the festival. I had been going to this same festival every year for every year of my elementary and middle school life. They were always great. I loved the rides and games but I knew the real reason it was so fun, and that was hanging out with my friends. It was friends that made school remotely fun and when you had the chance to hang out with all of them at the same time it was even greater.
I never really met anyone knew though at these events though, but this time I did. I saw a girl from across the field. She was beautiful. I wasn’t really sure if I had the courage to go and talk to her or not. I decided I did and before I even knew what I was doing I was walking over to her and saying hi! I couldn’t believe it. I was usually more hesitant and nervous to talk to a girl like that. I said hi and she said hi and then we talked for a little while.
Then we started hanging out. She introduced me to some of her friends. I had seen these people around school but I haven’t ever really met or talked to them before. I kind of just talked to people in my own circle. I think it was good to meet new people, especially at the beginning of the year which it was. I could say that I kind of ignored Josh a little that day, which was wrong because we have such a long, in depth past together.
I met Josh in 4th grade and he has been my best friend for the past 5 years about ever since then except for the nine months we didn’t see each other because of a girl.
In about 7th grade we both played on our school’s tennis team together. Those were fun times. Everyone on the team was friends because we were a team and we had to work together to win our matches. I spent most of my time at the tennis matches then though hanging out with Josh.
We were so close and so were our families so my family felt comfortable when Josh’s family invited me to go on a trip with them to Hilton Head, South Carolina for a week. It was a great week and I still vividly remember it to this day. We spent almost every waking hour together just hanging out and doing school stuff and spending a lot of time on the beach. We spent a ton of time on the beach because the house we got up in nice, great old Hilton Head had the beach right behind it. It was incredibly close. I remember mentioning to Josh, “This is amazing.” Other than that I was pretty much speechless to the view. The beach was right there. This made the view amazing. It was probably one of the best vacations I have ever gone on.
A couple of years later both Josh’s and my family decided to go on a Royal Caribbean seven day cruise together. We sailed into the beautiful Caribbean for seven really fun days. Like the Hilton Head trip, we spent every waking moment together as usual. We talked about a ton of stuff too like teachers and friends and we usually ended up talking about certain people and saying stuff like, “Can you believe Mr. Gilbert did that?” This really made our ties as friends even stronger.
During the summer we would spend the night at each others houses. These nights consisted of soda, video games, movies and other fun stuff. This was just like our hang out time together and it was all night. We learned that their was always something on TV, whether it was incredibly boring or not. Sometimes we didn’t end up going to sleep until like 4 am, or at all. To see if the other one was asleep yet or not at 4 am we would just whisper, “Dude are you awake, if not get up, it’s only 4 am. It was great, great times.
At our school we played in the band together. Throughout the years I always played the clarinet but he switched from the clarinet to the drums because he didn’t like the clarinet and always faked playing it. Then when he didn’t like the drums either he just transferred out of band altogether.
I stayed in it up until I went to high school. That’s when I dropped out and started playing the guitar. I’m still playing the guitar now. I first got my acoustic guitar. It was great but I guess it just wasn’t enough excitement for me. I still play it but then the electric guitar caught my eye. I got one for Christmas and fell in love with it and its awesome sound. I thought, “This is the most awesome present ever.” And I still have to agree that it is the most awesome gift ever. That was one of the best Christmases ever.
At the point of the fall festival of eighth grade we were extremely close friends and we were extremely close. Although throughout the year we grew even closer, but by the end of the year we were as far from friends as we could have ever thought. It was to the point of even being enemies. Neither of us thought it would have been possible but it all truly began at the fall festival, even though at that point we didn’t think anything could affect our friendship. Apparently something could, a girl.
In eighth grade we basically formed a group of specific guys and girls that we just started hanging out with the most. I guess you could call it a sort of a click.
Now if we were to look into the future and see my relationship with Heather you might find it interesting to hear a lot less about Josh. Instead you would hear much more about Heather.
The first thing noticed about her when I first saw her was her long brunette hair. I thought it was extraordinarily beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
Her dad is a car trader/seller so he has a lot of expensive cars at his house such as the Lamborghini. There was the time I got a ride in the Bentley which was really cool and exciting. There house was very nice, with a pool and a sort of large basement.
When I went over there I guess you could say that I didn’t necessarily get good vibes from her parents. It didn’t really seem like they liked me at all. I guess that is understandable though. Isn’t that how it always it unfortunately? I tried talking her dad of course one time. Her dad asked me, “How are you?”
I responded with, “fine.” That’s pretty much the only conversation I ever had with the guy. He didn’t seem or want to talk too much, at least to me. That was fine with me though as long as I got to spend time with Heather at her awesome and incredible house.
The first day I met her was unforgettable. It was amazing. Meeting her was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my opinion.
One month after we met we went to a church event for her church. It was a hayride and a bonfire. It was sort of our first like official date, if it was a date. I decided to get her a gift. At this point I was really into her. I got her a heart shaped necklace. I got it the night before and I couldn’t wait to give it to her. All night I was so anxious to give it to her. I could barely sleep. Then the night of the event we got on the hayride. I took her hand in mine and said, “Heather, the past month has been nothing but joy to me.” I handed her the box with the necklace in it and she opened it. Her face lit up as she saw it. She put it on and didn’t take it off for seven months.
