Friendship Above All 46 – More than a feeling

I don’t know how long I stayed sitting in the stairs staring down at him. At times my mind wandered away like I have so many times, thinking and overanalyzing everything in my life, without coming to conclusions to any of my concerns.

The stairs were a sort of shelter of my then emotions. It was as if I had intentionally sat in the middle in order to push myself to make a decision about my future.

You either go backwards, or up, and rethink your tactics of what to do, or ignore your issues all together and do nothing.

Or, just go down, or for it, with or without a plan.

But staying in the middle, or limbo, is the worst place to be, because you’re there in a sort of ‘comfort zone’ that doesn’t allow you to ‘move’ into anything.

And as I was into myself, my friend suddenly woke up with an abrupt ‘hey’ like when you had some sort of bad dream.

He looked at me a little confused. “How long have you been sitting there?” asked he.

“A while, I think,” said I. Surprisingly I was calm.

“I was so asleep, but something shook me.” Maybe it was my presence that did it.

I have a vague memory of how things transcended next, but I did walk down the stairs to where he was.

I believe I sat in the sofa to talk to him. But my next memory is that he took me in his arms and kissed me. I can’t recall what lead to this.

This was the first time it happened and it was totally unexpected, and one that I wasn’t at all hoping for during this trip or any time later, period.

It wasn’t bad, but knowing he had feelings for me, I guess it needed to happen, first, to get it over with, and second, finally experience his affection in a more personal way.

What transcended after is more vague. I believe we did go out that night and something happened during the outing that made me decide on allowing him to share the bed with him, as in resting only (for real!).

Perhaps the sofa became too uncomfortable. Or maybe it had to do with his roommate’s activities that were so ‘noisy’ that made more sense for him being in his own room to avoid any contact.

Now thinking back on this, it was weird. If he had feelings for me, considered me pretty, and you’re finally taking a step forward with the kiss, why not follow to the next level?

Reality was he probably applied the advice he gave to my ex-boyfriend that he would lose me if pressured me into something I wouldn’t want to do.

My friend probably realized, like me sitting in the stairs, that he had 2 choices: leave things as they were and keep the friendship. Or, take a step downward that would make me walk out the door to never return, ending our friendship for good.

“I’m not letting a friendship of so many years get affected by anything,” was something he would express to me many times throughout the years. And I believed him because he practiced what he preached.

Me, I did had a choice regarding the outcome after the kiss, to which I decided not to pursue. Besides not having the same love feelings for him that he had for me, there was something holding me back from this ‘good to be true’ scenario.

What was that made me stay in the middle of the stairs? What was that feeling of going back up and away from that guy down there that was telling me, ‘don’t do it’?

Don’t know, but I’ll try getting an answer after I sleep on it.

Something About Me 31 – Time change

I didn’t exactly get my dream, but more of a wish, sort of.

One night, out of nowhere, this ‘unfriend’ guy emailed me. It was totally unexpected.

It was the same scenario as before; his wife and child were away and he took the opportunity to contact me.

I called him first and there was a rush when I heard his voice again. Then we connected online and saw him live for the first time in more than a year.

Oh, my! He looked tired and that he has aged, a lot. It was as if his life had hit him hard. In other words, he’s unhappy.

At least he was very happy to see me. His amazing blue eyes lighted up incredibly. I even got complemented on how I looked.

“Wow, look at you!” said he. “You look great! I can tell you have lost weight. You’re like fine wine, you get better with the years.”

I have lost weight, some, but I’m glad he commented on it. It was a great ego boost. But I wish I could say the same about him.

“Hey, are you ok?” I asked him. “Sorry to tell you, but, you don’t look that good.”

His eyes looked down and his demeanor a changed. He held his face on his hand. “Well, I’m tired. It’s been a long day. Was taking care of things around the house…”

I kept looking at him and I knew he wasn’t telling me all the truth. I may have lost weight, but he certainly hasn’t ‘lost’ those situations we spoke about last year.

I felt sorry for him and wished I could be there next to him. Maybe if he opened up to me again he might feel better.

“Seriously, what’s going on?”