Something Special

Chapter 2

"Okay. The summer after our freshman year our families had planned to go to the beach, but I got a summer internship at the Youth Center and couldn't go. Remember?"

They nodded.

"My parents went ahead and went, so they left me home alone that whole week. My internship really didn't start for another week. Well, Lucas stayed with me. His parent's thought he was at a baseball camp. We had promised that we would remain close friends after he moved in with his mom. We just wanted to be able to spend some time together before the summer was over and he was gone. After all, we were so close, we had been together just about everyday since we were five years old. Our dads worked together and were best friends which made us best friends. We came up with a plan for me to start my internship early and for him to skip baseball camp the night before we were all supposed to leave." I paused and I looked at Claire and Ryan to see that they were both staring at me, waiting for me to go on. We placed our orders with the waitress and then I continued with the story.

"He got to my house an hour after you guys left for the beach. We stayed at the house all week. We stayed up late, watched movies while laying on the floor, went for late night swims, and made breakfast every morning. It was a great week, one I will never, ever forget. But on the last day, before we had to go back to our normal lives, things were different. Lucas wasn't there when I woke up, but he had left a note saying he would be back soon. So, I decided I would pick up the house a little bit and then I went for a swim. He got back around 11:30 or noon. He said he had to run to the store to pick up some stuff to cook that night. He wanted to make dinner since it was the last night of our week together and he would be leaving a few days later.

The whole day we spent in the pool, laying on floats, and talking about the future. We talked about how we both wanted to go to the University of Kentucky. I was going to major in Early Childhood Education and he was going to major in Sports Medicine. I wanted to teach kindergarten and he wanted to coach or assist with the high school football team. We talked about where we thought we would be in 10 years. We both wanted to be either engaged or married. It was crazy how similar we wanted our lives to be.

Around 4:30 he fired up the grill and started cooking dinner. I kept asking if I could help, but he insisted that he had it. He never let me help with anything. Dinner was amazing. We had been friends for ten years, but I never even knew he could cook. I was almost done with my food when he told me he needed to talk to me about something. It feels like this all happened yesterday."

"Ashlyn, can we talk?"

"Sure, Lucas. About what?" I said as I was eating my baked potato.

"Well, we have been friends for a while. Right?" He got up and started pacing around.

"Yes. Just a little while." I laughed a little. "Why?"

"I've always been able to tell you everything." He took a deep breath.

"Lucas, what's wrong? You're starting to scare me." I got up and walked over to him.

He turned and looked me straight in the eyes, "I love you, ya know?"

"And I love you, but.."

He cut me off. "No. Like, I love you. I am in love with you. I have been for a while. You are the most amazing, kind-hearted person that I have ever met." I just stared at him, searching for my voice. While his eyes were searching for an answer. "Are you going to say something?"

"I...I don't know what to say. I'm...I...I...I'm shocked." I took a step back, towards the table.

"How do you feel?" Lucas asked.