Mariah and I met in middle school. During English class, she forced me to talk to her and her friend, and by force I mean she included me in the conversation because I was a quiet kid. Over the years, we became closer and started to hang out during lunch in high school. This is when I developed a crush for her, but didn’t do anything about it. Lunches were fun and all until the boys came in and swooped me away from girl talk to play football. After that, there was only small talk between us in hallways. My crush on her never really went away throughout high school, but we graduated and went our separate ways. Then, one day, her best friend Michelle and I started to go to some concerts together. Mariah didn’t go because she enjoys that mumble rap, while me and Michelle have better taste in music. They invited me to hang out with them after that and again I found myself being friends with Mariah. As we started to hang out more, I was invited to go “camping” in a cabin that had electricity, and plumbing, and wasn’t even camping. It was this “camping” trip, as well as some alcohol, for me to see clearly. We started talking from sunset and didn’t stop until sun rise. When we got home, I found I was the one pushing her to be my friend. She wanted to play hard to get, but finally came to her senses and agreed to hang out with me. I went to her house and we played old video games. I won them all despite what she thinks happened. I then pulled the classic Tyler move and took her up to the Sandia crest to see the view of Albuquerque. This is where I made the biggest mistake of my life by not kissing her as we were rained on, as if we were in a romantic movie. After that night, we were in the awkward “what are we” stage until about a week after we hung out in a park. We had the talk and made it official.

Tyler and I met in middle school when I talked to him in English class. After that, we somehow became close friends in high school. He hung out with me and my best friend during lunch and we had Geometry together. He doesn’t remember but he was the only one I liked in that class. I sat in front of him and would turn around to talk to him. Then, like any other high school girl I developed a crush on him. I really liked him but didn’t think he felt the same way. Shortly after, he ditched us to play basketball with some guys and from that point on he was just Tyler, the kid we would say hi to in the hallway. A couple years after high school my best friend Michelle told me she was going to a concert with Tyler. I thought it was weird because we hadn’t talked to him in so long, but hey rather him go listen to that rock stuff than me. I decided to take a couple friends up to my family cabin for the weekend and invited him. He was acting like a baby because we weren’t pitching a tent and had a toilet we could flush. That weekend, he decided to get a little tipsy and I stepped in to make sure he didn’t do anything he would regret the next day. As everyone fell asleep we stayed up to talk. I’m not sure if it was the embarrassing stories about me or my amazing sense of humor, but I knew things changed after that night. We started texting and he tried hanging out with me. I denied him the first time but he kept asking so I gave in. I invited him over to play games and I beat him in all of them. He then asked if I wanted to go to the crest. We sat at the top of the mountain talking until it started raining. We ran to the car and he grabbed my hand so I could stay on the path, or maybe he just wanted to hold my hand. We got to the car and looked at each other. I thought it would be a perfect time for him to kiss me. He didn’t kiss me, but it was okay I was more worried about my hair getting frizzy. A week later in a park we both finally spoke up and made it official.