The Beloved One

Brian had had a very difficult and sad date life. It wasn't that he was mean, or ugly, it was his health. Because he was deaf-mute and had a breathing tube around his neck, most people paid him no mind whatsoever, completely avoiding him. Yes, indeed, it was very lonely for Brian. But somehow, he managed to get in a couple relationships by high school. But those all ended painfully, and Brian had given up on dating to focus more on school. He maintained an A-B average. But was still bored with his life, and lonesome.

In his second year as a Sophomore in high school, (Brian had to take half days of school, so his graduation was taking forever) he was sitting at lunch with a guy from one of his classes when a beautiful freshman with blond hair sat next to him. Bran was instantly captivated by this young girl, never had he felt such strong feeling for one person. But Brian was painfully shy.
A girl like that must already have a boyfriend anyways. Brian couldn't help thinking. So he kept his feelings to himself, and his curiosity hidden.

But after a short while, this girl began doing something that held Brian' attention on her, making it harder and harder not knowing her. She was taking off her shoes at lunch, something that seriously effected Brian because he had a bit of a secret foot fetish. It became too much, and Brian asked his classmate to introduce him to the girl, he was still too shy. The classmate said he would, but never did.

One day, Brian was the only one at the table aside from this girl, and her friend. At the last few minutes of lunch, Brian scribbled down a simple introduction on a notebook and passed it to her. She responded by introducing herself as well. Her name was Carla.

Sadly, this was the only time Brian and Carla exchanged any words at all for about two weeks. At that point, Brian had mustered up the courage to ask Carla out to a night of bowling.
"Sure. But just one question: Is this a date in disguise?" Carla asked him.
"Would you like it to be a date?" Brian countered her question with one of his own.
Sure." Carla answered.
"Its a date then." Brian said.

And so, this is how Brian and Carla's relationship started. But fate had a cruel twist in store for them; the day they'd chosen, the bowling alley was closed. Worse yet, Brian had no way to contact her. With a mix of embarrassment and regret for not double checking, Brian still went to the bowling alley to explain. However, she hadn't shown up.

The next day at school, Brian apologized for the mix up and got her E-mail address to prevent any more mistakes like this. From that day onward to 9 months later, Brian and Carla talked every day at school and online.

After getting to know each other some more, the two really began to connect well. But they still had to try figuring out a way to go out.
"Hey, wait a sec Carla. If we're going out soon, does that make us... you know, a couple?" Brian asked her one day.
"Maybe." Carla answered with a smile just as the lunch bell rang.
That was the ultimate tease for Brian, but it also promted him to try a bit harder at winning this vixon over.

On the day before Brian's 18th birthday, he asked Carla if she would be his girlfriend officially. Of course she said yes! And then, it was official. But not long after, Brian asked her if they could go into their relationship some more, by hugging at the end of lunch each day. Again, she said yes and they were etting closer and closer to each other.

Then it dawned on Brian that the school dance was drawing near, and he thought this would be a good chance to "go out" with Carla. Though it was school related, it was still technically a date, right? So, the week before the dance, Brian asked her.
"Hey Carla? What are you doing this weekend?"
"Going to the school dance." Carla answered.
"How did you...? I was just about to ask if you wanted to go." Brian said with a laugh.
"I was going to go with Carla. But having you there too will be even better!" Carla answered with a smile.
(Note to readers: Carla has a friend with the same first name as her. Interesting, huh?)
And so, the stage was set for Brian and Carla's first date. It's a shame this would be their last lunch together for quite a while though.

The night of the dance, Brian had unexpected company; his cousins Adrian and Serena. They wouldn't be staying for long, so Brian didn't need to worry. As he prepared, he had an idea.
"Hey, Serena? Would you mind um, dancing with me to loosen up? he asked.
Serena shrugged and Brian put on a song from his computer for them to dance to. It felt awkward for him, but the truth is, it did help some.

Just as it was about time to leave, Brian chugged a can of Monster, knowing he'd be out late, put on a suit, and left. On the way to school, he bought a bouquet of roses for Carla and slipped a short poem in it for her.

