I found two of the greatest loves of my life on Indiana. And yes I said “loves”. Now let me take a moment to clarify before I begin their story. I am not, nor have I ever been "in love" with either of the two of which I am about to speak. But, never the less, I do love them. They taught me what it is to love and be loved all the same, yet never actually be in love. They have shown me what I want when I do fall into that deep love that everyone speaks so highly of. I love these two boys with my heart. They are two of the very best friends that I will ever be blessed to have.
And, thus, begins their part of the story.
I met Jonathan when I was a freshman in college. He was a high school senior. We were both in the same community play, GREASE, at Southwest Playhouse. He was hilarious! He played the part of Doody and fit the character perfectly. When he entered the room, friends flocked to him. Jonathan was always smiling and laughing and helping others to smile and laugh too. I wanted to be a part of that magic. But, me being the self-conscious young girl that I was, never took the opportunity to speak to him, instead watched from afar wishing all the time that I could be one of those fortunate enough to be considered his friend.
The play ran its course and I never expected to run into him again. I remember the last night of the play. The entire cast was in the Green Room after the last show, hanging out and reminiscing about the funny things that had happened. I got the courage to approach Jonathan, and said quietly, “You did a really good job.” He looked up from the beautiful blonde he was talking to, nodded his head, said a quick “thanks”, and turned back to her. I thought to myself, “Why would I ever think this guy would pay attention to me.” I left that night not giving it much thought. (Although to this day I still try to make him feel bad for not talking to me.)
The next year, I was at a friend's apartment. I went with another friend to the apartment two doors down. And who was inside but Jonathan. I re-introduced myself and he said, “ Oh yeah!! Cha-cha!” Even though I hated being known as the homely character, I was still flattered that he even remembered me. That's also the night I met Tucker. Tucker was Jonathan’s roommate and they along with their other roommate Brant, soon became a new form of entertainment for me. I loved going to their apartment to listen to their silly stories or hear their songs that they would make up on the spot. (It’s funny that I still find them and the silly songs they sing one of the greatest forms of entertainment that I’ve ever come across.) They were in a band, Ephraim, and I enjoyed going to their shows. They were extremely talented performers and musicians. All along, I never thought in my wildest dreams that these boys would want to be my friend. I just considered myself a friend of their friend.
The school year came and went and my friend moved out of that apartment. So I didn’t really have an excuse to go see the boys anymore.
That next school year, I spent quite a bit of time at Amanda’s house. She and Chelsea were always talking about the “hot guys that lived next door”. They didn’t know their names and said that many times they would see each other and simply say “Hi Neighbor!” (That name stuck and developed a brand new meaning for us all.) One day when I was walking up the sidewalk, I saw at the house to the north of me, Jonathan. I hurried into the house and told the girls that I knew him. We decided to take the neighbors some “hot” cookies. (We put animal crackers in the microwave.) We giggled as we walked to the their door. Ringing the doorbell, we set the plate on the porch with the note and ran! Just ten minutes later our doorbell rang and to our surprise when we answered Jonathan and Tucker and their other roommate Nathan were all standing on the porch with guitars. They sang some silly song that they had made up. We invited them in and they stayed for a short time. Still, I never fathomed being their friend.
At that time there was a game that all of us girls liked to play. We would steal eachother's car and drive around town playing “Cat and Mouse.” One night during this game we took advantage of the fact that we now knew the neighbors and used their house to hide the other girl's keys in. Someday, if you ever meet Shambra, you will have to ask her yourself just what she said to those boys. To this day I have never seen Jonathan’s face as red or known him and Tucker to be speechless!
In June that next year, I officially moved to Indiana Street. It was just Amanda and I, because Chelsea was out of state doing an internship. I don’t remember exactly the first time we hung out with Jonathan; it’s all mixed together. I think it might have been the time Amanda and he and I sang karaoke in our living room. Boy, was that an experience! That was the beginning of one of the best summer's of my life. Seriously, one of the best. Thank God for cameras is all I can say. We have almost everything documented in still's and video.
The three of us became good friends and Jonathan was at our house till all hours, many times just staying the night because we actually turned on our air conditioner.
He would ring the doorbell at 2:00 in the morning to borrow a towel, tell us something funny, or ask for advice. When we all got more comfortable, he would just come in and I would often wake up to him lying on my bedroom floor hiding behind the fan, playing a game with Amanda's dog Molly. I used to get so frustrated at him for waking me up, but now there are still nights that I long to be awakened by a doorbell or a snicker of a laugh into a fan.
