Life As It Is Pt. 02

Lisa put her arm around me, Allie put her hand on my shoulder and said, "It's ok...if it means anything at all to you, we forgive you. Go ahead, finish."

It was then that I realized all three of us were crying because we knew what came next. I took a deep breath and continued, "Then I met this other girl, Lauren. You know her. I don't know what it was about her, I don't think it was anything other than the fact that she kept asking me if I really wanted to spend my life with only one person, if I was alright with never knowing what it would be like to kiss another person. And I did and was. I couldn't ever see myself with anyone else. To this day, I couldn't tell you why I left her standing there to go with Lauren. It broke my heart to see her standing there in the rain on her mom's front porch. She didn't cry, though, not until we started to drive off. I watched her the whole way down the street. Watched her stand tall and proud with no tears until the car pulled away from the curb, then I watched her collapse onto her knees crying because I had just broken her heart. I cried all the way to Houston and for the entire first month that we were there." I was sobbing uncontrollably now, "I don't know why I stayed away for so long. I suppose that I was afraid to come home. I left exactly five years ago, today. I think part of me came in here looking for her."

Logan was crying too, but because she realized who I was talking about, "Have you seen her yet?"

I shook my head no.

It was about then that someone standing behind us all spoke up. I knew who it was as soon as she started to speak; she had a voice that I never could have forgotten.