Prologue
Do you know what romantic love really is?
Let me start with what that type of love is not.
Love is not falling in love at first sight and staying with that person forever. Love is not getting together with someone, have one falling out and breaking up completely, and then getting back together. Love is not a popular boy that cares nothing for the nerd girl until he sees her without her glasses with better hair and a dress or something like that. Love is not complete adoration with no arguments at all. Love is not all about looks and social expectations.
Love is most definitely not taking advantage of the other and it is not abuse – physical or emotional. I'd rather focus on the less obvious things though, since you probably already know this stuff.
Love isn't being completely dependent on the other person. Love isn't manipulating their loved one for their own needs. Love isn't sabotaging the things the other person wants simply because they are jealous.
Love isn't always immediate. At times, you could hate a person, but then somehow, you find yourself liking them a bit more, and becoming their friend, before you wonder "Why do I suddenly want to simply be near you?" Other times, you could have a childhood friend and you always think of them as a friend, but over time, you slowly realize that you want to be with them forever. Love doesn't happen in a snap. Usually, love develops over time.
Love… it isn't any of these things.
Love isn't like how it's perceived in that one book, Twilight, but I don't want to have to explain that to you.
I'll tell you what I believe love is though.
Love is finding perfections in one's faults, but that is one of the most common things people say. Love is a weird, confusing feeling that is actually really hard to pinpoint if you aren't familiar with it, which most people aren't. Love is trying to find that one person that makes you happy and meeting a few people that you think, "This person is the one" before you realize you were wrong. Love is looking underneath everything on the surface and finding the things that are truly beautiful.
Love is willing to understand why the person you love is leaving you when they give a perfectly plausible explanation and being able to carry on strong. Love is understanding that you both need a bit of space from time to time so that you could hang out with your friends and family. Love is trusting the other to do things on their own.
Love is petty little arguments that result in storming away, only to meet up later and apologize. Love is jealousy over others who have a terribly close relationship to your significant other, but not so much that you would stop the person or your loved one from being friends (unless one of them does something like kiss the other. Then you can punch their lights out). Love is disagreeing over things and having sense knocked into you by your friends. Love is finding enjoyment in messing with the other, but knowing not to go too far (sometimes you might make that mistake though).
To me, love isn't perfect. You don't always find that one person right off the bat, but when you do find the right person, you have a few arguments here and there, and you might even break up, but you always find your way back to them, even if you end up with someone else at one point. Everyone has their ups and downs in a relationship, and when you adore each other so much that you never argue about anything and would turn a blind eye to everything they do (i.e. threaten someone to stay away, say that you can't hang out with your friends, etc) then… is that really Love?
But you know, this whole "love" thing is just my opinion. Personally, this is how my love life worked out, and I couldn't be happier. My relationship wasn't the best; it had its ups and downs just like any other. I got jealous at times, he got jealous at times, we got into petty arguments, we teased each other a lot. You get the gist of it.
My love story isn't a cliché. I wasn't the nobody of the school (though it may have seemed that way, I wasn't) and while he was certainly very popular, it didn't really matter who he was friends with. He didn't have a really popular and mean girl that tried to get with him. We didn't lock eyes and instantly think "Wow." (It was actually quite the opposite)
Either way, it worked out in the end, and I know we love each other. We might not be perfect, but I love him, and I know that he loves me. We still have our arguments, our worries, but they haven't effected us so much that we need to resort to drastic measures. I'm not sure how our life will go on from here, but I have high hopes.
So, here. I'll tell you my story, but I should probably introduce myself first.
Hi, my name is Matthew Williams. I was 16 years old when my love story began. I am French-Canadian, I am fluent in both French and English, I play as one of the best hockey players on my team, and I have twin brother. This is the story of my relationship with Gilbert Beilschmidt.