Five in the Morning

I have always been told that we don't recognize significant moments in our lives while they are happening. We take for granted people, places, and things and it is not until they are about to be taken away from us that we truly realize their worth. I never thought that this was true, at least, I never thought that it would happen to me.

Thoughts like this ran through my mind as I sat in my college's student center. I watched as couples walked by with their arms around each other and I suppressed the ache that was threatening to take over my body once again.

“Brittany!” My roommate, Michaela, yelled from across the room. I smiled and waved as she ran to sit in the seat across from me. Her long, wavy brown hair was pulled back into a loose braid and the sweatshirt she was wearing swallowed her small frame.

“Hey, how was your Christmas?” I asked while taking a sip of the mocha I had previously purchased from our coffee shop. The sweet liquid made its way down my throat, warming everything in its path.

Michaela stripped off her backpack and set it next to her in the booth. “It was good, but you know that's not what I came to talk to you about.”

I picked at the winter patterned cardboard sleeve that enveloped the paper cup that was holding my coffee and I sighed back into the seat. “I really don't want to talk about it.”

She crossed her arms across her chest and rested them on the table in front of her. “Because I'm your best friend, I have the privilege of telling you that I don't care if you don't want to talk about it or not.”

I bit my lip to hide the smile that was threatening to erupt on my face and I rolled my eyes at her. “And why are we friends again?”

She flashed me an award winning smile and said, “Because I'm insanely witty and equally as beautiful.”

After a few beats of us staring at each other, we both burst into a fit of giggles. In my opinion, there is nothing better than to have your stomach ache for the right reasons.

After we both calmed down, I took the last swig of my coffee and pushed the cup aside. “There is something different with him and I can't figure out what it is. All I know is that I need him in my life.”

Michaela glanced up at me from her phone and gave me a small smile. “If that's true, then you need to know that everything is going to end up okay.”

“He is with Lindsey again, he chose her over me. How is all of this going to end up okay when the guy that I love is with someone else?” Right as those words fell out of my mouth, I realized what I had said.

Do I love Travis?

Michaela reached across the table and grabbed a hold of my hands. “Give it time, eventually he will realize that he made a mistake.”

After a few moments of silence, Michaela finished by saying, “All I'm saying is that Travis will come around, but you can't just sit here and wait for him.”

I nodded and it was in that moment that I realized she was right. I couldn't stop my life because Travis didn't want to be with me.

“Travis slow down!” I shrieked from the passenger side of his tan Ford truck. My long, dark hair was whipping around my face and all I could hear over the wind was Travis laughing hysterically. We were going 80 miles per hour down the old country road next to my house and oddly I felt safe.

As we neared my large two story house, Travis released the gas pedal and we slowly rolled to a stop. “So, how do you feel?”

I glanced over at his tanned face and I rolled my eyes. “I feel like one of these days you are going to kill me!”

His perfect lips broke out into a smile and he reached across the cab to grab a hold of my hand. “As long as you are with me, you will be safe.”

I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks and I averted my eyes from his. I looked out the window at the green pastures and I sighed back into the seat. Summer was almost over and before I knew it I would be starting my senior year of high school.

“You ready to call it quits or do you wanna go for one more round?” Travis smiled over at me and winked because he knew what I was going to say.

I smirked and stuck my hand out of the open window. “Just try not to exceed a hundred miles per hour, please.”

That was all I was able to get out before we were flying down the road once again. Travis's shaggy blonde hair went every direction as the warm summer wind surged through the cab of his truck.

I knew in that moment that I could stay like this forever. Even though Travis was going off to college in a few months, I knew that this was the defining moment for us.

Travis caught my eye for a split second and he shook his head slowly. “You gotta stop looking at me like that cause if you don't, I may fall in love.”

What Travis didn't know, was that those words would play in my head over and over again everyday for the next four years until I saw him again. Those words gave me hope that maybe one day, they would become true.