Every May 3rd

I used to wait on that little dirt road by my house, sitting on the cement wall with the graffiti on it, every May 3rd. It was usually around 7:00 a.m. and in Puerto Rico that means the weather is cool, damp with unnatural amounts of morning dew and overcast skies. You'd think it would be a rainy day ahead, but living there taught you this was just a routine joke the skies played you every new day. In a few hours the temperatures would reach the triple digits and the sun would crisp you up like a thin piece of bacon in just a few minutes of standing in it.

None of that mattered. It was May 3rd, and in a few minutes I would see the house on the hill open it's front gates and your dad's chocolate brown El Camino make it's way down slowly, avoiding skidding in the wet dirt or getting stuck. I could make out the pale blue of your shirt on the passenger's seat and my heart would be racing it's way up my throat. It's not that I never got to see you, oh first love, for you were my neighbor and we played everyday till sundown. We even called each other at night to talk on the phone until bed time about Ninja Turtles and race cars. But I waited every year for this day, your birthday, to be the first one to tell you, as your car drove by on it's way to school, that you looked like an old angry crab. It always made you laugh, as I held on to the metal pile sticking up from the wall and swung out waiving and yelling those words at you at 7 a.m. Your dad just shook his head and the soft look on your eyes, the blush you had...told me you loved me like I loved you.

Our first love lasted from ages 5 (is that even possible?) until age 12, when my best friend Arelys made out with you in front of me...and you let her.

I'm 25 now, but on May 3rd every year I think of you and of us. Of innocence and happy days. The best years of my life.

So here I am, Alex, swinging from my blog wall and waving at you. Telling you that I don't know how you are, or if you're happy...but you most definitely look like a really...really old crab by now. Also, screw you for cheating. :)