When we first met, I was in third grade. You were the new girl in class. I'll never forget the first time I saw you. You had your hair back into a ponytail, and even though I was just 9 but at that moment, I knew. You were the prettiest girl that I'd ever seen. I was so nervous the first time I talked to you. You walked up to me and smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Abby!" All I could manage to say was "H-Hi. I-I'm N-N-N-Neil." We became friends.
We moved on to Middle School then and you started hanging out with other guys. In seventh grade, we became Best Friends. You started dating this jerk. Every day I would look at him and watch you laughing with him, when you kissed him, all I could think was how much I wished it was me. That summer, he cheated on you and broke your heart. I would have never done that. I finally told you that I cared for you, and you told me you wanted to just be friends.
Flash forward two years. We're in High School. We're both in relationships, but I never got over you. You're going out with Brad, the seemingly perfect guy, with the worst intentions. We're at a party, and I drive my girlfriend home and return to the party later that night. Brad tried to get you drunk, and I told him to stop and we got into a fight. You disappeared. I found you on the roof. We sat there that night and you cried on my shoulder, and that night we just sat there on the roof in the moonlight under the stars. We decided that we’d meet in 10 years at the tree where we first met. If we were single, then we’d see it from there, if we were married, we’d talk about our children. The next morning I woke up and you were gone.
Flash forward another two years. We're at graduation. We've chosen completely different paths. You went to college in New York. I enlisted in the army. I was sent to Kuwait. Every night I would look at your picture. I wrote you letters, but I never got the courage to send them. One night, I got caught in crossfire. I was surrounded by the enemy. Around me bomb shells exploded and bullets whizzed. I saw my friend go down, and I kneeled and prayed to see your face one last time. Somehow I made it through.
When I came home, I went to college, and graduated. It had been ten years, so I head to the tree where we had planned to meet, but you didn’t show. I decided to look for you. I found you in New York, married with three children. We met one night, and we were talking about the old days when suddenly you broke down in tears. You felt lonely, that your house just wasn’t a home. I asked you to come with me, but you told me that you didn’t think I was good enough.
I decided to set out to prove myself to you. I looked to my true talent, singing. I entered American Idol, and I got 2nd place, but I got a recording contract. I wrote all my songs about you. To show you my worth, I looked for you, but when I came to your house, I found out you moved. Every one of my concerts, I would close off asking the audience about you, whether you were there or if the knew you, but to no avail.
One night, in Dallas, I was closing out my concert and I asked for you, and suddenly, the audience went quiet. I saw something moving in the audience. Slowly you walked on stage. All those years, they came back to me. I never dreamed of it like this. Seeing you again, was like falling in love all over again. We went out to dinner that night. You told me how your husband left you.You told me how you got cancer. You had months left. I asked you to stay with me, but you told me you didn’t want to hold me back.
I got the call a few years later, and I rushed to the hospital. You were on your deathbed. You looked into my eyes and asked me how long I loved you, and with tears in my eyes, I said “Forever.” You looked me in the eyes and then said “I- lo-“ but then you died. You never finished your sentence. Years later, on my deathbed, I realized that I could now see you again. And then we’d be together forever.