There's this thing about teenage love. It's almost unreal. Each moment of it seems to hurt as much as it feels good. I never thought I'd find actual love. The kind of thing where you ache for it when its not there, and ache even more when it is. 'Alice, someday you're going to meet a nice boy and you'll know when you're in love,' mom told me. 'It will take all of your thoughts and steal all of yourself, and you won't care,' mom always said with a smile. 'You're a pretty girl. Got your mother's hair,' dad always said with pride. Blond, long, and down to my shoulders; just like mom. Got her figure too. Small and slim. Saw a picture of her when she was my age, a few years before the world war. She's standing at the beach in this funny little striped swimsuit. Must've driven my dad nuts, way back when.
But mom was right about love. It's the only time you ask to take a beating. Hurts so good, it's criminal.
I had plenty of admirers. Boys always asked me to the dances and to the movies. I rode in a car twice. They left me notes and sent me letters. One told me it was my eyes he loved. Said they were blue like the sky. Another said he thought my hair was pretty as anything. He liked the way it was straight and swirled around me when I moved. One boy actually had the guts to say he loved my body. But there was one who I knew was the one. One who liked my hair and my eyes and yes, my body too. But the thing that did it, was - me. This one said, 'I just like you. I like your laugh and your words and the way you stand or sit or run. I just want to be with you.' (Emphasis on the 'you.')