Then, Brian arrived at the school and searched for Carla. It may have been a slight task for her to find him as well, because he had the breathing tube around his neck covered up with his shirt collar, and his hair was exposed. (Normally, he always wore a cap over his head) It took a couple moments, But Brian eventually met up with Carla outside before the dance officially started.

Inside, the school was decked out in awesome decorations, and a photo booth was set up near the doors. However, Brian and Carla first went to the dance floor, which was crowded but also decorated with great flair.

A while passed with Brian and Carla just talking (Which was really difficult for Brian to read the notebook in the dark, for the record but was worth it) Then, Carla's friend Carla (Yeah, this stuff can get confusing with the names, but I'm not making thi stuff up) asked Brian if he was going to ask Carla to dance or not. Brian replied that he was just waiting for the riht song.

Subsequently, Brian went up to the D.J to request a song, one he remembered he loved back when he could hear, and then went back to Carla to wait for it.

Then, "I swear" by All 4 One started playing and Brian and Carla danced for the first time. It may not have been a perfectly executed dance, but both were still nervous and the moment was one to treasure.

After sitting down, Brian and Carla talked a little more, mutually agreeing to make that their song. However, this lead to Brian putting Carla in an awkward position.
"It seems fitting." Brian began, "I will always be there for you. No matter what."
Aw, and I'll always be there for you too." Carla said.
"Oh, you... I could just kiss you for saying that." Brian replied, regretting it later.

The kiss never happened, and Bran apologized for getting wrapped up in the moment. Things were fine then, and Brian and Carla had one more dance before the night ended, along with a picture as a keepsake.

When Brian got home, he E-mailed Carla yet another apology for getting carried away that included a song that was another favorite of his, "Slow Chemical" by Finger Eleven, as a way to build up to telling her how he really felt. Strikingly, she ended up saying it herself in the reply E-mail.
"I never told another man this besides my dad, but I love you. I'm glad I got that off my chest." she wrote.

Brian was baffled that she had said what he was trying to imply with the song, and quickly wrote back that he loves her to, and that's what he was trying to say via the song, but was too nervous to go right on out and say it as she did.

The proceeding Monday was the first day of school after the schedule changes. Which meant Brian and Carla would no longer be having lunch together. They still talked every morning online before school each day, but they missed each other so.

Then, one day, Brian decided to join the Science Olympiad as a way to see Carla again and when he spoke to her that morning, told her to expect him at some point that day, hoping to surprise her. Later, he came to lunch a few minutes early, and who should he find by the door other than his beloved Carla?

The time was short, but very memorable for them. Carla was having a bad day, she later told him, and that helped. At the end of the day, Brian made his way to the classroom that the sign up for Science Olympiad was held and, as expected, saw Carla there. This is how they began to see each other despite the factor of being separated through the scheduling of classes.

As it turned out, it became a regular thing for Brian to see Carla at the end of her lunch time, since he was to go to lunch early, and his lunch time was right after hers. It was only about five minutes a day, but just getting to see each other was what made it important to them both. They also got to see each other at the Science Olympiad meetings once a week, which ended with hem walking to the doors together afterwords.

When winter came around, Brian started missing school every now and then due to illness. Then, Christmas drew near. And as the weather intensified, Brian came down with a bad flu and missed several days of school.

He had even been admitted to the hospital for a few days, even though it wasn't that serious. Brian felt worse mentally than physically though, because he had no way of letting Carla know he was okay and didn't want to worry her. As soon as he was released and got home, he E-mailed her, telling her what happened.

Brian still had to miss a few days of school under doctor's orders, but on the last day before Christmas break, he decided to try his best to get through the day. This was due to his determination to see Carla again, and after hearing about what she wanted to give him for Christmas, he was more determined than ever.

And so, the last day before school was let out for Christmas break, Brian met Carla in the lunchroom, as they usually did, and asked his assistant to be alone with Carla for a few moments. And then, it happened.

