Lessons Learned From Johnny and Devan

Lessons Learned From Johnny & Devan
By Victoria Broughton

         Ever since I was a little girl, I have believed everything would be perfect if I could find someone to love. As I grew older, it seemed impossible. All my loves slipped away, as all young romances do.
         All she had to do was hold me and pat my back, as I cried, to make all my problems disappear. She was there every time I needed her without question. This time, though, as I cried about yet another lost love, I realized how much love she had for me and wondered why I was crying over lost love when I had someone to love sitting right next to me.
         Her dark brown eyes hid so much pain, more than I could ever imagine. Her family. There are no words to describe them. I don’t see how her mother and father could see so much failure in such a wonderful person, as they saw in their own daughter. Nahal is a talented and beautiful person with so much to give to the world. She cares so much for others and is going to be something great one day.
         My family had been her family for ten years. My mother was there for her as much as possible. She talked to mom about everything, from her concerns with her family and future to when she lost her virginity.
         This summer was especially hard for her. She and her boyfriend of three years had just shared a messy break up, and she had defied her parents and decided to skip extra summer classes at a community college in Austin to spend the summer with me in my old hometown, Lampasas, TX. Lampasas was a special place for both of us. When I had lived there a few years back, she had visited me regularly.
         It was there, where we had both became teenagers, where we had our first boyfriends, and where we learned of the freedoms a small town had to offer. Back then life was simple. The word “driving” was not in our vocabularies and summer days were spent selling lemonade, swimming in the river, and chasing boys. We had learned those were the good days when I left sleepy little Lampasas for the fast-paced city life a few years before.
         This summer was going to be different. We were going to Lampasas on our own. With no parents, no responsibilities, and no clue what we would face there. We left one night a ten o’clock on a grey hound bus. We struggled to find places to stay and money to spend, but being where we loved was worth it, nothing else mattered.
Especially when we met Johnny and Devan. Both of them were younger than us but they had a charm we couldn’t resist. Johnny’s husky appearance, dark brown hair, and goofy personality caught my attention. While Devan’s southern charm, country accent, and sparkly smile caught Nahal’s. I, being my trusting self, threw myself right into Johnny’s loving arms. But you had to go the extra mile to earn Nahal’s trust, which Devan did with flying colors.
         The days we four spent together still fill Nahal and I with joy when we look back. Trips to the river, nights spent at the guys’ house lying on the bed and watching movies, riding four-wheelers, hot summer nights, and laughing together are among the few. Every summer Lampasas is home to a huge carnival that the whole town goes to. Nahal, the guys, and I couldn’t wait.
         The weeks leading up to the carnival were amazing. Johnny and Devan made us promises we thought would go unbroken. I still remember the night Nahal came home and told me that Devan had asked her to run away with him. He had showed her a box of money and said that as soon as they could, they’d leave for Europe. That offer was too perfect for her; they both wanted to escape their families’ grips.
         Johnny had made his share of promises to me too. He promised me that I would always be the one, and he was so glad he found someone like me. He promise he wouldn’t take my love for granted and leave me lonely again. When I gave myself to him, he said one day he would marry me, and I believed him.
         It’s still shocking to me how our world collapsed so quickly. The night before the carnival was to begin Johnny left a message that he was calling it quits. I was heart broken. I had given him so much, my love, my trust, and my faith among other things. That night Nahal and Devan comforted me while I cried and I remember thinking, “Thank god I still have them.” Devan had become a brother to me, and I knew that he’d take care of me and my best friend, and tell Johnny how stupid he was.
         The next day Devan kept in touch with Nahal and I, saying he couldn’t wait for that night and that he missed us both. I gathered up my courage and headed off to the carnival that night. Nahal and I sat and waited for Devan near the bridge eating ice cream just after dark when he walked by hand-in-hand with some other girl. I couldn’t believe how he broke her heart, and mine. Later that night I found out Johnny had found someone new too.
         Both of us were left without an explanation and hurt beyond belief. We didn’t understand how it could all be so fake. How could all the memories have just disappeared overnight? I guess we may never know. All I do know is that every time I hear a four-wheeler start up, feel the cool of the river, or lay out on the trampoline I will remember the lessons learned from Johnny and Devan. They taught Nahal and I the greatest lesson of our friendship that summer. No matter what happened we would always have someone to love, each other.