STORY CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST
All summer long, Alvi and I remained close friends but we couldn't hide the fact that it was slightly awkward now. He and our entire friend group were aware of my feelings. I started to question my choice of telling him. In fact, telling him did exactly what we were scared would happen: it started to tear us apart. Alvi had never been the type to have a girlfriend and I think the thought of it really freaked him out. He started to distance himself because he didn't want to hurt my feelings. I started to distance myself because it was hard to be around him when I thought that he "didn't want to be with me". It was tough, really tough. I thought for sure that I just ruined one of the best friendships I had ever had.
Finally, in August, while spending the weekend at a friend's cabin up north Alvi and I had a very serious and necessary talk. He admitted to me his fears and why he had been acting so different. I completely understood and told him that no matter what my heart might be feeling at that moment that it will never affect our friendship. I told him that eventually my feelings would fade and we would be back to normal. It definitely helped to get us back to where we were before. Now that we were back at school (in separate cities), we continued on as if nothing had happened. We talked on the phone, visited each other, blah blah blah.
Now fast forward the entire semester to Christmas Break. A group of us spent an entire week at a friend's cabin for New Years Eve. By now, Alvi and I no longer had weird tension between us. In fact, I felt like somehow our friendship was even stronger! One night, we were enjoying some adult beverages and he spilled his heart out. I won't go into big detail but basically the talk was about how he felt the same feelings I had but was too scared to admit it. Not wanting to ruin our friendship, he had been hiding his feelings this entire time. Honestly, I was upset by this. I had been embarrassingly wearing my heart on my sleeve for over 6 months, thinking that I was alone in this. I told him that I needed to continue focusing on myself and maybe we really weren't meant to be at all.
Well, long story short, we couldn't avoid what our hearts were telling us. From that moment on we were together 24/7 and a month later, we were official. BEST. DECISION. OF. MY. LIFE. We've been happily in love now for 3 years. I know in my heart that Alvi and I are, and always were, meant to be together. I would be nowhere without him. He has been my rock through so many hardships and I owe him a lifetime of thank-yous because of it. I now know what people mean when they say "you'll know when you're really in love." I thought I "loved" all of my exes.. but now? this relationship? THIS is true, unconditional love. This is what people search their entire life for and I'm lucky enough to have found it early. I will never, ever, ever let him slip away. I'm so happy that I took the chance to admit my feelings to him back in freshman year. Had I never done that? I wouldn't know what it's like to be this happy.