Carla had given Brian his first kiss. He was caught up in the moment, and wasted time thanking her when he should have kissed her back. (Something he fixed the next time he saw her) After the bell rang, Brian got his lunch, ate, and went back to class. However, in class, he felt groggy and had to go home early. He was fine though, just came back a little bit too soon.

Brian's school assistant had to take time off to have her baby and recover from the process. Which meant Brian had to have a substitute assistant. This was a very stressful thing for him. The substitute was always putting school in front of EVERYTHING else for starters. Which meant, if he had to tell her about something (Such as an upcoming meeting with Science Olympiad, or a doctor's appointment results which needed to be passed on to the nurse) she would just ignore him and tell him to get back to work. Worse yet, she got into a habit of keeping his notebook after he told her something to keep him from asking questions. For her it was simple: "We're in this class right now, NOTHING else matters but doing the work for THIS CLASS ONLY. Everything else can wait."

Brian was quickly fed up with her, and there were other things, small things, that she done that really irritated him as well. The worst part was he could hardly read her handwriting, which made his grades slip since it was her responsibility to take notes of what the teachers said since he could not hear. Brian had started considering just quitting school altogether and getting a GED (earlier than planned) just to get away from her for good.

But there was something that always brightened up Brian's day; something that made it all worth dealing with: Getting to see Carla. When he was near her, he felt like all his troubles were lifted from him.

Now, the said substitute assistant may not have favoritism from Brian, Carla, or very many reading this, but she was doing her job. She just wasn't as close to Brian as his main assistant was and is. She had called his regular assistant quite often to tell her of Brian's behavior. A failed attempt on her part, because Brian's regular assistant (and all his teachers as well for that mater) knew him well enough to see that this was not his regular behavior and that clearly she was troubling him deeply.

Time passed, and Brian dealt with it though. Occasionally he refused to go to school because of occurrences of the previous day, but he made up the work missed and kept up his hard work.

The first chance Brian got to ditch his substitute assistant in the cafeteria, he took the chance to return Carla's kiss from before the break. Nervous, he'd asked her to close her eyes for this first time. This led to another kiss from her after the bell rang, and this became their way of saying good-bye.

Though it was nothing more than a peck on the cheek, Brian felt a spark inside each time. It was always magic.

As the school trimester came to a close, and schedules were changed again, Brian did everything in his power to get the same lunch time as Carla. A hard fought effort that was paid off, because once again, the young couple was about to be reunited.

Trouble was on its way though. Brian's old friend, Chris, soon began to dislike Carla, something Brian hated and constantly called him out for.
"Look bro, I just don't trust her, okay? You're putting so much of your heart into her, and just like always, its going to burn you in the end." Chris defended himself.
"No, it's different this time Chris. There's something special about her, she's not like the other girls I've been invlved with." Brian explained.
Chris, however, was still not convinced and continued to "warn" Brian and talk down Carla. Each time resulted in a bigger and bigger argument.

In late January, Brian began to feel there was something different when he was around Carla. Thinking it was just aggravation from Chris, he shrugged it off. Yet the feeling continued to sneak into his mind from time to time.

Then, Brian was invited to Chris' house for a small party; Chris ordered a wrestling pay-per-view and invited some peers over to watch. The event went great, and afterwords, everyone started talking out random topics, which lead somehow to a game of Spin the Bottle. Brian refused to play, knowing it wouldn't be right to partake in this.
"Man, it's just a game. Chill and have some fun." Chris tried to convince Brian to play.
"No Chris, I'm not doing this and you know I'm with Carla." Brian replied, getting aggravated.
"No one's gonna tell her. So she'll never know. Besides that, you might even find someone better this way." Chris ended up eating those words, almost literally.

Hearing that, Brian punched Chris in the mouth as hard as he could. He was fuming with rage! Chris got up, ready to fight back, but his younger sister stepped in and told both boys to stop. Feeling he made his point clear, Brian left. The proceeding Monday, Brian told Carla about it at lunch. Not much was said, but Brian got a feint scar from that punch on his right middle knuckle.

