The first thing he said to her was a pick up line. A cheesy and ridiculous pick up line, as he recalled. They'd been at a party that his brother had forced him into going to. She'd come with a mutual friend, that he didn't know she knew. It was a run of the mill college kegger, and he wasn't even interested anymore until he caught the glimpse of her. It wasn't from across the room with a light shining down on her from above as the party split to the sides to make a walk way toward her, as if he was Moses parting the Red Sea. It was a simple moment of glancing and catching a view of her before someone blocked most of her from his sight. If he wasn't madly in love with her in this future place, he wouldn't have remembered her from any other girl.
She'd always have this one moment in his mind, locked at the forefront of his memory. He'd first met her and he could never forget her in that moment. She was standing with a friend, one of the "cost you five bucks for unlimited access to the keg" plastic cups in her hand. She stood taller than him, as usual, on some black peep toe pumps, her long model legs covered with some perfectly fitting dark wash jeans that hit her in all the right places. A black tank top completed her outfit, it had some sparkly sequined stuff on it to make it a bit dressier, her dark brown hair in loose curls framing her flawless face and enhancing her big chocolate brown eyes as they sparkled under the harsh dorm artificial lighting.
He approached after being shoved by his best friend. Clearing his throat he got her attention but the minute her eyes met his, the activity in his brain screeched to a halt like a pile-up at rush hour. Rob Hawkins, a guy who had words for anything and everything, found himself speechless.
"Hi, I um saw you from the other side of the room and uh…" He swallowed. "I lost my number, can I have yours?"
Lucky for him, Elizabeth McIntyre from California, thought he was joking. They had started to hangout after that. She would text him constantly. Call him endlessly. But Rob always found himself in the Friend's Zone. The words I love you had always been there on the tip of his tongue waiting for the right moment to bring himself from the sidelines to the first string. But he was Rob, the best friend. He healed broken hearts with funny movies, ice cream sandwiches they made from Edy's Vanilla and fresh baked Tollhouse that they made themselves. He brought pizza from down the street and a twelve pac of "bitch booze" as Jason would call it. He would drop his own life to come over when she needed him and carry part of the world off her shoulders, even if he had to juggle a couple planets of his own also. He was the night in shining armor. He was never Prince Charming.
As he told her to look at him, he cupped her face in his hands as the final explosions that would bring their lives to an abrupt end rattled the world around them. He wrapped her in his arms holding her, panicked and frightened. He told her what he'd always meant to, the three words that he'd always wanted her to hear from his throat. She repeated them back and for that brief moment even though he knew that this was the end, he was at ease. The finally blast came and he knew that would probably be it. She screamed and he closed his eyes against the force of rubble hitting his body from every direction. He held her close, pretty sure that Beth was already dead. His mind was on the good things of his life. All of them involved her. That first party and when she'd helped him with his bio grades. Pizza pies and cookie dough fights. Hours laughing watching The Office and drinking margaritas that turned into tequilaritas as they ran low on mix but were too drunk to notice the difference. Falling asleep in each other's arms and knowing that even if they never exchanged I love you back and forth, she would be his best friend forever. And she was.
He closed his eyes. He held her close, feeling her completely still in his arms. He didn't want to know if she was dead or not. He just wanted to pass in this moment knowing that she loved him. He let his body give in to whatever was waiting for him on the other side of life. He let out one last breath and as his heart stopped, Rob knew one undeniable truth. The last thing he said to her was I love you.