Do you remember when we first met? I was walking on the beach one summer morning. The sun was just peeking over the horizon like a little kid peering around a corner during a game of hide-and-seek. The orange glow lit your beautiful hair to perfection, and it made your green eyes shimmer all the colors of the spectrum. You glanced up from where you sitting, shook your golden locks out of your eyes, and flashed me a smile that turned my knees to jelly. I smiled back weakly as you introduced yourself. “I’m Jag,” you said, completely at ease with a total stranger.
“Ummm… hi? I’m Carly,” I replied.

“Hey, Carly! Do you come to the beach often? Is it always this nice? I just moved here last week, so I don’t really know much about this town…” And that was where our first conversation started. We made plans to meet later that day at the boardwalk, and that was our first date. You won a huge pink bear. I kept it for years...

Do you remember our first kiss? We were on the beach again, the last night of summer break. You gave me a beautiful necklace. It was a small, gold, heart-shaped lock and a tiny key. Gold, you said, because silver jewelry gave me rashes. Do you remember me handing you the key and telling you to take good care of it?

Do you remember that night, two months into the school year? Laura was having a huge party, and you said you couldn’t make it because you were sick. I decided to go anyway with some friends, but I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to feel like you were missing out on anything. I thought I saw a flash of your curls going up the stairs. I made up some excuse to get away from my friends and headed upstairs. I hurried up the spiral staircase and made it to the top in time to see you slipping into one of the rooms. I followed you in….my stomach felt like it was full of lead. I told myself it couldn’t really be you, that you loved me… Then as I slowly pushed the door open I saw you with her. I saw you sigh slightly as you kissed her, just like you sighed when you kissed me. I couldn’t make a sound. I felt like my necklace weighed a thousand pounds. I grabbed the chain and ripped it off. You both looked up at the sound. I couldn’t see your expression through my tears. I threw the locket at you and ran.

Do you remember all the times I passed you in the hallway? You avoided me. Every time you saw me coming, you turned and walked the other way. It still stung every time I saw you with her…. It felt like someone is twisting the knife you had jabbed into my heart.

Do you remember our senior prom? She’d dumped you a couple weeks before the big night, and you ended up going by yourself while she laughed and danced the night away with her new boyfriend. And no matter what I know I will always remember the look on your face when I walked into prom holding the hand of the man I eventually married, the man who wasn’t you.