LoVe

Come….sit down. Let me tell you of the most extraordinary love story…..yet the saddest. This is not a typical love story you are thinking of, the type that two people fall in love, the love that could conquer a seven nation army…no… no there are no happy endings here. Every one eventually feels love cruelest sting. Let me begin my story on one of the finest summer days you will hear about. The air was warm with a cool breeze and the sky looked like someone painted a majestic sea of vibrant colors on a canvas. You would almost feel like you were in heaven. Unfortunately, Josh didn’t feel this way. Josh felt for awhile that nothing was going his way almost like he was missing a part of him. Josh is 5’5 with green eyes that change colors to the light with blonde hair. Josh doesn’t have a typical childhood most children are use to. His parents were divorced when he could barely talk or walk. His brother gets is in and out of the trouble with the law. Eventually the cops know him like he’s their own son. His sister hangs out with the wrong crowd and doesn’t listen to him when he tries to tell her. His father always seems to be working and has no time for him. It seems to Josh that all he has is himself and his friends.

Josh goes to swim practice early in the morning and sees his friend Blake .

“Hey Josh! What’s up?” Blake says in an excited voice.

“Oh nothing, same thing different day.” Josh says with his head bowed.

Blake can tell something is wrong with his friend so he asks “what’s wrong with you man?”

Josh replies, “Just nothing seems to be going my way you know? Feels like I’m asleep and I can’t wake up from this nightmare.”

Blake looks shocked. “Don’t worry about it man, I’ll be fine.” Josh tries to assure his friend.

Blake jumps in the 85 degree water and starts’ doing his long warm-up the coach gives them every morning. Josh stands there for a couple of minutes thinking of a better life and how it would be if things were different…if he had a life like his friends.

After warm-up was over they stood on the wall and talked when level five entered and Blake turned towards Josh, “Look Josh, we have new girl swimmers.”
Josh glanced over and gazed upon the most amazing looking girl he ever laid his eyes on. Her name is Lauren. She has angelic glassy hazel eyes. Josh felt whole for the first time in months. You may believe in “love at first sight”, well, I can tell you it is true because that is EXACTLY what it was.

Josh swallowed and asked Blake “is that an angel?”

Blake laughed. “What?”

“Never mind” Josh said with a huge smile. “Let’s finish this practice!”

If you were to ask Josh what he did that day he couldn’t tell you. Over the next few weeks his friends could see he was getting happier. Everything around Josh got better. His father paid more attention to him, his brother and sister started listening more. Love saved me, I mean Josh…love saved Josh, but more importantly, Lauren saved Josh.

Now, let me be clear by saying that this isn’t all happening because of this one girl, but it seems to Josh that everything is happening because of this… miracle, if you will.

One day at practice when level five and six were practicing together Josh got in Caitlin’s lane, Laurens best friend. Caitlin is shorter than Lauren, but equally as beautiful.

“Hey! My name’s Josh.”

“Hiiiiiiii, my name’s Caitlin.”

They talked all practice getting to know one another. When Josh thought he knew Caitlin well enough he told her how he felt about Lauren.

Caitlin says in a humorous voice. “What! Have you told her this?”

“NO! Are you kidding? I haven’t even introduced myself yet!” replied Josh very fast.

“I’ll tell her!” Caitlin said as she ran away laughing.

The next day Josh had a summer league meet. He sat with his team mates while every one was piling in.

“So who do we swim tonight?” Josh asked.

“I think Old Town.” His friends said in unison.

At that moment Lauren walked in and Josh pointed at her and asked his friends if any of them knew her.

“No? Who is she?”

“Her name’s Lauren. She swims with me.”

Lauren, of course, knew by this time that Josh had feelings for her. Halfway through the meet Lauren saw him sitting by himself and decided to go talk to him.

“Hey, my name’s Lauren.”

“H….Hi….my my name’s Josh.” Josh answered nervously.

They talked, but not for long. After she walked away he felt so stupid for not saying more.

“She probably thinks I’m dumb!” Josh said hitting his forehead with his palm.

Two years go by and Josh, Caitlin, and Lauren become really good friends.

Let me pause in this story to tell you what went on in those years. Josh has tried many times to get Lauren to like him, but she just won’t come. Caitlin has no idea how much Josh cares for her as a friend….and she’ll never know. Ok, I’ll continue now…

Lauren starts liking this other guy by the name of Jake. She won’t tell Josh about it until he confronts her about it.

“Why won’t you tell me that you like Jake? I know you do…I tell you things.” Josh says in a cheerless voice.

