A Dark and Stormy Night

After that morning, James and Katlyn shared an unbreakable bond. She took him back to her home and treated his injured hands. Despite what they both thought would happen in the back of their minds, they didn’t have sex that day. They sat on the couch in the living room and talked. Both were completely surprised by the things that they learned about each other in just that one day. It was only with a great reluctance that Katlyn drove James back to the football field to get his car. Before they parted, they agreed to see each other the first thing Monday morning. A promise that was sealed with a kiss.
When James returned home, his parents immediately noticed the change that had overcome him. It wasn’t until Sunday night that his mother finally managed to get him to confess that he had met a really nice girl at the football game. His mother, ever so cheerful as she was, was ecstatic at the news. James’ dad, in his typical fashion, didn’t give him anything other than a quick smile.

Katlyn endured much more difficulty with her parents. When she told them that she had met a guy at the game, her mother hounded her for the rest of the week, asking just about every question imaginable about the mystery boy. Her dad, on the other hand, was far more defensive and closed about it. Above all, he wanted to have a talk with this boy she had met before anything else.

Their first week together in school was the roughest. James had to endure humiliation by Marcus, who now had it out for him for ratting on him to coach Ronald. It came as a complete surprise to Marcus when James told him calmly that getting locked in the field house had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. There was the odd moments as each of them tried to introduce the other to their mutual groups of friends, although James did notice that Katlyn’s friends were far more accepting of their relationship than his. After they had managed the first week, things began to gradually settle for the two of them. A natural and healthy relationship grew between Katlyn and James as time went on. James came to believe in Karma when he learned two months after he and Katlyn had been together that Clarissa had found out through a friend that Marcus had screwed a cheerleader from the opposing team at a party after one of the biggest games of the year. After that, she had tried to talk to him, but James gave her the same treatment she had given him, without any regret. The cold shoulder, accompanied by the murderous look in Katlyn’s eyes, had sent Clarissa packing. After that, James never interacted with her again. And Marcus…

Out on a date in the early months of the next year, James and Katlyn were walking out of a movie theatre when they by chance happened to pass Marcus. Marcus, who had been hounding James for months but had yet to engage in a physical confrontation, made a rude sexual gesture to Katlyn, and grabbed her ass as they passed him. James, without so much as a word spoken or the slightest hesitation, whirled around on his heels and slugged Marcus right in the face. The force of the impact shattered Marcus’ nose, forever destroying his good looks. After that one incident, Marcus never bothered either of them again.

The rest of their high school life was what one would expect of a typical relationship. It was after their graduation that the true strength of their love was tested. Katlyn had been offered a scholarship at a prestigious university out of state, while James had been accept to the state’s central college. The separation meant that they would be hundreds of miles away from each other. Each knew that it would be a challenge, but remembering the night that had brought them together, they both willing accepted the four year battle that lay before them to stay together. The final day of their senior summer was the saddest that either of them had ever endured, each knowing that they were going to have to learn how to be apart from the other after having been nearly inseparable for over a year-and-a-half.

The first three months at college were the hardest for James. On more than one occasion, he had been presented the temptation to have a one night fling with very attractive girls. Ever since getting beat up by Marcus, James had forced himself into lifting weights, and had gained a healthy 15 lbs of muscles. Each time he was faced with the delema, James would look to Katlyn’s graduation ring, the one she had given him in promise to stay faithful to him, just as he had done for her. One glace at it was all he had needed to politely decline the advances of the opposite sex.

Years passed, with James and Katlyn each driving hundreds of miles once a month to see each other. It was through their second year of college, with their affectionate ties still a strong as ever, that he came to a decision. On Katlyn’s 21st birthday, they had shared a celebration bottle of wine, after which James told her to go and check the freezer of her apartment’s refrigerator with the promise of a special desert. Katlyn had happily gone and checked in it, but after over a minute of looking all through it, she couldn’t find any kind of desert at all. When she turned to ask James what kind of game he was playing, her words died right in her throat when she saw him down on one knee, a ring in his hand. Stuttering with completely ridiculous nervousness, James managed to ask Katlyn if she would marry him. For almost a minute, she didn’t say anything. And then, she had simply burst into tears and nodded her head rapidly. That night, the two shared the most passionate love making that they had had for more than a year.

After college, James managed to secure a job as a construction engineer with a very prominante building company, and Katlyn went on teach music classes at the university she had grown to love. James worked hard for months, proving how valuable he was to the company that hired him, and got a transfer to the regional department that operated where Katlyn taught. The moved in together, and time flied as the day of their wedding approached.

When that day came, James proudly stood at the alter, waiting for his bride, the love of his life, to appear, when he saw Katlyn walking down the isle with her father at her side, he nearly had a heart attack being in the presence of her divine beauty. There wasn’t a single moment of doubt in him as she approached about the lifelong commitment he was about to embark upon, for he knew with every fiber of his soul that he was making the right decision.

After their marriage, Katlyn and James found a decent house in a quiet neighborhood. Eventually, they had three beautiful children, a boy and two girls, that they raised with all the love that any parents could possibly show. And above all else, they taught them to never judge others based upon appearance.

The height of Katlyn’s life was when the orchestra she performed with received the honor of playing in Carnegie Hall. Flying out to New York, she sat nervously behind the curtain with in the flute section. When the curtain lifted, and she saw her husband sitting in the front row directly in front of her, his eyes filled with nothing but encouragement for her, she knew that her life was perfect.

Through all the good and bad times, James and Katlyn fought to make their love a lasting one. And throughout their long and happy lives together, they always held each other the closest…

…on the dark and stormy nights.