Ephemeral

Epilogue

What is the essence of time? That's the exact question I ask myself every single day.

I can't seem to grasp how my life turns out like this, but nonetheless, I'm eternally grateful for this very moment. And because of this, I want to impart a fraction of my life that leads me to my happy ever after.

I met my soul mate when we were thirteen years old, at the very first day of school.

The moment I laid my eyes on him, I felt my heart was going to break due to its abnormal beating.

He offered to carry my bag for me when he saw me having difficulty with all the things I carried. His sincere smile made my stomach flutter. And from that day, we were inseparable.

We grew up and spent every waking moment with each other. He was my savior and defender. He was my everything. He was everything that I was not. He was an adept baseball player. A loyal best friend. The most handsome man I've ever seen and I will ever see.

The only flaw of his was his inability to recognize my feelings for him.

The way he spoke to me was making me feel the love I desperately sought. The way he treated me made myself design illusions of our ever after. The way he whispered things to me made me imagine the things I should not dare conjure with my mind.

It shattered when we were seventeen.

When we were at that age, he got his first girlfriend, and I got my first heartbreak. But despite my feelings, I supported him when their love bloomed. And even when everyday I started losing him, I was still there patiently waiting for him.

I knew everything about their relationship. I knew when was their first time of making love. I knew where he took her to their numerous dates. I knew what kind of flowers he gave her in every anniversary. I knew how much he loved her more than he loved anyone. And it was supposed to be okay. But...

They made it even after high school. The heartbreak I felt was so intense that I even changed my chosen university just to avoid him. I made it through university single-handedly.

We met again back in Seattle as we rekindled our friendship. And those were the yesteryears I won't ever forget. The first time I saw him after all those years we never saw each other, was just like the first time I saw him when were thirteen. But this time, everything changed.

Just a year ago, I witnessed my best friend, my first love, my soul mate, and my everything getting married.

Seeing him forever beyond my childhood fantasies with a smile on his handsome face, was a dream come true. Never would have I imagined that I would feel the elation he felt as he smiled at his beloved with tenderness he never gave to anyone.

I saw how his face lit up when he watched his lover walked down the aisle. The same look of adoration he used to give me was engraved in his neatly shaven face. He looked like the young man who promised to give me the moon and stars. The same man who made me daydream and fantasize about fairytales. And the same man who gave me a promise to reach infinity and beyond for us.

As I looked at his proud stature and besotted look, I knew in that moment, he already fulfilled those promises. With his lover, he already exceeded all the vows he whispered in my ears as we ran along under the pearly skies. His tenderness, which was intended only for his beloved made me wiped my tears of acceptance - the reality that his love for me was the bridge to make him fly onto his happy ever after.

When it was his turn to take his vow, he paused and looked at his lover with a watery smile. I can't believe what I was seeing. The extra mile he had to take in order to give assurance to the person in front of him that he would be theirs eternally, was bizarre for me. In our early days as young vagabonds, I thought those sleepless nights of him just staring at me were the epitome of true love. Oh how wrong I was! The moment he cried as he spoke his promised eternity to his one and only made me realize that all those seemingly unending sweet tales of ardour were nothing compared to the truism of shared love in matrimony.