Then there was the week where we had to be apart for a week. Our relationship was getting so serious that we couldn’t even stand being away from each other for a whole week. She was going on a mission trip with our school to Mexico. We had to say our goodbyes. It wasn’t easy for us to do. Up until this point, a few months after I met Heather, I hadn’t been spending as much time with Josh obviously, because I had been spending much more time with Heather. That week I spent so much time with Josh. Every day was like it was before I met Heather. It was a lot of fun. I spent the night at Josh’s the night that Heather returned. We were outside and we left our phones inside. When we returned inside we saw at least four missed calls on both of our phones. Can you guess who was trying to get a hold of us? That’s right, Heather. It was fun being away from her while it lasted. Although, I was really happy that she had finally returned. Even though it was only a week, it felt like an eternity.
Christmas was probably the high point or the climax for Heather and my relationship. She spent days making me a quilt. It had the day we met and our names sewed on it. I looked at it and read: Stephen + Heather. It was beautiful. I said, “Thank you, it’s absolutely amazing.”
She simply responded with, “Anything for you Stephen.”
I smiled and said, “Thanks Heather.” And she smiled back.
Obviously, the point is, I had an extremely strong and close relationship with both Josh and Heather. They were also close too. They had some classes together and I didn’t have any with Heather. So this means that they got a lot of time to talk to each other and spent a lot of time with each other. I wonder now if that had anything to do with what happened later in the year.
Josh invited me to a birthday party at his house with him and a lot of his family. None of our friends were there. It was more of just like a family party/get together. I met his cousin there, Megan. She seemed very nice. She was a freshman so it was kind of weird and cool at the same time hanging out with someone from high school. We got along really well and then at the end of the night she asked me if I wanted to go to a dance with her at her school. It would just be as friends and she needed someone to go with. Another thing was that Josh would be going to with one of Megan’s friends. I talked to Heather and she said it was okay even though I could see her reluctancy to say yes in her eyes. “If you really want to go, and Josh is going as well, then I guess I don’t see why not,” she said.
I said, “Thanks Heather, it’s just gonna be a bunch of friends getting together and hanging out, nothing to worry about.”
I couldn’t believe that she was cool with this. So I went and it was a great time.
Then a few pleasant weeks went by and Heather knew I was still in contact with Megan, texting a little and chatting on line a tad. We didn’t really talk all that much, we were just friends…that only see each other like every 3 months. Heather told me, “You’re done, finished talking to her. I don’t want you talking to her Stephen.”
I responded with, “oh c’mon it’s nothing I swear, I jus,” then she cut me off.
“No you’re done,” she said quickly and walked away from our present location.
I had to take a risk and tell Megan that I couldn’t talk to her anymore. It would just be a two second conversation on line telling her that I couldn’t speak to her anymore. Unfortunately the two second conversation turned into a ten minute conversation. At ten minutes though, I said, “Hey Megan listen I’m sorry, but Heather doesn’t want me talking to you, I have to go.”
She said, “Why do you have to listen to her anyways?”
I came back quickly with, “Because I love her.” Then I closed the chat window on my computer.
Later I got a call. It was Heather she wanted to meet at my house. I was already at my house so I just said, “come on over.”
She came over and we both sat down on the couch together. She looked sad, maybe like she had been crying. She said, “You are the worst boyfriend ever.” She handed me a paper. It was a printed out version of my conversation with Megan with the part where I said I had to go at the end cut out, along with the “Because I love her” part.
I said, “Heather no you don’t understand I was just saying goodbye.”
She spoke softly, “Well I hope you didn’t say goodbye to her because then you would have no one. She reached out her hand and took mine. She opened it and placed the heart necklace I gave her after the first month of us meeting in my hand. She said, “I’m sorry I really am,” and started to walk away.
I asked simply, “How’d you get it, the chat?”
She turned and said, “Josh. And just so things aren’t awkward on Monday at school, me and Josh are...together now.”
“Wha- what do you mean?” I asked.
“Bye, I loved you,” she said and then she turned again and left.
Later that night I asked Josh why he did it. He couldn’t come back with any reason why and just stopped talking to me.
A Few Weeks Later
Then on the last day of school, the graduation dance was to occur. I got ready but I was reluctant to go. It would be Josh and Heather’s first dance as a couple. Heather and I had gone to every single dance together this year up until now. I continued to wonder why not just ruining my relationship with Heather was enough, but that he also had to date her. Well I guess he had to ruin and sabotage our relationship to gain her for himself. I saw them dance that night and it was the worst thing I have ever seen. I felt horrible that night. Worse than any time I had ever had a fight with Heather or something bad like that. I tried to brush it off but I knew it would haunt me forever.
I barely spoke to Josh that summer. He usually texted me bad things and stuff like that just to insult me.
Then when school began and I was at my new school, and Josh and Heather were at their same, old school, I got a text. It was from one of my old friends in our old circle of friends. It said: “Josh and Heather broke up.”
After I got that text, Josh thoroughly apologized and I could tell that it was sincere. Eventually we hung out a little more. I was very hesitant to become his friend again but I gave in. we missed each other and I couldn’t resist having all those good times back.
Five years later
So now five years later in college Josh and I are better friends than ever. Nothing could ever break us up again, especially a girl. We are much more mature now. In fact, Heather is our friend again too. Nothing more than that to either of us, just a friend, which is good enough for both of us. It turns out she really is a good friend, but neither of us actually belongs with her. So in the end, everything turned out fine, which is surprising. I can’t imagine how things will be in five, ten years or the rest of our lives, if we will all still be friends. I guess I will just have to wait and find out. At the moment though, I am very happy with how everything turned out and I am very happy with my life because I have a great, great life.