"It's about me and this person. She used to be my best friend... Lacy." She began.

I nodded slightly for her to continue.

"We met in middle school, I think we didn't like each other at first. She was like the princess of the class... everyone was running after her, boys and girls, while I couldn't care less..."

I laughed.
This doesn't surprise me... Bella is definitely not a conformist, she doesn't follows stereotypes.

"We became friends because of a sleepover someone from class planned.
The others fell asleep, Lacy and I were the only one that stayed awake... so we started talking all night long..."

Hmm...

"I found out we had a lot in common, we kinda shared similar traits and similiar experiences." Bella sighed slowly.

She rested more comfortably on my thigh as she started to talk again.
"We kinda ignored each other again for some time. One day, to my surprise, she invited me to her house, from that moment on we became besties."
She smiled slightly now.

"I had never had this kinda of friendship,
we told each other everything, we shared everything, we were really connected. Then something happened..."

I feel the tension crossing our breath.
This is starting to get interesting... but I really don't know how to react if what I think it happened, really happened...

"She and I attended the same class in high school and during senior year I started dating a boy... nothing serious, we just hanged out." She breathed out.
"But I have never ended my friendship with her because of him."
Bella looked right into my eyes, I felt her tension coming through her voice.

"One night she stayed over at my house, it had happened a lot of times but... at a certain point of that night..." She paused.

Oh, this is it...
My heart is pounding and I don't know why...

"She kissed me. I was so stunned that she ran away. She left my house in the middle of the night..." Bella let out a tense sigh.

"She didn't attend school for three days.
I was becoming nervous, we still hadn't talk about what happened... I went to her house, but she won't let me in, so I stayed until she did..."

So she waited... that means she really cared...

"She told me she started to feel something for me once she felt jealous of the boy I was dating, but she didn't want to ruin our friendship."
Bella lowered her voice like she was guilty of something.

"And what did you say to her?" I dared to ask. My voice couldn't conceail a veil of concern.

Bella smiled slightly, but a moment later she returned to have that serious, intense expression.
"That our relationship wouldn't be ruined because... I had also realized that I had fallen in love with her..."

I nodded slightly.

"From that day, we started dating." She affirmed .

I looked in the direction of the waterfall, feeling my stomach suddenly twisting for no real reason. Or maybe it was jealousy...

Bella gently squeezed my hand as she paused her story.

"Continue..." I said, smiling again.

"My 19th birthday had arrived, we had been together for a year or so..." She whispered.
"From that day, I slowly realized that it was no longer what I wanted." She swallowed with difficulty.

"Not because she was a woman, of course, but because I wanted her to go back to being... just my best friend..."
She explained.

I can feel she still has some hidden torment about that.

"But that was impossible of course." Her voice was more resolute now.

"I was sending her signals but she didn't understand them... it was strange, we had known each other since forever and yet she hadn't noticed anything..."
Her voice was still in disbelief.

"How can you say that you love someone if you can't tell that she is suffering? Love is about understanding too..." Bella looked right into my eyes, as if she knew I was dealing with that problem too.

Her eyes were focused and uneasy, as she were trying to process something troubling she still couldn't figure out.

Okay, she was referring to Joe...
I remained silent because I didn't know that answer.

Bella continued to talk.
"We didn't work out. As best friend we did. But not as lovers. Something was missing."

She shook her head.
"I was a coward, though, I let another month go by before talking with her..." Bella lowered her gaze, swallowing hesitantly.

"When I finally did... I broke her heart of course..." She sighed slowly.
"I felt terrible because I didn't feel for her what I was supposed to feel and there was nothing I could do about it."
She sighed again to regain air.

"Of course we couldn't be friends anymore, even though that was the only thing I selfishly wanted."
Bella emphasized the word "selfish", as her voice was broken now.

That is probably why she feels this guilty inside of her.

I squeezed her hand. "You are allow to feel that way, Bella... you are human too... we experience these feelings too."

Her gaze was warm and enveloping now, radiating a sense of empathy towards me, but it was still too uncertain and vulnerable revealing her doubts and hesitation.

"I thought I was the worst person in the world for I have made someone suffer and that someone was my only best friend."
She tightened her lips to not feel the weight of her words.

My heart tightened, I wasn't used to her vulnerable side, it makes me suffer too.

She closed her eyes, I squeezed her hand.
She slowly calmed her self down, as her breath coming back to normal now.

"Things got better during college.
I started focusing on studying and time slowly healed my wounds."

She was smiling wistfully now.
"I hope she has forgiven me as I eventually learned to forgive myself."

"I'm sure she did. You didn't do anything wrong." I affirmed.

Bella took both of my hands, squeezing them gently.
"Two years ago, maybe, I saw her in a pub.... she was with her girlfriend." She smiled.
"We hadn't seen each other since everything happened. She told me she was very happy with her and I can tell that honestly..." She concluded her story.

Well, that makes me blush, I don't know why...

"That's in the past." Bella smiled at me more serenely now.
She lifted her head from my thigh and gave me a deep kiss on the lips making me lay again on the towel.

"I'm really focusing on the present..." She kissed me passionately, and a playful smile escaped her lips.

"And about that... I was just thinking..." She whispered when I lay down beside her.
Her gorgeous face an inch from mine.

"Is there any place you would like to go now...?" She raised an eyebrow.

"You know I was thinking the same thing..." I whispered, resting my face in my wrist.
A smile shone on her face.

"There is only ONE place I would like to go back to right now..." I said and a nostalgic smile appeared on my face.

Bella didn't seem surprised by my answer.
"I was hoping you would say that, Ellie." She smiled warmly.

I snapped her a kiss on her lips, feeling that warm fuzzy feeling.
"And what was that for?" She asked me, narrowing her eyes and biting her lips with pleasure.
Her jaw when she did that...

I hid an embarrassed smile as I turned around looking at the sun above us.
Bella stared at me as she rested her head on the back of her hand, smiling smugly.

"That's because you always understand me." I affirmed.

We got dressed and walked back to the car, I was still wearing her shirt... still smelling her perfume...

"Let me drive, Bella... you rest." I affirmed.
"Hmm, hmm..." She shook her head, giving me a grimace of dissent.
"You really are stubborn..."
She burst out laughing.

I didn't need to tell Bella what place I wanted to go back because I knew exactly it was the place she wanted to go too... and we had simply understood each other with a single nostalgic glance.
That's probably what understanding truly means...