In Memorial

A letter to continue my songfic, "You and I Will Meet Again", which can be found at my ID. This one's for you, Colin and Alex.

Hey, guys.

            It's been a long time...nine whole years. So much has happened, some good and some bad. I've grown up, guys...I'm not the nine-year-old tomboy that left you behind. I'm eighteen, fresh out of high school. I play the clarinet now, not baseball. I haven't yet experienced romantic love. I guess I'm still holding out for one of you to show me the way.

            I doubt you'd recognize me, if you saw me somewhere. Not a whole lot remains of the girl you used to know. Same blonde hair; same blue eyes. A little chunkier than you'd probably think. Tall, although you two probably match me inch for inch. I don't have the disposition you remember me having; adolescence wasn't kind and sowed a lot of resentment into me. I think the term 'bitch' sums it up nicely...

            I'll be at college in the fall, although you two have probably beaten me to it. There's always a chance for a meeting in college, but I gave up hoping for chance meetings with you. I don't know if I'd recognize you, if given the chance...I'd like to hope so, but one can never be too sure.

            I tried to write you when we were younger, but you never answered. I suppose I can attribute this to your masculinity--I can't see any of my male friends answering a letter like that--but I hoped regardless.

            It's storming outside tonight. I keep remembering the summer thunderstorms we got caught in, after riding our bikes all over the neighborhood. 'Fugitive on the Run', Fort Sport...those were the days. I never had days like those again.

            After I lost you guys, I fell apart. I became depressed. You two were my only real friends and I'd lost you--it wasn't until high school that I found a group of close friends. Throughout the end of elementary school and all the way through middle school I had no real friends; nobody understood me quite like you two did. I discovered writing and it sustained me, but it can't compare to the bond the three of us had.

            And now I sit here and write letters that you'll never see, many hidden by the ravages of time and space. This one, however, serves as my memorial to you, and the girl I used to be. If I'd continued to be that girl things would've been different...but who can ever say that it would've been better?

            I love you both dearly, and your memory stays with me. As Tom Petty put it, "I don't know how, I don't know when--but you and I will meet again."