Alright, everyone. I guess I need some advice. I know the Modists and Modistas don't judge so I'm going to tell a story that has been the greater part of my life for the past eight months.

In October of 2008, I spent 14 hours at our local Denny's. While there I met a couple. They seemed a very normal young couple, couldn't have been more than 22-25. The one was Matt, a self-proclaimed a*****e. The other? She was Shauna, the quiet one with her nose in a book. They sat at the table behind us and eventually Matt came over to join us. throughout the whole night I noticed that Shauna made little to no input in any of the conversations, and that Matt was paying quite a bit of attention to my friend Mary.

It was about this time that our friend David went over to play the 'game' with her, and I realized that Matt and Shauna were married, but in an open relationship. Later on that night they had a big fight in front of us, on the basis that Matt was the only one benefiting from the relationship being open. He staunchly denied these claims and I found myself pushed outside by my own psyche.

After a few laps around the building I, went back in and I saw Matt sitting in silence a furious look on his face, lost in his thought and I saw Shauna with a pained look on hers. They left soon after, and I thought I'd never see them again.

About two weeks later we met again at Denny's and the three of us had a good time and traded phone numbers. I learned alot about the methods behind an mutually open relationship and laughed in my head about how stupid the idea sounded, but I have two friends through theater who are in an open marriage that has lasted 5+years now, so I had to give the idea credit.

We all found out that we all knew each other through mutual friends; heard about each other through stories and the like. And we were all happy for a time.

Then Halloween came and left with a bang... A good friend and Denny's regular, Izzy passed out while driving and ended up not making it to his sister's wedding. They found his car in a ditch in Tennessee, with him dead at the steering wheel.

The group was in shambles, Izzy was core of the Denny's crew, we all were attached to him in some way. I may never know why I was so broken when he passed away. I was a late joiner to the crew. The only time we had ever talked was yelling across the smoking section at each other. I guess the fact that he was gone really screwed with my brain, no one near my age had ever died before. But his passing, while a shadowed day gave me a future I never will forget. And I thank him for this every day.

On that day, after everyone else had already left and it was only Matt, Shauna and I left... well I found her looking to me for strength. A rock for her to hold on to and before I knew it I was kissing her. (Let me finish the story before yelling at me. Thank you!) Matt came back, happy that I had done so, and laughing at the fact that I was so sheepish about it. He was happy that she finally had someone, that she wasn't being left behind on this bumpy train trip.

Time passed rather quickly after that, and I don't remember much until about Thanksgiving. That day Shauna got to meet my family for the first time. First, What my family thinks is true and what is actually true are two different things. I know this can be considered wrong. But She got her first taste of the huge family get together. This is common in my family, but for her its always been small immediate family get together, and worse when she was first married to Matt.