Hwhell hello...

An interesting twist of fate presented itself to me the other day. But first, some backstory is required.

Rewind with me, if you will, a few years back in my pathetic nerdy existance. I was about 15, and obsessed with the pop-punk band MxPx. I frequented the band's message boards daily, and there I met a very nice girl by the name of Lacey. She e-mailed me from time to time, and the friendship grew quickly until our day just wasn't complete without spending an hour or so talking to eachother about anything and everything. She was different from any other girls I knew; she was smart, humble, pretty, trustworthy, and consistent in her good nature. I came to value her friendship greatly, and we became very close over the years despite living thousands of miles apart.

One day, as I knew it would inevitably happen, a boy asked her out. His name was Joel, and he seemed to be an alright guy. I congratulated them and even tried to make friends with him since we both shared a strong interest in performing music. This was, however, the beginning of a very bad experience.

I discovered that he was the angry, jealous type, and he demanded that I not even be allowed to speak to Lacey ever again, for he feared she had an interest in me. I explained to him that Lacey and I were just friends, that I supported their relationship, and that, to be fair, I was friends with her before he even knew her.

Well, he went straight to her and demanded that she never speak to me again if she wanted their relationship to continue. I tried to talk to him about it again, but he simply replied with "I'm sorry, I can't let your friendship continue."

Excuse me? You can't what?

Needless to say, I was rather annoyed by his rampant jealously.

Lacey still e-mailed me however, explaining that she still wanted to be friends, that she loved me, and that we would speak again some day.

I respected her wishes entirely and knew that she still cared, so I vowed to wait for that day when we could speak again.

Of course, Joel made sure to rub the situation in my face, and told me that she had blocked me and cared nothing about my friendship.

Fast forward in time a bit, and every year I continue to receive a handful of e-mails from Lacey. She says that Joel still refuses to let her talk to me, but that she's doing it anyway and just wants to remind me that she still thinks about me all the time and that she wonders how I'm doing.

I only respond to these e-mails at her discretion, and continue to respect their relationship. We end up sending several essay-long e-mails back and fourth at times, and the joy of our friendship is still there exactly how it was years ago, as if we never stopped talking. Of course, Joel is oblivious to all of this and thinks that we haven't spoken at all. Still, we keep these e-mails to a minimum out of respect for his wishes, and we often go for several months without talking.

Now, fast forward to just a few days ago, more than five years after this all began, and I receive another e-mail from Lacey. She tells me that she thinks Joel is about to ask her to marry him in less than a week, and she tells me that she's feeling very unsure about it. She doesn't know if she wants to marry him, and she has no one else to go to for advice.

Well, isn't that an interesting twist of fate? After he was so blatantly rude and horrible to me all those years ago not even letting me speak with her, I could very well be the deciding factor in whether or not he gets to marry her now?

Too sweet... my evil side cackles. I could completely screw this guy over and give him exactly what's been coming to him all these years. It's almost too delicious to be true.

She tells me about all the little things about him that she can't stand (about 10+ long paragraphs worth) and then a very small assortment of major things that she still loves about him. At the end she asks me, "Should I marry him?"

I read her e-mails over and over again, and we go through each of her concerns individually. As it turns out, most of the things she hates about him are small, liveable pet peeves that all relationships will no doubt have. Sadly for me, he's actually quite a good guy. He works hard, he treats her like a princess for the most part, they have wonderfully compatable values and lifestyles, and they've been together for over four years happily.

I simply cannot tell her not to marry him, because I know for a fact that I wouldn't have a hope of being as good a boyfriend as he's been to her. Despite my taste for revenge, I just can't destroy a good potential marriage over it. I tell her that I think she should marry him.

Since then we've continued to talk, and it's only been a few days. He hasn't asked yet, but it is most likely coming by the end of the week. It sounds like she's going with my advice and accepting.

The thing that makes it all okay for me is this, quoted from one of her e-mails:

"Mark, thank you. I want you to know that you always have and always will have a place in my heart."

I think that qualifies for...

+15 Light Side points for me!

I'll update in a week or so on whether or not they decide to wed.