He leaned in slowly, his eyes closing as he lifted my chin with his fingers, and slowly touched his lips oh-so-softly against mine.

In case you hadn’t guessed, that was a dream. No good story ever starts with a kiss. In fact, most of them end with one. I have had a massive crush on a boy named Tyler basically since Freshman orientation; now we’re both Juniors, and I don’t think he even knows I exist.

Now, I know what y’all are thinking. “Oh no, not yet ANOTHER ‘shy girl gets guy who barely notices her, but turns out to have been crushing silently. Oh, and of course he’s popular and on the football team and everything.’”

Sorry to disappoint, but there are three big problems with that.

First, I’m not a girl, at least not yet. Second, I don’t get the guy, so put that thought out of your head right now. And third, he’s the vice-president of the chess team, and a member of both the science and writing clubs, so yeah, not popular.

So anyway, back to what I was originally saying. The dream left me a bit hot and bothered, and since I had half an hour before my alarm even went off, I took a shower. And of course I imagined that I wasn’t alone.

But it wasn’t until after school when the next major thing happened. By major, I mean major to me, of course. I honestly don’t think the rest of the world cares. So there i was, sitting on the bus when he got on, and I would have sworn that he looked literally right at me and smiled. At least until he sat down in the seat behind me and started talking to his friend.

And of course, Shelby is reading over my shoulder. You know you shouldn’t do that, right? And there goes her signature eye-roll hair-flip combo. Anyway, she’s excited because this is where she comes into the story. See, Shelby is my best friend in the whole world. Think kindergarden playmates. So after my minor heartbreak, I texted her. It’s kinda funny. We live four blocks away from eachother, but she has to take a different bus home so she can meet her brother at the elementary school.

This was about 3 weeks ago, so I can’t remember the exact messages, but the general idea was me whining like my world just fell apart. I was kinda an idiot back then. Shelby, if you’re going to read, at least let me write without interruption. Fine, I’ll add it. Shelby says I’m still kinda an idiot. It’s not that I disagree, but at least my best friend shouldn’t say that.

Moving on! That’s when I got one of those annoying stomach bugs that kept me in bed for four days. Honestly though, don’t you hate being sick on the weekends? I mean, the only good part of being sick is missing school, but of course, I had to get sick on Friday, so I spent the weekend loath to get out of bed.

You think I complain too much? Well nobody’s making you read this, you know.

Now that those complainers are gone, I’ll bet you guys are wanting just to figure out what I’m getting at. Cause every story has to come to an end eventually. I’m debating rambling a bit more, but I think that would be- <- This is where Shelby took the keyboard from me, without asking, I might add.

Hi, this is Shelby. David is taking too long to get to the point, so I’m making him let me finish.

He came back to school on Tuesday. When he opened his locker, he found a card that somebody had pushed through the vent. It was a valentines card. The Friday that he missed school was also valentines day, so the card had sat there through the entire weekend. And trust me, it was nerve-wracking to wait for him to find it. Trust me, I know because the card was from me. I confessed that i’d loved him basically since we became friends in Summer school between our Sophomore and Junior years.

His response: “Oh, I’m so sorry Shelby. I just... I’m sorry.”

I remember my world shattering. At that moment, it felt like everything was falling, but I’m fine now. My feelings toward David haven’t changed, but I want to stay friends with him. So because he has this insane desire to post all of this on his blog, I’m helping him fill in the details.

Not a very storybook ending, I suppose.

Hey, it’s david again. I’d like to thank Shelby for being an awesome friend, and for writing a bit. Three Cheers! Send.

***

Wow, I can’t believe I found this after so many years. So much has changed in these last 12 years. First, my sex. I am now legally and physically a woman, and it’s strange to read my old name. It took me until after graduation, when Shelby and I left for different colleges for me to realize how big a mistake I made. One year of long distance relationship later, she asked me to be her husband. I’ll have to show her this story for our 10 year anniversary next Saturday. She’s been really supportive of my transition. It was rocky, but we held on.

And now, because as my high school self said, every good story has to end with a kiss, I am going to post this to bigcloset, go upstairs, read our six year old son a bedtime story, then give him a goodnight kiss on his forehead to “ward off the monsters” with a mother’s love.

Author’s note: Yes, this story was written in a blog-ish form. It was meant to be, however, it is entirely fictional and a work of the author’s sleep deprived imagination. Happy Easter.