Loyalty Is a Girl's Best Friend

It was 5 o clock in the evening on a Tuesday when Abby realized she was going to be late for her weekly dinner date with Sam. As her cactus shaped alarm clock buzzed loudly, she hopped up from her pleasantly plush sage couch and ran straight to her Joanna Gaines inspired bathroom to get ready.

Abby was 5'3'' with beautiful never-ending hazel eyes. Her bouncy black wavy hair shone like crystallized glass when the sun hit her. Her smile served as the perfect place for her defined dimples to rest, and her skin was dark and bronzed. Abby grew up in the suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She played tennis for a bigger school and excelled in her academics. But her tennis career was cut short due to unknown medical concerns. She was loved and appreciated for the person she was. But she did not foresee the events to transpire in her future.

When the time came for Abby to graduate from high school, she decided to apply to the school of her dreams and pursue her passion of becoming a fashion designer. Abby was accepted into The Unversity of California, Berkley on a full ride scholarship. She was at the top of her design class at The University of California, Berkley. It had a very low acceptance rate, so Abby was more than gifted to receive an interview and an admissions spot, to begin with. But within the coming year, Abby and her family received some bad news about her health. While Abby was forced to quit playing tennis her senior year of high school due to unknown health-related issues, the issues proved more serious than they thought. Abby was constantly in a lot of pain and the doctors did not have answers. After enduring many lengthy tests, they found that Abby had tumors invading her legs. This devastated Abby and her family. They were so happy she was following her heart and living out her biggest dreams. But they knew they needed to be strong for her because her life was about to completely change forever.

Although she was having the time of her life meeting new people and getting out of her comfort zone, she felt like something was missing upon news of her diagnosis. She was constantly looking at couples in magazines and admiring people seemingly in love as they walked by holding hands. She wanted someone to fully love her. She did not want her illness to deprive her of the love she knew she deserved and desired. That is when she saw Sam Ellison walking from the basketball clubhouse. Sam was dirty blonde, tan and had big green enticing eyes. His tall muscular build only scratched the surface of who he was on the inside. At UC Berkley he was known for his impeccable three-pointer on the court, but Abby wanted to get to know him beyond the bleachers.

Abby thought Sam never noticed her, but she was all he could ever think about besides basketball of course. One day, Sam went up to Abby and decided to ask her out after the homecoming game. He had been admiring her on campus for quite some time. But had always been too afraid to make a move. Abby was thrilled to find out that Sam felt the same way she did about him. She agreed to date him only if he promised to never love anyone else and to love her without letup despite any future trials. Sam wholeheartedly agreed and immediately after, Abby told him that her days might be numbered because of her unforeseen cancer. Sam was in shock and saddened, it was a lot for him to handle. But he promised to stick with her through anything. From that day forward, Sam and Abby lived and loved like there was no tomorrow. Sam's loyalty of love for Abby continued to blossom as they experienced college together and cherished their memories. The rest is history.

Author's Note: This story is relative to the story in the Mahabharata when King Shantanu of Hastinapura is in the bank of Ganga when he sees the most beautiful river goddess. He falls madly in love with her and wishes more than anything to wed her. The Ganga Queen agrees to marry King Shantanu under the condition that he will never question any decisions she chooses to make. King Shantanu was so blinded by his love for the river goddess, he did not consider any consequences that might arise from his promise to his bride. Shantanu ended up losing 7 sons and getting his last son taken away because of the promise he made, and great grief filled his days. My story takes quite a different approach. I decided to put a more modern twist on the story. My character Abby is similar to the river goddess because of her beauty and how loved she is. Sam is like King Shantanu because he gets into a relationship and makes promises without fully considering their significance. In my story Abby doesn't tell Sam she has cancer until after he vows to love her forever. This would obviously be super difficult to grasp and cause psychological harm to both people involved. The aforementioned part is representative of the promise between the river goddess and Shantanu because the 7 sons he bears are killed by their mother. I formulated my story around loyalty because I felt like that was my personal takeaway from it. While King Shantanu ends up breaking his loyalty, Sam does not break his promise to Abby.