our love story, part one

photo by Stina Reffitt Photography

being on the high of valentine's day over here, i decided now was as good a time as ever to share charles's and mine's love story. is that correct grammar? charles's and mine's? it doesn't sound like it. anyway, i needed to write it for our wedding website so i figured i might as well share it here too since i haven't divulged too much of that information yet. i'm pretty much just copying and pasting it over here so i apologize because the tone is a little different than i normally write. and it has a weird tense, i use "we" but also refer to myself as "Melissa". so yeah. it's kinda long so i'm going to break it up into two parts. check back tomorrow for part two!

Our story begins almost twelve years ago when two kids went to their first day of high school. Melissa had just moved to a new town, to a new school and was incredibly nervous. She didn't know anyone. Charles was going to a school where he would know the vast majority of the students because he had been going to school with them since he was in kindergarten. Our first class on the first day of high school was Computer Technology with Ms. Decoup-Lantay.

Melissa had arrived to class early and had been anxiously awaiting for the bell to ring. Charles wandered in, skateboard in hand, seconds before class had officially begun. Because of his late arrival, there was only a couple seats left. One was next to Melissa. And without hesitation, he swooped right in and sat down.

As prepared as Melissa was, mysteriously, she forgot to pack a pen with her for the first day of school. She asked Charles if he had a pen she could borrow. Lucky for Charles, he found the one pen in his backpack that he had swiped out of the telephone drawer that morning that hadn't been chewed on by his sisters. And the conversation began.

The next couple months were hard, as most young love can be. Of course, Charles had a girlfriend already. With his charismatic ways, who could resist? This kept our relationship platonic but it was only obvious to anyone within a five foot range that we were totally into each other. We talked on the phone everyday, exchanged emails, instant messaged, couldn't get enough of each other. But with respect to his relationship, we kept it at that. Charles even tried to set Melissa up with several of his friends. Later, he admitted to doing so to keep her close. But it was no use, the feelings were still there.

The fall was approaching and so was the fall homecoming dance. And the news came. Charles was now single. How convienient. With that, Charles asked Melissa to be his date to the dance. And before the dance even happened, we officially became a couple on October 19, 2000, the day before Melissa turned 15.

keep it real melissa has to cut in here because O.M.G. you guys. really. we are 14 in this picture. my hair is all sorts of awesome, i weigh like 100 pounds and i'm wearing an illusion necklace. i know you had one too.

We were children. We realize that now. But somehow, with our immature minds and lack of experience, we knew that we had something special. Enough that even through all the drama that can happen in high school, we managed to avoid it. We knew we had to hold onto each other.