Once a fifteen year old fairly shy girl moved across the country with her family from a fast paced city life to a small (some would say backwards) town.  Somehow, in the move she found a voice and confidence to speak to strangers.  The relocation had given her an odd security that nothing was permanent and those she might say something stupid and embarrassing to would be out of her life before the humiliation could sink in.

The girl began attending a high school with less than ten percent the population of her previous educational facility.   The first day of classes she wandered into rooms silently, slowly. New students were indeed a novelty in such a small town.  By the fifth period of the seven period day, she was exhausted in the reciting of her name and where she came from and reciting words that would point out her accent and make the locals giggle.

Previously, being a small fish in the big pond had been daunting.   But even the small fish in this new small pool were recognized.   She made friends.

For the fifth class of the day, she decided to sit in the back of the classroom, in the corner.  She chose a spot next to a boy with long, long hair.  He was quiet.  He made several noises, but never said words.  It was safe there.

Over the next several weeks, the novelty of the newness of the girl to this small little town faded, and the noises of the long haired boy grew into words.

“Are you a cop?”  he would ask the girl, among other bizarre queries.  She didn’t understand why he inquired such strange things.  His equally shy demeanor would entice her into talking to him more than she would any other student.  Soon they were friends. Not like any typical friends who go to the mall after class or exchange phone numbers. But friends just the same.

The long haired boy would place things into his cargo pockets prior to class.  During the teachers lecture he would take them out, one by one and place them on his desk.  The girl would grab each item and demand a story about where they came from and why he carried them around. She had no idea he was using his pocket trinkets as a way to create a conversation between the two, for he was to shy to strike up a chatting session with the girl on his own.

Tenth grade ended for the two and with the beginning of their junior year the boy began attending classes at the local college, where he earned credits for his degree and was almost entirely absent from high school life.

Senior year began, and the boy found himself back at the high school for one sole class, which he shared with the shy girl he had met two years prior.  Sometime in that year he confessed a crush he had been harboring for her.  He wrote letters and poems and even a song for her.

The entirety of her high school romantic relationships had been knowingly temporary from the start, and this love presented to her was foreign.  She  cautiously  passed.   Their friendship, although different from before, continued after high school.  They took a road trip in the mountains after graduation.  He stayed for a week with her at her new college in a different state.  Then, they lost touch.

Ten years of only fond memories and no communication passed.  And, he found her.  She wrote to him, ecstatic about the reunion.  He called her, and they talked for hours.  Phone calls and messages continued until one day he hopped a plane to see her as she had moved back to that same city she came from fifteen years before.

That’s all it took.  The love in his eyes was undoubted.  Though she tried to resist an occurrence where heartbreak was possible, the concept that happily ever ever could occur brought down the fear.  The two became not only best friends again, but fell in love in the way that seems to be reserved for romance movies.  Though nothing is perfect, this was as close to perfection as one could dream.

She moved, again, to the area where she she had met him so many years before.  They’d both matured and been through hardships and fantastic adventures.  And, like a sappy movie, they began to dream of a happily ever after together.

Though fear and anxiety still plagued the girl, she knew that this was forever. The boy who only made noises sixteen years prior had become the one she’d been anticipating.  She keeps one of the pocket trinkets from high school safely in the top drawer of her night table. Smiles erupt every time it is opened.

Love is amazing.  The girl is astounded at the fact the long haired noise making boy stayed the same, yet turned into the greatest fit for her she would ever find.

Today, she married that man.

Tomorrow she is going to sleep in, so she will not be blogging.