to her credit, Mel sits cross-legged
on my bed and listens
as I rant and rave about the whole situation
for at least an hour
and by the time I slump into my
bucket chair
she looks ready to jump out of her skin

Her speech went something like this:
“You are analyzing this thing to death and if you don’t quit it, you’re going to kill the first relationship you’ve ever had! And no, you don’t have to have your whole life figured out at 17 but you are totally acting like you have to have everything planned out like one of your gymnastics routines. Love isn’t like that. It’s not some routine you practice over and over until you get it right. It’s like a big pool that you just have to jump into and figure out how to swim. Yes, it’s scary and yes, sometimes you want to get out but you have to, at some point, give some guy a chance. And Ben seems great for you and you can’t keep pushing him away when he’s got all those cute college girls swarming around him. Why can’t you just enjoy it?”

and to this I have nothing to say
because I still can’t believe she used the L word.