This year marks the fifth year that I've known you. I've loved you for four and a half years now. We met out of instinct and pure luck. You walked up to me that day and just randomly asked me to be your friend. I instantly felt my heart jump when you spoke. I tried to tell you what I already knew. That I'd love you and I'd never stop but you already made up both our minds. We became best friends. I can't even remember how it happened, it all went down so fast. The next thing I knew we walked together. I remember that I did it on purpose. I walked the longest way home so that I could spend more time with you. We were so young and all these emotions erupted. I fell. I was denying my feelings for days and on New Years when I looked outside the window and saw those fireworks I had my first daydream of kissing someone. Of kissing you. It was then I knew that I was so madly in love with you. I couldn't keep it hidden. Everyone knew. You knew. You teased me. Two or three times you asked me out and just passed it off as a joke. I didn't give up. You asked for real though. But you changed your mind. Not too long after you dated my friend. Courtesy of me. I wanted you to be happy. I thought she would do that for you. I loved you so much that I let you have what I thought you wanted. Her. It lasted under a month. It's my fault it ended. Or that's how it's always felt. Then we dated for a month. Without a hug, without a kiss and then one day it ended. You ended it. I remember being angry and absolutely devastated. You watched as I tore all the love poems I had written. I'm sorry I did that. I'm sorry I always tried to erase everything.  We never did stop being friends though. You told me you were going away that summer. I thought you meant forever. That summer was absolute hell. I remember sitting on my couch staring at the sky just crying. Just hurting. Wishing you'd come back for me. I cut for the first time. I don't know how it came to mind but I know I picked up that blade and I scratched and scratched at my shoulder until it stung. When we got back I thought I would survive. Move on with my life and put all my love away. Then you walked into the room. I cried. It was the first time I cried because I was happy. I had you and that's what I needed. We stayed friends but it didn't matter as long as you were there. I ached for you. Ached to say you were mine and that you loved me but it was too soon. We were too young. I was so nervous that first time you hugged me, I screamed. It use to tickle my heart. It made me smile though. Ear to ear. I did that every time until that day that you asked me out again. I ran to hug you screaming that I loved you. I couldn't stop giggling. I was so happy. I was yours again. I had a chance. Two days after that we kissed. I jumped back when I felt your tongue. It was our first kiss, ever. It was drizzling and when I jumped back you moved in and just kissed me and it was perfect. It was a dream come true. We kissed again once again a few days after. When we left you looked back at me and I looked back at you and I smiled. You didn't. I didn't see you again for a year. I heard from you once. You told me you loved me for the first time ever. You had forgiven my mistakes. You wanted me still and I still needed you. That call it came again and again and one day you just stopped. You had faded from my life again. I was in so much pain. I cut so much when you were away. When I saw you again. I couldn't do it anymore. I buried my feelings and tried to hate you. Your eyes still pierced me. I missed you but I wasn't be hurt anymore. You dated my friend. It hurt so bad. I just pretended. I threw out all the stuff from the years that I had known you. The outfit from our kiss. The hundreds and hundreds of poems. I threw away everything. I wanted to go. To run. I felt so alone. Nothing could make it go away. Then you and her ended and my soul felt such relief. I talked to a few months later. You kept apologizing.  We talked again. I laughed and I smiled. We talked about our miserable relationships. Then one day we were just both single and you told me your feelings were coming back. I got scared. I tried to change the subject. We met though. One day. It had been the first I had seen you without hate, without pain, with hope. With happy memories flooding back I met you. We talked awkwardly and then I kissed you. You were so confused and surprised. Then you kissed me. You asked me out. Here are. You proposing three months later. Us making love. Me, falling in love all over again and letting it happen. Letting myself become vulnerable for you because I always knew. It was always you. If we changed we changed together no matter the distance. If we broke we broke together. Our differences make things fun and controversial. It gives us a future to look towards. You and I want the same things. Each other. Marriage. Maybe a child. Happiness together. We have been through so much in our time together. Everything happened the way it did so we'd end up together the way we were suppose to be. I love you. I always will.

We sell dreams at a cheap cost to the young, and the hopefull.
Handing them out, but allowing very few to actually achieve, and once you reach the real world, or the guerilla warfare plagued hallways of your local high-school...the dreamers suddenly turn into the outcasts.
The "foolish few", so to speak, but before you ever scoff at someone with a dream...think back to a time not long ago, when you were young, starry eyed, and ready to take on whatever this strange world threw at you, now ask yourself this...what happened?

I've been told of love stories but what happened to all the mistakes made along the way?
Those stories of passion turned to regret...
Fondness turned to hatred....
What about being ******* over after being *******?
Am I supposed to believe that fairy tales are all that exist when I observe what reality really is?

Do you see that homeless guy, right there?
Yeah, the one with untrimmed beard, empty stomach, and desperate eyes?
and do you see Ralph's, Pavillion's, or Trader Joes's
Stacked with Miles and Miles and Miles of food
Meat, Veggies, Canned, and Cooked
Shelves behind shelves, overload of trash of a day old food.

Can you tell me what's wrong with this picture?

IF,
All of a sudden,
   you feel lonesome in a crowd of people on the New Years day at Times Square
     you feel that chill crawl up your neck to your eyes on warm summer day
             you suddenly feel scared, afraid, and cold
                      You feel UNWORTHY, UNLOVED, NEGLECTED, IGNORED, SCARED

                 Then,
can
                   we
be
.....................................................
friends?