Our Story...So Far

I met Troy my freshman year and his sophomore year. I became really good friends with his friends first, and that’s how I got introduced to him, I can’t really say that I remember ever talking to him though because he was so quiet and I never really thought anything of it, he was just my friend’s “redheaded” friend haha. We also went to the same middle school, but I only remember his brother because we are in the same grade.

So fast forward to my sophomore year and his junior year, and that’s when I finally started to get to know him, he started eating lunch with my friends and I everyday because he liked one of my freshman friends in the group (whom his friend had gone out with but just broken up), he had asked her to homecoming that year and I thought that was so sweet and I was really happy for them, but she didn’t really ever talk to him at lunch, so me being the over compensator talked to him nonstop trying to make him feel more comfortable and sort of a part of the group. He was still really quiet but also really sweet and I didn’t mind talking to him. So he went to homecoming with my friend and she basically told him that she didn’t like him, so I thought that it was over, that he was going to go back to hanging out with his friends (who were also my friends, still are)…but no, he didn’t, he continued to hang out at lunch with my friends and I, we thought it was a little strange but not a big deal, because his friends would come over every day to say hi to me anyways. That Halloween, my 2 friends and I planned on going to Knott’s Scary Farm, and since he was always there listening to our plans we decided to invite him. It was a really fun time; I was immature and scared so I let him hug me from behind and keep me safe, I thought it was just a friend thing, on our way home we watched Valentine ’s Day on his phone and sat really close to each other, but little did I know that he actually liked me. Everyone had told me right after he stopped hanging out at lunch for my other friend that he was hanging out there for me, but I didn’t believe it. That night though after we all got home I got a message on Facebook (I wasn’t allowed to text at the time) saying “I kind of like you”, I was freaking out because I did not like him back, so I sent him a message back saying “thank you, I’m very flattered, but nothing is ever going to happen between us”. Now that I think about it I was such a jerk, but at the time I just wasn’t ready for someone to tell me that.  I was still used to only having “secret crushes”.

So sophomore year went by, we still remained distant friends, he stopped eating lunch with us after that but I still saw him every day because of his friends, I became interested in his friends and 2 of them and I kind of dated a little. I became best friends with his best friend, but I hardly ever saw Troy because he was more of a home body and he liked to just play video games. We only talked and texted every once in a while, we were never awkward around each other, it was just distant, it was hard for me because he was so quiet and shy that I never really felt like I knew him, but I always kind of felt this connection, I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was at the time.

Summer going into my junior year and his senior year is when things started changing, he was becoming more and more comfortable with himself and it was weird because I felt like I could get closer and closer to him, but I always held back because of friends, they would either make fun of me for even considering it (mostly his friends) or it was just seem like he didn’t like me anymore. That summer he also got a girlfriend (someone I knew, she was a friend of a friend from a different school), he spent his whole summer with her and I didn’t see him once, but then his friends and I decided to plan a beach trip before school started again and Troy was going with his girlfriend, so I invited my mutual friend with his girlfriend that way it wouldn’t be so awkward, but it was, while the boys were all out surfing, I stayed on the beach with his girlfriend and our mutual friend, she then told me that she knew who I was and Troy talked about me all the time and he even told her that he used to like me a lot. I was shocked and a little embarrassed because that is not something you are supposed to tell a girlfriend haha. But Troy and his girlfriend ended up getting into some kind of fight that day (I didn’t know what at the time that it was about me) and she ended up leaving with our mutual friend early, so it just left me and the boys. It was fun time climbing rocks and just hanging out as Cali kids do. Troy and I talked a little more and messed around, throwing sand at each other and just laughing with all of his friends. About a week later he broke up with his girlfriend. Nothing really happened between us still though, we would hang out occasionally and we would also text still but it was just friendly, and he never mentioned that he liked me, so I thought he just wanted to be friends.

His family breeds dogs, and I am not a huge dog fan, but my friend is, so she and I would go over all the time towards the last several months of school to see the pregnant mom and new puppies, it was a lot of fun just hanging out at his house. When it came time for prom season I knew that all the boys were going to go, I thought that Troy’s best friend was going to ask me because he and I were such good friends, but I ended up getting a text from Troy’s other friend asking if I would say yes to going to prom with Troy, I said of course and he said that he just wanted to make sure because he didn’t want me to say no and break Troy’s heart another time haha. So the next week Troy asked me over text message with a bunch of different pictures from a random number and of course I said yes. We had such a good time and it felt like we were just really good comfortable friends. We texted all day every day before prom and after prom I knew that I liked him and wanted to be more than just his friend, but I didn’t tell anyone! So we just remained friends, he graduated and I had my last day of school and my friends and I were all going down to the beach and so I invited him to come along. It was such a perfect day, he got so sunburnt and I lost my Tiffany and Co. ring my dad had given me for my 14^th birthday, but none of that mattered because I was with him, he had a party at his house that night with all of our friends and we all laughed and talked and he stayed by my side that whole night. A couple of days later he left for high adventure with all of the boys and one day during the week (I believe a Wednesday) he asked me if I was talking to any other guys, and I said no not unless you count all of my “guy” friends, and then he asked me what I was to him and I had no clue what to say haha so I said that he was my friend. He told me that he liked me and I was so happy! We planned on hanging out the day after he got back from Lake Powell. It was the perfect day, I went over to his house early in the day and we watched Tangled (he knows how much I love Disney, so he planned a cute movie) on separate couches! It wasn’t until after the movie that he came and sat next to me and held my hand, I had so many butterflies in my stomach, but I was so happy, he then asked me “so what do you want to do?” and of course clueless me thought he was talking about what activity we wanted to do next since the movie was over so I said it was up to him, but what he meant was what should we do about him and I as a couple, so of course when he said should we go out, I responded “sure” and that was that, we were officially a couple. I texted my 2 best friends and they were so happy for me. We spent that whole day hanging out and just holding hands and when it was time for me to go home that night he walked me to my car and kissed me in his driveway, I was so nervous and excited! I screamed the entire way home.

 We have been together ever since and spent almost every single second together. He has become not only just a friend but my best friend! He means the world to me and I hope to be his wife someday. He reported for the MTC on December 5^th, 2012. He is serving in the Indianapolis, Indiana, Spanish speaking mission, he has been gone for nearly 4 months and it is hard every day but I am becoming used to him not being around, I realize that I need to work on myself just as he is becoming stronger and working on himself, I know that I need to figure out who I am without him, so that when he comes home I will be a better person because of my growth. His family is also extremely supportive of us and they help to keep me feeling involved in his life and they make me feel like I am already a part of their family.

Our story is my favorite, it may not be the typical love story but it's still cute, we have so much more to add to it though, our past will reflect our future, I hope that we will have love above everything else. I don't care about the money or how many nice things I have, I just want to be in love and be happy, oh and have lots of babies! I can't imagine doing that with anyone else, I'm hoping I never have to try and picture it with anyone else!

<3 Justiene