Ten Years Gone
It’s been ten years, and he’s still thinking about her. I can’t say that I blame him.
For eight months my best friend came out to Michigan from Utah to live with me during my Junior year of college. The idea was that he was going to enroll in the local community college, and hopefully decide what he wanted to do with his life from there. Problem was, about six months prior to his move out date, he landed a girlfriend. And that girlfriend wasn’t about to let him go without a fight. She bled his bank account dry in the weeks leading up to his arrival out here, and called him crying on a daily basis, begging and pleading for him to return to her.
That died down just a little bit after a few months, but she still had her hooks firmly in his sides.
Community college never happened. He didn’t have the money, and wasn’t close to prepared to make the effort necessary to enroll and succeed anyway. But he did get a job in a video store, and that’s where he met Mandy.
Some people look for their opposites, a complimentary person to their personality. My friend didn’t find that in Mandy. He found an instant soul mate, someone who was essentially just him with (bigger) breasts. She was a whirling dervish, Tasmanian devil of a girl. Beautiful, vibrant, as much an admitted underachiever as my friend, and absolutely positively one hundred percent in tune with him. They met, and were instantly all about each other.
Until he left to go back to Utah about a month later.
In the first couple of years he was back, they had visits both ways a couple of times, and it was always intense and emotional, and always spectacular. They knew they were right for each other, but his inaction was getting in the way. Now, it’s been over two years since they’ve spoken, but he thinks about her constantly. In fact, on Sunday I noticed he had written her phone number on his hand, just in case he got the courage to call her up out of the blue.
He didn’t.
I guess the question is,
should I? No, not for myself (assholes). For him. He’s in a relationship now that might not be right, but will end up at the altar if nothing significant were to happen between now and then, and I guarantee you nothing significant will, unless we’re talking about Mandy. It’s obvious he needs one of two things from her. Either closure, or her heart. There’s no in-between on this one.
So, do I call her? He had all weekend to try with her, and he didn’t. If there’s anyone that knows the feeling of living with regret, it’s me. Little regrets, big regrets, whatever. So do I let Nate play this one out, which I promise will result in nothing, or do I get my hands dirty here and lend a helping – but obtrusive – hand?
I got home, called the number, and it had been disconnected. Poor guy...