Part Two

October 28th, 2006

This is not why Lucky came back, to fight with her. He hadn't even planned to come.

He was in his apartment in the city this morning- where outside his window lived a million other lonely souls who didn't give a damn about him- and Lucky was determined to not get in his car and come back here and put her through anymore heartache.

But the pull was too strong. He kept glancing at the clock, calculating how long he it would take to get back here and, at the last possible moment, he ran out to his truck, slid out of the spot in the long term parking lot, and started for home. For her. For his other half.

He didn't know what he expected but he had to say something to her before she walked down the aisle and belonged to someone else.

Lucky hadn't thought it would be this hard, that she would be this angry. But he should have guessed, she didn't give up easily...but she had given up on him.

"You want me to go?" he asked

"I want you to talk!"

"And say what? That you should marry him? Or what you already know in your heart...that you shouldn't? What is it you want me to say, Emily?"

She spun around and grabbed the bottom of his shirt. "What I need to hear! You know me better than anyone else on earth, you know what I need. So give it to me or just go...so I can do this..."

"I never meant to hurt you..." he started softly, as his hand closed over hers.

The fire went out of her eyes and she almost melted into him. "I know that."

"And I never meant to love you...this much either," he added.

She started to shake slightly. He gave her a tender smile.

"Em, you were just the girl who lived around the block from me...in that big mansion filled with crazy people...the girl who snuck in and slept on my top bunk whenever she had a nightmare...the girl who talked me into asking out the head cheerleader and then got drunk with me, choking down beer she hated, when I got dumped right before prom...you were just my best friend for so long...until you became my everything...and I don't know how you expect me to let you walk out of this room and become all that to some other guy?"

He raised both his hands to cup her face, "Oh, Emily," he murmured "it was never supposed to be this hard..."

October 28th, 1994

She was sitting on the bench, crying softly, as she looked down at a faded photograph in her hand.

"It can't be that bad," he said.

His voice was light, full of youth and energy. She looked up and nearly smiled. In an instant, her pain was a little less.

"Yes, it is that bad," she told him. "This is my mom and ...she died. Now I have to live with a houseful of people I don't know in a town I don't like and start school tomorrow with a bunch of kids who will all probably hate me on sight."

"You and me both, I bet. I'm starting P C Junior High myself in the morning."

"Yeah?"

He sat down next to her. "She's pretty, your mom."

"Thank you."

"Do you have a name?" he asked with a grin.

She was close to grinning back, but not quite yet. "Doesn't everyone?"

"What is it?"

"Emily."

"Lucky."

After a long moment of silence, where he let her decide if she wanted to tell him more, Emily spoke."Everything in my life is changing. And I think I hate that...but I don't have any choice..I can't choose anything."

"You can choose me."

She raised an eyebrow.

He went on. "My dad says you can't choose most things in life. You get doled out a family, a name, a circumstance- you're rich or poor, you're smart or stupid, you can't even choose who you love...at least, he didn't. He says he was born to love my mom. But the one thing you get to choose are friends. So you got to pick carefully...you want to pick me?"

She studied him for a moment and then said, "All right."

"And I will pick you," he said, more to make her happy than anything else. Still he meant it, and he would stand by his words for life.

Seeing the sweet way she looked when a smile finally came to her lips, and then her eyes lost some of their sadness, Lucky knew it wouldn't be hard to be her friend. Not hard at all. It was a choice and he made it easily.

Later he would learn that- without a doubt- it was the best choice he ever made in his life.

(Who knows where the road will lead us
only a fool would say


But if you'll let me love you
It's for sure I'm gonna love you

all the way

all the way

So, if you'll let me love you
It's for sure I'm gonna love you

all the way

all the way) ( Frank Sinatra)