Here's a cliched beginning, David and I met our junior year of high school. We were attending a brand new school in its first year open. I saw him on the school bus the first morning. Honestly, I noticed his friend first. Mostly because he was a loud obnoxious typical teenage boy. Then by contrast, David stood out. He was in a couple of my classes. After about two weeks of school, David still hadn't really spoken up much, and only talk to me when I engaged him first. So it became my mission to get the shy quiet boy to open up. I started sitting next to him on the bus and telling his friend to take a hike. I sat next to him in class and had to be told to quit talking. Well that only encouraged note writing and passing. Well then David came out of his shell. I really wish now that I had saved some of those notes. He bought me roses and candy for my birthday (which is in mid September). He also got me hired at Chuck E Cheese for my first job. I still remember the night he knocked on my door at about 9:30pm. My father called me downstairs and said very sternly, " There's a boy outside for you. Why?" Well because he wanted to tell me that he talked to his boss about hiring me but was respecting my father's rule of no phone calls after 9pm. I started hanging out at David's house alot. His older sister caught on to the fact that I was smitten with her little brother and tried encouraging him to just ask me out. Finally, I cornered him and told him that I would be his girlfriend, but he had to ask.
We mostly hung out at school or at his house. And really all we ever did was hold hands and make out. I don;t remember what I got him for Christmas. But I remember he got me one of those little glass cubes with the engraving inside that sit on a little light up podium. It had a single rose in it that said I love you. And I loved him back. In that very cute sweet innocent first love kind of way.
There was even one night he came to my house kinda late, stood on the wall in between my house and the neighbor's house and threw rocks up at my window until I opened it to talk to him. We still wrote notes back and forth. I called him Davey Gravy, and thats how he signed his letters.
Shortly before Valentine's day, 2004, I ripped out David's heart when I broke up with him. Did I have a reason? Not really. I was angry with my parents and tended to just hate everyone at that stage in my life. I assumed everyone I loved would end up betraying me. So I was going to go ahead and just take care of this before he could hurt me too. I'll never forget the hurt I saw on his face that day, or every day after that for quite some time.
We still talked often on the phone. Even though I dated a few other boys, it was still David I thought of. We even went to the senior prom together. I just couldn't tell him I loved him, that I really wanted to be with him, but that I was just scared. The last time we spoke at all, was graduation day. I should have reached out to him that day. Maybe I could have saved us some of the pain that was to come....
