It's toward the beginning of this blog, so I'm thinking I should talk about our beginning. Our friendship started sometime in middle school. I remember being in Levi's history class in 7th grade and somewhere, somehow, I met Stephen - I think through a mutual friend or maybe through Levi (because I fancied him a bit).
Either way, we had become friends...you might call it. We hung out a lot, sometimes after school even, but we fought frequently. Back then, I was pretty much the opposite of how I am now and Stephen's ego was off the charts, seriously smothering those around him. My entire life goal was to bring him down, but in a subtle way. It was probably just me not being able to stand him taking my attention, really.
He was gorgeous (still is). I knew it and unfortunately he knew it too. As time went on, his ego deflated and the fighting happened less and less until it was just an occasional thing. I started to like him and he started to like me too. Obviously, we were both still very secretive about it until one day...
It was the orchestra/choir tour to Disneyland. We were both sophomores and he was in A Cappella (which was exceptional for sophomores in that year) and I was in philharmonic (also exceptional for a sophomore). So basically, neither of us should have been on that bus, but fate had to happen. The bus was filling up and getting ready to leave. As is usual, the seat by me is not taken (probably because I was creepy).
All of a sudden, Stephen is on the bus, looking for a seat. He asks to sit next to me, and of course the answer was yes. We managed to keep arguing to a minimum and actually talked a lot about everything. The bus stopped many times at gas stations and we always got off to look at trinkets sold inside. Coincidentally (or not), it was the week of Valentine's day and each station was stocked with all kinds of Valentine's day crap. I think I mentioned how I wished I had someone to share that holiday with.
Anyway, after a few more stops, conversations, and a shared Lunchable, things warmed up. The whole bus was dark. Eventually he asked to hold my hand. I was surprised, but I complied. I couldn't deny the thousands of butterflies swirling around in my stomach. This was the first time I ever held hands with a boy! After what seemed like forever, he touched my shoulder and pulled me toward his chest. We were actually cuddling!!! Which is pretty awkward in hindsight since he was "dating" someone else at the time (as much as 15 year olds date).
So there we were on the dark bus, cuddling beneath the same blanket. Pretty risque for just friends. It felt right, but foreign. That's the best way to describe it. After what seemed like forever, the bus stopped, the lights turned on, and we were at our destination. From then on, every time we could, we'd cuddle on the bus.
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I can't remember how or why, but we lost touch after that year. His girlfriend broke up with him after he told her what happened (which may have been a good thing since she started dating Levi immediately after that - kind of a dick move, not that I'm one to talk). Flash forward four years.
I'm at Weber State University trying to pursue a criminal justice degree when I got bored one night and Google'd myself. Yeah, really bored. Anyway, my name happened to pop up in three different online entries written by Stephen. Apparently. I was his loudest friend and I was in a dream he had where he rescued me from a burning building.
I decided to Facebook him to see what he was up to, which proved difficult since I had blocked him (again, no idea why). From there, we started talking again. A lot. He began asking me to hang out sometime to which, being me, I always said no. I hardly hung out with my family, let alone friends. Eventually though, he asked me on a Valentine's day date. Since that was rarer than a blue moon, I agreed to it.
The date went really well. We went to eat, talked a lot, played a game, talked some more, and it was 12am before we knew it. The conversation began alluding toward a kiss. Apparently, he knew we were going to, but so did I. He never actually got around to saying the words, we just sat together on this window seat, avoiding eye contact and shaking like absolute leaves!!! You'd think we'd never kissed someone before! We sat there for what seemed like hours (and it probably was, actually) before we finally did. It was strange. It was not perfect, but it felt right.
I fell so deeply in love that night. From then on, he never left my mind or my heart. He was not so receptive at first, but he came around. Boys.
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