The Science Olympiad competition was fast approaching, as was Valentine's Day. Wanting to prove just how much he loved Carla, he began making payments on a 14 kt gold locket for her. The competition was held the day before Valentine's Day, and Brian was unable to pay off the locket in time. So, on the way home from the competition, he gave Carla a box of Valentine's Day Chocolates.

A few days before the completion, Brian told Carla about his foot fetish. How he done so was by E-mailing her a joke pole about their favorite (at the time) book series, what the main character looked for in women. Foot fetish was one of the choices, but not the one Carla voted on. She voted on the funniest one, but mentioned if serious, she'd have picked foot fetish. And that's when Brian told her. Surprisingly, she was very open minded about it. This made Brian feel so much luckier to have such a wonderful girlfriend.

The competition was a special event in its own, as it was the day Brian's dad and Carla met. To Carla's relief, not that she had anything to worry about, Brian's dad liked her and gave his approval of the relationship. (Let the record show however, that Brian and his dad don't talk hardly at all i the area of dating) To remember the moment, Brian took a picture of himself and Carla, which would latter be placed in the locket before he gave her it.

Soon after the Science Olympiad competition was over, Brian's regular assistant returned, so he no longer had to deal with the immense stress from working with the other substitute assistant This was also about the same time Brian paid off the locket and gave it to her during lunch at school.

The locket left Carla speechless, and it seemed things between them couldn't get any better. But the strange feeling continued to haunt Brian from time to time. And so, he told his mom about it in a very heavy conversation via E-mail. (Brian's mom is deaf, just like he is)

"I don't know what the deal is mom. I just got this weird feeling like we're going to break up because I'm not good enough for her. And I guess that... if she found someone in better health than me, who could help support her in the future, that I'd... step down from being her boyfriend to make sure she's happy and successful. I don't get why I feel this way, I should be happy." Brian told his mom.
"Sweet pea (Brian's mom's pet name for Brian) it sounds to me like you really love this girl. More than you think. And that you only want what's best for her, even at the cost of your own happiness." Brian's mom answered.

It made sense to Brian, and thinking he had the answer finally, he started feeling better. Unknown to him was the trouble approaching.

In Brian's Geography class, there was this girl who broke her knee. Curious about it, Brian asked her about it. The conversation lasted the whole class, ranging from topics involving health, school, and books. Carla's (And Brian's, or so he thought) friend Skyler was also part of this class and saw him talking to the girl.

That day, Brian was late for lunch because on his way there, he was stopped by the nurse who asked him a lot of questions. When he got to the cafeteria, Skyler had already told Carla he was talking to another girl. This was a metaphorical slap in the face to Brian, as it made him feel like Skyler didn't trust him. And they were always on good terms.

Thankfully, Carla had no problem with it. But Brian still felt bad about how the situation looked and how Skyler "told on him." That was just the kind of person Skyler was though. She had a way of making people mad, even though she didn't intend to do so.

Spring soon arrived and Brian felt that love was in the air. So he tried a few times to arrange a dinner date with Carla. But there was always a problem. Transportation was the most common problem, but there were a few others. Sadly, the dates never happened. Time passed and Brian and Carla continued their relationship as best as possible, even though they could only see each other at school. It bothered Brian, but he really cared about her and made do with what little time they had. But soon, a problem arose.

A student at the school one day decided to shoot himself for unknown reasons. The school held a memorial for him the fallowing day, and it seemed to affect only a few people. (Those that knew the student) Seemingly, it affected Carla as well.

She was somewhat spacing out for a few days after the memorial, but Brian hadn't noticed much because he was having family problems with his mom and sister that were stressing him. The Saturday morning after the memorial, Brian got a disturbing E-mail from Carla.

In it, she wasn't very specific about what was wrong, but Brian's instincts from his past relationships told him exactly what was wrong: Carla wanted to break up, but didn't want to via E-mail. Shocked and hurt, Brian quickly E-mailed back, begging her not to do this and asking what brought this on.

