Truth Is, I Miss You.

Chapter 1

I remember it like it was yesterday. We were in our third day of preschool and I was so excited because we just got out for recess and all I wanted to do was sprint to the swings so I could get there before anyone else. But then I saw the cluster of my classmates around the slide. I pushed my way to the front to find Tristan on the ground with a look of terror on his face and some older kid standing over him yelling mean words. Most of which I didn't even know the meaning of, but there was so much malice behind the words I knew it couldn't be nice.

I didn't know what was going through my head at the time but I seemed to think I was stronger than this big 2nd grader, so I marched right up to him and punched him right in the chest. I would've gone for his face but I couldn't reach it. Now obviously my weak attempt of helping Tristan didn't affect him much and he pushed me down right next to Tristan. By that time somebody had notified a teacher and took the kid to the principal's office while another teacher escorted us to the nurse. As we were sitting on one of the beds in the nurse's office he looked to me with a small smile on his face and said thank you.

After that came, "Do you wanna be my friend? I've got power ranger action figures. I'll let you be the red one if you want! He's the best one."
The smile on my face couldn't have been any bigger. No one had ever let me be the red one in my whole life!

"You really mean it?" I asked.

"Of course! You're the only one who didn't watch me get a knuckle sandwich. So what do you say?"

"I'd love to." I replied.

To this day, I still don't know the name of that bully, but I could never thank him enough for bringing my best friend into my life.

Now by the time we were in middle school, we were almost never apart. He came to my house so often my parents started to think of him as one of their own. My two little brothers began to look up to him as a role model and always tried to follow us around so they could just catch a few glances at Tristan. Although my family might have loved him and accepted him, I was never really accepted into his.
He only lives with his mom now because his dad left them when he was little. His mom was always working and I had only really seen her a handful of times.

He eventually decided he trusted me enough to tell me how his mother had a past with drugs and alcohol. She would go out partying every night and would come home in the morning wasted. His father realized he had had enough when he came home one day to find her with another man. He just packed his bags and left without so much as a word to Tristan.
After a while of Tristan having to take care of himself, his mom realized that drinking away her problems didn't solve anything and she somewhat cleaned up her act. She always took care of Tristan from then on but she never took on the duty of being a real mother. She didn't try to cheer him up when he was sad or wipe his tears away when he got a booboo. She kind of just ignored him. And that's how it still is today. She works all day and then goes straight to her room, only to come out for food or the bathroom. Tristan eventually got used to the routine and learned how to deal with it. But I can tell that deep down it still bothers him.

Once 9th grade rolled around Tristan and I saw all of the couples around us. They always looked so happy when they were holding hands and hugging and what not. So we wanted to try it out. He kissed me and it was like all of those cliché movies. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach trying to break free and the tingles never left my lips after he eventually pulled away. That's when we realized that we weren't just meant to be friends. We knew there was something more to us.

To this day, I have no idea what that awful second grader's name was, but all the money in the world could never repay him. If it wasn't for him, I would've never met Tristan, my best friend, the person I go to with every little problem, the one that I am proud to say is the love of my life. That little bully had changed my entire life, and I wouldn't have it any other way.