Unlikely

"Best friends are strange creatures. They never hesitate, they are always there for you. He was, with out question, my best friend. We did everything together. He knew everything about me. I knew what his next move was before he did. Which came in handy. I could be myself around him, or more so than I was with other people. I held back from people, he didn't. He wasn't scared of them. He could've cared less than what they thought of him. He was hot. It was crazy how the girls chased him. I won't lie. I cared. We both dated, but it was never more than that. When we were alone, he would hold me. We would flirt, goof around, whatever we felt like doing. We never felt like giving it a name. We weren't ashamed not of each other. We just never made anything out of it. It wasn't until we kissed that it finally sunk in. I loved him. He told me he wasn't gonna let me go. We still acted the same around other people. They never had to know. It was just easier. There was no drama, no others in our lives. No one else compared. It was a time when I smiled often. It never ended. Eventually we graduated from high school. We never again had to walk those halls, or deal with all those people that cared too much about our lives. We had come a long way since when he first kissed me. After we walked across the stage and were handed diplomas, he kissed me, in front of everyone. It took me by surprise, we stood there laughing as every one stared and whispered. It wasn't shocking when we left for college together. It was even less so when I came home with a ring on my finger. We knew our chances. We knew how often relationships like ours don't last. I have news for you. We made it. In the end, we were together six years before we were married. And you know what else? It's been a long time since then. He's my best friend, he's the man who loves me, he's mine. Who'd of thought we'd make it? I'm glad he had faith. He never hesitated. He never questioned, he knew. He had always known. He had always loved me. I wish I had been as brave as him. I wish I could say I was like him. But my friends, that would be a lie. I was his balance. I was the calm one, I was the one that laughed and brightened the room up. I was the parent that sat up until the kids walked in the door a few hours after curfew. He would be up just to keep me company, not to yell like I did. He was my best friend. He knew me better than I knew myself. He was my other half. I loved him. I still love him. Even though he's gone, he's still in my heart. He was a good man. He made my life worth living. And now that he's gone..." The tiny old woman burst into tears. One hand covered her eyes and the other gripped a cane with white knuckles. The cane was seemingly frail and delicate like her. This woman was stronger than she appeared. She was 93. She looked up with her warm brown eyes, tears streaming down her face, and she laughed a sad laugh. "I thought I was the one that was supposed to go first? You were supposed to be the strong one." The look on her face was one you could see on a teenager. For a moment you could see back in time, to when she was young. "We were unlikely, we were different. But we were each other's, nothing can ever change that. I can never hold his hand again. I can never laugh at his jokes or tell him to turn the t.v. down. I can never tell him I love him, and have him hear me." Around her, the family she had made and brought together, stood next to the friends the couple had gathered through their lifetime. Age played no part amongst their numbers. The day was bright and cool. The spring day was dry apart from the morning dew and the tears. And all the people gathered looked to the frail woman wearing black as she cried, she stood alone next to the man that had been her husband in life. Wishing he was there with her, to get her through this. "I won't ever say goodbye, because you will never truly be gone." She turned away from the casket, away from the grave, she walked to her chair, as she sat down. She covered her face and sobbed. The picture above the shiny black casket, was a black and white, it showed the couple when they were young. They were laughing. He was handesome yet he seemed all the more so, because of the woman in his arms. She was looking up at his smiling face. It was as if she forgot that someone was taking their picture. She looked at the picture, and remembered how he had asked her to marry her as the camera clicked. All of the people that survived him, that had loved and known him, walked past the woman to say goodbye. Some stopped on the way back, they kissed her cheeks, or her hand, some patted her on the back. The children hugged her, before running off to their mothers. Couples looked at her and saw a future they hoped to have. She had a long happy life with him, it was all anyone could ask for. She loved him more than anything. That was obvious. Her children looked at their mother, and saw a broken woman, her grandchildren looked at her and saw an unbreakable woman. Everyday after that she came and sat by the grave if only for a few moments. She'd tell him she loved him, and that she missed him. Then one day after the leaves had fallen and the first snow of the year. She looked at the tombstone, with a heartbreaking watery smile. "It's my first birthday without you dear, I'm 94 today. The children came by yesterday. We all missed you. They sang your lines of the chorus. Little Missy asked where you were she's three now. Can you believe that? Our great-grandchild is three. I love you so much. I miss you with all my heart." She placed the white roses on the marble, and smiled again. "They're your favorite. I didn't forget. Winter's here dear. And Christmas is coming. I have to face that without you too. I love you." And she walked away. That was the last time she was there. A few days later, her family was there again. The same black and white sat above the back casket. But her memories were gone. The friends that were there for her husband were there for her and they cried. It was a bitter sweet moment. They had all watched her live without him, they had all watched her try. They had watched her smile and laugh. She was with him now. They knew. She wasn't without him anymore. They were sad she was gone, they were happy that she wasn't heartbroken anymore. One child stepped forward in the snow. She kneeled between the headstones, and looked at the first one. "She loved, we all saw it. She cried herself to sleep, and some times when she woke up, she forgot you weren't there. It was if she was waiting for you to walk through the door. That's how you were to us too. And now that she's gone. It's like we'll be waiting for you both. But I guess you're waiting on us. We loved you, we still do. We won't ever forget you." Like her great-grandmother, she cried. She cried there in the snow until her bestfriend picked her up in his arms and carried her to his car. As he put her down in the seat he kissed her for the first time and whispered in her ear. "I love you." And watching them from where ever they were. Was the couple from that black and white smiling, because they knew what it felt like to hear those words. And because they knew how that story was going to end.