A few hours later, he got a reply in which she explained a dream is telling her that and described it. In short, the dream was Brian being killed right in front of her aftr she had refused to do what some kidnappers told her to do.

Brian answered that he thought the dream meant she subconsciously wanted to spend more time together. He felt it may have been the effects of the school shooting and them not seeing each other much taking an odd form. A little bit later, Carla replied again that they were not breaking up, that this may be a whole new beginning for them, and all seemed well for a while.

But then, about a week or so after this, the real breakup happened. At school, Carla seemed stressed really bad one day, but before Brian could figure it out, Skyler wrote to him that Carla wanted to break up. Brian had been having some problems with Skyler and didn't believe her, which made the process much harder for Carla. She got her friend, the "other" Carla to tell him. And that's when Brian knew something was wrong.

While struggling to try to understand why this was happening, Carla, his now ex-girlfriend Carla, told him that she feels that dream is telling her they really should break up. Brian was devastated and hoped it was some kind of cruel joke, but Carla confirmed it was true when she left without so much as a wave good-bye, as oposed to how they usually ended their lunch- with a good-bye kiss.

Brian was seriously down now. He wasn't hurting, or sad as most breakups go. He went completely empty. He couldn't feel anything at all; neither good or bad feelings. Not even hunger. Then, Carla returned the locket he gave her for Valentine's Day and Brian somehow went even more numb inside.

Nothing made sense, and Brian E-mailed Carla to get some answers. But the air was still just as cloudy and the only positive side was Carla offered to still be friends. A few more days passed and Brian decided to take her up on that offer after finding her in the cafeteria at school to hopefully find some answers. A little while passed, and things seemed normal... more or less.

The days became weeks, and Brian still had no answers, but was somehow able to enjoy his time around Carla nonetheless. Still, he had that hallow emptiness in him that he tried to fill with dating attempts. All of which failed miserably, as always happens to Brian. At the same time, Brian tried countless times to win Carla back, but after his best attempt- a poem and dozen roses- failed, he focused on trying to see other people. However, Brian was keeping in touch with Carla on his attempts at dating, trying to show her he was at least trying to move on. In the process, he learned a little about Carla's friend from New Hampshire, Ben.

Time kept going on and on, and Brian kept trying to see other people, but nobody was really right. At the same time, Carla claimed to be trying to see other people and having the same problem. Soon, Brian got highly skeptical about why Carla never changed her online status from "In a relationship" even though they broke up. Carla told him that her computer didn't save the changes every time she changed it, which Brian didn't really believe much but trusted her in spite of it because he knew she had computer problems from time to time.

Then one day, it was revealed she and Ben were now dating, which took an immediate blow to Brian for two reasons:
1. He was in a long distance relationship once and knew they almost never work out. So he naturally had doubts.
And 2. It was obviously painful to see her in a relationship so soon after breaking up with him.

Despite his pain and doubts, Brian swallowed both, deciding Carla's happiness was more important. But still without answers as to what went wrong between them, he continued to ask her about it from time to time and how she got to know Ben so well.

Brian still had no answers, but was getting anxiety over why Carla's stories didn't quite add up. As if all wasn't bad enough, Brian had a bombshell dropped on him when Skyler excitedly wrote to him at lunch that Ben was proposing to Carla next month, when school was out. Once again, Brian didn't believe her because of their past, but Carla told him it was true and that made Brian snap.

See, marriage has always been a HUGE deal for Brian and it wasn't a decision to be taken lightly. So much controversy and strife had been caused in Brian's life over the wrong people getting married, and the right people never getting married, that Brian just couldn't stand by for this.

Brian got ad, saying its a mistake to marry someone after only dating them three months, and suddenly Skyler jumped in the argument, making Brian look bad for caring. It may have been a hard pill to swallow, seeing Brian react in such a way. But Brian was simply thinking farther along the lines than everyone else, and saw no good. Later that day, Brian removed Skyler from his contacts. He'd had enough of her making him feel and look bad.

