The story of how Tessa and I ended up where we are now starts off as any good love story does – with us both dating the other’s best friend. Flashback to my sophomore year (her freshman year) of high school, where she was dating one of my good friends, and I was dating her friend. Between all the double-dates and times we spent together, it always seemed like Tessa and I had more fun together than we did with the people we were actually with at the time, whether it be jokes or just me knowing what she gets at La Tia every time she goes (chicken strips with fries and cheese dip but don’t bring the cheese dip until after you bring the rest of the food – that way people can’t steal the cheese dip).

As high school went on and we both got out of those respected relationships and prepared for college, we had an attraction towards each other that we never fully dived into because we were such good friends. We both didn’t want to ruin our friendship that had spent years blossoming on a young, dumb relationship. So, we dated other people throughout our college years, ultimately coming to each other whenever these significant others broke our hearts. A lot of nights, we fell asleep with the other one on the phone. However, after years of chasing after the wrong people, we decided to try going on a date with each other – a date to the aforementioned La Tia’s followed up with me taking her home. I attempted a kiss that night and was met with a heart-wrenching “I just don’t feel anything.” And so, life went on for the time being. We dated other people but still talked to each other and had the occasional spat about how maybe we should just be together since we know each other so well. There were even points where I told Tessa that I would end up being the one that she married one day because we understood each other so well. And this wasn’t to say I was the only one trying. There were plenty of times where Tessa wanted to be with me and I was too naïve to take the chance and run with it. We were dumb kids, what do you expect?

But finally, again as most love stories do, our loving connection finally hit its peak one night in the Pizza Hut parking lot (romantic, huh?) With the restaurant closed and just us in the car, we shared a kiss that night that Tessa finally said that she felt something with. That kiss was in late May of 2016. Our first date occurred on June 9 – a nice dinner at O’Charley’s (spoiler alert, she got the chicken strips) followed by a movie date to watch The Conjuring 2, a movie that scared the bejesus out of me and had the LITERAL WORST HUMAN BEINGS behind us in the form of angsty teens who were trying to be cool and make fun of the scares. We left angry, but we got ice cream afterwards, so we actually won the night. All joking aside, the story of how Tessa Pruitt, a small-town girl with the cutest accent that had the funniest-sounding voicemail of all time until 2015, ended up with Trenton Duffer, this weird, clumsy guy who can write sports and then trip over his feet, isn’t the most conventional story. I mean, we were just friends of friends seven years ago. But we evolved from friends of friends to best friends to kinda-wanna-be-together friends to soulmates (and still best friends). We still fuss back and forth today (usually over Game of Thrones theories or how the videos she shows me just aren’t as funny as she thinks), but we come together in the end to either watch The Office, eat at Steak and Shake, laugh at memes, gloat over who was right over those Game of Thrones theories or just love each other unconditionally. Our story has twists and turns and plenty of moments that don’t happen to regular people. But that’s okay. In the end, the one we were both searching for was right in front of us the whole time. -Trenton