• Once upon a time, in a very far and distant fall, a girl made a promise. Outside, night had fallen and the cold air began to cool inside the dinning room, where the sound of music filled every inch of its wooden surface. That night, the girl promised to speak her feelings out the next time she could meet with love, she promised to never again keep her feelings inside because sometimes it might be just too late. That day, it was already too late. Her illusion was dead, buried deep down in the trails of her own memory.

    For as long as a year, I saw her wait patiently. I saw her believing faithfully that maybe, one close day, the next first love of her life would walk inside the classroom, carrying along the promise of a happy ending just as if this promise was another bouquet of roses—so easy to find, so easy to purchase. Through the school’s aisles we would both see couples holding hands, sharing the morning and sunsets of a blooming love or at least, what came near to it. I remember her childish voice, echoing inside my head as she repeated for tenth time “Look, soon I would just be joining the club” and indeed, I saw it happening.

    The boy came along. He was tall, hard-working and the funniest person she could had ever met; within a couple months I saw her falling for him. You know when someone is crushing, the smile never vanishes and they try too hard to hide the red face once you asked if they are dating. “We are just friends” she would say, “Nothing more, nothing less” But despite her insipid words, we both knew she wanted more and so she went for it. Out of an unknown bravery, one simple noon, she took the first move and asked the guy out… And if this wasn’t impressive enough, I saw her doing it the day of her birthday. That became the first of many unofficial dates.

    One year of her high school career, that’s what it took to her to finally conclude that she had found the one, the new boy of her life. Their friendship grew into something so amorphous, something that didn’t seem best friends nor lovers behavior, almost morphing into a hybrid containing the best of both words. From friendship, it took its freedom and from love, its attraction. It took a whole year to build that hybrid and less than a day to change it, because she decided to change it, one day, after a hot summer’s rain the D-day came—She finally said her feelings aloud.

    I don’t know what she said or what he did, I don’t know the place or the time but if you asked me to imagine the scene, I would probably tell you that I imagine it like a beautiful, starry night being ruined by the sound of spoken words, words that apparently he did want to hear but fear their inevitable consequences. At the end the girl cried that summer out, but managed to smile once fall started fresh, and so new. I’ve never met someone so brave.