We once sat along the river in late July last year telling one another our deepest and darkest secrets.  We sat along the river and tore daisy petals off one by one with the sound of us singing, “You love me, you love me not, you love me, you love me not.”  We were each others stereotypical first dumb teenage love but we didn’t care.  As the days grew from warm summer days by the river, to cold winter days spent cuddled up by the fire, the stereotypical teenage love never withered.  Who got so lucky to find their soulmate so young?  Who got so lucky to feel this high on loving someone?  It was a beautiful thing.  We once were a beautiful thing.  As we grew closer the days got longer.  As we grew older there was the worries of bills and college and whatever else people turning into adults worried about.  We shrugged it off because we had each other.  Having someone you love to help you get through the hard times makes them just a tad bit sweeter.  It was a snowy day, boring to say the least, cuddled up and reading a book with her.  She looked so beautiful reading her book, innocently sipping her coffee with two pumps of caramel and a dash of vanilla.  I sat there and thought about how amazing she was and how I’d do anything to see her smile, and go back to the easy days how we once were.  I ran over to her and picked her up.  She laughed that beautiful laugh and asked me what I was doing.  I took her to the car, buckled her up like a baby, grabbed the sled, and began to drive.  She laughed and turned up the Christmas music and sang that cute but also tone deaf way that she always did.  I looked at her for what seemed like minutes and held her cold little hands.  Then it all came to a stop.  It was all so quick, the lights, the loud horn, the screams.  I promise it all came too quick.  I swerved, I shouted, I did everything I could, I promise.  But it all came to a stop too soon.  The cars came to a stop.  The screams came to a stop.  The horns came to a stop.  Her loving and beautiful and amazing heart came to a stop.  We once were so in love.  We once were so alive.  We once were so young.  That’s how we once were.  I go day by day hearing that beautiful and sweet laugh in the back of my mind and smile.  While I would’ve taken her surviving over me any day, at least I can remember the sound of that laugh.  The laugh that was as sweet as honey and could make anyone smile.  And while my days are hell trying to get by, at least I can always remember how we once were.