“What irritated me most in that entire situation was the fact that Iwasn’t feeling humiliated, or annoyed, or even fooled. Betrayal waswhat I felt, my heart broken not just by a guy I was in love with, butalso by, as I once believed, a true friend.”

“As far as boyfriends were concerned, I dated, had a lot ofmeaningless relationships and that was pretty much it. It was reallyhard to find a decent guy. A guy that would be worthwhile. Theywere all great in the beginning, sweet and caring, sensitive andromantic. But if you scratched deeper, you would find NOTHING.Plenty of nothing. Sometimes one might even be surprised just howmuch nothing there was, but not me. No. Somehow, I had learnedto brace myself for the worst. But, to be honest, it wasn’t alwaysthe case. Some of the guys weren’t that empty beneath the surface,some even proved to be quite the opposite. True-Prince-charmingkind of guys... And their girlfriends! They were even more charmingprincesses when they found out. Well, I guess we all have our littleflaws... So, after some time, I was finally coming to terms with thegenuine truth that there was no such thing as a perfect boyfriend.On the other hand, Melina was waiting for her prince on awhite horse, and was honestly expecting him to show up single. Nomatter how many times I’d tried to convince her that all a girl getsfrom that prince-on-a-white-horse fairytale is actually and inevitablya horse and no prince, she never believed that.”

“I know you will do what your heart tells you,” he addedquietly.And I did. Not what my head was whispering, but what myheart was shouting. I put my arms around his neck pulling himcloser.”

“A true friend is the one who knowseverything about you and still loves you. Eventually, people will forget the things you said or did, but the feelingsyou woke up in them they will never forget!”

“I thought that lying to yourself is a simply impossible thing but youwouldn’t believe how easy it is when every part of your mind wantsto believe.”

“OK, that is better. I want to talk seriously,” he said anxiously.“I…you see…well….it’s just…”“Wow, Damon, slow down. I didn’t prepare myself for suchan intellectual conversation,” I interrupted, still looking at the gymguy. I smiled to him and he smiled back. Out of the corner of myeye, I noticed Damon didn’t like that at all.”

“Listen, Elena, after high school I left and I had a lot ofrelationships and nothing seemed right to me. But I rememberedyou often. You can say that we were kids back then and that thatwas kids’ stuff... and maybe it was. But now, when I am not a childanymore, there isn’t a doubt in me that it simply has to be you or noone else. I don’t want you to be the one that got away, at least notwithout a fight.”