Marilyn Monroe once said that "everything happens for a reason" but it's hard to accept that when the one you loved was ripped right out of your arms by something unstoppable. It's hard to except that my boy friend Jace is gone forever.
I always thought Jace would die from one of the reckless things he did. He would always take stupid dares like swimming in the lake during winter or jumping over a Bonfire because one of his stupid friends said too.
Now we're all sitting in this church listening to those tales about how he did those reckless things and made it but he died from the flu. Its seems stupid that a eighteen year old boy died from the flu but he did.
We all thought he was fine and that he just had a common cold that could be fixed with cough syrup. We were all suprised when we found out that he wouldn't wake up on that frosty thursday morning.
Its been three days since Jase's death and today is his funeral. His parents want me to make a speech but I don't think I can. There is no way for me to explain what Jase meant to me and nobody in this room would understand except his best friend Ricky Sanchez.
Ricky was the first one to find out that Jace was dead other than Jace's family. On that cold morning Ricky Sanchez ran all the way to my house in his boxer shorts and furiously pounded on my door until I opened it for him.
That day we cried for what seemed like forever. Just Ricky and I in outr pajamas crying about how Jace was gone forever. At first I couldn't believe it but when I saw Ricky shed his first tear since we were seven I knew that he wasn't lying.
Ricky, Jace, and I were like the threee musketeers when it came to our friendship. There was never the akward three wheel effect when we were together because we just had that close of a friendship. We all were raised together because our fathers worked at the same car dealership.
Sitting in this church listening to Jace's dad talk about a memory is so boring. Jace wouldn't of wanted his funeral to be like this. He would want everybody to be laughing about something like the time we cart raced in a local superstore and he crashed right into the doll section and made a young girl cry when he squished the doll she wanted.
The stupid memories of him are the best in my opinion. Jace never really thought things through before he did them. He would swim in that freezing lake without thinking of frost bite or jump through that fire before thinking about the burns he would have to take care of.
I remember that everytime Jace did a reckless thing he would write it down in a notebook. I never knew why he would write all his stunts down. There was a part of him that I never understood. There was a crazy side to him that nobody would ever understand.
Sometimes I question why I ended up dating Jace because Ricky and I were always closer. One time I asked Ricky why he never asked me out and he just said that he lost. He never told me what he lost and I never asked because I didn't want to cause trouble between the three of us.
"It's time for you to make your speech," Ricky whispered in my ear. He put his hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me to the front of the room. I had no idea what I was going to say but I had to think quick because people were counting on me to make this speech.
"I can't begin to explain what Jace meant to me. We dated for six years and now that hes gone I feel like there is a piece of me missing to be honest. I know that Jace wouldn't want me to cry over him and be sad but its hard not to. Instead of telling you everything I loved about him I'm just going to tell you all my favorite memory of him." I paused and looked at all the faces in the room. Most were crying but when my eyes flicked to Ricky he gave me a reassuring smile.
"We were six years old and we were all fixuated with that turtle sand box I got for my birthday. We would play in that sand box everyday. Jace was always a selfish kid but he finally got what was coming to him that day," I looked at Ricky again and thought about how this story was more about Ricky than Jase but it was still my favorite story.
"One day Ricky was playing with a truck outside the sandbox and Jace decided that he wanted that truck so he went over and snatched that toy away from Ricky like usual. Ricky didn't say anything or fight back just grabbed another toy and started playing. Then Jace decided he wanted the toy Ricky had now, so he took that toy also," I was laughing a little bit as I thought about what Ricky did next.
"Jace was playing with that toy contently. Ricky sneaked up behind Jace and slammed his head right into the sand. Jce got a big mouthful of sand and burst out crying as Ricky grabbed the truck and then other toy he was playing with and didn't say a word. Jace ran inside crying and never messed with Ricky ever again," I looked right at Ricky and His blue eyes bore into mine. He looked at me with an emotion I couldn't reconize.
"Thats all I have to say," I said getting down from the podium and moving to my seat. I took a deep breath after I sat down. Shortly after the speech the funeral was over. Ricky and I decided we needed to do a small ceremony for ourselves so we went out to the lake that we used to swim in.
"I liked your speech," he said sitting down in front of the tree we always did. One time Jace carved our initials in the tree with a heart around it like one of those cheesy movie scenes. I didn't want to but he did it anyway.
Jace and my relationship wasn't always easy. He was a selfish person sometimes and I didn't like that about. He always wanted the things that were slightly out of reach for him like Ricky's toy that one day.
"Well you deserved a little glory, you've been so strong since we were just babies," I said sitting down next to him and laying my head on his shoulder. He was always the strong one who would get pushed around and not say anything about it. Jace was always so mean to Ricky and he would just take it.
"I had to be. I lost the love of my life because I couldn't physically beat him in a fight," he whispered. "He didn't like you until he found out I was hopelessly in love with you and that I would jump in front of a bus if you asked me to."
Ricky was looking at the ground as he whispered this. I felt tears well up in my eyes when I realized that Jace never really loved me. He just wanted me because Ricky was going to have something that he wasn't going to.
He reached behind him and pulled out a notebook that I knew all too well. He handed it to me and watched me silently as I opened it. This wasn't about his risky stunts it was about everything that made him better than Ricky.
There was pages full of things that he did that would make me like him more than Ricky, ways to get mm to date him, all the things we did together, and most importantly how much he hated Ricky.
"It's hard to find out that your so called best friend hated you since he was four years old," he said. He picked a stone up and threw it in the water. I could see he was angry and it surprised me when he wiped a tear away angrily.
"He never wanted me for me," I said. I wiped some tears away also. It was silent and I could hear sniffles from beside me.
I put the notebook on the ground and I saw him reach into his pocket a pull out an orange lighter. "May I?" he asked flicking the lighter on and looking at the notebook. I nodded and just like that the notebook was engulfed in flames. I felt like Jace himself was burning and I didn't feel sad or cry at all.
"Your the one that got away," he said looking at me as the notebook turned into ashes and we kissed by the lake. He was the one that got away from me but like every one says "if you love someone let them free and if they come back to you then they are yours forever." I think I have always loved Ricky and I was just fooled into thinking i loved Jace.
When we pulled away I saw Ricky pull out a small heart locket a put it around my neck. When I opened it there was a picture of Ricky and I kissing when we were five years old. "I was your first kiss and I hope to be your last," he said.
Together we walked of in the sunset like a cheesy movie scene. Jaces notebook finally stopped burning but my love for Ricky never did. I realized that I never loved Jace and that if he didn't die I would have never found out about my love for Ricky.
Shorly after we got married and had a few children. I never doubted mjy relationship with Ricky like I constantly did with Jace's. Ricky truley was the one who almost got away but I caught him befor he could run away.
Like Marilyn Monroe said, "everything happens for a reason," but I'm kind of glad that Jace left us because I gained something way better than a realtionship based on lies. Sometimes good things come out of bad things.