- Life long Friends to lovers
- Life long Friends to lovers – 02
Life long friends to lovers is a great story to read.
Susan and Gretchen and I met when we were in the 6th grade. Well, Susan was in the 4th grade, but anyway, we became friends right away. They are British and their Dad had gotten a job in the town where I grew up. I had been in the 4th grade when we moved there, so I was an outsider too so we gravitate towards each other and we have remained close ever since.
We must have looked kind of funny – two blonde girls and a little black girl. Their parents didn’t seem to mind that I was black and they were wonderful to me. They regarded me as another daughter and mine felt the same way about them. Their dad once cursed out a neighbor who said something to him about having a little black child at his house so much.
We went from playing dolls together to trading teen magazines to records to going to concerts together. We had planned to go to college together and we were going to discover the world together and just as that was looking like a reality, their father’s job transferred him back to England so they all moved back home.
We were devastated. We were used to spending time together and we had looked forward to college being our next big experience, but it wasn’t to be. I went to college in Miami and they both went to schools in London.
Every chance they got, they came to visit me and I started going over to visit them. Our relationship didn’t change one bit. It was perfect except for one thing: Gretchen’s twin brother Gregory who was a born pain in the ass.
He’d always wanted to horn in on what we were doing and we had always chased him away. He was just a little annoyance for years but as he became a teenager, he got big and muscular and strong. He still wanted to be around us and he was too big to chase away anymore so we would just let him stay. I think he wanted to learn about girls from being with us. He had lots of girls chasing him. He was a big blonde with long hair and rippling muscles and yeah, he was cute but he had become so arrogant and snotty!
He would interrupt our conversations, argue with us and demand attention. We often ended up listening to his problems and he rarely listened to ours. He got loud and pushy and I just couldn’t stand him. He seemingly tolerated me because of his sisters.
We didn’t talk much and we were just barely civil to each other. But he was just always there. We would be in Susan’s room talking about something really important like whether or not this cute boy at school was going steady and Gregory would come in and lie across the bed and tell us that the guy had a girlfriend and that he didn’t like any of us. Or he would just lay there and listen to us and of course we couldn’t discuss what we wanted with him there!
As we got older, things mellowed but the girls and I were still close. We took trips together across Europe and to Vegas and to the Grand Canyon. We went through bad romances and good ones and we were still the best of friends. They all remained in London but Gretchen got married so they didn’t all live together anymore.
One year, I had been suffering with a shoulder problem and I finally had surgery on it. I had been teaching college English for a while and I needed some time to rest and Gretchen insisted I come spend the time with her. After I got the splint off, I happily went to her. She said she knew a great physical therapist that would be happy to rehab me and with my doctors’ approval, I set off for London for a couple of months.
Gretchen and her husband lived in a big 2 flat house in St. John’s Wood and Gregory lived in the flat above them. She said he had just broken up with a girl he’d been with for almost 2 years and he hadn’t taken it well. He’d been depressed and lonely and she was concerned about him. She thought my being there would cheer him up some. I wasn’t sure about that. He and I often ended up fighting after a few minutes together but I figured I could go easy on him this time.
Years had passed and I thought perhaps he and I could at least be friendly to each other so I was prepared to be gentle considering his recent heartbreak. I knew how men were when they had been dumped.
Gretchen’s husband Bill was a kick. He was a chef and owned a fancy schmancy restaurant that was the hottest thing going. I liked him immediately. He was a big bear of a man but he was sweet and funny. We were going to have a big dinner at his restaurant that night and Susan was going to join us.
While I was getting dressed, there was a knock at my door and I figured it was Gretchen so I said come in. To my surprise, Gregory stepped in instead.
When had he gotten so gorgeous? I thought. His blonde hair was long and curly and down to his shoulders. His body was magnificent. You could eat off that 6 pack he had. His legs were big and long and he looked like a big golden god or something. But it was still Gregory, so I smiled and greeted him with the name I had always called him, “Hey Butthead.”
He gave me a little smile, “Hello, Little Snot,” he said, returning the childish insults we had always hurled at each other.
“You look good,” I said, rather lamely. Good did not begin to describe how Gregory looked.
“As do you,” he replied, “still teaching English?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“I heard you had surgery on your shoulder.”
“Yes, I did. Rotator cuff. I guess I will need some physical therapy for it for a while.”
“So I hear. Have you managed to find a man who could stand being around you for longer than a fortnight?”
He was baiting me as always.
“I hear you couldn’t keep a woman around you,” I retorted.
“Sad but true. She wasn’t enough for me anyway,” he snapped back, his eyes twinkling.
“She’s probably thinking how lucky she is to have dumped your ass about now,” I replied.
“Same old Sam,” he said, shaking his head, “talking about things you don’t know. Tell Gretsch I shall be a bit late for dinner. See you,” and he left the room.
That night, Gregory spent the night dominating the discussion with his complaints about his ex-girlfriend and how women were too harsh, demanded too much and how we used men for what we wanted. I was mad enough to put a fork in his head as usual.
“If you weren’t so arrogant, you’d see that it’s not what we demand. You think women don’t see that you are selfish? You have always been that way and I’m surprised anyone would spend any time with you at all!”
“You stupid little twat,” he hissed, “my being confident does not make me arrogant. I gave my girlfriend everything she wanted and she still wanted more. What more could I do?”
“Did you spend any time with her? Did you listen to her when she talked to you or did you just wait for her to stop talking so you could tell her what to do? Did you ever consider how she felt or was it all about you as usual?” I hurled back.
He glared at me across the table and I knew I had hit a nerve. Bill called a truce and we all began to eat.
I saw Gregory looking at me all evening and I tried to ignore him. I knew he wanted to continue the discussion later and normally, I would be ready. But that night, I was tired. After dinner, we went home and I took a shower and went to bed immediately.