Hope Unguarded

This Love

This Love - Taylor swift

Hope

The last six months had been the best six months of Hope's life. Ethan was like a dream, someone she never thought would become a reality for her. Dreams come to you without request. They invade your mind, sometimes for the better, and this one certainly fell into that category. If it was a dream, Hope was pleased to not have woken up.

When she went on her solo camping trip, Hope had no idea how different she would be when she returned. Different was an understatement. Her entire life had changed in such a short time that it left her head spinning.

Over the six months since that trip, Hope and Ethan had developed a deep friendship in addition to their romance. She felt he knew her better than any other person in the world. The reverse also seemed true; that she was his best friend, the one who knew all of his secrets.

So many of her relationships had deepened during that span of months. After the time separated from her mom on that trip, their relationship was better than ever. Hope still struggled to speak up, that would most likely always be part of her personality. But her mom was more understanding about Hope's quiet nature, giving her space but also asking those questions to keep communication open.

Hope had never been more grateful for her mom than over these last six months. She had been able to talk about her relationship with Ethan, the good and the bad, although there really hadn't been anything bad about dating Ethan.

While they'd had some difficulties over her encounter with Will, there hadn't been any other misunderstandings between them. Hope, however, was no fool and knew that relationships and disagreements went hand in hand. It would only be a matter of time before something caused the two of them to argue. She wasn't looking forward to that day.

Something told her that the longer they went without a disagreement, the closer they were getting to having one. It made her nervous. She worried that her fears of confronting hard situations would make things worse if and when they had a fight.

Then Hope would chastise herself, feeling that she was taking on too negative of an outlook on their relationship.

"Don't all couples fight?" She would say to herself when her worries got too intense. But as time marched forward, and her feelings toward Ethan grew stronger, her fears were also magnified. Talking with her mom was no longer helpful. She wanted a new perspective.

Angela became a source of advice and comfort that she hadn't realized was in her life. Hope had always felt close to Angela, but something kept her from truly opening up and allowing her vulnerability to be on display. When worrisome thoughts of her relationship were overwhelming her, Hope finally turned to Angela for support.

Making that phone call was more challenging than she realized, but Hope wanted the outlet and knew Angela was the right choice.

"Hey, what's up?" Angela answered with her usual greeting.

"Hi. Not much today. I have the day off." Hope stalled from getting to the point of the call.

"Cool! Wanna get FroYo?" Angela suggested.

"Sure, but that's going to make me feel like I'm about to take a test!" Hope laughed, remembering their ritual of FroYo and studying for finals. That caused a bout of nerves as thoughts of her first date with Ethan rushed back into her mind, remembering street tacos were his study snack.

"Ugh! Don't bring up those bad memories! I'm just glad we have a month off for the holidays. Finals are done for the semester!" Angela remarked.

The girls both attended a local junior college, still trying to decide on majors while saving money to transfer to a university.