[this...is what i've been waiting for]
okay i'm at the library and i got a book out called Chocolate for a Teen's Dreams it's like "Heartwarming Stories About Making Your Wishes Come True" and i read this one story..made me cry..so i just thought i'd share..
We sat in the parking lot of a neighborhood pub as we had done twice before. We had planned to grab a sandwich, talk a while, and relax after a tiring week of work and school. Only i wasn't relaxed. I was ready to cry.
"I have to tell you something," I said to Nick. I held his arm, preventing him from opening the car door.
Nick looked confused and serious, an expression far different from the usual cheerful smile he wore. I looked into his handsome face, trying to find the words to tell him that we couldn't go out together anymore. My boyfriend Armando, wanted me to stop seeing my friend Nick, and tonight i had to tell him. What else could I do?
I had known Nick Bertrand since I was a junior high school brat and had hung around my big brother and his friends. Nick had always been nice to the "kid sister," teaching me to play cards, cheering me up when I had my tonsils out, and taking me to play tennis during the summer after my first teen heartbreak.
When I met Armando during senior year and we dated as steadies, Nick still attended my high school graduation and came to the family party afterward. I told Armando (and myself) that Nick was like another big brother to me. I didn't want to admit that i had always carried a "crush" for him. When he told me at my graduation party that he would be leaving in a week to attend a university in another town, I felt a sadness I couldn't explain.
Over the years, my relationship with Armando grew more serious as we attended college together. He came to work for my father and we saw marriage in our futre. Then during my last college semester, Nick came home to accept a teaching postion and football coaching assignment at a local high school. We met up again one Sunday in September outside the church. I was so excited to see him and couldn't wait to show him the pretty opal ring Armando had given me, and to tell him why I had decided to become a teacher.
Nick and I stood outside church for two hours and tried to catch up on the past four years. We met every Sunday morning for two months progressing from talking outside, to sitting together during Mass, and going out together for breakfast afterward.
Armando preferred to work on Sunday mornings and to spend the afternoons watching football games. Even though Nick loved sports, he didn't want to watch them on TV anymore. Coaching football six days a week motivated Nick to find other things to do on his free Sundays. So we went minature golfing together and to ovie matinees. We talked over sundaes, took walks around the lake, and chatted on my parents' front porch.
One afternoon when I was sick in bed with a bad cold, my mother brought me a sandwich and took the time to sit on my bed. "Nick is a good family friend. I don't want you to hurt him. You need to be considerate of his feelings for you."
I was suprised by her implication. "Nick and I are just friends, Mom."
"But what about Armando?" she asked. "You've been dating him for years. I thought you tow were getting married. He won't like all the time you spend with Nick."
"Don't worry, Mom. Everything is just fine," I told her, but her cautionary words started me thinking seriously about my relationships with both men.
After a college buddy saw Nick and me at the movies, Armando seemed very jealous of my friendship with Nick. "I don't want you to go out with him anymore. It looks bad. You belong to me." However, he didn't offer to change the way our relationship had fallen into a predictable patter. He liked that he worked for my father and that we were the only "steady" couple among our college friends.
Armando was nice looking, had a good worth ethic, and was comfortable at family gatherings. He drove a dependable car, laughed at my jokes, and didn't mind if I found other things to do on Sundays during football season. Why would i want to change the relationship that had been a continous part of my life for four years? Everything had progressed as it was supposed to in a serious relationship between two people. I was wearing a beautiful "promise" ring from Armando, wasn't I?
But that night, outside the pub, i didn't have the ring on my hand. I never wore it when i was with Nick. There was nothing tangible to remind me of Armando. Our relationship had become more routine than romantic, and I opened myself up the possiblity of change.
As i held Nick's arm to stop him from leaving the car, I realized what i had been dnying for years. I coulnd't end my friendship with Nick because i needed to see him every day of my life. I loved Nick's sense of humor, the way he listend earnestly to everything i said, and the way he made me feel like a person who mattered.
He was my best friend in the world, and the thoughts of losing him melted into the hot tears rolling down my face. "Oh, Nick, I just can't stop seeing you!"
Naturally he embraced me, and I told him about Armando's demands, sobbing against his shirt. I told him how i felt confused and sad. Who knows how long i talked, and if any of it made sense. But Nick listend, like always, until I finally reached my personal crossroads of emotions, words, and actions. I had to make my choices.
I sat up to stare into those expressive green eyes that led the way into his heart. "The truth is, Nick, I love you more than Armando, and if there's someone who needs to stop out of my life, it's him, not you."
Nick's smile appeared, and he said, "Do you know that every Sunday in church, I prayed for your happiness? And I'd tell God, 'but if she isn't happy with Armando, then I want her. I want her'."
That's when we first kissed like two people who had discovred they were deeply in love with each other. And we've been together ever since.
That night I took responsibility for my own personal happiness. I also learned how to listen to myself and to speak from my heart. And most important, I realized that when God is the matchmaker, love is never "routine."
okay, that took me forever to type..so read it. it's worth it. realize that there is somebody out there, and they could have been there all along. but..that made me cry and i hope you liked it as much as i did, and i hope it had meaning, and just everything..i don't know =)...happy days ahead [i hope.]