Adventures with Crystal

Her name was Crystal Hoffman. The two of you were inseparable throughout Middle and three years of High School. You were her confidant, her favorite companion, and above all the one she talked to when no one else would do. So close to one another that you were the first one she showed her budding breasts too, the first person she revealed her period to, the first ever to see her naked. She was the first to touch you in a way only your girlfriends would, the first to see you naked, and of course the first to know you had sex that night after Jamie Wybyrn and you spent the night out by the lake on spring break.

You were so close that those around you thought you must have been dating, but that wasn’t true. You were just friends, good friends, but she was like your sister, not your lover. Sure, she had an incredible body, with breasts you wanted to fondle endlessly, but that couldn’t happen and she felt the same. So by senior year you both had other people in your lives and after graduation you hadn’t seen her again. That was ten years ago, before college, before the internship that took your life, before the climb up the ladder. You didn’t know what happened to her and frankly it never crossed your mind as you lived your life. That is until you came home that night to find the message from your mom that your dad had passed.

You transferred positions quickly and moved back home to help your mother, but slowly as things calmed down and life returned to a simple monotony, you started to wonder what happened to her. You mother told you she never left the area, but as to where in the sprawling rural town she had gone, she couldn’t say. Another year passed and with it, your mother got worse until finally passing around January 30th leaving you alone. Despite these personal setbacks, your local job was going well, and you had decided to start getting in shape by rollerblading in the local park. It was there while adjusting your new skates, you saw her.

Dressed in runners shorts and a gray cotton tank top which clung loosely to her body, she quickly flitted past you so quickly you almost didn’t notice two things, the running stroller she was pushing, or the taught belly indicating she was rather pregnant with number two.

1. Catch up to her and say high, after all you were good friends.

2. Don’t say anything, she obviously has a family now.

3. Go the other way.