Who Will You Run To?

Ted had found his own new world and his seemed to be just what he needed. With Beth and her Honey arguing in the background, I crossed the street.

As I approached them, the love and happiness they projected was almost palpable.

"Ted," I said softly. He looked up towards me with a smile curling on his lips.

"Uh hi, uhm?" he began. I realized that I'd changed a lot over the nearly seven years since we'd seen each other. I'd been beaten down by my experiences. Ted hadn't changed much at all because he'd been lifted by his.

As close as we'd once been, he didn't recognize me at first. But even as recognition flared in his memory, Melissa crossed between us.

"It's the beanpole," she said.

"Summer," he gushed. Melissa was wearing flats. They made her four foot eleven height even less impressive. Most men would be dazzled by her rack, though she kept it covered up, and an ass that I'd kill for. But although she was giving up nearly a foot in height to me, she was not about to back down. The look in her eyes told me everything. It said, "He was yours once bitch, but he's mine now. And I'll fight for him."

I decided to take the high road. I stuck out my hand to her. "Melissa, right?" I asked. "It's Summer. I'm back in town, for a while at least, while I sort out my life. My God, you have a beautiful little girl." It took everything I had not break down and cry in front of her. And I think something passed between us.

As she shook my hand, I think she knew that I envied her and that I understood her. She had every right to fight for the life she had and her family. Shit I would have, I wanted to be HER. I could have been HER. I should have been HER. If I hadn't fucked up, I would have been HER. So I think she understood that she owed a lot of what she had to my bad choices. She'd simply been smart enough to capitalize on my mistake.

And so she in turn joined me on the high road. "Summer, while you're here. You should come out to the house so you two can catch up," she said. "Maybe you'll end up staying. Would you like a beer?" she asked. She went and came back with two of them.

She gestured for me to sit down in one of their lounge chairs that they had behind their cars.

As Ted popped the top off of the other beer, I spoke. "Melissa, aren't you going to have one?"

She smiled and shook her head. "I can't right now," she said. "You're the first person we've told, but he did it to me again. I'm pregnant."

Things didn't exactly work out the way I wanted, but life is a journey. No one makes all of the right choices every time. All I can do is try to make sure that I make the best choices possible in the future. Melissa and Ted are friends of mine now. I recently moved into an apartment and am living alone for the first time in my life.

I've started to date a bit. It's still hard finding those taller guys but I'm not often lonely. I have a job, not a great one, but it pays the bills and I have plenty of friends. I also do a lot of babysitting for Mel and Ted. They actually named their second daughter, Spring. I think me telling them about the dream I had while I was in the second house had something to do with that.

A funny thing is that recently a water pipe burst in my apartment and shot water all over everywhere. I didn't know what to do so I called Ted.

"I'm sorry Ted," I said dripping wet, when he got there. "I didn't know who else to call."

"I'm the one you're supposed to call," he smiled. "We are friends, remember?"

"Yep, Ted's still the one I run to when it all falls down, at least he will be until I find my next great love. And he picks my world up off of the ground. The only thing is...he brings his wife and kids with him.

The end