Later that night, Carla E-mailed Brian an explanation that she wasn't getting married just yet, only engaged. This was still an incredibly tough pill to swallow, but it put Brian slightly at ease. He tried to stay supportive, as much as he didn't like the situation. Somewhere along the lines, Brian realized some horribly upsetting news that would explain why he was feeling so odd since mid January: Carla must have been seeing Ben while she was seeing Brian. As an act of defense, Brian refused to truly believe Carla would do something like that.

Soon, Ben began commenting on Carla's mood statuses, something Brian had done ever since meeting Carla and adding her to his contacts. (At this point, Brian, Carla, Ben, and Skyler mainly used MySpace to keep in touch) Ben's comments were always flirty towards Carla, which bothered Brian. Carla told him that she told Ben he and she used to date each other, so Ben's comments came across to Brian as if he was rubbing it in his face that Carla was with him, and not Brian anymore. As much as this bugged Brian, he stayed respectful to Ben, for Carla's sake.

School finally came to a close, and when it did, Brian found himself online a lot more often talking to Carla or just surfing the net. As the summer progressed, so to did the frequency of Ben's comments, and though they often felt like they were sent to bother Brian, Ben seemed a decent guy besides that. Then, one day when Brian was talking to Carla via the instant messenger, he got a request from en to add him to his contacts. Before accepting, Brian got Carla's permission first.

Things between Brian and Ben started well, but turned sour soon. Ben's E-mails consisted of only one sentence, and just as Brian started to really respect the guy, the fallowing news was sprung on him:
You know, Carla's an awesome girl. You have no idea how lucky you are to have her. Her friends talk about you a lot and I'm sure they'll like you." Brian wrote early on.
I know they will. especially since what I'm going to ask her when I see her." Ben replied.
Brian answered with a simple "I'm sure they will. and Ben replied:
All her friends but one was excited.
"I know who it was and why they weren't, Ben. Its a complicate matter." Brian told him.
"I know its you, why can't you just be happy for her?" Ben asked. This is where things began to go wrong.
"Several reasons. First, I was going to ask her the same thing fallowing graduation, but we broke up. Second, my family has gone through a lot of trouble from failed marriages because they didn't think things through. Getting married is more complicated than just loving someone." Brian explained. But Ben wasn't convinced of anything.
"Do you still like her?" He asked.
"I won't lie. Part of me does, but I only want Carla to be happy." Brian said with all honesty.
"Then I don't have to worry about you interfering in our relationship, right?" Ben asked. This felt totally uncalled for to Brian, but he remained as calm as possible in his reply.
"I give you my word, I won't intentionally interfere. In the eight months I've known Carla, I couldn't dream of doing that to her." Brian assured Ben. Intentionally ended up being the key word here.
"You say you've known Carla eight months, that's funny cause she and I have been dating eight months." Ben wrote back.

Whoa now! Red light! Brian thought.
"Hold on, that doesn't make any sense. Carla just broke up with me two months ago and we were dating pretty much since we met. And she said she knew yo for five months, and started dating you last month." Brian responded, baffled that his suspicion was right, but off a while on timing.
"Carla and I have been dating eight happy months. :) " Ben said. That simley at the end of his E-mail was like an added spit in the face.
The E-mails stopped there, as Brian had to get off the computer to gather his thoughts.

Carla was offline for a couple days, leaving Brian to think Ben told her what happened and she was avoiding him. He was confused, hurt, and mad. The song "Burn in my Light" by Mercy Drive buzzed in his mind. It summed up his feelings perfectly, and he was tempted to E-mail the song to Carla to tell her how bad he felt.

Two days after the incident with Ben, Carla was online. At first, she didn't know what happened and was her casual self. But she was soon aware of what happened in her absence, and frantically apologized to Brian. (And most likely to Ben too)

Brian somehow still loved her and was ready to forgive and move on. After all, she'd not even met Ben (in person) yet, so he didn't consider it cheating. However, before he could forgive her, Carla insisted on explaining.