Tucker was often away that summer. But when he did come home he, Jonathan, Amanda and I enjoyed playing pranks on one another. One time, in particular, Amanda and I decided it would be funny to “antique” them. This is when you throw water on a person and follow it with flour. It's hilarious and disgusting and a terrible mess to clean up since it pretty much becomes paste. Well, it turned out that we all got antiqued that night and due to a mishap, so did the boys kitchen. Amanda and I payed our dues when we ended up cleaning their house for 5 hours. That was a disaster. I'm certain that was the first time since they lived there that the house and been cleaned.
Another fun time was when we were all sitting around the living room seeing who could hit themselves in the head with a tablespoon the longest. I to this day, have no idea why were doing that. Well, after awhile we began to hit one another. Okay, I probably smacked Jonathan because I was a jerk, and that turned into an all out war! Allison and I against Tucker and Jonathan, with Emily commentating and Amanda doing the soundtrack! (They were on the injured list because Emily had kidney stones and Amanda had rolled her ankle in another prank earlier that week.) Because we had cleaned their kitchen and done their dishes...that had never been done, they ended up with an ENTIRE kitchen drawer full of spoons. These became ammo. It ended an hour later when I was showing Jonathan my knuckle that he had hit and busted open and decided to hit him while his guard was down and I nailed him square on the elbow with a ladle. He went down like a sack of potatoes. We found spoons in the yards even a year later. Poor mower...
Jonathan and I often talked about everything. We got along really well and would talk about the play and just joke around with each other. But I didn’t feel all that close to Tucker. Yet.
Until, one night, when it was just Tucker and I in those three houses. I went over to say hi and we ended up standing in my front yard and talking about anything and everything for who knows how long and then moved into the living room where we talked some more. I don't remember what we talked about but I do remember that that was the night that I learned that Tucker is one of the most considerate people that I know and that he never wants anyone to hurt. And he also doesn’t like for people to know that he hurts. It turned out that Tucker and I are a lot alike and we became good friends through that talk. I owe a lot to those talks and for a long time I had to have my “Jonathan Talk” and my “Tucker Talk” just to get by.
After that, nights of water balloon fights, boxing matches, and late night talks with the neighbors and honorary neighbors followed. We often took rode trips to see the boys band play staying out until 4 am only to get up at 6 to head to work. Who needs sleep when you're that age, right?
Even though we had so much fun, I didn’t expect it to last into the school year. I just figured it was a summer thing and when the boy’s real friends came back they wouldn’t need us anymore. I still couldn’t believe that they would want to be friends with me. But, the school year came, and it turns out WE were their friends. We spent the next year with those boys. They kept us up at night and we got them up for school. We talked about boy/girl problems. We took numerous trips together. Hours were spent at IHOP’s across the state, music videos were made, and friends became family. The houses became one and we even considered adding hallways to join them.
And oh the hugs! How can I forget about the hugs. Tucker hugs and Jonathan hugs have gotten us through so much. If ever I had a bad day, it could be made all right with a hug from one of those boys. If I needed encouragement, a hug would do it. If I needed to laugh, yep, you guessed it, a hug. When the boys moved away from Indiana it was those hugs I missed the most.
We joked a lot about how Jonathan was Amanda’s neighbor because they are both so much alike(picture Phoebe and Joey from FRIENDS) and how Tucker was my neighbor because we are both so sarcastic and dry and Eduardo (Jonathan’s and Tucker’s roommate they gained during the summer) and Chelsea were neighbors because they were the babies. But, I considered them all neighbors/best friends. I could talk to either of those boys and feel completely comfortable and confident that they truly cared. Nothing made me feel better than when I would hear one of them refer to us "his girls".
The relationships that we all had with each other were and still are something pretty special when I think about it. We once discussed buying the lot across the street, affectionately named “The Prairie” and building one big house that we could all live in together as a family. Kind of like a colony. I don’t think you’ll ever meet a group of people who loved and still do love, the others as much as we did and do.
Not only did we all have special relationships with each other but Jonathan and Tucker's friendship in itself was amazing. It was a friendship that inspired me to be a better friend. They knew each other through and through. Theirs was a friendship that at many times needed no words. They knew the others moods, facial expressions, and sometimes, I’m pretty certain, they even knew the others thoughts.. I liked to refer to them as each others “wife” because they were so close. The friendship that those two boys have is a relationship to be admired my many and desired by all.
Through the talks and relationships that year I learned what I want in a husband and what I don’t want and I never even had to date those guys. I wish that everyone had a Tucker and Jonathan in their lives. Because if they did, I just know there would be so much more happiness in this world.
Those boys are my family, but most importantly they are my neighbors and no matter where they go, what our addresses may be, we will always be neighbors.
They will always be "my boys".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment