Young

8 - Innocence of Undying Love

It is often said that four years of college are the best ever. 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.

Blake's leadership and skill had been rewarded with the position of team captain and starting varsity quarterback and everyone was talking about the homecoming game.

I went with one of my closer friends, Kim Andrews. The air was electric! We had a great view from the third row as Annette led the cheerleaders out. Our rivals came out next and took their positions.

Finally, the home team ran out to the adoring yells and screams of the fans as they rose to their feet. Blake took off his helmet as the coach walked over to him with a megaphone. He took it and squinted up at the bleachers and yelled "I'd like to ask Veronica Morris to come down!"

My jaw dropped and eyes opened wide. I felt paralyzed for a couple seconds until Kim nudged me.

Blake repeated the request as he looked around the stadium. "Come on Veronica, we're not going to start this game until you come down."

I snapped out of it and ran down the steps and out on the field as fast as I could in a skirt. As I approached him I started to laugh and mouthed the words, "What are you doing?"

I stood in front of him and the whole team with the buzz of the fans all around me. Blake knelt to one knee, looked up into my eyes and presented a small box containing the most beautiful sparkling ring I'd ever seen.

"Veronica Morris, will you marry me?"

"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.

I headed back to my seat as everyone congratulated me from every direction.

It's hard to describe what I felt like as a stadium filled to capacity with roaring fans cheered for Blake and the team when they scored. It was a rush, a sense of overwhelming pride. I felt like a celebrity and I 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 later as she yelled with joyful laughter.

"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. Veronica...Preston. 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. 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 I spent with Blake. With Annette it was different. Even though we were spending less time together she didn't mind it or at least she 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, parties and late night talks had drifted away.