It was a hot morning in early August, I was in my room reading when my brother knocked on the door. "Who is it?" I yelled, not looking up. "It's Mitch. I need to ask you a favor." he opened the door. "Mitch, I'm broke." I stated. "Is it so abnormal that every once in a while I might want to spend some quality time with my favorite little sister?" he asked innocently. I lifted my head and looked at him suspiciously. "I'm your only sister. Now what do you need?" I closed the book, knowing Mitch liked to beat around the bush. "Well...I sorta, kinda volunteered you to show my new friend around town tonight." he looked at me pleadingly. "Mitch...what if I had plans tonight?" I asked. "You never have plans. Besides reading and writing poetry." he replied. "What's in it for me?" I inquired. "Well, who knows this could be a romance in the making." he joked. "Please, Sis. Please?" he begged. "Alright." I sighed. I agreed to go because I knew Mitch would never leave me alone until I did. That night around seven I heard a knock on the front door. I didn't expect him to be so goodlooking. Don't get me wrong, I liked boys but I wasn't really looking for a boyfriend. As I opened the door I felt thousands of butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. He had light brown hair and sparkling blue eyes. I stood frozen, not able to move my mouth. Mitch explained to his friend that I knew more about the town than he did and he had fogotten about a date he had. His name was Mark and he was eighteen, three years my senior. Mark smiled at me as we started out the door. Since the town was so small we decided it would be nice to walk around. I can't really explain how I felt, part of me felt so nervous around him and the other part felt so calm, so comfortable. As we walked around I showed him where most of the teenagers hung out. "Do you know anything about the historic land sites of this town?" he asked politely. The year before I had done a history report on the town. I showed him the courthouse and the second building built, I explained almost everything in town. I thought I might've been boring him. But every time I looked over at him he looked at me with interest. It felt amazing to actually talk to some one and not feel stupid. As the night progressed we talked about a lot of things. We liked almost all the same things. We had so much in common. We were standing in front of the courthouse when Becky Marshall came up to us. She was one of the most popular girls in high school. She smiled at Mark. I knew that Becky could get almost any guy she wanted. "Who's your friend, Alyeesa?" she asked twisting her hair around her finger. I felt like gagging. "Oh, this is Mark. He's new in town." I explained. "Well, Mark, if you ever wanna get together and go do something give me a call." she handed him a piece of paper with her name and number on it. "Okay, maybe I will." she smiled at him again then turned and walked away. When she was a safe distance from us he looked at me. "Don't ever turn out that way." he crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it in a trash can. I laughed. We had walked a few blocks when a girl with blond hair motioned for us to come over. "Becky forgot to ask if you had a girlfriend. Do you?" she arched her eyebrows up. "Well...to be honest, I do." he grabbed my hand. "Right, Alyeesa?" his eyes begged me to play along. "Yeah." I fibbed. She gave him a suspicious look then walked away. "Thanks a lot." he smiled. "Girls like that just aren't my type." he explained. It was getting dark out but we were tired so we sat down on some benches in the park. When I looked up I noticed how beautiful the stars looked. He looked up and pointed to Big Dipper. For a few minutes we sat around looking up at the stars then he whsipered my name. When I brought my head back down he kissed me. At first it was awkward, I was fifteen and that was my first kiss with anybody. Everything seemed so dreamlike. "You're not mad because I did that are you?" he asked earnestly. "No, of course not." I blushed. He looked down at his watch and realized the time. "Your brother's gonna kill me if you aren't home soon." On the way back he held my hand. When we got to the door I gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Can I call you tomorrow?" he asked. "Yeah." he turned around to leave then I stopped him. "Mark," he walked abck to me. "I just wanted you to know that I had a really nice time." "Me too." he kissed me. "I'll call you tomorrow." he smiled. I watched him pull out of the driveway and we waved to each other. I walked in and felt like I was floating on a cloud. Mark called the next day and asked if I wanted to go out again. For about two weeks we dated adn he would make time to call me everyday. On our tenth date he didn't tell me where we were going. He said it was a surprise. We drove up to this spot beside a lake. He got a picnic basket from teh trunk of his car and then he spread a blanket on the ground. He grabbed my hand and we sat down. "Alyeesa, I want you to wear this..." he put a gold chain around my neck. It had his class ring on it. "Mark!" I gasped. "Are you serious?" I asked indisbelief. "Alyeesa...I fell in love with you exactly sixteen days ago. But I need you to understand that I've never had a serious girlfriend." he confessed. "How is this possible?" I asked candidly. "This is what I need to tell you..." I looked up at him confused. "Two years ago I started getting very sick. I went to the doctor and they ran some tests on