Gather around, my friends, for it is indeed time for a story to be told. The context of this very story has been shared and tweaked for ages and ages, in countless different ways. The dynamic of this story is not what changes; it's the action action, the thought-process. The characters. But to me, these characters are quite real, as real as you or me. For I have seen them, and I watched with bated breath as this story unfolded before my own eyes.
The ending of this particular story remains unknown. That is how it always seems when forever is promised.
What earthly human could have any idea of what's to come? Forever doesn't pass uneventful. In fact, it doesn't pass at all.
So many heart-crushing and devastating curveballs can be pitched at your head throughout forever. You might not meaning be playing the ballgame. Those balls come just the same.
Sometimes your forever can be cut shorter than your forever partner, other times vice versa.
But somewhere in that twisted, wicked promise, lies hope. Hope that together you can take all the boogers forever could possibly flick at your head before forever eventually takes you.
The promised forever is where our story all starts. And yes, I am aware that there is neither a beginning not ending to forever.
It is like love.
I cannot travel back in time to the first sigh of love as much I can travel forward to the last.
Forever, like love, just is. It can't end; if it could, forever would just fade into the dust of an old eon and a new would begin. And unbreakable promises would crumble and fall under the smashing of forever, stealing with it the heavy love of ones lost and ones hopeless.
A promise.
"I promise."
Julia's smile reached to her ears and she snaked her thin arms around Eli's neck. "We own forever, don't we?" she asked as she snuggled closer to him, burying herself into his chest.
Eli smirked. "Hell, yeah. It doesn't stand a chance."
He drummed his long fingers against the bottom of her chin until she connected her blue eyes to his green.
"This is perfect, Eli. I'll always love you."
He put on a cheesy grin. "Forever and ever?" he pressed, his face centimeters away from hers.
Julia nodded and repeated it. "Forever and ever."
I'll ask you to imagine a couple. Just like any couple. They love each other, they get lost in one another's eyes, they dread spending time apart from the other.
Envision there's a boy. He's in a band t-shirt—most likely from one of the ear-splitting concerts he's been going to ever since he was a young kid—along with worn-out jeans and a leather jacket. He'll drive around town, probably with no distinct destination, in his shock-jock dad's rusty pick-up truck with a sloppy grin plastered on face, perfectly content. His fingers will tap the outside of the car door as deafening music blast out his open windows. He'll bob his mass of thick, dark hair to a tune that you couldn't even pick out in the music until you watch his movements. Then you'll find yourself listening to the beat of his music a little differently, now to the motion of his head.
Envision there's a girl. She's wearing fishnet tights paired with bright blue socks that loosely run atop her shins and combat boots. Around town she's found at local coffee shops, legs crossed, sketchbook occupying her lap, pencil dancing across the page. She'll frown at her final product, but it'll be a frown or contempt. She doesn't feel anything towards her drawings. Nothings ever creative or beautiful enough—in her own mind—to send to a publicist or art museum, so her sketches find themselves stacked in piles inside her bedroom, corpses of dead dreams and consistent reminders that she's not doing the best she could.
They are how they are, they know it. And all that they are is the one that they place their love into. Once your love is in their heart, they are you. They become part of your definition.
Some call them 'misfits' but personally I strive to be them. They're my role models in that sense.
The love they possess, the fiery passion burning within their hearts: I want that. I can't fathom a decent human being not envying those two for the gift that they found inside one another. It is irreplaceable and unconditional and overpowering, that gift. It cannot be found under a Christmas tree, it cannot be given at a birthday party. This gift is only discovered if you search hard enough in the souls of other people. There's a gift in everyone, something they obtain that is useful or inspiring to us.
But, you will learn, that there comes times when gifts are better left unopened.