Before We Left, Part One

Have you ever met that one person that will always be in your life? The one person you know you can’t live without? Well for me, that was Bruce Davis. He has been my best friend since we were five. He was always there for me. I’d say he was my knight in shining armor, but I think I was his. So sweet, so caring. But unfortunately, he’s never even realized that I’ve loved him since we were ten. I’ve never been able to find the courage to tell him. Even if I had, it’s not like anything would ever happen between us. No matter how much I want it to I’ve grown to accept it. Even if something were to happen, it’s not like it would last very long. He’s going off to Oregon Institute of Technology and I’m going to Portland State. I know we’d be in the same state, but we wouldn’t be able to see each other. At this point, I’ve just come to accept that nothing can ever happen between Bruce and me.

Bruce is about six feet tall with ocean blue eyes. He has a tendency to wear a black turtleneck almost everywhere he goes. He wears it to cover certain things he doesn’t want to be seen, but we have this running joke that he’s bringing the look back. I’m not gonna get into what happened just yet. But I am going to tell you what happened in the summer of 2020…

June 7th, 2020

It was the day after Bruce and I graduated from Forest Grove High. Suffice it to say that we were very happy that our “four-year nightmare” was finally over. We had to deal with a lot of stupid stuff over the years and now we were finally free! So today, we were gonna go out and do something all day. But I woke up that day to find a fresh cup of coffee with a note that said; for Diana. Bruce always knew how I liked my coffee. I quickly drank it with a smile on my face and then I got dressed for the day. I grabbed a black tank top and a jean jacket. After about five minutes I heard a knock at the front door.

When I walked over I saw Bruce in a black v-neck and a brown leather jacket. He was holding a box with a little bow on it.

“Happy birthday,” he said excitedly with a deep voice.

I had completely forgotten. It was my birthday. Since my parents are always out of town I never really get around to celebrating. So how does Bruce seem to know when it is? I decided to stop thinking about it and just accept the gesture. I opened the box to find a picture of the two of us from our freshman year. At first, I was annoyed with him. I hated that year and he knew why. I had a near-death experience that year. Due to the injuries I had gotten, I had to stay in the hospital for almost a month. I was on crutches at my first homecoming and in Physical Therapy until the end of my sophomore year. But when I look again, it was a picture that Bruce took of us on the first day, right after our orientation. It was the day that I almost told him how I felt about him. I looked up and smiled at him.

“Thank you, Bruce,” I said, “this is really sweet.”

He looked at me with that signature smile of his and said, “So what do you want to do?”

I had to think for a moment. 

“Well, we have about eight weeks until you’re off to Klamath Falls.” I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. But for some reason, I couldn’t think about what we would do. So I just said, “What do you want to do?”

To be continued…