The Boy From 30 Years Ago

Once upon a time (nearly 30 years ago), a girl met a boy.


She was the sort who embraced convention, while secretly longing to step out of the box. He was the sort who quietly kicked the box aside and did his own thing. She liked him. A lot. He liked her. A lot. They spent time together. A lot of time.

Eventually they turned awkward flirting (which consisted mainly of her messing up his carefully spiked hair and him pretending to be annoyed by it) into a sweet romance. With kissing. A lot of kissing.

Over time, their feelings for one another deepened. The flirting and the romance turned into love.

First love.

But neither the girl nor the boy was very good at actually saying how they felt. Or understanding how they felt. They were young. Their hearts were both strong and terribly fragile at once… their egos and confidence even more fragile than their hearts.

But still, they loved each other.

Until the girl made a mistake. A terrible mistake. Her ego got too big and too loud and it couldn’t hear what the boy's heart was saying... or what her own heart was saying.

And she broke them.

She broke their love. She damaged it beyond repair. And when she tried to fix it, she couldn’t. The boy was hurt and sad and angry and proud… and he pushed her away.

And it was over.

They were over.

She didn’t know it, but he still thought of her.

He didn’t know it, but she still thought of him.

But it was over.

And they went on with their lives. They fell in love again, with other people. They lived -- in new places, with spouses and children, with happiness and hurt, with endings and new beginnings.

And every now and then, they thought of one another.

Then? A long time later, they reconnected through the magic of the Interwebs.

The girl was so happy to find out that the boy’s life was good. She was thrilled to see he’d achieved the happiness he so deserved. And they traveled down Memory Lane and laughed about old times.

Then they went their separate ways again, this time knowing there was a thread tying them together… and this thread had always been there, even if they hadn’t known it... and this thread would always be there.

 

And there was great comfort in knowing it was there.

And then? Something happened to the girl and she needed support… and the boy was there, the thread pulling them back together. His words soothed her spirit and made her forget, if even for a moment, that anything was wrong. He made her remember why she’d loved him so many years ago…

 

And he made her love him all over again.

But this love? This love is different...

With this love, there is no ego… no awkwardness…


There is no romance... no flirting...

With this love, there is just heart.


Just friendship.

And the knowledge that time can make whole what was once broken.