Fast forward ten years, and here I was, about to see him again.
And standing there, on the doorstep to nostalgia, I was more than aware that in the game that we all play in our heads - the game where you determine who's done better for themselves since you'd seen them last - he had tallied up far more points in the WIN column than I had. He was MD/PhD at Harvard, discovering the better cure for tuberculosis, all while going on mission trips to South Africa. And he was getting married to a girl at Harvard law. Whom he'd dated for the last six years of his life. And along with paying for the wedding all on their own, they had also just bought a gorgeous apartment in the cutest little neighborhood Boston has to offer. Win win win.
Me? I couldn't even muster up a 2nd place win in the looks department, since I was tired and haggard from traveling all day after being completely demolished by my ICU test and OSCE. And I was very aware of the giant pimple just waiting to burst, conveniently located exactly right between my eyes, that I could swear pulsated on its own volition.
Really, just shoot me now.
But I rang the doorbell. And he and his very adorable fiancée came to greet me - he taking my suitcase up the 5 flights of stairs, and she taking my coat. And even though I hadn't arrived until midnight, thanks to layovers and delays, we stayed up until 2am, catching up and getting to re-know one another.
It could have been awkward, but it wasn't. And that's to his credit. Even after the Roman disaster, we had stayed friends. Mainly because we were forced to, as the powers to be decided that we would continue to be standpartners for another 2 years, but also because he made an effort not to make things awkward.
So now I'm going to his wedding. And I'm determined to not make it awkward. Because it's not, and it shouldn't be.
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**Man, re-reading that first paragraph, I'm realizing that it's very similar to something hackneyed Taylor Swift would sing about. Seriously, you could probably sing those words to Love Story. "We were both young when I first saw you..." Anyway, I apologize. Teenagers and their heartbreaks, you know.