“Josh, I don’t like him like that! I would tell you! Just because I don’t talk to you all the time now and talk to him more doesn’t mean I like him!” Lauren says irritably as she storms off.

What she doesn’t know is that Caitlin and Josh have already talked about this subject. She lied to my face…I mean Josh’s face. Over the next few weeks Lauren and Jake started hanging out a lot more and Lauren came up to Josh to ask a question.

“Josh, do you think you could talk to Jake for me? I really like him.”

He couldn’t believe it… the girl he loved had feelings for someone else.

“Yea, of course I will.” Josh said as though it had no effect on him.

If he couldn’t be the one to make her happy then he would have to let Jake. As much as it hurt Josh he talked to Jake and returned to Lauren waiting to hear the news.

“He says he likes you, but it will be hard because he’s going to college next year.”

“Oh…ok… thanks Josh.” Lauren said in a happy voice.

He knew she wasn’t happy, but he couldn’t stop thinking, “now she knows I feel.” Josh felt bad for the one he loved and disgusted with what he was thinking because he knows how it feels… waking up knowing you can’t have them and going to bed you knowing you wasted yet another day with out them! Another year went by and Josh still kept longing for Lauren, but she never came…until one day. Josh had been thinking she was acting differently towards him and he talked to Caitlin about what he thought and she told me that… I mean she told Josh that…

“I think she does, maybe you should ask her yourself?”

At the next meet when Lauren was counting for Blake, Josh talked to Lauren.

“I have a bet for you Lauren.”

“What bet?” She said excitingly.

“I bet that you won’t answer this next question.”

Knowing what he would ask. “Josh …don’t ask me that.”

He had to though! If there was going to be a time…this was it!


“Do you like me Lauren?”

“Josh, I’m not answering you.”

He laughed because he knew it was a yes. After all this time she finally liked him, but all good things don’t last forever...everyone eventually feels loves cruelest sting.
You can guess what happens…Lauren says she doesn’t like him anymore in a week and Josh becomes sad. After he got over it they started talking a lot again. No matter how bad she hurt him he couldn’t stay away form her because love is more powerful than hate. I will now skip a couple of months because all you need to know is that they just kept having fun with each other and Josh kept loving her like he always has. Prom was coming up and they talked about it before, but nothing serious. Josh decided to ask her one day after practice.

“Lauren, I need to ask you a question…” Lauren just look sat him. “Well…my proms coming up and I was wondering…”

“Yes Josh, I’ll go with you.” Lauren said laughing.

Josh smiled and hugged her and over the next few weeks she went shopping for prom stuff and Josh his prom stuff. Josh rented a mustang for the big night. He picked her up and while walking to the door he could hear his heart beating. Her mom yelled up the stairs and as she walked down she took his breath away. Her parents took their pictures and did all their parental things they had to do. After the left Lauren’s house they went off to eat with Josh’s friends and went off to prom. They danced, ate, drank and had the time of their lives. When he was driving her home Josh just had to ruin the night by bringing “them” up.

“Lauren how come we don’t date?”

“I don’t like you like that Josh!” Lauren said as she was getting annoyed.

“Yes you do, I know you do! You act different towards me then any one else Lauren.” Drew said as he started getting mad. “One day ill get over you or I won’t be here and you will be wondering “what if” all your life.”

Lauren replies in an aggravated voice. “Josh, talk about something else, I just like being with you as a friend.”

He dropped her off and hugged her goodnight and said, “Just think about us Lauren, that’s all I ask.”

"Goodnight Josh. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Lauren said as she shut the door.

As he was driving home he began to cry and it began to rain. It was like it was raining because he was crying. No one could have guessed what would happen next…just 500 feet away from me a drunk driver coming home from prom swerved in my lane and hit me dead on. The sad thing is that at the same time the one that I love so much was trying to call me to tell me she felt the same way, but I wasn’t on the other end to hear the good news. I was already on my way towards the better life.

The next day it was on the news…”Drunk teen hits other teen, drunk leaves without a scratch, other teen dies.”

Lauren called Caitlin the next day.

“Caitlin! You will not believe this… I like Josh.” Lauren said laughing, completely oblivious to what happened to Josh.

“Lauren, Josh died last night…a drunk hit him. Haven’t you seen it? It’s all over the news.”

Lauren turned on the news and saw what Caitlin was speaking of. They started crying and talking about all the good times they had with him. After all…everyone eventually feels loves cruelest sting.