The lady who was approaching me was wearing brown flip-flops, pink shorts, a purple tank top and blue shade glasses. The closer she got to me, the more it looked to me that she was one of my best friends from Spoonerville High School.

"Max? Is it really you?"

That was when I recognised that she was definitely one of my best friends from high school and she definitely was Stacey. Then I dropped the beach volleyball and we hugged. It had been ages since we last saw each other, which was on the day we graduated high school and at her amazing graduation party at her house on the same day.

"Oh, Max, it's so good to see you again," Stacey said.

"And it's good to see you, too, Stacey," I said.

I was already slowly starting to feel better and get over my breakup with Sasha as I explored the city of Cancun, but seeing one of my best friends from high school again made me feel even more better.

"Hey, Stacey, who's your new friend?"

Stacey and I turned around and saw an African American lady approaching us. She was wearing a light blue tube top, grey shorts and brown sandals.

"No, Lauren. This is actually one of my friends from high school and one of my very best ones. This is Max. Max, this is Lauren, my best friend at Harvard University."

"How do you do, Lauren?" I greeted, shaking her hand.

"So you're the Max Goof that Stacey talked about all the time," Lauren said.

I was confused. Stacey talked about me a lot? There was a long pause because I didn't know what to say and neither did Stacey, until she finally said, "Say, Max, do you want to play volleyball with us? We could do with another team player."

"Sure." I still can't work out why I accepted their offer, whether it was because I was pleased to see one of my very best friends from high school or if it was to help me to continue to take me mind off my breakup with Sasha. I still to this day think it was a mixture of both and helping Stacey and Lauren beat the other volleyball group from another university they were playing against certainly helped me. It wasn't a proper competition; it was just a friendly game and we all had fun doing it. Then Stacey and Lauren invited me to celebrate our victory in a Mexican restaurant and I gladly accepted.

Stacey, Lauren and I went to the nearest restaurant and we ate a lot of delicious Mexican food. We had tacos, burritos, Torta Cubanas and tortillas among them. Stacey and Lauren drank some Mexican red wine, but I stuck with a Mexican hot chocolate. I hadn't been in Cancun for even half a day and yet I felt I was really getting into the spirit of Mexico. Then we talked about college life and what we achieved in college so far. I decided to let the ladies go first.

Stacey went first. She told me that she was enjoying life at Harvard and she had plenty of friends and was the most popular girl in the university just like when she was the most popular girl and the student body president at Spoonerville High School and she continued to host parties and attend parties just like she did in high school and she was still enjoying her majors, with psychology being her favorite among them. She was studying all kinds of psychology. In fact, she was doing so well with her psychology studies that she had been brought in by the Cambridge Police no less than seven times as a criminal psychologist to help interview some criminals and not just help them get to admit the crime but why they did it. She started off as an assistant to a criminal psychologist for the first case and she did it better than the other fully-trained and certified criminal psychologists with more than twenty years experiences ever did. The Cambridge Police was so impressed with her skills and genius that they asked her to lead the criminal psychologist parts of the next cases and she was still a college student.

I was very impressed with Stacey and what she achieved in college and helping the police make the world a better place. I also asked her if she had seen or spoke to or received a letter or email from my ex-girlfriend Roxanne since the day she and her dad had to move to Santa Fe. They had been best friends with each other and the closest thing both of them ever had to having a sister ever since day care. She sadly told me that she had received no more contact from Roxanne than me ever since she left. Then I asked her if she had a boyfriend. She had plenty of male friends, but she never had a new male relationship since she and Bobby had to break up because they were had to go to different colleges. Bobby would gladly have gone to Harvard with her, but he didn't have the grades or the money so he couldn't go with her and they were both sad that they had to end their friendship.

Then it was Lauren's turn. She told me that was studying drama, creative writing and business and she was Harvard's head cheerleader and she starred in many Harvard drama productions, including the narrator in Andrew Llyod Webber's Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and the role of Joanna in Stephen Sondheim's Company. She told me that like Stacey she had no boyfriend.

Then it was my turn. And so I told Stacey and Lauren about how much I was enjoying my life at Spoonerville College and how my friends, PJ and Bobby, were enjoying college as well and that we were winning a lot of College X Games and we were enjoying our college majors and the times that I starred played the lead male roles in the college productions of West Side Story and Starlight Express and I told them about my college relationships, first with Lola and recently Sasha, and how I started work at the college gyms, starting as a cleaner and then some people saw me work out and wanted me to coach them so I did and the gym manager was so impressed with my coach that he made me gym instructor assistant as well as helping the college productions I starred in behind the scenes. Stacey and Lauren all enjoyed hearing my stories as much as I enjoyed hearing theirs. Then Stacey asked me how my dad was and I told her he was doing great now that he had a college degree which he earned during my first year at college and that he had a job being a janitor at Spoonerville College and that he was in a relationship with Sylvia Marpole, the head librarian. And I told Stacey and Lauren about last summer when I went to have a catch up with my ex-girlfriend Lisa and how I helped her give birth to her twin children, Bennie and Alicia, and how I became their godfather. Stacey and Lauren congratulated me as well for becoming a godfather.

Soon Stacey had to go to the ladies.

"Wow!" Lauren said. "Stacey was right. You truly are special, Max."

"Thanks, Lauren," I said. "What exactly did she say?"

Then Lauren told me that Stacey told her all the time that I was her secret crush ever since the first day at high school and that she enjoyed seeing me in everything I did like school football matches I played and won, the drama productions I starred in, when I danced with Powerline at his most famous concert in 1995 (and Lauren is a big fan of Powerline herself) and when she watched me complete the Spoonerville Triathlon with my then-girlfriend Lisa. I was surprised. I never knew that Stacey had a crush on me. She never gave me any hints. If she did, why didn't she say anything? Why did she start a relationship with Bobby? Why did she let Roxanne have me for a boyfriend, though I was still grateful she did. And Stacey was a great friend back in high school and she was beautiful and smart and she earned my respect by being the student body president for all four years at Spoonerville High School – a record that even to this day that no other student had ever come close to reach let alone beat. But I didn't know how to feel let alone what to say.

"Did she ever mention her ex-boyfriend Bobby?" I asked.

"Yeah, she did, but not as much as you," Lauren replied. "Of all her high school friends, she missed you the most."

Again, I was honoured but confused and I didn't know what to feel. And if Stacey missed me the most, what about Roxanne? Then again I remembered that Stacey had no contact with her any more than I did since she left, so maybe that was she must have forgotten about her and move on, like all the other students did. It made me wonder if I was the only one from Spoonerville High School who remembered Roxanne at all. Despite the lack of contact from her, I still hoped she was doing okay with her life.