To Those Who Wait (standard:romance, 2227 words)
Author: Snow White	Added: Sep 20 2000	Views/Reads: 4804/2631	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Ronnie and Dean learn that sometimes what is right in front of your face is sometimes the hardest thing to see.

"Ronnie, I just met the most amazing guy in art class.  His hands are
so." and then she sighed and giggled all in one breath, tossing her 
blond curls to one side.  It was the fall of our senior year.  Oustside 
the leaves were falling away from each other, dancing to the ground.  
For me, it was the beginning of the end or maybe the end of the 
beginning.  How could I have known that Melissa's newest heartthrob 
would be the man my heart had only dreamed of? 

Dean and Melissa dated for the rest of the year.  Lucky me, I got to be
the third wheel, audience to their budding romance.  As the year went 
on, I found myself falling deeper and deeper in love with my best 
friend's boyfriend.  My hands acted often of their own accord, finding 
some petty excuse to touch him; I lived for those moments.  Though in 
the end mournful sighs, stolen glances and a heart full of black rain 
were all I took home at night. 

Every day was a challenge to keep my secret hidden behind glass walls. 
Each excruciating night I lived in a fantasy world where my lips knew 
Dean's often and well.  I felt as though every beat of my traitorous 
heart was a betrayal of our friendship.  Years before, Melissa and I 
had solemnly vowed to never to let a man come between us.  What was I 
doing? 

*** 

After a graduation filled with such sweet sorrows, Melissa and I went to
college, not together thank God, but college nonetheless.  Separated by 
miles and the cost of a phone call, we talked together every day over 
our newfound toy, the Internet.  Like the leaves on the trees only a 
year before, Melissa slowly transformed before my eyes.  Each day she 
spoke less and less of her upcoming marriage to my love and more of the 
new flame in her life, Steve.  I had the privilege of carrying her 
stolen kisses with me in my soul.  In any other situation the right 
path would have been clear.  I would have told Dean.  But if I told 
him, how could I know if it was for his best interests or mine?  My 
heart, torn between the loyalty to a friend and the honor of my being, 
ripped my soul to shreds. 

Finally it came time for us to return home for the holidays.  Christmas
was on its way.  Familiar carols played in the airports as strangers 
smiled and rushed home to their roots.  It should have been a joyous 
occasion, but my preoccupation with the gravity of her betrayal and 
mine pulled me into a spiraling inferno. 

By some magical twist of fate I got back into Baltimore before she did. 
 I was dreadfully looking forward to spending some time alone with 
Dean.  Without Melissa, maybe he would finally see the intensity of my 
feelings for him. But what if he could see through the lies I carried 
for her. 

It was a crisp winter night when Dean picked me up for an innocent
drive.  His words told me he just wanted to say, "hi," but I knew he 
wanted answers to questions I didn't want to think about.  The prayers 
I sent to heaven that night were chaotic ramblings not easily sorted by 
the divine.  I badly needed to set the record straight, but I was so 
terrified that he would ask me.  How did I get myself into this 
situation? 

"Tell me the truth, you know Mel better than most.  Has she been
cheating on me?"  The words I had feared echoed through the darkness.  
Now there was no hiding from the decision I had been tiptoeing around. 

"Dean, you know she wouldn't do that.  Don't be silly."  My words flew
before I could even consider the consequences.  Inside I was screaming, 
"yes! She is cheating on you.  Look at me; Look into my eyes.  I love 
you!!" 

Almost as if he had heard me he turned and looked into my eyes, peering
straight into my soul.  "I thought you might say that."  Dean shook his 
head, and for the first time I saw sadness in his usually jovial eyes.  
His hand lightly grazed across my knee as he reached for the glovebox.  
My body was on fire and my head whirling.  Dean placed a pile of 
letters in my lap.  "Read these." 

The pages contained words written for his eyes only, and yet there I was


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