We met in the most fitting place for a spark to start: chemistry class. Sophomore year, every day like clockwork, we sat in the same room surrounded by periodic tables and half-understood formulas. He was the funny one with the quick comebacks, and I was the one trying to balance equations, and maybe my nerves, when he talked to me. We weren’t a thing. Not yet. Just two lab partners in life’s weirdest science experiment. Then the world turned upside down. COVID hit, school shut down, and suddenly the routine was gone. So were the small moments, the shared laughs, the casual conversations, the quiet kind of comfort you don’t realize you miss until it’s gone. We lost touch. But senior year rolled around, and when the world opened back up, so did something between us. Same school, same halls, and then one day… there he was again. Still funny, more hair, and this time—braver. He asked me to prom. No big dramatic gesture, no elaborate signs. Just a question that turned into a yes, and a night that turned into everything. That moment, simple and quiet, became the beginning of our forever.