Tell me a Love Story

[morrigirl]

Tell me about the person who you would say has been the love of your life up to this point. What were they like? How did you meet them? Why did you love them? Doesn't matter if you're currently married to the person or you broke up with them six years ago. If you're no longer together, why did you break up? Heck, it doesn't even matter if you never dated them at all, I just want to know about that one person who set your heart a-fluttering stronger than any other before or since.

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So it's a little late, but I'm finally reading my filtered friends list so I can see best posts.

[electra310.livejournal.com]

I met him in high school, well, sort of. I had just discovered online roleplaying games, and was in an X-Files-esque game on AOL. I was fifteen, what can I say? =) He told me, and everyone else, that he was in his thirties, married, an English teacher. We became friends because he was fun to write with and had all sorts of fun and crazy ideas. I wondered about him sometimes, because his grammar kind of sucked back then, and it didn't seem very English teachery. Besides, all of my English teachers to that point had been extreme tightasses who wouldn't so much as look at a roleplaying game. But I didn't let it bother me too much. It felt good to have friends at all. I wasn't having a very good time in high school, one of my only RL friends had just moved away, and having friends online was enough to keep me from cracking.

A long time passed, as these things are measured on the internet. A year and a half or so later, one of my other online friends confessed her suspicions about him, that he wasn't who he was pretending to be. She was right. (Takes one to know one, I guess, since it turns out she was lying about herself too, but I didn't know that till much, much later. I'm still not sure about her.) In any case, we confronted him in a private chatroom, an online intervention. He confessed. He was my age, a high school student, and he'd been afraid no one would take him seriously when he started playing. After he got his online identity up and running, it sort of took on a life of its own, and he couldn't back down.

This added many new and interesting wrinkles to our relationship. He was genuinely contrite to the point that I forgave him quickly for lying to me for such a long time. We were sort of in the same boat, high school almost-seniors with few friends and no social lives, making college decisions and trying to get our lives in order. We had a lot more to talk about. Eventually we started talking about senior prom and what a miserable thing that would be for both of us, either missing out or going stag. He asked me to go with him to his prom.

That was a big moment, because I'd never actually met any of my online friends. He sent me a picture of himself, I got one of my senior pictures taken of me with my computer, especially to send to him. My parents paid for the dress and the plane tickets for my eighteenth birthday present. My mom went with me, that was the only condition. She didn't go to the dance, so I didn't mind. A couple of weeks before the trip, I broke my right ankle. With all our plans in danger, he went out and got his driver's license, on the seventh try, so one of us would be able to drive to the dance.

I took him a teddy bear as a gift, the first of many bears and stuffed animals exchanged during our relationship. We met in the lobby of my hotel. It was very strange and familiar at the same time. We hugged and exchanged presents. We went to the dance, and had a really good time. My dress and hair were fantastic. He still carries the picture in his wallet. The next day we went to the Hershey Factory for the day and got stuck in a two-hour traffic pileup. We played cards and talked, and it just felt natural to be with him. We split a piece of cake at Hershey, and he drew "I (heart) U" in the frosting. When the weekend was over, I cried to have to leave.

Stay Tuned for Part Two!

Part Two!

[electra310.livejournal.com]

All through college, we got away as often as we could to see each other. Spring breaks, Christmas Breaks, summer vacation visits. It was a 12 hour Greyhound trip to reach him at school, and I got to know it by heart. He proposed to me in the parking lot of the Exec apartments on campus, and I didn't hesitate. Natalie was on my shoulder, and she bit him on the nose. I considered it a blessing on the union. Being away from him was really hard, but we had sort of gotten used to it. We talked online every day, and made phone calls, and it was the next best thing to being there. It helped that we'd met on the internet, and it was a natural means of communication for us.

We got marrried the month after we both graduated college, on a warm and iffy day in July. It was a beautiful ceremony, full of family and friends, and anothe fabulous dress. When I looked up the aisle and saw him, my heart jumped in my chest, and I've never been so certain that I was doing the exactly right thing. We danced all night. It felt so good to hold him and realize that this time, neither of us would have to go away, back to separate schools and separate lives. It was a little awkward at first, learning to live together, learning to speak aloud. Sometimes things were really hard, and irritating, and sometimes we fought and pouted and got all passive-aggressive with each other.

But still, sometimes I'm standing in the grocery store, or in the kitchen at home, and he'll come into view, and my heart still gives that little leap just to see him. It's sappy, but I like it. And that's my very long love story. Ta-da!