The two of us getting together was at first just to get back at our ex’s. Even though Isabel and Alex were over long before Michael broke up with me to pursue his destiny with Isabel, Alex still had feelings for her. So we decided that if they were gonna do this to us, we were gonna do it to them. It was during our senior year that Michael and Isabel had decided to go with Destiny. Isabel avoided me for nearly a month; Michael wouldn’t even look at me when I approached him. I had come to the realization one day while in the back room of the Crashdown, that it was over, for good this time. I couldn’t even describe how I felt at that moment, standing in the back of the restaurant, looking through the diamond shaped window and seeing Michael and Isabel, together. They looked so happy, he was smiling at her, touching her, being affectionate with her, opening up to her. Things he’d never really done with me, especially in public like that. Since when did Michael Guerin start expressing PDA?

Since he dumped me and hooked up with Isabel, that’s when. I turned around, sat on the couch, partly in shock, partly in grief, and just cried. I felt unloved, unwanted, heartbroken, and ugly. Then Alex came in through the back, saw me crying and immediately came to my side to comfort me. Good old Alex, always there when I need him. That’s what I thought about him back then. He was just good old Alex to me. Now, he’s something completely different. I can honestly say that I now know what Liz’s life must’ve been like at 17, and what her life is still like today. Being so completely butt crazy in love with a guy that knew everything there was to know about you and is butt crazy in love with you too.

It was the day after I saw them in the Crashdown together, looking so happy, when I came up with my crazy plan. I hopped in the Jetta, drove over to Alex’s house and unloaded my plan on him. He was skeptical at first, but he went along with it anyways. I still remember what he said to me, “I don’t know if it’ll work Maria, but if it’ll make you feel better...I’ll give it a try.” Even then he was all about making me feel better, making it easier for me, he cared for me that deeply...of course I had no idea just how deep his love for me ran, and neither did he.

We saw that my plan was working, despite how much Michael and Isabel claimed to be happy with each other, we would notice the looks that they gave us. Michael would constantly glare at Alex, gave him the death look whenever he saw him. When Isabel would look at me, I could see jealousy and anger in her eyes. I’m not really sure if the anger was there because of the fact that Michael was jealous, or if she wanted Alex to forever be her little lap dog, drooling all over himself for her and her only. They kept it to themselves but Alex and I knew that there was trouble in paradise. So we took it up a notch, we started showing PDA in front of them, kissing each other, giving each other what we like to call ‘Max and Liz’ looks, doing heavy flirting. Michael and Isabel held out longer than we had expected though, they were together until a week before graduation, forcing Alex and I to be together all that time too. We were very determined to make them see what exactly they were missing.

On the day that Michael and Isabel broke up, he came to me, Michael that is. He came over to my house and he told me that he and Isabel called things off. He said that he wanted me back. “Oh, so you and Isabel couldn’t cut it and now you want me back? I’m like second best huh?” I was pissed. Pissed that he dumped me, pissed that he was with someone else all this time and pissed that he was coming back to me after it didn’t work out. He babbled for a few minutes trying to find the right thing to say, and if I remember correctly he said something along the lines of, “I love you, I’ve always loved you. I never really loved Isabel, I know that the explanation of ‘because I was curious’ isn’t gonna do much for you, but I was and now I’m not.” I didn’t know what to say to him, he was so open, so honest. I’d never seen him like that before, so I just stood there. Then he kissed me. A deep, long, passionate kiss. It took me by surprise, but what surprised me more was that I wasn’t kissing back. I was thinking about Alex, I was mentally comparing Alex’s kissing style with Michael’s!

Alex’s kiss was soft and gentle, deep and slow, caring and loving. Michael’s was hard but gentle, deep and fast, loving and caring, and something else, urgency was in his kiss. Like he had a limited amount of time to make me see that he and I belonged together. I guess he finally realized that I wasn’t kissing back because he broke the kiss off. “What’s wrong?” I couldn’t believe that he had to ask so I said nothing, I looked at the ground instead. “Oh. It’s Alex...you love him, don‘t you?” He had realized what I still hadn’t. “Yeah...I mean no! I could...but I don’t know.” I was so confused. There was the guy that I had been trying to win over with my little game for the whole entire year, standing in front of me, proclaiming his love for me and stealing my breath away with a kiss that I had wanted since the day he broke up with me, and what was I doing? Mentally comparing his kissing style to the guy that was playing house with me, wishing it was him that was standing before me saying all of this stuff! I was so confused, did I love him? Did he love me? What if Isabel was with him? What if she kissed him and he liked it? What if he didn’t?

Little did I know that she was with him, and she was kissing him, and that he was thinking the same thing that I was. A very similar scene had played out in the Whitman living room that day. I didn’t try to get a hold of Alex for two days; he didn’t try to get a hold of me either. We were both confused, I didn’t know that he was confused and he didn’t know that I was confused, but we were.

Finally one day I was working in the Crashdown and Alex came in, he didn’t know I would be there, he infact thought I wouldn’t, thanks to Liz. I was in the kitchen when he sat down. Working in that restaurant from the time I was even old enough to legally work, I had grown to know my way around so that I didn’t even have to look where I was going. Liz told me that someone had come in and sat in my section, she told me the table number and I went. My feet took me exactly where I needed to go, readying my order pad before I got to the table, I didn’t see who was sitting at it. “What’ll it be today?” I asked him looking down at my order pad. He recognized my voice immediately and put his menu down. “I thought you weren’t working today?” I was shocked, I looked up to meet his gaze, “Um, Liz said that you weren’t working...” I guess my facial expression betrayed me, I hadn’t wanted to show him that I was hurt that he didn’t want to see me. “Maria, we need to talk. Can you sit?” He was the only customer in my section so I sat. “Isabel came to see me the other day; she and Michael broke up.”

Here it comes, I thought to myself, he’s gonna let me down gently and good old Alex will be there when I need him no more. “Yeah, Michael came to see me the other day too.” I wondered if it was worry that I saw in his eyes when I mentioned that, but brushed it off. “Um, well the reason I haven’t called you or anything like that in a few days is,” Here it comes, he’s gonna say it, he wants to get back with Isabel and I’ll be crushed. “Well it’s just that I’ve been really confused. I mean here we are playing games to try to win these people back and when we finally do, I’m not sure that’s what I really want anymore...am I making any sense?” I nodded. “Yeah, you’re making complete sense, I’m confused myself, there Michael was, kissing me and the whole time I was thinking about you.” He smiled, we talked some more, and there was no more confusion. I got his food; he ate it and left. And we’ve been together ever since.

We got married 3 years after graduation from high school, and had twins the next year after that. Michael and Isabel got back together, and they’re still together. We’re all good friends again. Alex and I are blissfully happy, sure we have our problems every now and then, but we always work them out. I never dreamed I could have the life, love and family that I’ve always wanted with none other than my best friend, Alex Whitman! He’s got a job that he loves, I’ve got a job that I love, we’ve got children that we love, a beautiful house, a puppy to play with the kids in the back yard, everything is perfect. He knows my fear of abandonment and has done everything humanly possible to show me that he loves me and that he won’t abandon me, or our children. I’m so lucky. The kids should be getting up soon, and I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll run in here and wake up their daddy. So I should probably stop writing and crawl back in bed until they come, then I’ll get up and Alex and I will make breakfast together, like we do every Saturday morning, while the kids watch cartoons. Until next time.