Stay With Me

Walk out onto the back patio and sit on the wooden gliding bench. After you’ve done that, you can open the envelope.

Emily pushed herself off of the couch and walked to the back door, passing through the kitchen in the process. She closed the sliding door behind her as soon as her feet his the wooden floorboards and went straight towards the bench. She took a seat and couldn’t stop herself from rocking back and forth. She closed her eyes for a few moments, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her legs and the relaxation the rocking motion was starting to give her. When she opened her eyes again, she slid her finger underneath the lip of the envelope and, just like before, carefully opened it and pulled out the letter.

Emily,

Every time I sit on this bench I think back to the summer before our senior year.

Do you remember how we spent so many nights on your porch on a bench just like this one, talking about complete nonsense? That summer we talked about everything: future plans, what senior year would be like, predictions on how my team would do the following season; nothing was off limits.

It was on that same bench that we really got to know each other after we first hung out at Tim Horton’s, where taking you out to coffee was my way of making it up to you after the whole fiasco at the ice rink. It wasn’t a date, we established that within the first ten minutes, but looking back on it now, it sure seemed like one.

That night we realized that we had a lot in common. We discovered that were in the same grade and went to neighboring high schools. When we ran out of things to talk about, you suggested that we play a game of twenty questions and, even though we asked each other the stupidest things, we had a blast. By the end of the night I knew your favorite color, movie, song, and sport.

“I really love hockey,” you confessed to me. I grinned and nodded my head with approval. That answer alone really set you a part from the other girls I knew. When I asked you why, you didn’t hesitate to answer.

“I just love the intensity of the game. It takes so much skill and discipline to play and I’m always so mesmerized by the things that some of the players can do on the ice.”

“So you don’t just like it because of the players?” I joked with you and you shook your head.

“They’re just an added bonus.”

From that night on, we spent so much time together. Whether it was walking around the shopping center or going to Tim Horton’s, we always kept ourselves occupied. Within weeks we knew almost everything about each other—the good and the bad.

Emily, if there’s one thing I learned that summer, it was that you were never like most girls— far, far from it actually. You always seemed to stray away from the norm and did whatever you damn well pleased. As long as you were doing something that made you happy, nothing else was of importance. You didn’t let anyone get in your way and you were always so determined to prove everyone who ever doubted you wrong.

You had so much spunk and fire in you then, and you still do now.

We spent our days building our friendship, but by the end of that summer things had changed between us. I can’t exactly pinpoint when, but everything was different; you were different. It wasn’t that you had really changed, it was my feelings toward you that did. Somewhere between our late night talks and early morning workouts together, I fell for you. Cliché as it was, I fell for my best friend.

It was the last Wednesday of August, just two weeks short of school starting, that things really changed between us. We were sitting on your porch bench, listening to the cricket’s songs and the neighborhood dogs barking. We were enjoying the last of our summer freedom as much as we could, seeing as our days to stay out late together on that very bench were starting to become limited.

You had your head on my chest and when I looked down at you, you were staring right at me.

“What?” I quietly asked. You faintly smiled and shook your head against my chest.

“Nothing,” you said. Normally I would have looked away and let it go, but for some reason I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. With the way the moonlight danced across your face, you looked so beautiful. I remember bouncing my gaze back and forth between your eyes and your lips. I had this sudden urge to kiss you and when I slowly leaned down towards you, I couldn’t stop myself. I was waiting for you to tell me to stop, but you never did. It was a bold and rash decision, but I completely went for it.

The kiss we shared was short, but insanely sweet and almost breathtaking. We both pulled away and neither one of us spoke a single word for a while. The longer the silence drew out, the more I became nervous of what you would finally say to me. I honestly prepared myself for the worst, but I hoped to God that you felt the same way I did.

It scared me to no end when you pushed yourself up off of my chest and sat up straight next to me. I waited for the words that would forever put me in the friend zone…but they never came.

“Matt,” you whispered. I looked in your direction. You were biting your lip, something I had learned that you did when you were nervous. Then you reached out and stroked my cheek with your hand and scooted as close to me as you could.

“Kiss me again.”

You have no idea how happy and at peace I felt when my lips touched yours. Sure it didn’t last very long, but within that time it felt like nothing else mattered. You were the only thing I could focus on. I was excited and nervous all at the same time.

Still to this day, whenever we kiss, I get that very same feeling. It’s those little moments we share that take me back to that first summer night’s kiss and remind me of how far we’ve come in our relationship since then.

You always say that it’s the little things in life that mean the most and you couldn’t be anymore right.

Em, you make me so unbelievably happy. I love you.