T.Y

I was so happy. Happier than I had been for weeks. People were cheering - cheering! - for us, and clapping, like we were the stars of a broadway show. It was so wonderful. I was just reveling in the amazing concept that the boy that I'd fallen in love with actually loved me back. Me. I had mulled over it, and wished on it, and cried for it, and here he was, in my arms, right now. I never wanted to let him go.

"I love you too," I said to him, quietly, so that nobody else could hear but us. "I always have." He wiped my tears away, just like I had with him on that night with his mom, and I took his hand. It felt like such a relief to finally be able to do this, after I had dreamed about it for almost a year beforehand. He was perfect. And the fact that he had made that speech, in front of everybody, made me want to cry. It actually did make me cry, now that I remember correctly. I may have acted tough but I was such a softie underneath, really. Holly was ecstatic as well, coming over with her hair flying and screaming with delight when she heard my reaction.

"You see? I told you she loved you back!" she smiled, smugly. I could only smile back at her, because I was in such a glorious mood that day. I still felt bad for Holly, though. It turned out I wouldn't have to worry about Holly, but I didn't know that then! Noah bounced in as well, hugging us both and yelling his words of congratulations into our ears. It was the most amazing thing, the greatest proof that the human race can be a wonderful, wonderful thing.

And so, my dear listeners, that is the story of how I met Vinnie. Basically, how he was my lifeline during that entire time, and I was his, and how I slowly started to fall in love with him. Pretty soppy, isn't it? I guess you'll be wondering exactly where I am right now. Married to Vinnie, with three kids, all with green and purple hair? Nope, I'm not quite that old yet, thank God. It has actually only been a couple of months since that day at the basketball. I'm standing here, with my cropped hair dyed back to its original and well-loved shade of green (this time with a couple of streaks of orange and pink, because - you know me - I like to live a crazy life), holding a sheet of paper which contains my speech, and reading an extremely condensed and summarised version of this very tale out to everybody.

You'll (understandably) be quite confused. I am, at this moment, standing and reading a speech at the funeral of Ralph Robert Wilson. My grandpa. If you're wondering why I don't seem upset, it isn't because I'm heartless, and that I just forgot about him in two seconds. Of course it isn't. I still hate the fact that he's gone, and I always will - but I know that he would have wanted me to be happy and remember him, not be depressed and remember him. So this is me. Being happy. "The reason I'm reading this particular story today is because, if I hadn't thought to call my grandpa at that precise moment, I would never have met Vinnie. So I have a lot to thank you for, grandpa. Rest in peace."

The speech isn't particularly long - I find those long ones boring - but it's close to the heart. People clap, and they smile, and it kind of puts me back together again. I'm not wearing black today, and neither is anybody else here; I've got my Doc Martens back on again, and some new huge jumper that has pink elephants on it. Oh, and a peace sign T-shirt. Because he was a peaceful kind of guy. Everybody's here - me, my mom, Matthew (in a tiny little tux, which I think looks pretty adorable), Holly, Noah, all of my grandpa's closest friends, and a few more. Oh! I forgot to say. Both Holly and Noah are all loved up too... Holly didn't have to wait too long, because it turned out that Jay, the guy that Holly was good friends with, had liked her the whole time, just never said anything about it! As for Noah... Well, let's just say that his boyfriend is even more gorgeous than he is, which is saying a lot. I felt quite overwhelmed by their beauty when they were both together - although of course, Noah had to ask for my permission. Which, after a lot of You-better-look-after-this-guy-or-I'll-beat-you-up-like-the-last-guy kind of talk, I gladly granted. I'm so happy for him. For everyone. For me.

While 'Hey Jude' is playing softly in the church, everybody files out one by one, holding flowers. Roses. They were my grandpa's favourite flowers, and I'm holding two of them. One's for him, and one I've taken for Juliet. Did I never say who Juliet was? Maybe I didn't. I do apologize. Juliet was my best friend, through most of high school, who did everything with me. She was one of those best friends that you would jump off a cliff for, if she told you she was there at the bottom to catch you. We spent every single moment of free time together. That is, until she took her own life a couple of years ago. I have no idea to this day what the cause of it was. It tore me up inside, because I always had this horrible, sickening feeling that maybe it was my fault, and it stopped me from trusting people, in case I hurt them. But now, I can finally let her go. Stop myself from wallowing in the past. I'll still think about them, of course, but I need to concentrate on the good things.

Vinnie is a couple of inches behind me, holding another rose, and he's being very quiet. I'm going to really miss him when he goes off to college, but my mom has granted me permission to visit him when he moves out. She really likes him, which I definitely hadn't foreseen! It's probably because he's so good with Matthew. Plays with his plastic dinosaurs, and everything. I think it's probably a guy thing. He takes my hand, and I pull him with me to the bridge that's over the river. Very romantic, and all. Don't be getting any wrong ideas! I was thinking purely for symbolical reasons, you see.

"Look," I say, pointing over the top of the bridge to the gushing river below us. It's so beautiful.

"We can drop the roses down here." I would usually expect a sarcastic comment in here, but today he just nods respectfully. Know what I've been through. In the short time that my life has dramatically fallen to pieces, he has been the one to pick them all up again. And that is why I love him.

As cheesy as it is, he's still holding my hand when I drop in each rose, perfect and delicate, into the river gently, and watch them being carried away upstream. We wait, like little kids, until they are completely out of sight, until we start to head back to everybody else... Still thinking about the very first day that we became each other's lifeline.