Show of hands, how many people have heard of Kellie Pickler? Alright, of those people how many have heard her song “Best Days of Your Life”? That’s good I don’t have to explain the song then. The song has been a real help for me in the past couple months, it helped me keep my head straight so I didn’t break down into tears every few minutes, especially the chorus. This wonderful woman sings, “It’s just too bad you’ve already had the best days, the best days of your life.” And that line is exactly what I could sing to him. But maybe, at this point, I should just tell you my story. After all this is an autobiography, not a biography.

I suppose it all started earlier this year, in May. Yes, that is when it started. It was cold, not frigid, steal your breath away cold, but it was bitter enough that you would need a light jacket if you were staying outside long. It must have been low 60’s probably. I had succeeded earlier that night in convincing my parents to let me go hang out with my friend Callie. At first all we did was hang around her house, but we finally got so bored we could feel our brains turning to unrecognizable goo! We quickly decided that to fix this we would go get something to eat at Sonic and then run across the road to Wal-Mart to see if there was anyone there we could run around with. There wasn’t, of course (just our luck I suppose). We just drove around after that, not for any real purpose but to just stay out of the house. I was supposed to be home at 10 o’clock that night, but when the time for her to take me home rolled around we called both of our parents and got them to agree to let me stay at her house for the night. The deal was that I could stay the night if we both made it to Sunday school at church in the morning. We agreed and said we would be there and quickly hung up the phone before my mom could change her mind. We sped towards Cherokee Village to go pick up a few of her friends that wanted to hang out with us that night. They had called a few minutes earlier, and we said we’d just come get them at one of their houses.

That was the night that I met Bradley Joseph. I think that maybe, if we hadn’t said that we would come get them, parts of my life wouldn’t be the same. We pulled up outside of what seemed to be an extremely large white house just inside of Cherokee Village. We watched as a window in the front of the house slowly slid up and open and two teenagers fell out of it onto the front porch. They bolted for the car as a light in the house went on and quickly dove through the door that Callie had had me open as soon as they started running. We peeled out of the driveway as the boys in the backseat burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter at what they saw as an amazing feat.

Callie looked backwards at them in the rearview mirror and smiled at them as I just turned around and stared, smiling like an idiot because, in my eyes, they were so hot! Callie nudged my leg with her hand and whispered, “Should I perform formal introductions or just let you start sucking face with the blond one?” I glared at her and retaliated, “You’re just jealous ‘cause I can suck face and you can’t ‘cause you got your hands on the wheel.” As soon as that line left my mouth it was our turn to burst into uncontrollable laughter as the boys stared at us in confusion.

After we got ourselves under control, Callie performed the proper introductions. The blond boy that she had so kindly offered to let me suck faces with was named Brad and the dark haired one was Bruce.

We ended up spending most of the night at Papoose Park inside of Cherokee Village. The boys, being boys, just had to show off for us. “Hey! Watch this!” Bradley yelled. As Callie and I turned around to look at him he jumped off of the highest section of the jungle gym and did a more than impressive back flip. Needless to say Bruce just had to top him and climbed into a tree to do the same.

The boys soon stopped their silly antics and started to pay more attention to us, just the way we wanted them to in the first place. We started to play in the small river and pond that ran through the park. Bradley ran up between Callie and me and wrapped his arms around me.

“Do you think the water’s cold?” he whispered in my ear.

“Um, I couldn’t tell you,” I replied.

“Well, why don’t you try it out,” he laughed as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and walked closer to the water.

I started beating on his back with my hands, screaming, and laughing, “Let me down, Brad! I swear if you dump me in that water I will drag your butt in behind me!” He laughed and dropped me on the bank as he tried to steal a kiss. I giggled and pulled away from him shaking my head. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll get one before the end of the night,” he promised with a wink.

“Yo! Guys, we gotta go! I have to be home in like twenty minutes!” At Callie’s shout all four of us bolted for her car. As we pulled back into Brad’s driveway he trapped me between the car and his body and smiled at me that smile that I used to find so charming.

“I told you I’d get one,” he whispered in my ear as he kissed me flush on the lips.

Later that night he texted me and so began a romance that lasted an amazing two months. Then it all came to an end when one morning at camp he texted me and told me he couldn’t do it anymore. His reasons were, to say the least, the oldest in the book. I later found out that he just couldn’t deal with the stress of all the rumors that were circling around about us, the lies about how he was cheating on me. But, to this day I believe that he never did. I believe that I will always love that boy, and that somewhere in me I will always miss him. As Kellie Pickler said, “The best days of your life”, I know that the days he had with me, were the best of his.