t was back in first grade, we had a new boy in our class his name was Jimmy. None of the boys wanted to play with him because he was black. They didn't like him because he was different; I thought he was the same. He would spend his recesses walking around kicking rocks, so did I, but see I did it because it was better than hearing the girls ramble on about Barbie and Ken and pink haired ponies. Anything was better than that. I went up to Jimmy one day and asked him if he wanted to race me to the big tree, I felt bad for him. We started the race; we sprinted across the long school yard all the way to the big tree. It was a close call, but I had won, Jimmy found it amazing that a girl had beat him rather than getting all upset he thought it was really cool. Ever since then we were best friends. People always gave us weird looks when we walked around, but we didn't care we just laughed at them, we laughed because we had a better friendship than most of them had ever had in their lives.

Jimmy and I clicked so well, I think because we both come from such messed up families. His father was an abusive alcoholic and his mom was always on drugs. My dad left us when I was 5 years old, it was always just me and my mom, and I loved it like that until she met this jerk named Billy. They got married when I was seven and ever since then my mom doesn't know I exist, and Billy he used to get a little too close for comfort. Sometimes it felt like Jimmy was the only person in the world who understood me, actually I think he was. He was never like it could be worse, he always did the best he could to make me feel better. We spent all our time by that big tree that we raced to back in first grade. That was our tree; we carved our names all over it so when evil space alien people came they would know it was our tree. That's how we always put it. It was Jimmy and I best buddies, through thick and thin no matter what. We only found true happiness when we were with each other.

It was the summer of 1986, we were sixteen years old and little did we know the next few years would change our lives. I had just gotten a new boyfriend, his name was Joey and boy was he perfect. He was strong, funny and a gentleman. When I started going out with Joey things got different with me and Jimmy, we kind of drifted apart and we didn't go to the tree since me and Joey happened. Besides Jimmy other things started changing, like Joey for instance he was always high or drunk. He always tried to get me to try that stuff, I did once and I hated it. Every time after that I said no, and when I said no he would hit me and as this continued weeks later his hits got harder and harder, his words were more harsh every time. We were at a party once, everyone was drunk, well almost everyone, I wasn't, Joey tried to get me to drink something he said he put some really neat thing in it, over my dead body would I drink something that he put something "neat" into. He threw the drink in my face, shoved me to the ground, and started kicking me I screamed for help but it seemed like no one noticed. He hit me in the head with a beer bottle and that's the last thing I remember. The next morning I woke up in my bed with a cast on one arm and Jimmy sleeping in a chair next to me. I woke up and asked what happened he said he walked in and saw what Joey did to me, so he knocked Joey out and drove me to the hospital. I had stitches in my head, on my eyebrow, and I had broken my arm. I asked him why he did that for me, when I had ditched him so many times for that creep. "No matter what you do, I will always be there for you no matter what." Those were his exact words, words that will stay with me forever. Things started to go back to normal with me and Jimmy. We still went to the tree every night and told each other everything, just like before. It was nice; I didn't realize how much I missed him. Even though things were going back to normal with Jimmy, they were different too. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but after a while I realized I was falling in love with him. Me and Jimmy? No way! I kept on telling myself that, but nothing would work. I couldn't help it I loved him.

One night at the tree me and him were just talking, I knew I needed to tell him, I couldn't keep it bottled up anymore! "Jimmy, we need to talk," I said. "About?" he asked. "Jimmy! I think I love you," I just blurted it out; I couldn't believe what I had just said. He kissed me. That's all he did, he didn't say anything just did that. He loved me too! I couldn't believe it. I was the happiest girl in the world and nothing could bring me down, not even Joey's creep face in the hallway or Billy's disgusting stare from across the dinner table. Jimmy was happy too, I could see it in his face, and I could hear it in his laugh. We deserved each other, and we couldn't have been happier. We spent the next few months eating dinner together by our tree. Those months were golden, every one of those days were the best days of my life. Our families hated us, and we hated them right back they hurt us, and as much as we wanted to we couldn't hurt them. Those months I forgot about Billy, and Jimmy forgot about his dad it was just Jimmy and Leslie. We promised each other it would be forever, and we knew it would be.

It was about six months after that night I told him I loved him that I found out. We were having dinner under the tree as usual and Jimmy was acting different. He had been lately though, he looked different too he was thinner; there was less joy in his laugh. I asked him what's wrong that night, and he just started crying, I held him and demanded he tell me. "I-I went to the doctor the other day because I had been getting this really bad headaches I thought it was because of lack of sleep or something," he said. "And what happened what happened?!" I started to get hysterical. "Th-they took an x-ray of my head and they found a-a-…" "A WHAT?!" I yelled. "They found that I had a brain tumor," he whispered. I cried, I screamed and cried I couldn't believe it. The love of my life is sick, fatally sick! I wished, hoped, and prayed that it would be me and not him; he deserved it more than I did. He hugged me and we just sat there all night crying, wishing things would be different. He didn't have much time, we both knew that. He decided that he was going to live his life better than ever and that every day and every moment he would spend with me.

It seemed like an ordinary night, spent like all our other nights …little did I know. After we finished our dinner, Jimmy got down on one knee, "I love you so much, and until the day I die I want to spend every moment of my life with you." We got married the next day at city hall. Jimmy convinced his mom to give him money; we had enough to pay off this small apartment on the other side of town. We still ate dinner by the tree, and we tried to laugh as much as possible. The next few months were wonderful, amazing as amazing could get. No one really understood us, we were both 17 years old, still in high school, married, and we ate dinner by a sad old tree. Oh, we loved how no one got us. It's like we had our own world. Those months were precious not as precious as the months before Jimmy had gotten sick because now there was a small bit of sadness bringing us down. Everything was going fine, we actually had hope Jimmy would survive this whole thing. They were now married for about 10 months, almost a year and Jimmy was starting to get very sick. Their new home was his hospital room, he was too weak to get out of his bed, and she was too weak to leave his side.

November 27, 1989 was the day Jimmy died. We promised each other it would be forever, I guess forever is too good to be true. I buried Jimmy next to our tree, just like in Forrest Gump. That's where we were both the happiest, under that big old tree. I knew he would be happy here. I promised him I would never stop loving him, and I never did. He was my best friend, no matter where, no matter what, we stuck together and I know that will never, ever change.