He sat at his desk with his head in his hands, trying to forget her. He remembered how well she had drawn his eyes because she said they looked sad, no matter what she did to make him feel better. She was that kind of person- she knew exactly how you felt no matter how well could you hide your emotions. But the call last night had depressed him even more. She had hung up on him after he had stated his name and asked for her. He was afraid that she had moved on; found someone she could talk to face to face, unlike the stupid phone calls and letters they shared on the rare occasion.

     A year ago they had spent a few weeks over the summer together, trying to fit all that they could in so little time. He remembered when he had mentioned to his friends he liked her, and they took it as their personal mission- to set up a meeting, leave them alone for a while, and see what happens. His friends decided to go for a swim, and seeing that no one was going to stay, he decided to leave with them.

     At one end of the river, there was a waterfall, with a trail behind it that leads into the area with a stream and rock next to the river. His friends swam to the area, and horsed around for a while; shoving eachother off of the rock and into the river, doing what any normal rebellious devils would do. He just decided to row over to it, jump out and drag one of his friends down under and act like a water demon. When the girls jumped in, all except two people jumped in, with the boys swimming after the girls in bikinis like their lives depended on it. He just sat on the rock, looking into the water and wondering what what to say to her.

     “Hey,” she whispered shyly.

     “Just so you know,” he clarified, “I didn’t know about this either.”

     “I saw a guitar back there,” she proclaimed, “Can you play?”

     “A little bit, I mean, I’m not the kind of guitarist who can just jam out, but yeah, I can play a few songs,” he stuttered shyly.

     “What songs do you know?” she inquired.

“‘Hey There Delilah’ a few songs by green day, and the acoustic version of ‘Radioactive,’” he explained.

     He took his guitar and began to play. He played all the songs he knew, and pretty soon, he was teaching her to play. They laughed when every chord she played sounded like a goat dying in terrible agony.

     “I have to go soon,” she whispered softly, glancing at her watch. “I’m sorry.”

     “Thats okay,” he whispered back, looking at her with eyes that portrayed that a part of him had died when she had said that line, but learned to keep everything bottled up inside of him like a can of tear gas [Bad pun. Hee, hee! Gotta love those puns!].

     “I don’t know,” she stated shyly, looking at her feet, “but it seems I have a thing for guys with your sense of humor. Now I’m wondering if this guy likes me, and wants to kiss me, or if he doesn’t like me, and lied to his friends.”

     That is when he felt his time to make a move had come, and put his hands on her arms, and kissed her tenderly, lovingly, only pulling away when the time no longer allowed it. And the Fates chose the end of this relationship with a vicious relish, denying them the love both desired.

     “I love you,” he breathed in her ear.

     Coming out of the flashback,he picked up a folding chair and threw it across the room. Grabbing his guitar by the neck, he slammed it onto the corner of his dresser, shattering the drum into microscopic pieces. He collapsed to the floor, no longer able to fight off the deluge of depressing thoughts and memories. He let a flashback wash over him, unable to resist the chance to relive love as powerful as it had been at the time.
     They sat on the bank of the river in silence. Both were thinking the same thing: what happens next? Will I ever see him again? Why was our love destined to end this way? Why not someone else? He could see the tears building in her eyes; a flood fighting a weakly fortified floodgate, well, not as fortified as his. Finally, she let loose both the tears and her thoughts, letting loose the pain of the moment with one swift pass of the cropduster, or maybe it was more of a bomber type set-up.

     “I wish you could stay here for a week longer, or today could last forever,” she cried.

     As for him, he could think of nothing to say, nothing that could give her the comfort she so terribly needed, and wanted. What he did was wrap his arms around her, rock her back and forth, and nuzzle the top of her head with his soft cheeks as it rest on his shoulder.

     “I love you so much,” he whispered lovingly in her ear, as he had always done after they kissed.

     “I love you, too,” she breathed between shaky gasps in the interlude of her sobs, with both of them hoping it would last forever.

     The next day, before it was time to leave, they met at their meeting place, the place that held the most meaning to them: the waterfall. After they laughed, and cried, and laughed some more, they went silent. They listened to the sound of the stream and river, staring into its murky depths, and wondered how many other couples’ relationships had ended this way. Then she wrapped his arms around  his neck, and no longer needing her consent, put his hands on her hips, and they kissed. They kissed, and they did so for only as long as the time would allow, as was their fate. But they hoped. They hoped that Father time would grant them their one wish. The wish that went against the will of the fates, but had the strength of love backing it. The wish that both hoped for: that father time would grant them their wish, and that it would, in fact, last forever