Eternity

Chapter Twenty~ Everlasting Story

I don't know where I should start.

When I first met Wayland, we both were different people. We were living in our nightmares, never fighting to bring light into our lives. We constantly lived in the shadows, in the grey clouds that shrouded us from ever knowing how to fix this, and that blocked us from ever knowing that we can have true happiness.

We didn't know what our true potential could be, what we could do for this world, for others, for ourselves.

That all changed the day we entered each other's lives, the day we crashed into each other in that dark pit— which Wayland finally told me he ended up there from an angry opponent who ambushed him after a fight, beat him up, and dumped him there. Wayland joked that now I have to go and threaten and then make out with him, just like I did with his brother. I smacked his shoulder, and he laughed. Then he kissed me, and I let him.

     But that pit we both ended up in, maybe that pit resembled the darkness in us both and in our lives. And maybe the fact that we both ended up lying in it meant that we could understand each other and pull each other out.

Because without knowing it, that's what we did, that first day really seeing each other.

Wayland Everett once told me, years ago when we graduated high school, that being together felt like Eternity— that he would give me Eternity so we could lie in each other's arm as long as we wished. I told him that I would only spend my Eternity with him if he wouldn't harass me about doing my homework, and he agreed with a laugh that could have been a gift from God to me, no matter if I deserved it.

     We may have been two unbroken  souls— unbroken, because we hadn't lost ourselves yet, we still dared to dream— but together we could rattle the stars. Together, we could change our worlds and shine light over the darkest parts of ourselves. Together, we could rebuild what we once were, whether we found our lost fragments and welded ourselves back together, or whether we found new, beautiful parts that we loved just as much to make it into another part of ourselves.

     Maybe if I hadn't cheated on that one test, if I hadn't been forced to study with Wayland, maybe I would have been just fine defeating my "demons" by myself, on my own time. That can be a possibility, but there's no doubt that I wouldn't have had as much fun finding my path in this world if I didn't have my amazing, smart, lovely, beautiful husband and best friend, Wayland at my side. And there's no doubt a huge part of me would be lacking without my other besties— Jacob, Amani, Marek, and Bella making memories with me. Even if Jacob always pokes at mine and Wayland's relationship, even if Amani keeps sassing me and throwing tasty food at me, and even if Bella and Marek make a more beautiful, picture-perfect couple than me and Wayland, I never would have chosen another path in my life. I would always choose them; my family that I love with all my heart, including my brother Johnny, who never fails to make me proud.

So although I hate endings, although I never want my story, or any story, to end, I'll give you two last pieces of me to remember all of us by. Hopefully you will find that you have your own story to tell— everyone does. Because everything in your       life— the good, the bad, the ugly, everything included; all of your mistakes and triumphs, all of the people who made you cry and burst with laughter, all of your pain and love, everything and everyone make up who you are. Everyone has something to tell, something for someone to listen to, and everyone needs to hear a good story, a sad story, a story of retribution.

So here's the last piece of my story I'll tell, but it is in no way ended. I still have the rest of my life to live out.

So here you go, and thank you for listening to my story— my Eternity, for there will be no end, only a lasting note to sing for everlasting life.