Back To The Beginning!

 The Backstory

When I was 14 years old, I started dating my best friend from school, Josh. He was funny, handsome and somebody I felt a connection to from the start.

Well, I say from the start, let's go all the way back to the beginning!

We met back in 2007, I'd just moved up to 'big school' and he was the friend of a friend(s) and brother of another friend actually. We didn't really speak, I said hello, he looked up, grunted back at me and went back to eating. In that moment, I thought "god, what a dick. I won't be talking to him again".

Fast forward a couple years and we shared an art teacher who showed my class the year above's work, this included Joshua's art folder. I saw him in the library the same day (the library was more of a hangout spot rather than being used as an actual library). As a joke, I told him his artwork was shit, he didn't like that. In-fact, all these years later and he still mentions it.

Skip forward about a year and he started dating a girl I'd been friends with for a while. This relationship made us close. I would cover for him when he went out to smoke and saw he smelt of cigs because I was smoking next to him (I wasn't but that was the cover). This somehow made us really good friends, we started spending a lot of time together (his relationship had been and gone by this point) and having shared friends made it even easier to hang out together, wagging school or in the library afterwards.

I remember this moment like it was yesterday, but on my dad's 40th birthday, our family had gone to Taybarns, an amazing 'all you can eat' food place that has been lost to the times now. I was messaging Josh the whole day and in the car on the way home, he'd told me he liked somebody but he didn't know how to tell her. I had a feeling deep down that it was me but I played along anyway. I asked him if I knew her, he said "yes, probably better than anybody" and that he was talking to her about this in third person, I then told him to just tell her, he asked how and I said "I don't know, tell her something like 'the person I like is you'. The next message I got was "Harley, the person I like is you".

Now, you may be thinking I said it back but I didn't, not that day anyway. I told him I didn't want to ruin our friendship. We were kids and kids dating rarely lasts and I really didn't want to lose my best friend because of a crush.

Well, a few days later, I told him I also liked him. I'd been denying it for months honestly. Told myself that because his profile picture was David Tennant and I've always crushed on him, that I was getting confused and it was just David's face making me think that but it wasn't. I saw him at school and my stomach did flips, my heart would beat a little faster and I would smile and back then, I rarely smiled. Even still, when he asked me on a date (yes, a true gent at 15, asking to take me on a date sometime which I still to this day regret not jumping at), I said no.

We had this LONG awkward cuddle in the library, people stared, we played it off. We had another long awkward cuddle in smoking area, again, played it off, that was until his leaving party.

It's weird now thinking I met his parents before we even started dating. He left school on the 27th May 2011 and invited me along with our other friends to his house for a BBQ. I don't even remember asking my parents to go but I know I must have because I attended but I do remember what happened while I was there.

We did this thing, stupid really but we were kids. I'd stick my tongue out, he'd go to 'bite' it and I'd move back and we'd laugh. Well, this time, I didn't move back but he did, so I did it again and right there, in his kitchen, surrounded by his family and our friends, we kissed for the first time. You'd think everybody else would be shocked or just ignore it. Nope. Every one of our friends clapped and said "finally". As it turns out, we didn't hide our crush very well.

I was still worried we'd ruin our friendship but I really liked him, well, at that point, I loved him and he loved me. Again, I know kids always say they love their boyfriend/girlfriend from day dot, but I met this boy, I fell in-love and then I started dating him.

It took us 3 years to get engaged, on my 18th birthday back in 2014, he asked me to be his wife and I, of course, said yes.

Did you know, less than 2% of high school sweethearts end up getting married in the UK.

I never thought we'd be in that low percentage, not because I didn't believe we'd last really. More because we just aren't that lucky. Through the years, everything you could think of has been thrown our way. Through all the heartbreaks we've both faced, the pain and joy we've shared, the losses and gains, somehow, 13 years later, we made it and I couldn't be happier!

But what was next for us? 13 years passes, we're engaged, living together and super happy but there was a day I'd dreamed of since I was a kid...