"I'm SOO sorry, Brian! If you don't want to be friends anymore, I understand. But please, can I explain what happened?" Carla asked. Brian was listening.
"See, just a little while after we started, my mom had me meet this boy on World of Warcraft. (Author's note: Carla really likes World of Warcraft and plays it with her mom and dad a lot) I thought he just wanted to be friends at first, but then he said he loved me. After that, we sort of got closer and I was feeling terrible about it. It took me forever to decide between you two. I'm still sorry." Carla explained.

Somewhere along the lines of listening to Carla, something in Brian snapped and he took out the months of built up frustration of not knowing why she broke up with him on her.
"Carla, calm down. I understand and still want to be friends. But there's a few things about this I need to say." Brian began.

With that, Brian began pointing out every little problem in the relationship between Ben and Carla, making it seem worse than it was.
"Jealousy ruins relationships faster than cheating does. (Ben was the jealous type) It shows insecurity. And with him being so quiet and the flirty, how can you be sure he's not cheating on you?" Brian lectured.

All the while he talked, Brian was reminded of a relationship he was once in that ended badly. He was afraid to see Carla repeat his choices and suffer from the same mistakes.

When Brian was 13-years ld, he had a friend who he got close to and they began a relationship. They were close, being friends for so long. But before their relationship could really get started, they had to deal with her moving away. Being naive, they decided to stay together through letters and long distance phone calls.

It just wasn't meant to be though. They both knew they were trying to salvage a broken relationship and broke up. Brian got fell deeply depressed to the point he got sick for no real reason. After a week in the hospital, he finally admitted why he was so upset, and recovered quickly. Horrifically, the day he was released, he fell down the stairs from weakness of not moving much for a week, and broke his neck in two places.

"Plus, his feelings will change eventually. You know how I know? Cause I was a 15-year old boy once too. I know this hurts, but trust me, it'll hurt a lot more if you go through with that engagement. I just don't think he's right for you." Brian finished.

Unbeknown to him, Carla was reading all that and crying. Her mom got on the computer to talk to Brian, and she wasn't happy. Carla's mom did everything she could to defend Carla and Ben's relationship, But Brian was not convinced and stood his ground. Soon, Carla's mom got offline Just as Ben E-mailed Brian.

"So, I'm not good enough for Carla, huh? Hm." Ben said.
This looked like a smart remark rather than an honest question coming from pain in Brian's eyes. And so, Brian warned Ben not to get into this now because he wasn't in an emotionally stable mood. But Ben pressed for answers, and Brian gave him them. He explained why he said those things, and without knowing it, made Ben cry as well.

After sending the E-mail to Ben, Brian got offline to calm down. It wasn't long before Chris came over to watch wrestling with Brian, which is when Brian told him what happened.
"What did I tell you, man? You shouldn't have trusted her so much, I never did." Chris said.
Brian explained he felt ad about loosing his head like that, but Chris continued his tirade by pointing out and exaggerating all of Brian's personal (And physical) flaws. Brian was nearly brought to tears hearing his "friend" say such things.

"That's what you did to Carla. I don't like her, but you seriously need to fix this, bro. I'm leaving you alone." Chris told Brian and left.
Right after that, Brian got back online to apologize. But Carla was mad when she got online.

"So, you agree with what my boyfriend said?" She began, "You know, you really made me mad when you said those things."
Brian said he was sorry, but Carla continued.
"You made him cry, and me too. That's why my mom got on here- she heard me crying. You said those things out of jealousy."
Hearing this made Brian feel like nothing less than a jackass. He was hit hard with guilt and regrets.

"Carla, you know good and well I'm not jealous. Maybe a little over his health being better than mine and him having better finances, but never over you. I'm really sorry, I lost my head there. Its just that I was in a very similar situation once, and it ended bad for me. I just cannot approve of something like this." Brian tried to explain.
"If you can't approve of it, then we can't be friends anymore." Carla claimed.
Brian answered with a simple "So be it." He didn't want to see this thing crash down and hurt her. Moments later, he apologized to Ben as well.

