Lexi Rachelle: We Were Both Young When I First Met You

The story of how we met begins back in 2007 on the middle school bus. I was the girl that didn't really have many girl friends but always hung around boys. Yes I was the awkward tomboy. There was a group of us that rode the bus together, me and a few different guys. One of my best friends just so happened to be great friends with Nathan and introduced us one afternoon. We instantly clicked and became really close.The crazy part of the story is that we went to the same elementary school, we were in the same ward and he literally lived down the street from me. And somehow we had managed to never meet. I honestly have no idea how that is even possible.

By the time 8th grade ended, we were inseparable and that summer we started liking each other. But, unfortunately, it didn't last long. We were both still really young and I wanted to stay just friends. Of course he agreed, even though he never stopped liking me after that. I was oblivious and thought he was just my best friend Nathan. I know I know, I was a typical girl. Throughout middle and high school we always remained great friends, even though we drifted apart occasionally. It took us all of five minutes to get back into our regular groove even if we hadn't talked the entire year before.

Everything changed our senior year.

I didn't have a car so he gave me rides to school every day and we spent most of our free time at school together. Going to lunch, spending free period together and even occasionally ditching class. After spending so much time with him, I started to look at him differently. Something just changed one day and I realized I loved my best friend. It really freaked me out at first because I'd know him for so long. He knew all of my secrets and every embarrassing thing I had ever done. Now all of a sudden I felt awkward and shy around him. So I never told him how I felt and before I knew it, he had a girlfriend.

The saddest part about it, is he felt he exact same way about me but never said anything either.

It was hard to be as close as we used to be, plus he spent most of his free time with his girlfriend. Luckily it was almost the end of the school year and I thought I wouldn't have to see him ever again after graduation.
But there was one last thing I forgot about.

Senior Prom.

He had asked me to the dance way in advance, just to make sure no one else could ask me. At the time I was so excited to go with him and had been looking forward to it. But now I was dreading it.

The day of the dance, I came to find out that his girlfriend was going to be in our group. I thought the night was going to be catastrophic. To my surprise, it ended up being one of the most fun dances I had gone to. Nathan was a perfect gentleman and we spend the night laughing at all of the dumb stuff we've done and avoiding his girlfriend. It was the perfect way to end high school.

After that we honestly didn't talk much at all. That fall I went to UVU and he went to USU and we fell into our own group of friends. He left for his two year mission in January and I had gone to his farewell talk to say goodbye and that was it.

Two years passed.

The day he came home, I received a text from him. We talked for an hour or two and made plans to meet the next day to catch up. The moment I sat in his car, it felt as if nothing had changed. He was still the same guy and we still clicked so perfectly. We talked for hours and it was amazing. But the next day I left to go back to school. We slowly drifted apart as we got back into our regular grooves. It was hard to keep the friendship going while living in different cities and having completely different groups of friends.

That is until April.

The semester just ended and I was going home for the weekend. I had the random thought to text him and see if he was going to be there. And guess what! He was! :) After that we saw each other every weekend of the summer. We finally started dating and everything seemed to be falling into place. Except for the fact that I lived 90 miles away. Halfway through July I made the decision to quit my job, sell my apartment contract and move home. I knew that I wanted to be with Nathan and I knew the only way to make it work was if I lived closer.

Two months later we were engaged.