dear Dee, whatβs the worst argument you and Johnny have ever gotten into? What happened? How did yall make up after? Also I just wanna say you look SO COOL!!!
Dee doesnt speak for a moment, instead averting her gaze to the side, as if in thought. She knew the answer - in fact, she thinks about it more often than she'd care to admit - but her hesitance says enough.
"We don't have many... particularly terrible arguments. At least I think so! Though, there was a time..."
She lowers her head whilst chuckling to herself before continuing.
"When we first started, y'know, hanging out more, we had a lot of differences... and we still do, but we're more understanding of one another. Neither of us were drawn to the other for the right reasons back then. I was dependent and defensive. I took any question from him as an attack on me personally, because it hurt to think something about myself was undesirable to the one I clung to most."
Dee pauses again, giving herself a beat to think.
"He wanted what he saw in highschool back. He didnt understand how horrible my situation was or how it impacted my physical and mental wellbeing aside from changing my appearance. He could run around all day, do karate, play tennis... and I couldnt even keep up to begin with. It frustrated him after awhile."
Her voice backs away into something more meek as her fingers now fiddle with loose strands of her headscarf.
"So, one night, he just asked me 'why?'. Why I couldnt do what he could... and I just kind of lost it on him. I feel terrible now, but at the time, I couldnt understand why he was asking. I look back and realize everytime he tried to ask, I took it the same way. I just expected him to figure it out. I also knew he wasnt particularly interested in who I was in that moments present deep down, so I probably resented him a bit for it, too."
"It wasnt long or a ton of back and forth. I just yelled about his 'arrogance', told him to leave, and it was done. I wasnt in the right to react that way, of course, but in the week or so of not speaking I think we both sat in it long enough to learn something. Me, that I was too dependent and focused on myself, and Johnny, that there was more to me than the pretty face he knew way back when. We spoke again - albeit slowly - and things blossomed soon enough... healthier this time."
"He started paying more attention to me and what he could do to help out without some kind of 'reward'. He thought of me as me now than before - recognized I was strong, just not in the same way he was. I took more time with him... learnt patience, which I didnt have much of."
She chuckles softly with a small, playful wave.
"Now-a-days, we just accuse eachother of using all the maple syrup before the other had a chance."
With your last tidbit, she smiles briefly. A light dust of red tinges across her freckled cheeks and the bridge of her nose.
"Mh... that's sweet of you, friend."
