Requiem

Last night I got "the phone call" that you know you'll get someday. David died....
I met David in third grade when their family moved into the house catty-cornered across the street from ours. He was in fifth grade. I used to spend the night across the hall from him with his sister, who had my same name. But I would get afraid at night, and knock on his door, and he would walk me home in the dark. He was an altar boy at that time, and seemed angelic.
He went to Catholic School and I went to public, but I would see him often. After the awkward, gangly years of junior high, I would walk our dog around the block every day. I had just gotten my braces off, and was starting to finally develop. And David noticed. He started waiting for me every day to talk to me as I walked the dog. I was just about to start (public) high school, and he decided to leave Catholic School and go where I was going. We waited for the bus together every morning, and rode together. He started asking me out because he had just started to drive, and would pick me up in his father's HUGE car. We had a somewhat fiery relationship - I'm outgoing and live out loud and he was shy and stubborn. It made for a John Wayne/ Maureen O'Hara relationship where we argued a lot, but not in a bad way. My sophomore year at Thanksgiving he broke up with me, since a few seniors his age were interested, and he went out with them for awhile, but by Christmas wanted to get back together. We did, but I always had my guard up after that.
When he went to college the following year at Texas Tech, he started drinking heavily. He drank in high school but it got worse in college. And he got extremely depressed. I began dating other people, and he would call and say he was suicidal. I called his mother, but she would hear none of it, and dismissed it immediately. David and his two siblings were adopted, and this affected him negatively his entire life. His parents worked those kids like they were hired hands, but many did in those days.
In my senior year, I started dating Todd, and David was extremely jealous. I found out later that he even followed us on dates, and watched us bowl.
When I started the University of Texas, David switched there because of me and his two best friends were there as well. After Todd and I broke up, I dated David again on and off for a couple of years. Then after I graduated, I moved to Dallas and started dating Paul, whom I married. David and family came to our wedding, which was at my home, across the street. He never really got over me, not because I'm special, it was just him. He had a hard time moving on. And he kept drinking more and more. He called me every two or three months my entire life, and once a year would ask me to marry him after I was divorced. Even my older children remember David drunk calling me fairly often. It was sad.
Two years ago, I got a call that he had a heart attack. I tried to call several times, and it was apparent he did not want to talk to me. He had just gone to rehab, and both nearly killed him. We had not spoken in the last two years....
His best friend John called me last night. Through a broken voice of tears, he said David never stopped loving me and never stopped talking about me. He said he had become bitter the last few years, and just wanted things to go back to how they were in high school. David never married, although when girls found out he inherited a lot of money, they would try. Too, his alcoholism was really bad over the last 15 years, and he was married to that.
It's already weird knowing he's not on this planet. I always knew he had my back and would do anything for me, and my children for that matter. And I would have for him as well.  I wish I could've gotten to talk to him one last time...
Rest in peace, David....