Thursday, January 19, 2006

Glad to call him friend...


I’m on good terms with all of my former boyfriends. Friends can never understand how it’s possible and I can’t really explain it, it’s just the way it is. I guess it’s just a mutual respect and affection thing that lives on long after romantic feelings have bitten the dust. I do admit to having one favorite ex in particular. His name is Patrick; a tall, attractive Irish dude w/ beautiful blue eyes. One of my favorite things about him has always been that whenever I’d look at him he turned the coolest shade of crimson known to man. It's always cracked me up.

We met when I was 15 ½ and he was 19 and hit it off immediately. We parted ways over my age; he wasn’t comfortable with our age difference at that time. We met up again when I was 17 but this time I had a boyfriend. Then when I was single he had a girl. We were always victims of bad timing. Throughout the years we’ve been like best friends hanging out together, confiding in each other stuff we didn’t dare share with anyone else. We’ve also been very supportive of each other with whatever was going on in our lives.

When his estranged father died I was the first person that he called and even though he tried to act like it was no big loss, I knew better. I rounded up mutual friends and showed up the next day at the wake unannounced. From a distance I watched as he tried to hold it together. I walked up behind him and rubbed the middle of his back without even turning to look he knew it was me. His best male friend placed his hand on his shoulder. For the rest of the night we didn’t leave his side. He held on tightly to my hand never letting go. Later on he told me that just before I’d arrived he’d been kicking himself in the pants for not asking me to come to the wake with him. He wasn’t sure if he could handle it alone. He told me that when he felt my hand on his back he was felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders he knew he wasn’t alone and he knew I had brought back up as well. That's the way it's always been between us we've always have had each other's backs.


We stopped hanging out with each other about three years ago. Our lives left us little time for each other. I was working 2 jobs and going to school full time, he was in a new relationship and was doing the same and our down time never coincided. Every now and then I’d hear from friends that Patrick had been asking about me and I would tell them to say hello for me.I was thrilled when I learned he had become a father. He'd always been great with my siblings. A little over a month ago I checked a long neglected email account and found an email from him. It had been written 3 months before; in it he addressed me as “itty bitty” and it made me smile. I had forgotten that was his pet name for me. I emailed him my Nextel connect number and we immediately began chirping each other back and forth catching up each other on what was going on in our lives and have stayed in touch since.

This past Monday I got a chirp from Pat he had the day off and was 20 minutes away from my house and wanted to drop in to see me. When he came into the dining room I was sitting at the table my laptop opened up looking up the classes I needed for the upcoming semester. I looked up and stared at him as he talked with my mom. At 26 he still looks like he’s younger and he’d lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw him but something was different…he had facial hair! It was really blonde so you couldn’t really see it. I was happy to see my friend. He looked in my direction and when our eyes met he just stared at me. I smiled at him and he turned that crimson color I remembered so well. When he sat next to me he looked at my hands joking that they were still the smallest hands he’d ever seen. We immediately started joking with each other catching up it was as if time had never gone by. Some people come into your life and never leave instead they become a part of your life a point of reference, a part of your memories. That’s the way it’s always been between me and Patrick. We have a lot of shared memories I’m glad to call him friend.

Labels: ex bf's

Posted by @ 1:20 AM
3 comment from:  Aisha,  Emory Mayne,  DannieS72,