Jonathan
He and I were born 2 months apart, him being the elder of the 2 of us, and so, inevitably, we grew up together. He lived in the middle of Oregon, which made him the closest cousin we had, seeing that all the others lived in So Cal. The drive was about 2.5 hours to each other’s house, but our families managed summer trips and Christmas vacations. Not to mention the ever-spontaneous meet in the middle horse trail rides. So it makes sense that Jonathan and I hung out a lot. Even though you are related and forced to hang out a lot, that sometimes doesn’t mean that you like each other, but that was not that case with Jonathan. All three of us, Luke, Lacey and I all love Jonathan. In the summer of 2000, Jonathan spent a month of him summer out at that ranch with us, and he admitted that it was probably one of his most memorable summers. We all just get along so well, and he is just a riot, and so much fun. When we walked into the airport, I professed that I was afraid to see Jonathan, because it had been 6 years since I had, and I was afraid that I was going to flirt with him before I knew he was my cousin… Now thankfully that didn’t happen, but it almost did. Luckily, we have a small airport. As we walked in, I began searching for them, ahead of me, toward where my parents were walking, I saw a boy starring at me, as I usually do when this situation occurs, I glance at the boy to see if I want to return the boy's glance, and maybe exchange a smile, I will only do this is the boy is cute, so as I look up, I see the boy the moment my mom stops, right next to him. I blink hard, and open my mouth. He’s starring right at me smiling… I blink a few times again, shake my head and try to focus my gaze. This boy, standing by my mother looking straight at me looks like a complete stranger. I have never seen this boy ever in my life, honestly. I begin in laugh and walk up to him and give him a big hug. As I pull away he gives me this look of shock and my mother begins laughing at me asking me what I am doing… ok, ok, I’m completely joking… it was my cousin, but it was so easy to make you think it wasn’t it was so sounding like it was leading up to that. I had to take it. Heh. Sorry. Anyway. It was my cousin, and I tell you, he’s not what he used to look like. That’s for sure. I felt a little awkward around him for the first few minutes because to me he a was a stranger… a good-looking stranger. Anyway, as we began talking and walking around SLO, he became the little kid I remember so fondly… just in a little altered, grown up, cuter stage. But come on, don’t you think ill… I don’t live in Alabama now…