December, 1963

You know I didn't even know her name
But I was never gonna be the same
What a lady, what a night!

To say it was a whirlwind romance would be a lie.  It was a fucking F5 tornado. The kind that dislodges your foundations from the very core, that destroys your sensibilities and sense of self and disarms your ambitions.  The kind that absorbs you to the tune of a freight train, running over your possessed bodies.  The saddest part is? You don't care. Even if you knew what it was going to turn into, you'd let it turn, over and over again.

Just like a summer maelstrom, this romance was over nearly before it began.

How it started doesn't really matter.  In college it never really does.  All-night conversations turned into sunrise walks around the lake turned into holding hands turned into kissing turned into breakfast and boyfriends and "L" word and secrets shared.

Breakfast everyday turned into phone conversations turned into movie nights turned into formal dances turned into birthday parties turned into "I could never live without you's."

Well, I could never live without you, until I did.

Some things aren't meant to last.  Some things are most tantalizingly beautiful, most mesmerizing when they are on the brink of extinction.  Some things feel the best when they are the hardest to hold onto, you see.

How it ended really does matter.  It ended just when those dark clouds started creeping into my brain.  When I could see the cracks in the concrete; I could see the sky turning pea soup green. 

It ended with you and me, in the dark.  Plans for the future turned into yelling turned into purse throwing turned into hands and knees in the grass turned into "Get away from me!" turned into not wanting it to end like this turned into you giving up.

You really did leave.


Oh, I got a funny feeling when she walked in the room
And I, as I recall it ended much too soon
Oh, what a night.