me." his eyes began to water. "I have heart disease...Right now I'm on the waiting list for a new heart. But that might take years. I could die any moment." tears ran down his cheeks. I began crying too. "Please, Mark, don't say that." I begged. "You need to know. I didn't want to tell you because when I was diagnosed with it the girl I was seeing broke up with me. But I know you're not like that." I was so sad because he seemed in pain but I was happy because we loved each other. "I'll never leave you, Mark." I promised. For three months we dated regularly and he was always over at my house or I was over at his. We did everything together. He picked me up from school or spent the night at my house. The thing that I really liked about Mark was that he never pressured me to go farther than I wanted to. I remember one night right before Christmas I called him crying. "Mark...my parents are fighting again." I sobbed. "I'm so scared." "I'm coming to get you." he stated then hung up the phone. I packed an overnight bag and waited outside. I didn't bother telling my paretns, they were too busy fighting. He pulled up and got out. He hugged me and told me everything would be alright. We drove over to his house. We stayed up all night and he let me cry as he held me. I felt like everything was so chaotic. My parents were getting a divorce, I was in love with Mark, Mark had been very sick lately. Nothing made sense anymore. My parents eventually did get a divorce but Mark was there with me the whole time. We really loved each other. Things between us got very serious. Then one night in the middle of the March I got a telephone call. It was his mom. "Alyeesa," she was sobbing. "Mark's in the hospital. He was in an accident and had a heart attack. He's been asking for you." she cried. That was probably the worst moment of my life. I didn't believe it. I let the phone drop to the floor and Mitch talked to Mark's mom. The next thing I knew Mitch and I were at the hospital. They finally let me see him. I had never been in so much pain until I saw him lying there. Tubes were poked in him and he looked like death itself. I rushed over to his side. He looked up and clutched my hand. I dropped to my knees and cried. "Mark, I'm so sorry. Please, Mark, I love you. Please get better." I sobbed. At that moment when I looked at him all at once I felt a thousand emotions. Grief, love, pain, sorrow, hate, guilt, it wasn't fair that people like him got so sick. "Alyeesa," his voice was almost like a choking sound. "If I don't make it..." "No, Mark! You'll make it. You have to." "Just remember that I love you." he tried to reassure me with a smile but I could see how bad he was hurting. Then a nurse came in and made me leave. I went in and sat with Mitch and Mark's mother. "What will happen now?" I asked. "They'll try open heart surgery." Mitch explained, his head in his hands. For four hours the three of us sat in fear awaiting any news of Mark. Then another nurse took the three of us into an office with the doctor. "Open heart surgery is a very risky procedure. In fact on 53% of the time we are able to save our patients. Mark's body rejected the new heart...I'm sorry. We couldn't save him..." the doctor's voice drifted away. My mind was screaming. No! Without knowing it I took off running. I ran out of the hospital. I ran and ran until I felt like my lung's were about to burst. Mitch pulled up beside me and made me get in. I could only cry. I was so angry and I felt so alone. Mark was my boyfriend, my best friend, he was my everything. What would life mean without him? I wondered. I went to the funeral. But I didn't really feel like I was there. I felt like I was way off somewhere else and this was all just a terrible dream. I prayed that ny moment I would wake up and Mark would be alright. But I never did. Two weeks after his death, when I was so depressed, his mom dropped by. She told me Mark had left me a video that he made before he got sick. I didn't want to upset her so I took the video and watched it. It was clips of things we did together. He told me not to hate him or be sad. He said everything would work out for the best then he confessed that he had left a wood chest for me at his house. Later that evening Mitch took me to get it. I brought it home and took it up to my room. When I opened it I almost started crying. On top was a scrapbook of everything that had happened in our relationship. He had picture albums full of the two of us together. I found cassette tapes of love songs he had sung for me. There were books that we both had liked, Pride and Prejudice, Emma...so on. So many things were stuffed in that chest. What really meant the most was a folder at the bottom. When I opened it up I discovered letters he had wrote to me, songs he wrote for me and poems that he wrote about me. For hours I sat there reading his words over and over. Out of the hundred of poems he wrote, one especially sticks in brain. I still close my eyes at night and sometimes I find myself with the words on my lips. Please don't cry. Just close your eyes. Don't be sad. Think of all the good times we had. Just because I'm not there doesn't mean I'm gone. I'll be in yoru heart forever, you're never alone. I still think of Mark. I really miss him. He was my first true love. But he taught me that when you love you have to open your heart to all emotions even pain. All the pain in the world would never overcome the love and memories Mark and I had together. He showed me a thousand emotions.
