Memory Lane

Part 2: Ryan

With Charlotte in her arms, Zoe began her story; 

"I had my first love in high school..." Zoe began, sipping tea between thoughts. 

"...I just entered my junior year of high school. I was doing well in high school, you know? I wasn't the most popular, but I had my friends and people respected me. I was known as the girl who was going to be some great writer, boys thought I was cute, and girls thought I was fun and nice. 

Anyways, the school year was going by pretty quick. It actually took until November for me to meet my first love. We've met before, but never really talked, never truly gotten to know each other. We met at some house party. It was a Saturday night and it was a particularly cold day. It was also a Tuesday and these kids were throwing a party because this huge storm was coming the next day and so school was cancelled. The party was cool, we listened to a lot of bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth, which was really exciting at the time. We were all drinking cheap beer...I mean, uh, juice, we were drinking this special orange juice, and I was with Daisy, you know, Aunt Daisy. 

So, there I was, having a blast in the backyard where some people made a bonfire. Then, out of nowhere, this kid bumped into me and I spilled my juice all over. I could hear him behind me apologizing and offering to get some paper towels to help me clean up. When I turned around, there he was. For some reason, he looked cuter than normal. I think it's because he grew taller over the summer or something. Or maybe he was working out, he did play a lot of basketball. 

So, we went inside and cleaned up as much juice as we could and spent the night laughing while he sprayed me with perfume we found in the bathroom in hopes that it would cover up the smell. We ended up talking the rest of that night. 

The huge storm hit and school was cancelled for a week! For a few days, I couldn't go anywhere, so I just sat in my room writing. However, once the snow cleared out a bit more, this guy, Jake, and I would walk to each other and hang out. He always thought of the best dates. We watched the stars, went ice fishing, we even found an empty cabin and had a picnic in there. It was also very cute and romantic. For Christmas, he even bought me a beautiful locket necklace and put our pictures inside. 

We dated for a long time. We were inseparable. I remember prom night perfectly, too. I wore this purple dress I thought was so beautiful at the time, it really wasn't, but I felt like a princess. He picked me up on time with his dads car he was borrowing and we danced all night and we even did this thing where we got a hotel room and, well, we showed each other just how much we loved each other in a way that I'll tell you about when you're older. 

So, we had this plan, Jake and myself. I was going to Columbia for writing and he would go to NYU for politics and we would be happily together forever and have this beautiful place in New York and have a dog and, like, four children. However, when college acceptance letters came, he got accepted into NYU and into this other college all the way in the south. He decided to go to the South and told me weeks after he decided on that. It left me heartbroken. We tried to make it work, we really did, but then he ended up showing another girl his love the first week of school and that was that, we broke up. 

I was a mess for a month after that. He was my first love and it was my first heartbreak. I hardly went out, did my homework in PJs, and ate so much microwave ramen that it made me sick. I also drank so much orange juice that that made me sick too. 

But, I did end up getting over him. Took me a while, but I did it. I realized, I was in New York at my dream school and there were so many more possibilities. That my life hadn't really begun. I enjoyed single life for some time, met some new friends, did super well in school. 

I saw him again over Christmas break when we both went home. He was in a serious relationship with the girl and I met her too. She was really nice and we ended up being friends for a bit. Now they're married. 

So, I go back to school Spring semester and that's when I met the second love of my life. However, it didn't start off as love..."