LESS THAN THREE EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

"Just give him a surprise," Madison threw her hands up in sheer desperation.

Melissa, a college friend and I had been Skyping with Madison since the past hour, discussing Melissa and Craig's relationship. There was something definitely going on between them.

"I've tried pretty much everything on him, but he doesn't want to be more than friends," Melissa sighed.

"Did he tell you that?"

"No."

"You must have friend-zoned him a bit too hard," I said as I pulled my ringing phone out of my pocket.

Dave.

"Summer," he sighed as I answered it.

"What happened?"

"Grandma just passed away," he mumbled.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Dave."

"Can you come over?", I knew he was crying.

"I'll be there."

I told Melissa that I would be back by mid-night and headed towards the parking lot.  As I drove my brown sedan out of the college campus, I thought about all the changes that had happened since the past five years.

It's a two hour long journey to Los Angeles, where Dave lived with his cousin and attended college. I, on the other hand, had shifted to Santa Barbara after high school, along with Craig. The shift had been hard, but it was worth; living by the beach, studying computer programming and IT (funny how things turned out) and staying close to Dave and Craig, I wouldn't want anything more.

I shipped Craig and Melissa, and I knew they liked each other, I even thought that I could pull a few strings here and there, and voila! they'd be together, but my experience has taught me, that if anything had to happen, it'd happen by itself.

Madison was back with Jacob. She didn't want to forgive him though, but he tried. He tried a lot. It took him two years to convince her (and me) that he was loyal now. And he has been loyal ever since.

Kiersten and Brady fell out when she moved to Europe during our sophomore year. We still talked, though it's hard to keep in contact with someone who lives so far away.

Dave and I have been together ever since things fell into place.

But once we had fight, a huge one and I, being a terribly indecisive person, ran to Brady for help. He asked me to choose between him and Dave. When I chose Dave, it's been hard for us to even be friends.

Once I reached Dave's apartment, I turned the door knob and opened the door. I found him sitting at the end of the hallway, with his head on his knees.

"Dave," he looked at me and before I knew it, he was in my arms, sobbing and holding me tight. A long time later, he calmed down and I held his face in my hands. He rested his forehead on mine as I wiped the tears off his face.

I gazed into his green eyes with golden speckles. The same eyes I fall in love with everytime I see him. His lips crawled over his teeth when he asked me, "Vanilla chai?"

He had known how obsessed I had become with it in high school, so when we moved away, he learned how to make it.

"Yes, please," I answered as I ran my hand through his hair.

*****

"You have to go to her funeral, Dave," I told him a hundred times.

"No, I don't know if I can take it."

"You can and you will," I clasped his hand in mine, "we'll go together, yeah?"

"Fine," he huffed.

*****

We reached New Concord Thursday night. Dave and I parted at the airport, as I headed towards my parent's house. It had been four months since I'd met them. I knocked on the door and dad opened it.

"Looks like you finally got time to visit your poor parents," he smiled at me and I hugged him. I smiled at my mom when I saw her and we settled in our living room. We talked all night, about my life, about dad's retirement, about mom's new part time job, about Tim.

I didn't see him very often now. Just once a year when we came back home for Christmas.

Mom asked me that night, if I wanted to get serious with Dave.

"I don't know. Maybe I will if he wants to," I shrugged.

She nodded her head as if she knew something I did not know yet.

*****

I spent the next day at Dave's, helping with the funeral's preparation.

"I have no idea what to say at the funeral," he told me.

"You knew her well, Dave. Put all you positive feelings together and talk about them. You'll do it, I know."

I dressed up in a black dress and put my pink hair in a bun to hide it in my hat. Dave kept encouraging me to dye my hair pink, he said it enhanced my uniqueness, so I did.

We reached the church and I got seated beside Dave's parents. They told me how fond his grandmother was of us. They said she wanted to see us to get married and I blushed at that thought. When his dad stepped onto the podium, Dave sat beside me.

I held his hand to calm him down and when his turn came, I reassured him that he was going to be fine. And I know that because the words he said were pure and clear. He let his love for his grandma give him strength.

After the funeral he approached me. "Do you have anything to do this evening?"

"Nope."

"Come with me then."

"Alright," I said as I attempted to raise my eyebrow.

He laughed as he told me why I shouldn't try to do that again.

We headed to his house and lay in his backyard. My head was on his arm and his finger was wrapped around my hair. We stared at the sky, waiting for the stars to appear out of nowhere.

Once we'd marveled at the beauty of the stars, Dave stood up and motioned for me to stand up too. His eyes had an unusual sparkle and I knew he wanted to tell me something.

He held my hands in both of his when he began, "When dad called me and told me about grandma, I couldn't take it. I hung up on him and began to bawl my eyes out. I didn't even know what I was going to tell you when I called you, but I'm glad I did. Once you said you were coming over I calmed down. But those two hours that I waited, for you to reach me, were the most agonizing ones I've ever lived."

He looked right at me.

"I've been holding on for too long. I'm going to shut my mind and put away all the excuses that it's been making. I'm going to let my heart speak. I need you and want you."

He got down on one knee and pulled a small box from his pocket. But it wasn't the ring that blew me away. It was the words that followed,

"Summer Day, will you marry me?"

Even I knew that I had been holding on for too long. So I shut my mind and put away all the excuses that it's been making. I let my heart speak. 

"Yes Dave, I will."

*****

Saturday, March 15, 07:30 PM Term of the Day: Unpredictable - Changing often, in a way that is impossible to prepare for.

Life is the most unpredictable gift that one can ever receive. One moment, you feel that nothing is possible and other times, you feel you can conquer the world. Sometimes it may seem that your future is bleak just because you can't see it, when in reality, it's this quality of life that makes it interesting.

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