Route 66

8 Innocent Love

It is often said that four years of college are the best ever and I couldn't believe that my university experience was coming to a close. With Blake by my side, I felt like there was nothing we couldn't accomplish together.

His leadership and skill had been rewarded with the position of team captain and everyone was buzzing about the homecoming game.

I attended with one of my close friends, Kim Andrews, and the air was electric! We had a great view from third row bleachers as Annette led the cheerleaders out to the field and our rivals took their positions.

Finally, the home team ran out to the adoring screams of fans as they rose to their feet. The captain of the football team removed his helmet as the coach walked over and handed him a megaphone. Blake then squinted up at the bleachers and yelled, "I'd like to ask Veronica Morris to come down!"

My jaw dropped and eyes popped open; feeling paralyzed for a couple seconds until Kim nudged me.

Blake repeated the request, glanced around the stadium, and insisted, "Veronica, we're not going to start this game until you come down!"

I snapped out of it and sprinted down the steps and out to the field as fast as humanly possible in a skirt. I giggled and mouthed the words, "Blake Preston, what are you doing?"

Amidst the electrifying buzz of fans, I found myself facing Blake and the entire team as he knelt before me holding a small box containing the most stunning ring I could ever imagine.

"Veronica Morris, will you marry me?"

"Yes Blake! Yes!!" I yelled as tears streamed down my cheeks. We embraced and kissed there in the middle of the field with the deafening cheer of thousands as affirmation.

As the game progressed, it's hard to describe what I felt as a stadium filled to capacity with roaring fans hollered for Blake when he threw a touchdown pass. It was an overwhelming sense of pride. I felt like a celebrity and wanted to shout for all the world to hear that Blake Preston was mine and only mine.

We ended up winning that game and Blake was a hero to the masses for a day but I knew he would be my hero forever.

Annette flung her arms around me as she yelled with joyful laughter and screamed gleefully, "Veronica, I'm so happy for you! I knew it would happen, I knew it! I just didn't know when. I'm so jealous. It's going to be Veronica Preston now. That has a nice ring to it!"

Annette was always in a perpetual state of having fun. She squeezed every drop out of the university experience like no one else. A party wasn't a party without her. One time she had three football players dress up as the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion from The Wizard of Oz. They wouldn't leave me alone until I clasped arms with them and started skipping across the floor yelling, "Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!"

I don't think I've ever seen Blake laugh so hard.

Paul slowly drifted apart from our group. It's not as if I was intentionally ignoring him but every free moment belonged to Blake. With Annette it was different. Even though we were spending less time together she didn't mind it or at least acted like she didn't care as much. She always had lots of friends to hang out with and was always on the go.

I sensed that Paul had accepted the fact that we would never be together in the way he'd wished for. I'd occasionally see him at the library with books splayed out over the desk, feverishly immersing himself in his studies.

He ended up triple majoring in biology, chemistry and physics with a minor in math. He seemed more mature and serious minded then I had known him to be, as if he was thinking forward to the challenges of the real world that awaited us all after this dream world of class schedules, sporting events, and late night talks had drifted away.