I Fell for Crimson

I call Her Crimson

To me, she's Crimson, but her parents and just about everyone else called her Carilyn Aymes Reynolds, and she is my best friend. We spent our lives together from birth to 12th grade year until the summer before we went to college. She loves art and would always create realist renditions of places and people in crimson, which is why I gave her the nickname. We were each others' first kiss and I loved her... sometimes I would wonder if my feelings were more romantic than the platonic feelings we were supposed to have for the other.. but even thinking about dating her felt wrong; she was like my sister and I didn't want to soil our relationship with...a relationship of intense cuddling... passionate sex... and spending our lives together... and... okay... maybe I did love her romantically, but I know for a fact that she never thought of me the way I did about her.

 We were both born on August 16, 1997 in Dover, New Hampshire. She was born first at the ungodly hour of 2:35 in the morning, while I took my time and popped out at 11:59pm. In time it would seem as if us being born at these times were signs of our personalities. It felt like she was always ahead of me, with homework assignments, breaking out of our social awkward stage (I'm still in mine), and even finding love... I can't imagine that it was hard for her to find the person of her dreams either, she's beautiful. She has long kinky black hair, big brown eyes, her skin is the color of a milk chocolate Hershey's kiss, and her lips are plump and soft. If I was an artist, she'd be my muse, she's gorgeous. I'm taller than her, me being 5'7 and her being 5 feet even. She's always been the most attractive out of the both of us, with her abundance of curves and doe eyes. I've always been on the skinnier side of the spectrum, with a little bit of bust and I guess an ass? But nothing could compare to Crimson.. how I loved to cuddle with her when she would come over for Friday night movies... Now we're separated by over 400 miles... and a heart that's no longer available to me.

I come from a long line of Washington and Lee University alumni. I didn't care where I went to college as long as I went somewhere, and having tons of memorabilia around the house made it pretty easy to decide where to send in my college application. Thankfully for my family's ties with the school, since I only had a 3.6 GPA and no extracurricular activities to add to my application, I got accepted to the school of my parents' dream. I didn't really think about where Crimson would be going... I mean, I always knew she wanted to go to college, and her 4.0 GPA meant that she could have gone anywhere. I guess I assumed that she and I would just do everything together as we always had. It caught me by surprise when she came over to my house, burst through the door and started screaming and jumping up and down, all the while holding an acceptance letter for Bard College in her hand. That's when I realized that 12th grade was the end of our duo... at least for a little while. She promised that we would Skype and everything and we would visit each other during breaks. I gave her the best smile I could, but inside I was dying. My best friend was leaving me.. the love of my life was slipping through my grasp.. but I loved her enough to pretend like this wasn't something that was shattering my heart. I'm her best friend first and foremost, and I'm happy for her. She was ecstatic when I showed her my acceptance letter, it was my turn to do the same.

Because our classes didn't start until August 30th, Crimson and I were able to have one more birthday party together. Once it was clear that we were glued to each others' hip at the young age of 6, our parents decided that we could celebrate our birthdays together. It's been a tradition for the last 13 years now for us to plan a party together whether it be a slumber party or a Blue's Clues theme or even a weekend trip to a different city. This year, we decided to have a small get together, me and my two dads and she with her dad. We went out to Chile's and laughed and enjoyed the little time we had left together as a mix-matched family.When dinner was done and everything paid for, I got into the car with Crimson and her dad. This was going to be our last slumber party...but we agreed not to cry. We promised each other that this wasn't the end of our best friendship, and that this slumber party would be like the small celebrations that happen on a port before a cruise ship sails out onto open sea. We chose her house because her dad works during the evenings and she's an only child unlike my dads who work 9-5 and my baby brother who's a bit of a crybaby (he is two, so I guess that should be expected). We planned for the evening to be filled with make-up tutorials, gorging ourselves in sweet treats that Crimson had hidden from her dad, and then watching Netflix until we passed out. It was going to be brilliant! The evening didn't exactly end like that though.