Life Ain't A Fairy Tale by Miguel Rivera

person. Seems pretty normal to me." Clark tried to
put things in perspective.
    "I feel hopeless. I want her to go out and
have fun. In every conversation, she breaks down in tears. I am
starting to get depressed. This isn't the girl I fell in love with
madly."
    "I saw how this girl changed your life. I
have seen the joy she brought to you. She is going through the most
difficult thing a person can ever go through. My cousin went
through something similar with her grandma's death. You have to be
there for her, dude." Bruce advised Alex.
    "I don't know. This is hard for me. To see
her cry tortures me, and I can't do anything to fix it. Maybe, I am
not the guy for her."
    "This isn't about fixing a problem, Alex.
Sometimes in life, there aren't any solutions. Your girl needs you
more than ever. The best thing to do is to be with her. Stand by
her side. This is not something you have to fix, Alex. You only
have to keep her company. Your companionship will help her bear the
burden. Now, if you don't love the girl, I guess dumping her is the
option. That is not the vibe I'm getting from you. I know you love
this girl a lot." Clark advised Alex.
    "Yeah. I see what you mean, Clark. I do love
this girl a lot. She is very special to me. There are so many
things in this world that can't be fixed. I'm being too impatient,
man. It's only been 4 months since her mother died. I will stop
forcing and pressuring her to go out, but I will keep her company
and make her feel as calm as she needs to be. This isn't about me;
this is about her. That has been my mistake all along." Alex became
resolute. He changed his view of the situation. He will help his
girlfriend.
    It is amazing how open Alex was with his
friends. This is in stark contrast to how I relate to my friends.
That is something I will never do. Quite frankly, I don't think
anyone would even care how I feel. Bruce and Clark are different
from Luis, Juan, or Justin. Bruce and Clark gave Alex good advice
too. My mother went through the exact same thing when many of her
family members passed away. Death is very difficult to accept. I
can imagine what kind of advice I my friends would give me. They
would say something stupid like advise me that she needs more
sex.
    After a long day's work, Sara picks me up at
the college, and we will talk about what happened during the day. I
am a person who does not like to talk much about work. This is
something very difficult for my parents to understand. I imagine it
will be hard for Sara as well. After I came back from school when I
was young, my parents would ask how my day was to receive my
response of "fine," "good," or "okay." Sara won't be happy with my
short answers either. Also, she will probably give me a very long
synopsis of her work today.
    "How was your day, Jimmy?"
    "It was fine. It went well today."
    "Nothing special happened today?"
    "No. All I did was tutor students about
Biology and Math stuff. I helped them study."
    "What kind of questions they ask?"
    "The usual questions kids ask; cell division,
solving for x , and stuff. How was your day, Sara?"
    "Okay. I had a hard day. The HPLC-MS/MS
instrument that Chad operates was not working properly. I am Chad's
supervisor, and I have another supervisor that I report to
concerning the MS analysis of the experimental medicine being taken
by cancer patients. I spent a good portion of the morning trying to
fix it, and making sure it was working properly. I helped Chad test
it with known compounds. Lucky for me, I managed to fix it because
there was a deadline in analyzing the experimental medicine used in
cancer patients during their clinical trials. I spent the day
working with Chad to analyze the medicine's MS spectra." I must
admit she kept on talking further about everything she did, but I
zoned out. Unfortunately, I got lost in the complexity of the
medicine's different metabolites, the medicine's active ingredient,
the level of toxicity, and the electronic lab notebook where she
reports