I am so not a bad person. Laura might tell you something different, but you can’t believe everything out of her mouth. After all, she is a journalist. And no one can twist the truth like a journalist.

    Well, no one but a politician. But I don’t want to go there. Laura is good at telling everyone that am opinionated. If I get talking about politics, I’ll prove her right.

    And though I love her dearly, I don’t like to say that Laura is right about anything!

    We met about a week before classes started our freshman year at Princeton. I was not at all happy when I walked into my dorm room and saw Laura sitting there. The first thing I did was call my Daddy. “You promised me a private room!” I’d told him. Well, that is what I had shouted into his voicemail. He wasn’t answering his phone. Not surprising, really. He hadn’t even been able to take one day off work to help his daughter—his only child, I should tell you—move to college. Mom was out shopping, which is where I would rather have been. I had just graduated from high school. The last thing I wanted to do was start up at another school. But Daddy had ignored my pleas to take a year off school to travel Europe. Actually, he had bribed me to give up that idea with a private room at Princeton. So when I walked into the room and saw Laura unpacking, I was less than happy about it.

    Not that Laura cared. She never cared much for what anyone had to say. Well, anyone outside of her family, anyway. That’s why I was so surprised by what happened with Joey and Laura. She listened to what everyone around her thought, believed their opinions, and then acted on those opinions. She didn’t do what she wanted, she just did what she thought others wanted.

    Idiot.

    I love her and all. I mean, she is my best friend and even in the years when we didn’t speak she was the only one that I wanted to share my joys and heartaches with. But the girl can be the biggest idiot sometimes.

    Still, she is the one who brought true love into my life. Would I have met Taylor without Laura’s friendship? Who knows. But I am sure I would not have met him when I did without her. Oh, and Taylor has been the best thing to happen to me. Gosh, when I met Laura I was happily jumping from one man to another, never going out with the same one for more than a month. For the four years we were roommates I did the same thing. I even tried to get Laura to date as much as I did. Ironic, isn’t it? Instead of getting her to experience the variety of men this life has to offer, she introduced me to the only man who could have interested me in monogamy.

    And I don’t think I have ever thanked her for that.

Crystal Waters