"Carla may forgive you some day, but I won't" Was all Ben had to say.
After which, Carla and Ben both removed Brian from their contacts. Brian had some soul searching to do.

For a week, Brian spent his time thinking about all that happened between him and Carla. He spent a lot of time fishing, and most of the rest of the time just staring into blank space, trying to figure things out. He started to think maybe he was a little jealous and just didn't know it.

Brian ended up talking to a friend of his named Ashley about the whole situation, and she had a surprising response.
"Look at it this way, you were upset and looking out for her. So what if the words weren't sweet! She really hurt you, and you were still caring for her. Get your head out of the gutter and stop acting guilty." Ashley told him. Brian was surprised. This was something Chris would have said.

A few days later, this sunk in and Brian E-mailed Carla to make amends. At first, she added him back to her contacts and things seemed ok. But then she started ignoring him and removed him from her contacts again.

Left with not much other choices if he wanted the truth, Brian E-mailed Ben to ask him to ask her why she's ignoring him.
"She just doesn't like you anymore." Was what Ben answered.

Unconvinced, Brian kept E-mailing her occasionally to try to get the truth. She eventually started o reply, but they weren't very nice replies. As if things couldn't get any worse, Brian's computer caught a virus, leaving him unable to get online for two months.

School started back soon, and Brian's assistant could tell something was wrong with him. His sense of humor was gone, he always seemed depressed, and he talked only about school. He was trying hard to forget about Carla and their past.

It was starting to work until one day he was talking to Ashley and she asked how things were going with patching things up with Carla. After he explained, Ashley broke some upsetting news to him.
"Brian... I hate to tell you this, but it sounds like she was just using you. I mean, look at all that's happened and how's she's treating you now." Ashley said.
Brian refused to believe this, but the facts were too strong to ignore.

Now completely desperate for answers, Brian E-mailed Carla from the library explaining what he heard and asking if it was true. He got no reply for a while, she wasn't even on the MySpace website for nearly a month.

Almost a month passed, and Brian occasionally saw Carla at school, but never talked to her. Then he got a new computer to use. Soon after that, Carla finally answered his last E-mail.

She'd been having some hard times in her life, and was deeply sorry for everything that happened. Of course Brian forgave her! But he was having mixed feelings about if they should remain as friends or not. Incidentally, Brian was trying to say good-bye when he made the snap decision to let her decide if they should remain as friends.

Although she never technically answered, it was clear she wanted to because they were E-mailing each other more and more frequently. And on good terms too! But at this time, MySpace was loosing users to Facebook and just wasn't as good a site as it once was. Soon, Brian and Carla were talking on Facebook, just like old times.

Things were going pretty well for the two old friends, then Brian learned of Ben's... activities of late. As it turned out, Ben was doing the same thing Brian aimlessly accused him of possibly doing months ago. Carla was deeply hurt and broke up with him, and Brian was there to do all he could to help her get through it. It infuriated Brian that this happened; He stepped aside for them to be happy, and Ben did this?

There really wasn't much Brian could do, and he tried to avoid the topic as much as possible. But occasionally he would ask something related to it. Part of him wanted to get back together, and so he asked.

It was too soon though, and Brian had no problem with waiting. After all, he had gone through the same thing not that long ago. Brian wouldn't want Carla on the rebound, so he waited patiently, and kept up with the friendly (And frequent) conversations. Over time, they got closer to each other.

As time passed, Brian and Carla talked more and more. They even hung out at a restaurant near Carla's house once. Though, this wasn't a date because Carla's sister and Brian's dad had to come along.

Then, about one year after they broke up, Brian and Carla officially got back together. In fact, they got back together in the same month they'd broken up in a year before! And the fallowing year, Carla got to meet Brian's family, all of whom loved her right from the start. To this day, Brian and Carla are still happily together and have no plans of leaving each other. Rather, they are trying to spend more time together to get even closer.


It took me a while, but this story is finally complete. I hope you liked it, after all, it's a true story! Please rate and review.