This is a true story that has been fictionalized SLIGHTLY to make for easier listening/reading. Details have been changed but events have not. This is my life. Be considerate.

It takes the elevators at 30 Rockefeller Center fifty seconds to get to the famed "Top of the Rock" observation deck on the building's 67th floor from street level. To me, this translates to a New York Minute is all it's gonna take for me to meet my impending underground doom when I go back down. The glass ceilings of the elevators made this possibility ten times more real when I looked up to calm myself and saw cables shaking as if they were going to break. I couldn't feel safe of my own volition. That was the day I knew I'd found my soul mate.

I was in New York City with my friend, Kein, his girlfriend Lauren, and Katie, the love of my life. You'd never seen four better friends. Both Katie and Lauren were acrophobic, any height could make them panic, so Kein stayed with them while I enjoyed the wind and view of the city at 700 feet. But even then, I was quelling my own fear, purposely not thinking of when I would have to go back down on the viciously fast elevators.

When it was time to leave, I sidled up to Kein's side, asking if he would travel with me, embarrassed beyond repair. My heart was already racing, I needed someone I could trust beside me on that hell ride. He said yes and the girls began to protest. He simply looked at them and said "No. I've been with you all day. You'll be fine soon. Trista is just about to get scared. I need to be with her now."

We entered the box of death and began the descent. He took my hand. A young man began to prattle on about how fast we were moving. My breath quickened and I began to cry. All I remember after that is wracking sobs as Kein held my face against his chest, covering my ears with his hands as he began to yell at the boy right there in the elevator. He led me off as I continued to shake in fear and distress when the ride had stopped. Even after he told Katie and Lauren and they went to chastise the young man more on my behalf, Kein stayed with me, calming me and holding me. That's when I knew.

Anyone who puts me before his girlfriend to quell my fears and stays by me even when my girlfriend won't is worth everything in this life. He was my best friend and he loved me. He still is and does and I love him just as much back. I don't know where I would be without him. I feel more than complete when he is around and I know he'll be there when I need him. He's never let me down yet. We aren't in love and we never will be.

He is my best friend and I can't think of a single person I'd rather spend the rest of my life with.